Report of Lucerne/Lauterbrunnen /Zermatt/Montreux

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    3 October 2019 at 11:55:45 #824075

    We got very good ideas for this forum and thanks for all the help.

    We are family of 3 (me, wife and 2 years old baby) traveled to Switzerland for 7 nights (Sept 21st to 28th)

    We arrived at Basel airport and departed from Geneva airport

    We stayed 2 nights at Sachseln, 4 nights at Lauterbrunnen and 1 night at Montreux.

    2 months prior to our trip we bought 3 Saver Day Passes for Days 1 ( arrival day) ,3 and 7

    We also bought a Swiss Half Fare Card which worked out rather nicely for us and bought point to point tickets in SBB app with out any issues.

    I have worked out the pass by using the spread sheet from this forum, per person

    Full price tickets CHF 630

    8 day Swiss Travel Pass CHF 530

    with Half Fare card CHF 430

    with combination of Saver Day pass and Half fare card CHF 400

    Trip report:

    The plan for our first 3 days

    1) Mt Rigi 2) Mt Titlis 3) Lucerne city tour

    Day 1( Lucerne tour):

    Arrived in Basel at 11am and the weather was great, I have Saver Day pass for this day, initial plan was to store the bags in lockers at Lucerne train station, and go to Mt Rigi, to my surprise all the big lockers are occupied.

    Other option for us is to store the bags at the luggage counter by paying 10chf for each bag, as we have too many bags we thought this is quite expensive.So we made changes to our original plan and directly went to our first base in Sachseln.

    After checking we went back to Lucerne and explore the city and went to 1 hr boat trip to Bürgenstock.

    Day 2 ( Mt Titlis) :

    Took the train to Engelberg to visit Mt Titlis , there was an Activity day and the activities at Trübsee are free. We enjoyed the cliff walk and Glacier cave and views from the top are fantastic.

    On the way back to Engelberg we spent lot of time at Trübsee lake and reached our hotel at 7 pm.

    Day 3 ( Lucerne + Mt Rigi):

    Today would be busy day, the plan is Sachseln – Lucerne (explore lucerne for couple of hrs) – Rigi Kulm – Sachseln (pick up the bags) – Lauterbrunnen

    We have Saver Pass Day for this day, took the train from Sachseln – Lucerne as the weather was rainy and cloudy we thought better to explore lucerne until 12 pm and then take a train to Arth Goldau .

    Initial plan was Lucerne – Arth Goldau – Rigi Kulm by train and then do a classic Rigi walk to Rigi Kaltbad, cable car to Weggis and then boat to Lucerne.

    Took the 12:21pm train to Arth Goldau, it was supposed to arrive at 1:01pm but the train arrived at Arth Goldau at 1:06pm, so we missed the connecting train at 1:06pm to Rigi Kulm. This is our first experience in Switzerland to miss a connection.

    We have to spend close to 1 hr in the station for the next train to Rigi kulm, in the mean time we finished our lunch and catch the 2:06 pm train.

    We took the buggy, We started walking from Rigi kulm to Staffel and realized it will be a difficult downhill walk with the buggy and we are running out of time, so took the train back to Sachseln via Arth Goldau.

    We reached Sachseln at 6:12 pm, as we already checked out, we need to collect our bags from hotel and catch the connecting train at 6:28 pm which is bit tight.

    The hotel is 10 mins uphill walk from the train station, if we miss this connection we need to wait for 1 hr for the next train.

    I have asked my wife to wait at the train station and started running back to the hotel to pick up the suit cases and ran back to the train station, to our luck the train was delayed by 5 mins, so managed to catch the train at 6:33 pm. It’s 2 hr train journey to Lauterbrunnen.

    We reached Lauterbrunnen at 8:30pm, as the days are getting shorter we can see the scenery until Brienz.

    Day 4:

    We stayed at Valley Hostel, when we open the bedroom windows we can see the Staubbach Falls and snow capped mountains. The hostel is very well maintained and highly recommended.

    3 days plans for this area in the order preference for us was

    1) Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg walk: http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king/maennlichen-kleinescheidegg

    2) Grindelwald-First to Bachalpsee Hike: http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king/bachsee

    3) Lauterbrunnen – Stechelberg ( via Trummelbach falls) – Murren – Lauterbrunnen: http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king/lauterbrunnen-stechelberg

    The weather forecast looks promising for the day, so we planned to do Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg walk

    Took the train to Wengen, to our surprise there was a cow parade is happening at around 11 am, which we enjoyed a lot. We took a cable car to Männlichen and walked the Royal walk which was very scenic, it took us around 1 hr to complete the walk. Then started the walking to kleine scheidegg, some times the mountains are covered in clouds, the overall walk is very good.

    After reaching Kleine Scheidegg we were discussed either walk back to Wengernalp or spend time in exploring Wengen. As I am too tired to carry the baby on my back so we thought exploring Wengen will be good idea.

    As it turned out it was good decision as my daughter had great time in the park, and around 6:30 pm we took the train back to Lauterbrunnen.

    Day 5:

    The weather forecast is not so good, still we want to carry on with our initial plans.

    Took the train to Grindelwald, and walked for 15 mins to reach First bahn station and took the cable car to First. As we expected after Bort we don’t see much it was completely foggy.

    We started our walk to Bachsee lake, the clouds are moving from one direction to another., still we can see the snow capped mountains in the distance. As we reached the lake it was so cold and started raining, luckily there was a shelter near the lake and had our lunch inside the shelter.

