Swiss travel itinerary - 4 days - where to go?

Hi Everyone, I'm planning a 4 day trip in the first week of July arriving at Geneva on the 6th. I have read multiple threads to make a proper plan but every place I read about seems to be better than the first. Can someone help me out. We're 2 of us and mainly interested in outdoors and exploring the scenic beauty of Switzerland.

Should I have 2 days in Geneva and then 2 for Interlaken - Jungfrau or 1 day in Geneva and then head out. What's an optimal plan. Can I cover other places like Lucerne and Zermatt. Is the Swiss rail pass the best option?

Thanks for your suggestions!

Cheers,

Prashant

Hi Prashant,

First of all do NOT be overwhelmed by reading different posts. Everyone have their own choice of likes and dislikes and they explain it accordingly. But given the fact Switzerland is an entire country, 4-days is tooooooooo less a time to explore even 10% of it. So you should probably stick to the basics, more common places.

July is a season time and you will find crowd so its high time you start booking (should have a done a month or two earlier though). If you want to traverse from end to end in 4-days, you can buy the Swiss Travel Pass for two of you. It costs CHF 251 per person and can be bought here : www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/holidays--short-breaks-in-switzerland/swisstrave lsystem/swiss-travel-pass.html

With a Swiss Travel Pass (STP), most of your train travels will be FREE. You just need to check the train time to your destination and hop on to any of them per your convenience.

On the western side (Geneve) I would say you can visit the Chocolate Factory or the Cheese Factory (if you like them), or the Chateau-de-Chillon in Montreux (entry to this castle is free with the STP). Gstaad is another nearby area to Montraeux to explore. It's the place of the rich and the famous personalities. If you are from India then you might also relate to the Zweisimmen railway station (close to Montreaux) made famous by the movie DDLJ (where SRK and Kajol miss their train) :-)

The best place to visit in central Swiss, is the Mt. Titlis and Jungfrau, with the latter being costly. At Mt. Titlis, you get a 50% discount on cable cars with your STP while at Jungfrau you get 25%. You can check my other posts where I have mentioned the costs per person for tickets to these places.

Mt. Pilatus is another good mountain top to visit. Rhine Falls near Zurich is a good visit as well. The area is quite calm and soothing to sit till evening. As I said earlier - do not get overwhelmed and things 1 is better that 2. Just fix few places and visit them. No matter what, at the end you will always be left craving for more so don't confuse yourself and don't forget to buy some souvenir -- most important being the traditional cowbells, swiss chocolates (buy from Coop supermarket as they are cheaper there) and Swiss Army Knife (Vitorinox).

Personally, in my 3-days travel in April this year, I visited Mt. Titlis, Mt. Pilatus and the Rhine Falls.

Hi Prashant,

With 4 days, I would not spend too much time, if any, in larger cities like Geneva. The mountains and other sites mentioned by sskundu will be more interesting if you want to see the Swiss Alps. You would be able to see and do a lot with 4 days in or around Interlaken or Lucerne. But you would not be able to see all there is. Two base towns is an option as well, but not more than that, or you would be traveling all the time instead of sightseeing.

Here's a good place to get started: myswissalps.com/plantr ip.

Thanks Sskundu and Annika. I'll look at revising my plan. I reach Geneva in the afternoon on the first day. Willl try to plan to leave immediately for the other sites or probably stay a night and leave next morning for 3 nights. I'll revisit the plan and come back to you for more guidance. Thanks again.

Sskundu - ddlj was great and thanks for your shopping tips.

We have decided to stay at Geneva the first night since we arrive late afternoon and then head to Interlaken next morning. Planning to keep Interlaken as the base and then cover Jungfrau, Lucerne from there.

Can you give me some recommendations on what else can I / should I add? Which travel pass would be best considering most of the travel will be trains - should I go for the travel pass or half fare card?

Thanks

Hi Prashant,

It sounds like you will be traveling quite a lot, so a Swiss Travel Pass would work well. If you want to be 100% sure about your cheapest option, you can list all your trips and compare with the Swiss Half Fare Card as explained here. The Swiss Travel Pass is more convenient though: less tickets to buy.

The Interlaken and Lucerne pages Annika mentioned offer lots of ideas for activities. Be sure to do a short hike if possible.

Thanks Arno.

Do you think I can do both Interlaken and Lucerne.

Day 1: Geneva

Day 2: Geneva to Lucerne - Can I cover Pilatus, Titlis, Lake Lucerne on this day? If not what will be the best option?

Day 3 & 4: Lucerne to Interlaken - can I take the Golden Pass route and then stay in Interlaken to cover Jungfrau and other sites around?

Please let me know your thoughts on this.

Thanks and apologies if I'm asking too many questions

Feel free to ask Prashant! Your day 2 is too full. If at all possible you will rush from place to place without time to take in the views. My suggestion would be to go to one of the mountains and take your time. When back in Lucerne, see if there's still a short boat trip you can do, and decide right there. The rest of your plan looks good to me.

Hi sskundu,

Thanks for the insight. I've a very small query which I'm unable to find an answer for:-

I've read that there're free boat-travels available on STP. Can you please let me know if boating on Rhine Fall water is included in that?

Regards,

Ashwani Sharma

Welcome to MySwissAlps Ashwani!

Unfortunately those boats are not included nor discounted: myswissalps.com/ swisstravelpass/ validity.

As Arno already replied, the boats on Rhine Falls (taking you to the falls) are not discounted. The pricing I don't remember right now but are somewhere in the range of CHF 7 - CHF 15 / 20 (depending on what type of boat you take). There are multiple color coded boats, each providing different rides.

The ones where you get can travel free with the STP are the big boats (like a steamer boat) which takes you from one location to another. Even some tour boats are also free, like Wilhelm-Tell etc.

Thanks Arno & sskundu. This information is quite helpful for me.

Regards,

Ashwani Sharma