MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial Interlaken & Luzern trip report October 10-18
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My wife and I visited Switzerland from 10/10 thru 10/18/17.. Spent 3 days in Interlaken and 4 in Lucerne.
1. we bought the Swiss travel pass and used the trains extensively. Very easy to do- just walk on Be sure you are on time as the trains come when the schedule indicates and leave accordingly. Very efficient and clean. Most of the time someone checked our passes to make sure they were valid.
2. Stayed at the Hotel central continental in interlaken right across the street/river from the west station. Hotel was more than acceptable. Rooms were decent and we had a small balcony overlooking the river and the west station. Nice breakfast each morning. Would definitely stay there again if nothing more than for the location Price was about 125 usd per night.
3. did harder kulm, lake thun boat ride, schilthorn. Would recommend all 3. Harder kulm had a nice restaurant up top where we had a good lunch. Short funicular ride up to it and a viewing area. A relaxing spot to go on the first day after a long travel day from USA.
Schilthorn is definitely a must see in our opinion. Fun trip up and we did the thrill walk at Birg and then the whole james Bond thing at schilthorn. Really well done and a lot of fun to hang out up there. We ate lunch at the restaurant up there, though couldnt get a table on the rotating part so ate at the bar.Food was good and of course not cheap but had to say we did eat up there. A lot of people brought their own lunch and ate up there.
Boat ride on thun was nice but a bit long-2 plus hours.
our last day we walked around unterseen and wife did the paragliding thing. Quite the thrill for her. 200 USD which included a video and pix. It was worth it. If you want to do paragliding, what better place to do it, right?
2. Interlaken town is nothing special-pretty toursity.
3. took train from interlaken ost to luzern absolutely gorgeous ride.
4. We loved luzern. stayed right on the river near the chapel bridge. easy walk from the train station to our apartment. The old town is really fun to walk through and the restaurants on the river are fun to eat at in the evening.Walked the old wall dating from the 1300’s? which was really fun. Visited mt Pilatus which was worth the time, also did Burgenstock which was not. The fast elevator there to the very top is over priced but it was fun to hike to it. Did the lion monument which was easy to get to- it is impressive. Took a 1 hr boat ride around the lake with narration which was worth the time and money. did the picasso museum as well.
We had prefect weather every day and that no doubt had an impact on how we felt about the trip. Would love to go back, especially to Luzern. Relaxing place, easy to get around and not too big.
5. if you haven’t already discovered this, i would highly recommend watching a guy named Dennis callan’s videos on youtube. he takes tour groups over there quite a bit and he has very well done videos with good narration/explanations of sights, trains, places to eat, etc. We learned a ton watching them. and felt we were well prepared to use our time wisely as a result.
Also Rick Steves Switzerland was helpful preparation as well.
hope this is helpful to future travelers. If you like mountains, trains, boats, lakes,rivers, Switzerland is your disney world. it has it all.
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Hi Mou10mn,
Thanks for the detailed trip report! Sounds like a great time was had on your trip – nice to hear!
Hi Mou10mn,
Thanks for sharing your experiences (and the Dennis Callan video reference).
I was interested to see that you found Burgenstock a bit of a let down. You are probably the first person on here who has reported going there since the Funicular was re-opened.
I surmised some time ago (http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/what-do-the-locals-think-of-the-burgenstock-resort) that it was perhaps only for the rich and famous. Still having read this http://www.nzherald.co.nz/tra vel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=119396 25 recently I wouldn’t mind being able to afford a few nights there and waving the 🇦🇺 after a few cocktails.
It certainly is very nice around the hotels in bugenstock. Views are great to be sure and boat ride over was very nice. It’s worth going up to see that I suppose but the elevator was just not that big a thrill. Didn’t seem All that fast either.
To each his own I guess. We like the old world atmosphere when we go to Europe rather than new, upscale places..
Hi mou10mn
<<“It certainly is very nice around the hotels in bugenstock. Views are great to be sure and boat ride over was very nice. It’s worth going up to see that I suppose but the elevator was just not that big a thrill. Didn’t seem All that fast either.”>>
I note that you use the term elevator.
Did you go to Bürgenstock on the funicular up from the lake, or did you take the Hammetschwand elevator?
See attached
Slowpoke
Hi mou10mn
<<“2. Interlaken town is nothing special-pretty toursity.”>>
A lot of people agree with you 😉
I note that you only scratched the surface at Luzern. I think you hinted at that. We go back routinely, hike around the lake, explore all of the museums, visit nearby towns such as Schwyz, and on and on.
Slowpoke
Took the funicular up from the lake to the hotels. Then Hiked over to the elevator and paid the fee to go up from there . Great views at the top to be sure.
We are planning the same trip in September 2018.
Did you guys did it on your own or used the package service available in MySwissAlps.
AV from Florida
yep you are right. We wanted to hit the big stuff and did so except for Titlis. We just enjoyed the town of lucerne so much we were pretty ontent to hang out there.
hoping to go back next year. My wife wants to start in italy and work our way back up to lucern via train. Dennis callan you tube video describes such a trip so we may use that as our blueprint.