    Once the rain stopped when we came out , the clouds are cleared and and we had good views all around.

    We walk back to the First cable station and also did the Tissot cliff walk. We took the cable car back to Grindelwald and spend sometime in the park.

    We had our dinner at Hotel Oberland in Lauterbrunnen, it was good but as expected expensive.

    Day 6:

    As we were so tired from the walks from last few days, we want to take it easy.

    But again our legs are not listening so we started walking from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg and stopped at the Trummelbach falls, my wife is not interested so I went and explored the falls, which are impressive, after that we continued walking towards Stelchelberg.

    Initial plan was to take cable car to Gimmelwald and walk to Murren but decided to take cable car directly to Murren.

    Murren, what a magical place and we spent couple of hours exploring the town and my daughter enjoyed in the park and took the train back to Grutschalp and cable car to Lauterbrunnen.

    We had 3 wonderful days in this area, this is our last night at Lauterbrunnen, we are making plans for next 2 days.

    The weather forecast looking promising for next day we were thinking we can’t we go to Zermatt to see Matterhorn and then got to Montreux for our next destination.

    Day 7:

    The route for today is Lauterbrunnen – Interlaken – Spiez – Visp – Zermatt – Visp – Montreux

    This will be another long day of travel, we checked out from the hostel and trying to catch train to Interlaken at 7:32 am so that we will reach Zermatt by 10:15am. As we approach the platform by taking the lift, the train is leaving the platform, we missed the train by 5 secs.

    According to SBB app we need to take the train at 8:32 am so that the waiting times are less,

    My wife suggested instead of waiting in this station for 1 hr why can’t we take the next train at 8:02am to Interlaken, it turned out be good suggestion.

    Waited in Interlaken for few minutes took the next train to Spiez, reached Spiez at 8:52 and as it turned out the previous connecting train to Visp was delayed by 35mins, we managed to catch that train to Visp and reached Zermatt at 11am. We kept our luggage in big lockers at the station.

    The initial plan is to go to Gornergrat by train and walk from Rottenboden to Riffleberg and train back to Zermatt.

    So we took the 11:20 am train to Gornergrat the view of Matterhorn was magnificent and cloud free.

    We had our lunch on the panorama terrace and starting walking to the top and saw a downhill zigzag path to Monterosa hut. We took this path and walked closed to glacier and turn right and walked towards the Rottenboden and took the train from Rottenboden to Zermatt, reached Zermatt at 4:30pm and explored the town until 6:30 pm and then train to Montreux.

    Day 8:

    This is our last day, we walked from Montreux to Chillon castle and we are not big fan of castles, so took the bus to Vevey.

    Had our lunch in Vevey and my daughter enjoyed the park and started walking towards the old town and Chaplin statue and big Fork.

    Then bus back to the hotel and collect the bags and train to airport to catch flight at 9:30 pm.

    Our trip was tightly packed and my baby co-operated very well and she enjoyed the train rides, parks and chocolates.

    The weather turns out be wonderful for the whole week, we had backup plans for rainy weather which we didn’t need to use it. I will upload the pics later on.

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    Removed user
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    3 October 2019 at 13:16:19 #923109

    When i am trying to add photo attachments it is showing uploading, after completing the uploading i am not seeing the photos, any help?

    Shroffchetan
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    3 October 2019 at 17:45:14 #923110

    Very nice trip report

    Removed user
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    3 October 2019 at 17:51:13 #923111

    Hi Durga,

    thank you very much for your detailed trip report and it is also great that you’ve shared your calculations on rail passes. I am happy that also your small daughter enjoyed the holiday.

    Regarding the pictures, did you get any error messages? How big they are? Try to upload less than 1 Mb. I hope it goes well, I would like to see them 🙂

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    7 October 2019 at 10:18:42 #923113

    Thanks i Ildiko,

    Actually i have made a mistake while calculating, forgot to add Zermatt trip costs , the correct prices are

    Full price tickets CHF 830

    8 day swiss pass CHF 560

    with Half fare card CHF 530

    with combination of Saver Day pass and Half fare card CHF 400

    Removed user
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    27 October 2019 at 18:08:54 #923114

    Hello. I am planning to explore Jungfrau region in early December. ( 1st -8th december).First day, From Geneva airport to interlaken and staying there for one night. Day2, going to Zermatt . Next day, returning back and stay in Wengen for 3 days and visit Mürren, Grindelwald and lauterbrunner.

    My questions are: I and my friend are not skiing. December ıs a good idea for walking around? We also like to see Christmas markets.

    Question two: Which town should we stay in ? Is it good idea staying in Wengen for 3 days and visit Mürren, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunner? Or should we stay inInterlaken during for 5 days?

    For this trip, can you suggest please which train ticket would be economic and convinient for two adults?

    I have not planned this journey properly yet and need to advise. I will be very much appreciated if you help me..Thanks..

    Removed user
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    27 October 2019 at 18:58:14 #923115

    Hello Istanbul34,

    Welcome to MySwissAlps!

    Thanks for your questions, however, may I ask you to start a new thread with a new title under Miscellaneous. This thread was posted by Durga, and it’s his travel report he wrote after his trip to Switzerland.

    Thanks for understanding! I will post the forum rules to help you in case you didn’t get a chance to read them:

    Best regards,

    Suzanne

  • The thread ‘Report of Lucerne/Lauterbrunnen /Zermatt/Montreux’ is closed to new replies.

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