[Removed user]

25 September 2019 at 1:21:56 #823973

Hello There,

Thank you very much in advance. Four of us (My husband and I and Our friends along with two toddlers (21months and 23months old) have booked our flights to Switzerland for end of Oct (Oct 26th – Nov 2nd), this is our tentative itinerary, I would like to finalize it after your feedback.

Oct 26th – Travel Day (SF to Zurich)

Oct 27th – We land in Zurich Airport (at 3:30pm); we booked a hotel close to the airport just that night because we have little kids and dont know how our travel will end up treating us; if everything looks good, we can plan on dining in Regensburg ?

Oct 28th – Lake Zurich (boat ride), Bahnhofstrasse, will take a train to Lucern and stay the night in Lucern, any hotel suggestions?

Oct 29th – Explore Lucern; wooden bridge, chapel bridge etc. anything else, we will stay the night there. If its not too cold, we can go to Mt Pilatus;

Oct 30th – Golden Pass to Montreux and stay the night there ;

Oct 31st – Explore Chateau de Chillon and ride back to Interlaken for the night;

November 1st – we can do the Schnyige Platte cog wheel drive and relax after that; Ideally need to head to Zurich on 1st night; worst case get there 2nd morning.

Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

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[JaneEB]

25 September 2019 at 14:44:25 #922640

Hi chinnari

Welcome to the forum,

The train to the Schynige Platte does not operate after the 27th October. http://www.myswissalps.com/sc hynigeplatte http://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/schynige-platte/

However, there are plenty of other activities in the region. http://www.myswissalps.com/be rneseoberland/activiti es

Good luck with your planning and hope this is of help.

Jane

[Slowpoke]

25 September 2019 at 18:15:03 #922641

<<“The train to the Schynige Platte does not operate after the 27th October. http://www.myswissalps.com/sc hynigeplatte http://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/schynige-platte/&#8221; target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>”>>

Hi Jane- Good thing that Chinnari gave us travel dates. That seems to be a critical date for various cableways in the BO.

Good reason to check the timetable for specifics on any given day:

http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

Slowpoke

[Removed user]

25 September 2019 at 19:38:39 #922642

Thank you very much for the info. Does the rest of itinerary make sense? will the golden pass to Montreux be available at that time? Its not clear to be on web.

Thank you!

[Slowpoke]

26 September 2019 at 1:22:31 #922643

Golden Pass trains run all year long:

http://www.myswissalps.com/go ldenpass

See also –

http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/i-had-a-vip-front-seat-on-golden-pass-7-april-2019

Slowpoke

[Slowpoke]

26 September 2019 at 1:58:11 #922644

Hi chinnari –

<<“Oct 27th – We land in Zurich Airport (at 3:30pm); we booked a hotel close to the airport just that night because we have little kids and dont know how our travel will end up treating us; if everything looks good, we can plan on dining in Regensburg ?”>>

You are wise to think of jet-lag… Compounded by traveling with young children.

You can eat in Regensberg. Note spelling. Most hotels have dining rooms.

Since the downtown area of Zürich is easily and quickly ( except in morning rush hour) reachable by rather expensive taxi ( about 60-70 CHF…not too awful since it is split for 4 -6 people, more in rush hour) or 5 to 10 trains per hour (10- 20 minute trip at roughly 60r 7 CHF per person) it will be not much harder to stay in downtown Zürich. More to see and do; more choices of hotels. Or, even with jet lag, getting to Luzern (local German spelling) is rather simple.

http://www.myswissalps.com/zu rich/hotels

http://www.myswissalps.com/ac commodation

<<“Oct 28th – Lake Zurich (boat ride), Bahnhofstrasse, will take a train to Lucern and stay the night in Lucern, any hotel suggestions?”>>

Most people find the boat rides on Lake Lucerne (in German, der Vierwaldstätersee) more interesting, although Lake Zurich is also nice.

