Interlaken, Lucerne or Grindelwald, 4 days in Nov

Hi,

We wanting to travel to Switzerland from 16-19th Nov and will want to visit Jungfrau top. where shall we stay and what shall be a possible itinerary to make the best use of the time we have. We are a 2 adults with a small girl age 8.

I know the time is one of the worst (as read in many other forums) but we dont have any options.

we will be travelling from Saarbrucken Germany to Switzerland, what shall be the preferred mode.. Car or Train.

Also is parking available in Swiss hotels free of cost or we need to inform the hotel that we have a car and need parking.

Cheers

Ash

Hi Ash,

We just drove in from Germany to Lucern and dropped the car and used just the Swiss trains. They are wonderful. Where we stayed in Lucern had no parking and I never saw any.

If you want to go to Jungfrau from Lucern you know it is around 4 hours 20 minutes one way to reach the top? Use the sbb website and you can see all the train times and connections.

A visit to Jungfrau is very weather dependent. If you go out and stay in the valley you can hope to get a window to visit the top and if not visit Interlaken, the valley or many other things.

If you stay in Lucern you have other sightseeing opportunities too. Both are very lovely places with plenty to do.

Ellen

<<"Also is parking available in Swiss hotels free of cost or we need to inform the hotel that we have a car and need parking.">>

Exactly where do you want to park?

Parking is free of charge at hotels in the countryside and small villages. If you have a car, you can take advantage of that option easily.

In the cities, it is a bit different. In many cases, the hotels in medium and larger cities will not have access to parking facilities.

In the Berner Oberland, your options are pretty much limited to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, or, rather remote from the scenery, probably something in Interlaken or Wilderswil.

Most hotels in the larger cities....except the very expensive luxury hotels... don't have parking facilities. A few may offer reduced rates at a public garage nearby. When I used that option once in Luzern, the garage did not always have spaces available.

These are very old cities. They were built before automobiles existed, and so usually don't have facilities for the care and feeding of autos. They were not destroyed in WWII, and they have not been "modernized."

If you do find parking in the cities, it would not be unusual to spend 50 CHF for 24 hours.

Why not travel by train?

www.myswissalps.com/ca rversustrain

Search "car versus train" on this forum for more insights.

Slowpoke

Thank you Slowpoke, Ellen.

I also plan to drop the car and travel by public transport.We will want to stay in either of the cities and not in mentioned in the subject line. Is Swiss travel pass for 3 days a good option? Will Jungfrau a good place to visit in Nov or is it going to be cloudy. Do I need to advance book anything , hope thing dont get extra costly as the time passes? What will be the nearest place to any of the mentioned city where we can have lots of snow at that time around.

Could you also share what will be the best place to stay if visiting Jungfrau- Lucerne, Interlaken or Grindelwald?

Cheers

Ash

Hi Ash123,

It's a good decision to travel by train. As for rail passes: in the vast majority of cases a pass is much cheaper than buying full fare regular tickets. The 3 day Swiss Travel Pass may indeed be a good fit, but since you've mentioned you'll be staying from November 16 to 19, a 4 day Swiss Travel Pass may work out better. I recommend you get it online at least one week before departure through www.swissrailways.com/ en. Other retailers are listed at myswissalps .com/swisstravelpass/p rice. You may want to check this promotion for Indian travelers, although I don't think an extra traveling day is required for your itinerary. If you want to compare passes, please use our guidelines at myswissalps.com/train/ ticketspasses/practica l/chooserailpass.

For just a visit to the Jungrau, Interlaken or Grindelwald make more sense as a base town than Lucerne. Did you study the timetable that's been mentioned by Ellen? It will help you understand about traveling times. Which town(s) is/are best, depends on your finalized travel plans. Please find our hotel suggestions through myswissalps.com/hotels /populartowns. I also recommend you study our planning section, which may help you to create a list of plans and appropriate base towns.

Whether or not weather is clear on the day of your Jungfrau trip, can only be found out shortly in advance: myswissalps.com/weathe r.