Grindelwald - Zermatt 5 days trip in June

Hi,

This is for the remaining portion of my Swiss trip, after Lucerne, for which I would greatly appreciate some recommendations to fine-tune. I will be reaching Grindelwald first on 18 June noon time, and followed by the 3 nights stay there, leaving for Zermatt on 21st where I stay for 2 nights.

Since I am coming from Lucerne, I am planning to make use of "Golden Pass line", which was recommended at your website.

Grindelwald

I am planning to go to Junggfraujoch and Schilthorn on 19th and 20th respectively, which I understand should be around half day trips (each is 1.5 hours one way per sbb.ch) and besides that would like to an "easy" hiking like "First - Bachsee - First", as recommended here. I would like to know whether I should combine it with Junggfraujoch or Schilthorn. I would also like to go to Lauterbrunnen Valley waterfalls but not really sure if I cam combine with any of the two above. I was also wondering if there is anywhere I can go for my half day on 18th when I arrive.

Zermatt

And on the 21st morning I leave for Zermatt where I plan to visit Matterhorn and Gornergrat. Since here as well, I will reach in the afternoon, I am not sure if I can go to Matterhorn/Gornergrat on the same day; although both seem to take an equal commute time of 40 mins each.And if that is possible, I would like to do the other one with a partial trip with Glacier express to have this world famous experience! Is it possible? and I am hoping that I will not need a reservation for this.

Sorry if I sound confused, which is the case unfortunately :( But many thanks to your website resources again, which have been immensely helpful otherwise generally I am not good at planning itineraries!

PS: I will be leaving for Zurich from Zermatt on 23 morning and plan to do a city walk followed by my outbound flight to finish my (hopefully) great Swiss Vacations.

Regards,

Vishal

Hi Vishal,

You probably mean the Trümmelbach Falls. You can combine those with a visit to the Schilthorn. The valley cable car station is in Stechelberg, and you can walk to the falls from there. You can continue your walk to Lauterbrunnen if you want.

Your visit to First can be done at any time as the gondola to get there starts from Grindelwald. You could do that on the 18th as well, just make sure you know the time of the last gondola down.

The Glacier Express takes you out of Zermatt. It is not related to a visit to Gornergrat or Klein Matterhorn, and Zermatt is not a good base to have a Glacier Express ride as a day trip. An alternative is to take the Glacier Express until Chur and then take a train to Zurich from there. That takes about 7 hours in total. Well worth it if you want to experience the Glacier Express. You need to book seats for this train. I hope they're still available as your trip starts soon. It's a popular train. As you can see on the linked page you can also do the same route with regular trains without a reservation.

The various links provide you with lots of additional information.

Have fun!

Kind regards,

Arno

Hi Arno, I didn't mean the Trümmelbach Falls. In fact I wasn't aware of this but I had a look now and this indeed seems a great visit. So is it viable to visit it along with the the Schilthorn and Lauterbrunnen in the same full day?

And as I mentioned I'm quite keen to do the "First - Bachsee - First" hike, I was thinking it might not be possible to do it on 18th as the hike itself takes around 2.5 hours as was mentioned here :(

Also thanks for your suggestion on the Glacier Express to use for going Zurich. I will check and take if time permits.

Thanks again,

Vishal

Hi Vishal,

Yes, that's certainly a viable option. Lauterbrunnen won't take much time. It's not a place you really "visit" as it's tiny. It will work fine if you go to the Schilthorn via Grütschalp, as described on the linked page, then down to Stechelberg, to the falls, and finally walk to Lauterbrunnen. Or the other way round.

If you start the hike from First no later than 2 PM it will be doable, but of course there are other options too, like a visit to the glacier gorge.

Hi Vishals,

For your half day in Grindelwald you could visit the Gletscherschlucht (Glacier Gorge) as Annika suggested, there's a small museum with a display of crystals and caving equipment and the Gorge is magnificent. The cable car to Pfingstegg would be another suggestion and if time permits, walking from Pfingstegg to the Berghaus Bäregg which sits above the Lower Glacier. It's a 3 hour round trip however, so that might be a bit ambitious if you're starting after lunch

Have a fantastic trip!