Switzerland in Oct 2022, Zurich as homebase

Hello all, I love this forum.

We are travelling to Switzerland in mid October. We were planning on making Zurich our home base and want to see these places. I first thought one day at each place. My wife wants to take the train daily to visit these towns. I am wondering if we could combine some as some towns may not have as much to see. This was our Plan. I had booked all nights in Zurich to avoid moving luggage place to place and it seems that Switzerland is small and travel by train back and forth to Zurich may not be to bad. Still wondering and may be overlapping some travel?

Day1 Arrive in Zurich early am and see the city and maybe Rhine Falls

Day2-Travel to Bern via train, see the city maybe continue to Zermott? Back to Zurich evening

Day3-Travel to Lucerne and sightsee, back to Zurich evening

Day4-Travel to Interlaken and Grindelwald, and Lauterbrunnen-sightsee -Back to Zurich in the evening-having considered overnighting in this area as it seems there is a lot to see, also considering St Beatus Caves-30 minutes via boat, up a steep hill

3 castles in Thun -30 minutes by train or can go by boat tour and journey to Jungfraujoch.

Day5-Basel via train, back to Zurich

Day6-Zermatt via train, also do part of Glacier Express up the valley from Visp, or ride the Gornergrat Train

Day7-moving on to Spain

Thank you for any thoughts you can provide! Appreciate everyone!

We are travelling to Switzerland in mid October.

Day1 Arrive in Zurich early am and see the city and maybe Rhine Falls

Rhine Falls / Schaffhausen is a short trip from Zurich so is OK (see attached picture of falls I took from a Zurich - Schaffhausen train a few days ago)

Day2-Travel to Bern via train, see the city maybe continue to Zermott? Back to Zurich evening

Bern yes - dead easy, Zermatt definitely no. Zermatt is not a viable day trip destination from Zurich unless all you do is stay in the village for an hour of two and then travel back

Day3-Travel to Lucerne and sightsee, back to Zurich evening

Luzern yes - dead easy - the train journey Zurich Luzern is less than 1 hour

Day4-Travel to Interlaken and Grindelwald, and Lauterbrunnen-sightsee -Back to Zurich in the evening-having considered overnighting in this area as it seems there is a lot to see, also considering St Beatus Caves-30 minutes via boat, up a steep hill

3 castles in Thun -30 minutes by train or can go by boat tour and journey to Jungfraujoch.

The above is all far too much for one day. The fastest train journey Zurich - Grindelwald is 2 hours 37 minutes, so that is over 5 hours gone from your day without even starting to do any sightseeing in the Jungfrau area.

Day5-Basel via train, back to Zurich

Basel - yes - dead easy. There are lots of fast trains (some non-stop) taking around 1 hour

Day6-Zermatt via train, also do part of Glacier Express up the valley from Visp, or ride the Gornergrat Train

Zermatt is viable but only if you stay in the area on arrival for at least one night (see above). Riding the Glacier Express just from Visp to Zermatt is a pointless exercise as has no advantages over the normal regional train.

Day7-moving on to Spain

How, and from where?

Thank you so much for the assistance. I knew I was trying to pack too much in. I may have to plan to move hotels along with our sightseeing. We will be flying out of Zurich to Spain the last day.

Hi Gjack5404 and welcome to MySwissAlps.com!

I agree with 1960man regarding the places you can visit easily from Zürich.

I recommend having a hotel in the Jungfrau region and in Zermatt.

Let us know if you have further questions,

Ildiko

One further option - if you really do want to stay in one city the whole time - would be to stay in Bern not Zurich.

Bern has a number of advantages over Zurich as a single base for a visit to Switzerland:

1) it is more historic and nicer than Zurich

2) Basel and Luzern are easy day trips from Bern on direct train services

3) Bern is much closer (as the name of the region suggests) to the BERNese Oberland mountains, within which lies the Jungfrau region, as well as Thun and the Thunersee

4) thanks to the geography of the Swiss railways network, Bern to Zermatt is possible as a day trip

Thank you so much for this great suggestion! Love this idea.