Bernese Oberland and Lucerne itinerary for Oct

  • SMAPhx
    Participant
    4 posts
    22 September 2019 at 19:02:03 #823953

    Hi,

    I’m looking for some guidance in finalizing my itirenary. We are a family of four, with two kids, 13 and 7, on our first visit to switzerland from October 6-13. I understand 6 days isn’t enough to enjoy everything. I’m mainly interested in the Bernese Oberland area and I think I would like to do the Golden pass route, other than that I’m open to changing things around. I’ve my hotel bookings but can change things around. I’ll be getting the Swiss Travel Pass. We love nature and easy/moderate hikes. We are also interested in doing activities–time permitting. I think with my plan I’m trying to allow some flexibility for Jungfrau with the weather conditions, if not possible on Day 2, we could move it to Day 3 or 4.

    I’m wondering if on day 4 if I should bother with staying in Interlaken at all, or just stay one more day at Lauterbrunnen, or is it better to stay day 3 and 4 in Interlaken. Should I nix something from this plan? I would have loved to include Appenzell somehow, but don’t see how i could, maybe another time.

    Sun, Oct 6 – Land in Zurich in the morning, head to Lauterbrunnen, explore Trummelbach falls and surrounding area – stay in Lauterbrunnen

    Mon Oct 7 – Jungfrau (weather permitting or switch with tues/wed iti), explore Grindelwald, Wengen, Murren – stay in Lauterbrunnen

    Tues Oct 8 – Golden pass to Montreal, Gruyere Cheese factory and chocolate factory – stay in Lauterbrunnen

    Wed Oct 9 – Check out from Lauterbrunnen, drops bag at Interlaken hotel and visit Lake Thun, Spiez, Bern – stay in Interlaken

    Thursday Oct 10 – Check out from Interlaken, head to Lucerne, drop bags at hotel, and explore Lucerne Bridge, lion monument- stay in Lucerne

    Friday Oct 11 – Visit Stanserhorn or Rigi or Titlis (any recommendations), and Lake Lucerne- stay in Lucerne

    Saturday Oct 12 – Check out from Lucerne, head to Zurich hotel, visit Rhinefalls and explore locally- stay in Zurich

    Sunday Oct 13 – catch a flight back home

    Any input is appreciated.

    Thanks!

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    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    22 September 2019 at 23:02:51 #922545

    The most important point about your itinerary is that moving accommodation from Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken is pointless, as the two places are only 20 minutes apart by train. Remember Switzerland is a small country and the Berner Oberland is a small region inside a small country.

    A personal view (based on 59 years of Swiss travel) is that your itinerary is just like everyone elses. Be bold and drop one of the ‘clichéd’ places and replace it with Appenzell

    Another personal view is that I feel many visitors to this site have very rigid plans, arguably too rigid. The beauty of Switzerland is that because of its small size you can reach many places easily in a few hours, so it is comparitively easy to change your mind day to day plan and ‘go with the flow’. This is especially easy to do if you have a Swiss Travel Pass.

    For example staying in Lauterbrunnen, it is just as easy to take a trip to places as ‘far away’ as Basel, Bern, Luzern, Zurich as it is to go to Mürren – on the hillside above

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    23 September 2019 at 5:22:54 #922546

    Hello SMAPhx and welcome to MySwissAlps,

    Nice to hear you’re all coming to Switzerland.

    First of all I agree with 1960man about the fact that changing accommodation between Lauterbrunnen and Interlaken doesn’t make a lot of sense, as they are about 21 minutes train journey apart.
    http://www.myswissalps.com/in terlaken
    http://www.myswissalps.com/la uterbrunnen
    http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable, make sure you understand this tool well, it’s fabulous for planning

    I don’t quite agree with the second point, though. “Touristy” places are normally labelled as such, because they are of immense beauty and for sure worth seeing. Of course, off the beaten track is always an idea too, but for a first visit to Switzerland I personally believe you have chosen fantastic areas to explore.
    http://www.myswissalps.com/be rneseoberland
    http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfraujoch
    http://www.myswissalps.com/la kelucerne
    http://www.myswissalps.com/lu cerne
    http://www.myswissalps.com/st anserhorn
    http://www.myswissalps.com/ri gi
    http://www.myswissalps.com/ti tlis
    http://www.myswissalps.com/zu rich
    http://www.myswissalps.com/rh inefalls

    As you’re planning to get a Swiss Travel Pass, please check out the Swiss Family Card for your children, a free card, which you’re eligible for as a Swiss Travel Pass holder and which allows your children FREE travel with you on any journey (even the ones the adults will need a discounted ticket for). See details below:
    http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass
    http://www.myswissalps.com/sw issfamilycard

    Quick input about the Golden Pass route, this will take you to MONTREUX, not to Montreal, I believe auto-correction can make this change sometimes.. 😉
    http://www.myswissalps.com/go ldenpass

    Hope this helps finalizing your itinerary. Get back to us anytime for further input.

    Best,
    Steph

    SMAPhx
    Participant
    4 posts
    23 September 2019 at 5:39:55 #922547

    Thank you very much for your input. I agree with you, i’m going to try and change my fourth day to stay in Lauterbrunnen. As per your suggestion, I’m tempted to go bold and consider Appenzell, it looks very beautiful but I’m finding all the train travel/hotel logistics planning overwhelming to be honest, it’s a change from the way we are used to travellng here in the US in rental cars, with freedom to move around at own pace. I think I’ll be more prepared to take risks and go off the beaten path for my next trip. I appreciate your input. Thank you very much.

    SMAPhx
    Participant
    4 posts
    23 September 2019 at 5:45:55 #922548

    Thank you Steph for your input. i’m going to try and change my fourth day to stay in Lauterbrunnen. Appreciate all the links and resources, I’ll go through them all and likely comeback with more questions. And you are right about the auto-correct, I did mean to type Montreux. Thanks!

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    23 September 2019 at 23:26:19 #922549

    Thanks for your comments. When responding to a questioner on this forum I try and take into account what may be different about Switzerland or Europe in general compared to the home country of the questioner (although that is not always possible as questioners either don’t or don’t wish to reveal where they are from.)

    For example I often make comments about the size of Swiss train windows as I am familiar with the small windows in Amtrak trains

    I can comment because you have said you are from the US, so I fully understand the rental car angle (however my trip to America this year was achieved with a minimum of car rental as we used Transatlantic liner, Amtrak, New York subway, Canadian local buses, Toronto public transit and a just short car rental in Canada)

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