8 days Switzerland with 8 day Swiss Travel Pass

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    30 June 2019 at 14:54:07 #822569

    Greetings Fellow Members,

    This is my first post on this forum & first time visiting Switzerland so some tips needed from the experts & experienced members to fine tune my itinerary…

    We (me, my wife & our 7 years old son) are going to reach Zurich on 15th Aug, 2019 at around 8:30 PM & our return journey will start on 15th Aug at around 3 PM from Madrid Airport..

    So for about 2 weeks in Europe we are going to cover mostly Swiss ~8-9 Nights, France (Only Paris) ~4-5 Nights & Spain ~1-2 Nights (Not Mandatory..!)

    My rough itinerary for Swiss (Assuming we have 8 days STP) is like,

    15th Aug :(1st Night)

    Overnight Stay at Zurich (We are looking to stay at Park-Inn by Radisson costing ~1k CHF for a week), so Zurich most likely to be our base..!

    16th Aug: (Activation of the 8 days STP for the first journey) (2nd Night, 1st Day of STP)

    From Zurich to Lucerne, along with Visit to Mt. Pilatus & come back to Zurich

    17th Aug: (3rd Night, 2nd Day of STP)

    From Zurich to Engleberg, along with Visit to Mt. Titlis & come back to Zurich.

    18th Aug: (4th Night, 3rd Day of STP)

    From Zurich to Lungano & come back to Zurich.

    19th Aug: (5th Night, 4th Day of STP)

    From Zurich to Montreux & come back to Zurich.

    20th Aug: (6th Night, 5th Day of STP)

    From Zurich to St. Moritz & come back to Zurich.

    21st Aug: (7th Night, 6th Day of STP)

    From Zurich to Zermatt/Something Good) & come back to Zurich.

    22nd Aug: (Checkout from Zurich) (8th Night, 7th Day of STP)

    From Zurich to Interlaken & Check-In to some hotel at Interlaken (Not yet finalized..!) then visit Zermatt (if something else was covered on the previous day) & come back to Interlaken.

    23rd Aug: (9th Night, 8th Day of STP)

    From Interlaken to Jungfraujoch & Come back to Interlaken

    24th Aug: (Checkout from Interlaken) (8 Days STP is over now)

    From Interlaken to Paris by TGV

    Please guide me if this itinerary is good enough or something needs to be added/removed/modified

    We would like to visit Bern &/or Geneva if we can accommodate any one or both in the above itinerary somewhere.

    Also, Is there any discount on TGV line to Paris if we have active STP ?

    Points to be noted : Since we are traveling for the first time in Swiss along with our 7 years old, we would like to cover most of the scenic rail routes only & don’t want to settle every night at different places carrying our luggage on every train..!

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    rockoyster
    Participant
    8889 posts
    1 July 2019 at 11:15:31 #916519

    Hello marcopolo and Welcome to MySwissAlps,

    You are certainly well named as you will be doing an awful lot of travelling from a Zurich Base. I hope your 7-year old is patient.

    You might want to check the timetable on the SBB website (myswissalps.com/timeta ble) or the highly-recommended SBB Mobile app (bit.ly/2ICIUHi) to see how long you will be travelling each day.

    The STP is only valid to the Swiss border. See http://www.myswissalps.com/tr aintickets/france.

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    2 July 2019 at 9:37:25 #916520

    Hello Marcopolo,

    I agree with Rockoyster that you will be traveling a lot and especially backtracking the journey Zurich – Lucerne practically on each day. It’s just below an hour’s journey, so absolutely do-able, but have you considered moving your base to Lucerne? See below for information about the city, and also accommodation and activities in each according tab:
    http://www.myswissalps.com/lu cerne

    The Swiss Travel Pass will cover most journeys in Switzerland. See below link for details, incl. a pdf map:
    http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity

    For your journey to France you would thus have to buy a ticket from the Swiss border to Paris. Use Rockoyster’s link for details.

    Traveling on the Swiss train system is normally no problem with luggage, but you also have a luggage service available from the rail company:
    http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/practical/luggage

    Best,
    Steph

    Btw – you’ll find helpful input about most of your destination by typing them into the search bar of this page.

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    2 July 2019 at 14:30:36 #916521

    Hello rockoyster & Steph,

    Thanks a lot for your inputs, really appreciate them..!

    The thing is, we are used to travel a lot (in last 2-3 years almost twice a year & mostly on our own) so traveling 2-3 hours onwards & the same backwards from above mentioned places to Zurich doesn’t matter much as I can see that max time it takes about 3:30 for Zurich to St. Moritz & Zurich to Zermatt otherwise for the first 3 destinations it’s roughly 1 or 2 hours..!

    Steph, you have a good point to cut down 1 +1 hours daily journey by keeping Lucerne as the base instead Zurich but I see that hotel rates are almost double (atleast what I can see from my end) compared to Zurich..! I will keep checking if I can find something good in Lucerne in my budget & definitely go for it.

    So now my concern is,

    1) If there are any alternate routes with better views instead of those mentioned above ? Like going to Zermatt from Zurich is the same as going there from Interlaken (View Wise) ?

    2) Are there any other areas which are better than those mentioned in my first post (I read somewhere about Mt. Rigi & Schilthorn are free for STP holders & have good excursions etc.) ?

    Thanks Again..!

    Annika
    Moderator
    7104 posts
    3 July 2019 at 5:13:32 #916522

    Hi marcopolo!

    I agree with Steph that Lucerne would be a better base for most of your trips. Even though you’re used to long travel days, it’s comfortable to save 1 to 2 hours each day as compared to a base in Zurich. Those hours can be spent on other activities or simply on relaxing along the shores of Lake Lucerne :-). As for your questions:

    1) Your routes look fine. If you travel from Zurich to Zermatt, you can either take the quickest route via Bern-Thun-Spiez-Visp, or an alternative route passing Interlaken, following the northern leg of the Golden Pass line (myswissalps.com/golden pass). From Interlaken, you can either take the quicker base tunnel connection between Spiez and Visp, or the local Lötschberg RegioExpress trains via Kandersteg and Goppenstein which are slower but more scenic. Just play around with the timetable mentioned above and add via-stations to change your routes. For Zurich/Lucerne-Montreux I also suggest the Golden Pass route, and for Zurich/Lucerne-Lugano the Gotthard Panorama Express route (myswissalps.com/gottha rdpanoramaexpress).

    2) The Swiss Travel Pass validity page that Steph linked to shows exactly which excursions are discounted and which are for free. Schilthorn (myswissalps.com/schilt horn) and Rigi (myswissalps.com/rigi) are fully covered indeed and make for great day trips with excellent views, so if you want to save some money you can replace Pilatus (myswissalps.com/pilatu s) and Jungfraujoch (myswissalps.com/jungfr aujoch), for example, with Rigi and Schilthorn.

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    3 July 2019 at 7:20:10 #916523

    Hi marcopolo,

    I used Lucerne as base when we travelled in May, I choose an apartment at Emmenbrucke Gersag as we are a family of 4. We also bought the 8 days Swiss pass, hence travelling to and fro Lucern station is free and it is only a couple of minutes with very frequent train schedule. The rate I got for Emmenbrucke Gersag was quite good compared to those in Lucerne, which was out of my budget too! Happy travel!

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