Switzerland in July 2011

Hi All,

This is an awesome forum and the kind of helpful responses I have seen, it is very very encouraging!! I have a few questions and I hope to get equally helpful responses to those :-)

1) My wife and I are planning to go to Switzerland on 25th July and be there for at least 4-5 nights. We are planning to buy the Swiss Saver pass, but we are not sure if we can buy that one for 5 days. If not, would we need to buy it for 4 days and make some other travel arrangements for the other 1 day?

2) We still haven't decided which place to keep as the base for our stay in Switzerland. I am sure Interlaken is quite a popular one, and I hear there are other nice places as well. The thing I am not sure about is if I keep my base as Geneva, which is quite the Southern tip, will I be able to see some important places that are towards the North of Switzerland. Or would traveling take most of my time? In fact hotel booking already is getting pretty expensive in Interlaken or even in Luzern. Any suggestions are welcome!

There are still a ton of questions, but I guess I will slowly throw them at this forum.

Thanks much in advance!
Satish

Hello Satish, welcome to the forum. We are planning to stay in Thun - it is just over half an hour by train from there to Interlaken, the starting point for excursions in the Bernese Oberland. We choose Thun because it also gives the option to go on day trips to Lucerne (1hr 24m), Zermatt (1hr 50mins) Geneva (2hrs10 mins) Gstaad (1hr 20mins, Basel (1hr 5mins), Zurich (1hr 20mins), Montreux (2hrs) to name but a few!
On our first few trips to Switzerland we concentrated on exploring Bernese Oberland but now we like to mix that with visiting other areas too. Solothurn, Fribourg, Bern and Kandersteg are also within easy reach of Thun which might be a little cheaper than Interlaken - worth a look anyway. Google Thunersee Tourismus for more details.
While we always spend a little time in Interlaken on our way to other places, we haven't stayed there as it is a bit too crowded and "touristy" for our tastes! It is very convenient for the mountain excursions so it is a question of priorities. By the way, travelling can be part of the fun in Switzerland so count it as part of your day out not an inconvenience!
As for passes - you are right there isn't a 5-day Swiss Saver Pass so if you buy the 4 day one you will need to decide whether you are likely to get any use out of it other than the journey to your base on the first day or before you leave your base on the last day which depends on the time of day your inward and outward flights are.
I hope you enjoy your planning and your holiday. Maggie

This information is extremely helpful Maggie and Arno. This definitely gives me some idea about the distances and travel times involved.

Another question - What is the exact difference between the Swiss Saver Flexi Pass and the Swiss Saver Pass? The only difference I could find was that the Flexi pass covers travel in 37 cities and the plain Saver pass covers travel in 41 cities. Not sure which 4 cities the Flexi pass doesn't cover. Also, I noted that the Flexi pass can be used for 3, 4, 5 or 6 selectable days. Probably this suits my requirement better, but I am not too sure of what other things it doesn't cover.

thanks
Satish

Those are indeed the main differences Satish. Please note that the validity of the Swiss Flexi Pass starts/ends on the first/last day of free traveling. Discounts apply in between traveling days. Further information can be found on our pages about those passes.

When looking for somewhere to stay and for your sort of holiday please don't overlook Spiez between Interlaken and Thun on the Thunersee. It's a main rail junction from where you can go in four different directions and of course there are the boats on the lake. We now always stay at the Seegarten Marina by the harbour and only 100 metres from where the boats dock. Indeed, we usually arrive and depart by boat. It's a sharpish walk up to the station (15 minutes) but buses link the station with the harbour to meet the boats and the little local Zugli (land train) can also help. We have no connection with the hotel other than as guests who return year after year.
Andrew