Would be interested to know where you hiked around lucern, how you got there, etc.
thx
we did it on our own with lots of research on various sites, including myswiss alps., Rick Steves videos and book. Again, would highly, highly recommend you view the you tube videos by dennis callan on switzerland.. You can then get a good feel of what places you most want to visit based on what you see there. He is kind of a geeeky type guy but just does a suoer job describing the places.
We used booking.com to view lodging choices. Stay on the river in lucern if you can. Really beautiful.
Good luck and enjoy.
I have been looking at different sites as well as Utube videos.
Did you traveled by train or car?
I also use booking.com for lodging when we travel
Thanks
Hi mou10Mn –
<<“Took the funicular up from the lake to the hotels. Then Hiked over to the elevator and paid the fee to go up from there”>>
I agree that the elevator has no special appeal, except that it avoids a few hundred meter climb up the backside of the hill. I consider the restaurant at Hamettschwand to be one of the nicer places to have lunch in Switzerland. Just enough exercise to whet your appetite. Good views while you have a sausage and beer.
Here are a couple of links for things we have enjoyed around the lake:
A hike –
http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/the-swiss-path-and-southern-lake-lucerne
Follow some the links in that one to learn more about the Swiss Path.
Schwyz –
http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/schwyz-and-the-ital-reding-house
http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/sunrise-hike-at-grosser-mythen
http://www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/schwyz.html
A lot of Swiss history there.
The Rigi:
http://www.myswissalps.com/ri gi
http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/4-hour-stopover-best-ideas-and-how-to-do-it
That’s a typo- it should read “14 hour”)
Luzern-
The Rosengart Collection:
http://www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/rosengart-collection.html
Very different from the small and very personal collection in the Picasso museum.T he Klee’s are amazing.
Lake boats –
In my opinion, the best part of the lake is the southernmost part, the Urnersee. You di not get there in a one hour tour from Luzern.
Catch a boat at Flüelen and ride it at least as far as Brunnen. Maybe all the way to Luzern.
Follow Suvarov’s trail up to Chinzig Kulm:
http://www.schweizmobil.ch/en /hiking-in-switzerland/routes/rou te-055.html
We only did part of one section. We took a cable lift up from Spiringen on the Klausenstrasse, if I recall correctly, and hiked up to the pass overlooking the Muotathal. Came back down the way we went up.
That’s a start.
Slowpoke
Hi Alfonso,
Travel by train. It’s a no brainer. Everyone gets to enjoy the magnificent scenery. See http://www.myswissalps.com/ca rversustrain
We did the Swiss travel pass, 8 day version. U can’ beat the convenience of it. That said ,u should probably do the math of buying individual tickets for each trip, attraction you plan to do, figuring in the discounts you get with the swiss travel pass For us, the pass was cheaper.
I don’ like to rent cars so didnt’ really consider that option. Parking in lucerne would have been a bit of a hassle given where we stayed.
The trains are the way to go. So convenient, located perfectly in towns. Less stress.
A great start!!!!! Mucho thanks.
I was contemplating the 8 day package for the simple reason that I will be traveling with another 3 couples, maybe 4, and it would be a pain for me to do all the arrangement since I’m the one that have the traveling experience.
I recently did the arrangements for 22 days mid west US park trip and the reservations for the other couple got all mess up at the time of payments since I secure it with my card.
Muchas Gracias to everyone, information has been a great help.
<<“I don’ like to rent cars so didnt’ really consider that option. Parking
in lucerne would have been a bit of a hassle given where we stayed.”>>
I have occasionally chosen to stay in Luzern, even when I have had a car. If you stayed on the north bank of the Reuss, the nearest garage is at the Bahnhof. Count on 45 or 50 CHF or more for a long overnight parking stay. ;-(
I used to stay at the Schiff, which closed several years ago, and is now apartments. However, last year about this time the Wiesner-Jolie’s reopened the restaurant on the ground floor and under the arches by the quay. I ate there in September and the food was as good as I remembered it. And, some of the staff remembered me, from my many stays there in the past.
I stay at the des Alpes now. Nice rooms; mediocre kitchen.
Slowpoke
Attachments:We did stay at the schiff. Had a top floor remodeled studio apartment and it was very nice. Bldg had a lift so didnt’ have to deal with stairs. Also access to free laundry facility.
would stay there again.
If you were on the river side you had great views. The view of the Jesuitenkirche from the des Alpes is not nearly as nice.
Those top floor rooms used to be very spacious. I got them a few times when I first stayed there. I’m pretty sure that picture was taken from up there. Later on, I think that the Wiesner-Jolie’s used that floor for their residence.
How many nights did you stay, and can you book for any number of nights? Or is there a minimum?
Slowpoke
We stayed 4 nights. Not sure if there is a minimum. view was awesome of the church and Pilatus.
I think the rental company website is HITrental.ch. they rent several apartments in lucerne and Zurich. The name of our room on the river was mars. The site has good pics of all the rooms.
We plan to do something similar next summer but we will be driving from southern Alsace to Lucerne. Then we will make our way to the Jungfrau region for 3 days before returning to Alsace via Bern.
At what point should we park the car and take the train?
Thanks,
Christiane
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