Need advice on 5 days itinerary in Switzerland

Hi moderator,

We are family from Indonesia (parents, two daughters, 15 and 11 years old). We plan to go to Switzerland from Jakarta on 6th July and will arrive in Zurich by 7 July 2016. We have planned an itinerary as below but we need advice as this is our first time to Switzerland. We need also some confirmation about the swiss pass.

Day 1. Arrive in Zurich and overnight at Lucern

Arrive in Zurich at 09.30 AM and will go directly to Lucern. After check in at the hotel, we will off by 13.00 to Entlebuch, and spend half day at the top of naked mountain, visit Kneipp Path Fluhli and come back to Lucern.

Other option is we go to Mt. Pilatus or Mt. Rigi. Could you please advice which one is better between Entlebuch, Pilatus and Rigi?

Day 2. Overnight in Lucern

We will off by 08.00 to Engelberg and going up by rotair to Mount Titlis. Spend three hours at Mt. Titlis and going down to Engelberg and come back to Lucern. We will spend some time in the afternoon until evening at Lucern (city tour in Lucern)

Day 3. Overnight in Lucern

We will off in the morning to Interlaken by panoramic train (Lucern Interlaken Express), we will cruising on Interlaken lake, and will go to Jungfrau and spend the evening at Jungfrau before come back to Lucern

Day 4. Overnight in Geneva

We will go to Montreux with our luggage and store the luggages at Montreux station. Spend the day in Montreux and will go to Les Diablerets and go to Sion if possible. We will comeback to Montreux train station and we go by train to Geneva and will overnight at geneva.

Day 5. Overnight in Rome

We will go to Lausanne and spend half day there, come back to Geneva and spend one to two hours city tour before go to the airport to Rome late afternoon

My questions are :

1. Is the itinerary above is possible? Is it too tight or can we add more places to visit?

2. I read that if we go by family, we can buy family swiss pass which I only pay for two passess to get to free children passess, is that correct?

3. We heard about rig train and willing to ride it. I read that only two routes for it, Lucern-Mt. Pilatus and Lucern-Mt. Rigi, is that correct?

Many thanks in advance

Hi Reny-

Welcome to My Swiss Alps-

You can learn about travel times by using the timetable:

www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

Without actually checking the timetable myself, I would say that day 1 one is almost impossible and does not allow for jet lag. I don't know the destinations in the Entlebuch that you describe. They are not common touriust destinations, and public transport using buses may have significant gaps in the schedules.

Day 2 is just right.

Day 3 will be a very very long day...peraps impossible with the boat trip.

Read this trip report:

www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/trip-report-for-june-15th-19th-lucerne-as-base

Day 4 works OK, but I think you might have to skip Sion. Any attempt to climb to the best places in Sion will take as much as a couple of hours to climb up, look around, and and return. So, if you do go to Sion, don't plan to spend much time there.

Day 5 can be paced to meet your plans.

My question for you-

Why do you want to visit so many places with very little time in each one? What do you expect to see on a 1-2 hour tour of Geneva?

<<". We heard about rig train and willing to ride it. I read that only two routes for it, Lucern-Mt. Pilatus and Lucern-Mt. Rigi, is that correct?">>

Not sure what you mean by "rig train." Can you amplify?

Slowpoke

Hi Slowpoke,

We are travelling from far country, it is a rare opportunity for us to visit Switzerland, so that we want to visit many beautiful places in Switzerland. The reason we dont want to spend a lot of time in Geneva because we prefer to see panoramic view instead of city/buildings. Unfortunately, few months ago I made a mistake in planning, I already booked and issued flight from Geneva to Rome so I have to stay one night in Geneva before fly to Rome, so Geneva is my purpose of transit.

Sorry, what I meant is Rigi Cogwheel train. I want to have experience riding Rigi Cogwheel :) . If it is not possible to visit Entlebuch at the first day, would it be possible to visit Rigi or Pilatus mountain on the day 1? (with assumption we can manage the jetlag)

Thanks, Reny

Hi Reny,

Regarding your second question: yes, if you purchase Swiss Travel Passes (not Swiss Passes) for the adults, you can also order the free Swiss Family Card. It allows your children to travel along for free everywhere.

I'd recommend to print your passes at home in order to not loose precious time at a ticket office while in Switzerland. You can best visit www.swissrailways.com/ en. After filling out the travelers and your address, they will show the delivery options. Pick "Online Ticket" from the bottom of the list. They will e-mail the pass (no delivery fees), so you can print it at home. You can best do this as soon as possible because it takes 1 to 3 business days to process and e-mail orders.

