MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial 24 day trip Lucerne, Wengen, Meiringen, Brig&more
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Hi All
We are two female travelers from Australia. This is our first time visiting Switzerland. We are reasonably fit and medium level hikers.
We are very excited about our trip and have done some research for several months now. Thanks myswissalps for vast amount of information, knowledge and experience. We found it is very helpful for us in initial planning and finalizing our itinerary. It also assisted us with calculating and choosing the rail pass. We are so grateful for all the resources available for us. Below is our itinerary.
Would you please comment if the plan looks reasonable and further suggestions are welcome! Thank you.
Itinerary (Sept 12 – Oct 5) – 24 days (23 nights)
Main activities: Hiking and Sightseeing
Sept 12 – Arrive in Zurich at 13:15 local time; Take train to Lucerne
Sept 12,13,14 – Base in Lucerne (3 nights); Sightseeing; Pilatus Golden Round Trip (half day); Mount Rigi Mark Twain Trail (10km, 5 hours)
Sept 15,16,17,18 – Base in Wengen (4 nights)
Sept 15 – Lucerne – Interlaken – Wengen (2.5 hours)
Sept 16 – Hiking – Schilthorn & Mürren (6 hours)
Sept 17 – Hiking around Wengen (3-7 hours, could use train to turn this into one-way walk)
Wengen – Allmend – Wengernalp – Kleine Scheidegg – Haaregg – Mettlenalp – Allmend – Wengen (please comment if scenery of this route is good)
Sept 18 – Hiking – Mannlichen & the Eiger (5.5 hours)
Sept 19 – Hiking – Schynige Platte to Faulhorn; Stay in Berghotel Faulhorn (5 hours?)
Sept 20 – Hiking – Gassenboden -> Bachsee -> First (duration of hiking?); Stay in Meiringen
Sept 20,21,22 – Base in Meiringen (3 nights)
Sept 21 – Trift Glacier Suspension Bridge (5 hours?)
Sept 22 – PostBus through four passes of the Central Alps (On bus, a full-day round trip of 208 km, leaving 9:25am and return at 18:10)
We would like to explore and hike to the gorge/water falls/Haslie valley. Can you suggest if it is possible to fit them in our itinerary?
Sept 23,24 – Base in Brienz; Rest, Lake Brienz and Lake Thun boat trip, Brienzer Rothorn
Sept 25 – Arrive in Brig (by Train to Spiez-Kandersteg-Goppenstein-Brig); Sightseeing Interlaken and Brig
Sept 26 – Aletsch Glacier; Stay in Brig
Sept 27,28,29 – Zermatt & Gornergrat (3 nights)
Sept 27 – Rothorn Flower Trail (short) ending at the Sunnegga Paradise (4.6km, 1.5 hours)
Sept 28 – Sightseeing around town centre; rest ready for next bigger day
Sept 29 – Gornergrat & Riffelalp & Short walk to Riffelsee (6.3km, 3 hours)
Sept 30 – Oct 1,2 – Stay in Lausanne for 3 nights (Not sure if 3 nights based in Lausanne is too many; We will explore small villages and Lake Geneva, Montreux. Any other suggestions?)
Oct 3,4 – Zurich – Day trip to Stein am Rhein and the Rhein falls
Oct 5 – Check out and fly back to Melbourne
Other considerations/questions:
1. Our hiking days are concentrated on Sept 16,17,18,19,20,21. Each day has different distance and duration. We are conscious about the intensity. Do you think it is OK or we should have one day rest in between, say a day rest before Schynige Platte to Faulhorn hike on Sept 19?
2. How is the scenery based on our hiking routes? We want to enjoy both hiking and sightseeing.
3. Based on our calculation, Half Fare Card is the best option for the above itinerary.
4. We understand that we need to be flexible due to weather conditions. If not suitable for hiking, we are happy to take long distance scenic trains or go to villages for sightseeing. Please provide some recommendations.
5. If weather conditions are not suitable for hiking on certain day(s), what hiking routes would you suggest must-do so we can give them priority?
Thank you
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Hi. Great plan. You have done an excellent research. How about adding a mountain excursion to Glacier 3000 while in Lausanne? Lucas has a wonderful trip report to Glacier 3000 early this year. Weather must be much better now. Enjoy Switzerland! Take care.
Hi Like2Travel.
Thank you for your recommendation.
I have read Lucas’s report on Glacier 3000. It looks interesting. We will consider this trip when we base in Lausanne.
Happy Easter.
G’day TravelBud,
I have to agree with L2T – you have certainly done your homework. Would love to be able to contribute but hiking is not my strong suit.
A couple of things.
- On the Rhein Falls, Stein am Rhein day you can get on a Rhine Cruise “cruise” from Stein to Konstanz or Kreuzlingen before heading back to Zurich. Makes a great round trip. See http://www.bodensee.eu/en and http://www.myswitzerland.com/ en-au/lower-lake-untersee-and-rhine.html.
- Any reason to stay in Lausanne rather than Montreux? Better transport hub?
Hi TravelBud
you have selected some great hikes. some brief comments. On Sept 19, when starting from SP to Faulhorn, you will have a choice of 2 routes at the beginning. I would highly recommend the slightly longer but much more scenic panoramaweg or cliff top trail. You will have a view of Interlaken lakes on one side and mountains on the other. see att photos.
On Sept 17 you will have a full day of hiking. On the section of Wengen to KS, I think the most scenic is from Wengernalp to KS. You may consider taking the train from Wengen to Wengernalp (significant uphill) and the walking the rest of the way to KS (also uphill)
When you do the Eiger trail the route downhill from Eigergletscher to Alpiglen is much easier than the reverse direction uphill
On Sept 29 when you walk from Riffelalp to Riffelsee, consider continuing on past the right side of Riffelsee for about 10 minutes to a little used overlook of Gornergletscher. Great view. see photo. You could continue along the backside of Gornergrat with great views of Mt. Rosa and you will come to a series of steep but short switchbacks that will take you up to Gornerglat summit.
Last if you want a break from hard hikes in Wengen area, consider the very pretty hike from First to Grosse Scheidegg. Mark
G’day Rockoyster,
Thank you for the recommendations.
Yes the photos of the curise look great. We will consider this trip. It will make us very relaxed after our multi-day hiking before heading back home.
We will also do more research on staying Montreux and activities. To be honest, we have not spent much time research in this region as we have been mainly focusing on our hiking planning. Any suggestions will be much appreciated!
Thank you
Hi Mark,
Thank you so much for your five great hiking tips! Each of them is important for us to enjoy the hiking to the fullest. We will do more reading on them.
The photos are absolutely gorgeous and we will definitely alter our itinerary to include your suggestions. I am glad that the hiking part of our itinerary is quite close to final now.
Much appreciated.
Hi travelbud,
Please read our webpage on things to do in Montreux and its surroundings: http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux.
Hi Chantal
Thank you so much for sharing the link for ideas of the places to explore in and around Montreux.
I am certain now that we will have plenty to do for 3 nights and that might not be enough!
We feel so lucky to have aceess to informantion we need in myswissapls website. It has all the answers that we are after if we have time to do research on our own. It’s truly an amazing and very well maintained website!
Thank you.
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