Both cities have a nice old town, on both sides of the rivers. In Zürich, one part is close to the Bahnhofstrasse. Not sure how much your walking around will be constrained by the kids. Old town streets are usually paved with cobblestones, but they are quite smooth. Lots of rolling suitcases have no trouble….they just click-clack…so some kind of stroller for the kids would be OK.

http://www.myswissalps.com/zu rich

http://www.myswissalps.com/lu cerne

When offering advice, we like to know if you have special interests. I suspect that the kids would not like musums. 😉

Berner Oberland-

As Jane noted, there is a lot to do in the area apart from Schynige Platte.

http://www.myswissalps.com/be rneseoberland

http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion

Justg keep an eye on public transport schedules within the region in October, to be cautious. Schilthorn is available, at consderably lower cost and time than the Jungfrau.

There is some concern…not universally agreed to… about taking young children up above 2000 meters. Often , age of 2 years is considered part of the caution notes. My opinion is that some of the concern is based on whether the youngest can communicate any distress. Airplanes are pressurized to about 8,000 feet altitude….2480 meters, for another perspective.

Do you live in SF, or perhaps a mountainous area of the USA…have the kids been in the mountains?

Slowpoke

[Removed user]

26 September 2019 at 2:37:18 #922645

Thank you very much!

Actually, we wanted to skip hiking of going up the mountains via any form of transportation because the weather around the time we will be out there can be unpredictable or rather cold and did not want to expose these kids to the higher altitudes that they are not used to.

We just wanted to enjoy the scenic views, that’s why leaned it on Luzern/interlaken and the golden pass. We would like exploring vineyards, chocolate tours, anything kid friendly. We are open to suggestions.

Thanks a lot for investing your precious time for making this trip memorable for us.

[Removed user]

26 September 2019 at 2:44:59 #922646

Does it make sense to go from Luzern to Montreux just to experience the golden pass ?

Based on this itinerary, we have three bases, not sure If there is a more efficient way of planning our trip. I would love to hear your suggestions.

[Slowpoke]

26 September 2019 at 6:04:53 #922647

There is lots to see and do around Montreux:

http://www.myswissalps.com/la kegenevawest/activitie s

http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux

You have 4 bases. Skip Zürich, as noted above.

Use the faster route through Bern when you go from Montreux to Interlaken. Harder Kulm might be an option there. Timetable will help you…make sure you read the instructions on the link above.

Interlaken is a good gateway but not much of a tourist destination.

See comments about villages on this page..lower right.

http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion

You might enjoy a train ride from Lauterbrunnen to Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald, while based in Interlaken.

Slowpoke

[Removed user]

2 October 2019 at 5:16:58 #922648

Hello there,

Thank you so much for your input. One quick thing, is it easy for us to travel around via car, or should we travel by Train?

[Removed user]

2 October 2019 at 17:04:27 #922649

Hi Chinnari,

it can be a bit tricky to drive a car in the Alps if you are not used to the mountain routes and be aware of the expensive parking costs too, not to mention the traffic jams. If you can, you should travel by train. I guess you’d prefer the car because of your children. But on many trains there is a family coach, sometimes even with a small playground. (I have attached a picture about it.) Look for the “FA” sign in the timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable). Anyway, I suggest to use the train. Switzerland train system is really amazing.

Read this too: http://www.myswissalps.com/ca rversustrain

If you prefer to travel by car, make sure to check these too:

• http://www.myswissalps.com/ca r
• http://www.myswissalps.com/ca r/drivinginthemountain s
• http://www.myswissalps.com/co 2compensation

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[Removed user]

2 October 2019 at 17:42:17 #922650

Thank you very much for the detailed response. It is super helpful. We will use the train, the picture is super helpful too.

[Removed user]

2 October 2019 at 18:22:20 #922651

Usually the family coach is just a simple coach, with nothing special – but if somebody sits there probably they are more tolerant to smaller kids and their noise. For me it is a relief that I know my children do not disturb anybody.
I heard that from Zurich there are more trains with a playground. In my area (Lake Geneva) they aren’t many unfortunately.
Maybe you will be lucky. 🙂

[Removed user]

2 October 2019 at 19:00:36 #922652

haha. Thanks for the heads-up.