Enjoy your stay!

Thanks a lot Annika

<<"We are travelling from a far country, it is a rare opportunity for us to visit Switzerland, so that we want to visit many beautiful places in Switzerland.">>

I understand. Do your best to sleep on the plane. Luckily jet lag traveling from East to West tend to be a lot less potent than jet lag from traveling West to East.

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<<"The reason we don't want to spend a lot of time in Geneva is because we prefer to see panoramic view instead of city/buildings. Unfortunately, few months ago I made a mistake in planning, I already booked and issued flight from Geneva to Rome so I have to stay one night in Geneva before fly to Rome, so Geneva is my purpose of transit.">>

You don't have to explain. ;-)

Many people find Geneva to be a beautiful town. Before I retired, my job in the USA required me to go to Geneva a few times every year. We all have to suffer sometime. ;-)

On weekends, or at the end of a trip, I always got on a train and went somewhere else in Switzerland. I wanted to see the beautiful places, or hike in the countryside, not stay in a city. In recent years, I have gone back with a friend, and having a local citizen show me some of the nice things about the city has made it more enjoyable and interesting. But, if I were in Geneva, I'd still take a train somewhere else. Just my opinion. ;-)

<<"Sorry, what I meant is Rigi Cogwheel train. I want to have experience riding Rigi Cogwheel :) . If it is not possible to visit Entlebuch at the first day, would it be possible to visit Rigi or Pilatus mountain on the day 1? (with assumption we can manage the jetlag)">>

It is definitely possible. Many people squeeze in both on the same day, but it requires careful planning, an early start, and sticking to a tight schedule. I would only do one, and if i were not to tired, I would spend some time in the old city of Luzern and see some of the famous sights.

There are various routes to go up on the Rigi. It is a "gentle" mountain. Pilatus is "harsh."

If you choose to take the boat to Vitznau in order to take that particular route option to go up on the Rigi via the cograil from Vitznau, you might even get a nap on the boat. ;-)

The Pilatus cograil is a much more exciting experience.

www.myswissalps.com/ri gi

www.myswissalps.com/pi latus

I have attached a couple of very old photos of the Pilatus Cograil. The cograils ones that go up the Rigi from Vitznau or Arth Goldau are much calmer. ;-)

I am still puzzled about your interest in the Entlebuch region. It is a region of forest, farms and mountains (but not high Alps) and, unless you plan some fairly serious hiking, there is not much to see that compares with the mountains near Luzern.

For my own curiosity, since I often go through there when I take the mountain pass route from Sarnen to the village of Entlebuch, on my way to the Emmental, would you mind telling me what have you found (or where have you found information) that interests you. I'd like to take a look on one of my trips.

The Kneip Path Fluhli is in Schaffhausen, which is north of of Zürich, quite some distance from Luzern.

www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/kneipp-facility-with-barefoot-path.html

I cannot find link for the "Naked Mountain" except for a stark photograph taken near St. Moritz:

transienteye.com/2015/ 09/21/the-naked-mountain/

Please make sure that you look at your journey(s) on a map to get a sense of the geography, and use the time table to estimate travel times:

www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

map.search.ch/

I sense that your knowledge of Swiss geography might need a little fine tuning. ;-)

Slowpoke

Hi Slowpoke,

Hahaha you are right that my map reading skill is not good. I read about the Entlebuch from local travelling magazine. It says that Entlebuch has most largest biodiversity in Switzerland and if you go on top, you can see the naked mountain and yo can visit Kneip Path Fluhli at the top. That magazine really encourage reader to go to Entlebuch so I considered it :). Lucky that I ask it in this forum.

Your photograph of rigi cogwheel train makes me really want to ride it :):) Thanks a bunch for your detail information, picture and suggestion, we will take your advice.

Cheers,

Reny Rohjani

Hi Reny -

thanks for the info.

That photo is of the Pilatus cograil.

Both Rigi cograils are much tamer.

The Entlebuch is indeed a biodiversity region....lightly populated....has a lot of what passes for wilderness in Switzerland. Accessible best by mountain hiking.

www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/search/index.cfm?phrase=Entlebuch

www.wanderland.ch/en/h iking-in.html?phrase=Entlebuch+%28LU %29&sname=&sid=545

Slowpoke