Switzerland travel

soccerguy315
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:05:47 +0000

what are you looking for in Switzerland?

Zermatt is very popular, as has been mentioned. Lake Geneva and the Chateau de Chillion are also very nice.

The train from Paris to Geneva is quite short, probably like 3.5 hours-ish.

Here is my recommendation:
Day 1: morning train leaving Paris, arrive in Geneva before lunch. Enjoy Geneva for a couple hours. Take a boat from Geneva to Castle de Chillion on Lake Geneva, like this: [CGN -](http://www.cgn.ch/eng/croisieres_touristiques/vos_plus_belles_croisieres/la_suisse_a_100_ans) stay overnight in Montreux.

Day 2: explore Montreux if you wish… they have a world famous jazz festival in July. It includes various professional acts as well as some world class amateur acts (saw a HS from California play there… they were amazing). In the evening, while it is still light so you can enjoy the amazing scenery, take the train to Interlaken. Overnight in Interlaken.

Day 3: Interlaken! A small-ish town with roughly 5000 people nestled between 2 lakes and nestled at the entrance to the famous jungfrau region. Takes about 25-30 minutes to walk from the train station on one end of town to the station at the other end. Interlaken is an adventure paradise. You can book tickets to go canyoning, white water rafting, sky diving, paragliding, etc etc. You can explore Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. You can hike up the mountain behind the city (2.5-ish hour hike) or you can take the cog train-ish thing. End of the day, train to Lauterbrunnen (20-30 minutes) and set up shop for the rest of your trip. Lauterbrunnen [Lauterbrunnen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](Lauterbrunnen - Wikipedia) is in a valley with 70+ waterfalls (including the largest in switzerland), and was possibly the inspiration for Rivendell (lord of the rings)

Day 4/5/6/7 - The rest of your trip will be spent enjoying the nature and awesomeness of the swiss alps. Some highlights include:
Trummelbach Falls [Trümmelbach Falls ? in the Valley of the 72 Waterfalls - Switzerland Tourism](Trümmelbach falls | Switzerland Tourism)

The restaurant from James Bond’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at the top of the Schilthorn [Schilthorn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](Schilthorn - Wikipedia)

Murren, an alpine village overlooking the Lauterbrunnen Valley above Stechelberg [Mürren - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](Mürren - Wikipedia)

Gimmelwald, a small town of 100-150 people made popular by Rick Steves, about a 30/60 minute walk from Murren [Gimmelwald - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](Gimmelwald - Wikipedia)

You can take the cable car from Lauterbrunnen to the little town above it, and walk to Murren, which is basically a flat walk.

You can take the cog train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, and then take a gondola to Mannlichen, which is the peak between the Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald (not Gimmelwald) valleys. Takes 15-30 minutes to get from the gondola station to the peak on paved / walking paths.

You can walk from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg, which is like 90 minutes, and the last real train station. Kleine Scheidegg is the transfer point to take the train to the “top of europe” [Jungfraujoch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/url [url=Kleine Scheidegg - Wikipedia]Kleine Scheidegg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](Jungfraujoch - Wikipedia)

basically… you can use any of the small towns (Lauterbrunnen, Kleine Scheidegg, Wengen, Murren, Grindelwald, etc) for your base. This part of your trip is to enjoy the swiss alps. Grindelwald is a wider / flatter valley, that IMO is not as impressive. You can look at it from Mannlichen, or if you take the train to Jungfraujoch, it stops for 5 minutes twice in the tunnel and you can look out the windows and see it (if you are not looking into the clouds). Wherever you stay, they will be able to give you maps with hikes in the region and any info on what you are looking for. There are many walks that are flat and reached by gondolas, if you are worried that the hiking will be too intense.

On the last day, take the train back to Geneva (or wherever you are flying out of). I think the reason most people to go Switzerland is to enjoy the mountains, and that is where you should spend most of your time. Here is the map of the area: http://www.ifjungo.ch/jungfraujoch/images/jungfrauregion_large.jpg

if you do a google image search of the various places I listed, you should be able to get a feel for them

obviously, in the mountains, you run the risk of having clouds… not only in the high peaks (the train/gondola stations have live video of the peaks they serve, so you can see what the weather is like there), but also in the valleys.

An alternative idea, is to base yourself in somewhere like Lauterbrunnen for the entire trip, and if you encounter a rainy day, use that day to take the train to Geneva or Montreux or Lucerne or Bern, or Zurich. But as I said… the real highlight of Switzerland is the scenery.

if you aren’t familiar with the forums on www.tripadvisor.com, they are very useful for travel