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I have got 5 days to this itenerary with 2 kids. Is it bit too cramped? So this is my plan:
Day 1: Dublin to Basel to Interlaken, stay overnight in interlaken
Day2: Trip to Jungfraugh and back to interlaken with another night here
Day 3: Early train to Brig (about 1 and Half hr trip). Then catch Glacier Express all the way to St.Mortiz and stay here overnight
Day 4: Morning train to Zurich and day sightseeing in Zurich
Day 5: sightseeing in Zurich and Depart to Dublin at night
My concerns are that apart from Zurich I am not able to give enough time for any other sightseeing in any other lovely towns. My main aim was to do the top of the europe and take at least one scenic train journey.
Have I planned it right? Will I miss anything significant on the way? Can I fit in anything else here that will be worthwhile? Hoping of course that It will not be my first and only trip to swiss but I am on a small budget this time around. Thanks in advance for all your helpful suggestions and advice.
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Hi Jagjit and welcome to MySwissAlps!
It looks like a pretty nice itinerary for 5 days. You’ve got the Jungfraujoch trip and the Scenic train (Glacier Express) in there. You do require a ticket or rail pass for plus a reservation on the Glacier Express.
The first night you could stay in Lucerne, then head to Jungfraujoch and overnight in Interlaken or an alpine village like Lauterbrunnen or Wengen instead. This way you’ll get more of the charming Swiss style villages. 🙂
When are you coming to Switzerland? And have you looked into rail passes for the trip as well?
Hi Lucas
Thanks for your reply. I will be there in early July. I will certainly look into staying in Lucerne and Lauterbrunnen/Wengen. Will I get a direct morning train from any of these places to Brig? I assume it has to be via Interlaken with a few more minutes added to that journey which will not be any harm. And thanks to your suggestion, I am now looking into the reservation in Glacier Exp which I understand I can do only three months in advance and then my Swiss Travel Pass will cover the ticket cost. Is that correct? I Also, if I land in Basel around 11am, will there be enough time to see a bit of Basel and then come to Interlaken/Lucerne? Can I buy the swiss rail pass and Glacier reservation from their respective official websites or is there any other cheaper deals available elsewhere. Sorry for so many questions. Thanks
Is there a guided/structured tour in Zurich and around that captures it most. I have to be back at the airport to catch a flight back home for 9pm?
Hi Jagjit,
You can find all train timings in the Swiss timetable. If from Lucerne you can take the scenic Golden Pass route. All details about that are here: http://www.myswissalps.com/go ldenpass.
With a Swiss Travel Pass you indeed do not need a ticket for the Glacier Express, but you do need a reservation. See Lucas’s link to book seats. Some websites listed there may allow to purchase reservations even earlier than 3 months in advance, although in reality they may do the actual booking 3 months prior to travel as well.
Yes, you can spend a few hours or even until early evening in Basel and then proceed.
Purchase options for the Swiss Travel Pass are listed here: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/price. All those retailers are credible and they all sell the exact same pass. One can say that the SBB tourist webshop at https://www.swissrailw ays.com/en is the most “official” site to buy from, but they others are perfectly fine too.
Please see http://www.myswissalps.com/zu rich/activities for things to do in Zurich. There’s both a self guided city walk and guided tours listed there.
I can’t thank you enough Arno for your advice and links which I will be using to book tickets and plan activities. After hearing so many good things about Lucern, I think it is worth fitting within the schedule hence I am thinking of switching my itinerary a bit. Since my return flight tickets are from Zurich and Lucerne is very close To Zurich, I am thinking of putting Lucerne towards the last leg. Now I am thinking about it this way:
Day1: Basel to St.Moritz (about 4 to 5 hours train journey). Night stay in St. Moritz
Day 2: St. Moritz to Brig via Glacier Exp. and immediately travel to Interlaken. Night in Intelaken/Grindelwal/Lauterbrunnen
Day3: Trip to Jungfraujoch. Same day travel to Lucern. Night stay in Lucern
Day4:Day sight seeing in Lucern to cover top attractions. At night travel to Zurich
Day5: Day sight seeing in Zurich
Does this sound like a better itinerary than my first one?
Hope that will be a good programme for this time around. After reading about it on this forum, there is just so much in Switzerland that no matter how many times you go there will be something new there.
Looks good!
Go for Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen over Interlaken. 🙂 Be flexible for Jungfraujoch. If the weather that morning looks poor don’t spend the money to go up (and see clouds). Check out other mountains like Schilthorn or schynige platte.
Alternative suggestion:
Basel often gets ignored so I liked your original idea (I favour flying to Basel from London as my route into Switzerland when I am not travelling directly to relatives in Geneva).
How about:
Matterhorn and Gornergrat better than Jungfraujoch IMO. Although it is a cable car not a railway, Klein Matterhorn is higher than Jungfraujoch and the mountain view from the top is spectacular (you can see mountains as far away as the south of France on a good day!)
Zermatt – Bern (sightseeing) – Luzern
Luzern round trip on the lake (the town itself hasn’t got all that much to it IMHO)
Luzern – Zurich
Thanks 1960man, that also sound exciting.
So, Have included Lucern into the programme as it sounds great and one day there should give me enough time to go up Mt Pilatus and come back. Guess what, I was trying to book seat reservation on Jungfraujoch from K.S but all is booked out already and upto at least December this year. I am assuming that I can just travel upto K.S and take a chance if I can buy a ticket and board to go upto Jungfraujoch if seats are available. If not, I come back to Lauterbrunnen and look to go to Schillthorn? If not, Is there anything to do in K.S itself?
Or if seat reservations means that I have no chance of making it to Jungfraujoch then leave out Jungfraujoch region and head straight to Zermatt to see Matterhorn (still to explore whether seat reservation in the cable car there apply)???
You don’t need reservations of any sort on the trains /cableways to or above Zermatt. The Klein Matterhorn is a cable car (no seats except small perches).
As previously mentioned, I personally would avoid Jungfraujoch itself – it bit too much like a theme park these days IMHO
On a good day you get a great view of the Jungfrau / Mönch / Eiger mountains from the much more relaxed Mürren side. At Kleine Scheidegg you can just sit / sunbathe on the alpine meadows and look up at the mountains, or walk down towards Grindelwald beneath the north face of the Eiger
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