blog — Chloe Mehr

Switzerland has been at the top of my bucket list for years, and it was one of those places that overdelivered on my expectations. We lucked out with great weather for the majority of the trip and were so charmed by Swiss culture. I feel so lucky that I was able to experience this travel dream in real life!

We were there the last weekend of August through Labor Day, or ten days total (eight and a half if you don’t count time flying). Switzerland is a small country, so it was easy to do everything we wanted to in that amount of time. We basically did one big loop: Zurich, Lucerne, the Jungfrau Region, Zermatt, then back to Zurich to fly home.

We got the Swiss Travel Pass which allowed us to take trains and public transit throughout the country (we got our passes at the Zurich airport once we landed, but you could save time by getting them online in advance). It may have been cheaper to book individual train rides, but the travel pass was worth it to me because it was so convenient to not have to stop and get individual tickets or plan a ton in advance. We’d just hop on a train or local light rail and have our travel passes ready to show to a conductor when they came by. Swiss public transit is so efficient and we only experienced 1-2 delays the whole time we were there. Plus, all the trains had giant windows that let us soak in the beautiful views. We didn’t get in a car the whole time we were in Switzerland!

*Swiss flag outside the Sphinx Observation Terrace, entrance included in the “Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe” pass*

Zurich

We spent time here mostly because we flew into and out of Zurich. If I could redo the trip, I would skip our first night in Zurich and just train to our next destination. A half day in Zurich is fine in my opinion, unless you want to explore away from the city center (which we didn’t, so I can’t speak to that). All that said, everywhere in Switzerland is beautiful and it was so fun walking around Old Town Zurich. We went to Babu’s Bakery & Coffee House for breakfast the first and last mornings of our trip and it had the coziest atmosphere.

Lucerne

We did two days in Lucerne but we probably could have spent one day there and done all the things we wanted to do. It’s about an hour train ride from the Zurich airport so it would also make a good first stop if you’re flying into Zurich.

One thing we learned while we were there is that each canton (or state) in Switzerland has its own bread, so it was fun going to bakeries across Switzerland to see what kind of baked goods they had. Lucerne had a ton of bakeries and they had my favorite types of baked goods out of all the areas we visited.

*Gelato from 10’ Dieci Gelati & Caffè in Old Town Lucerne*

Chapel Bridge & Old Town: Lucerne is SO CUTE. Chapel Bridge is in the center of the city and covered in flowers during the summer.

Musegg Wall & Towers: Nölliturm tower has an open viewing platform so you can get a bird’s eye view of the city. It’s a bit of a walk from the city center, but it’s free to climb the towers and I thought it was worth it for the views.

Lake Cruises: Most lake cruises are included with the Swiss Travel Pass, so we took a boat ride over to some neighboring lake towns one of the afternoons we were there.

Mount Pilatus Golden Round Trip Tour: This is a loop journey from Lucern to Mt Pilatus and back. You take a series of gondolas, cogwheel trains, and a boat ride (although the boat schedule was operating at half capacity the day we were there, so we took the train back instead). The Swiss Travel Pass gives you a small discount on the Golden Round Trip Tour ticket. If you only do one day in Lucerne, you could do this first thing in the morning and you’d still have time to walk Old Town Lucerne afterwards. However, I felt the scenery in Jungfrau and Zermatt was better, so if I had to skip one paid activity from our trip, this would be the one I’d cut.

Jungfrau Region

If I could only do one thing from our Switzerland itinerary, it would be Jungfrau. It’s hands down the prettiest place I’ve ever been. I think three days is the perfect amount of time to spend in this region. We did four, but I got sick one day and we still got to do everything we wanted to do. We got the Jungfrau Travel Pass for the days we were there and that got us onto all the gondolas and cogwheel trains (the Swiss Travel Pass gives you 50% off gondola rides but they’re still expensive even with the discount, so it was worth it to get a Jungfrau Travel Pass which got us unlimited rides in the region). You also get a small discount on the Jungfrau Travel Pass with the Swiss Travel Pass.

We stayed in Wengen and LOVED it. The prettiest views right from our hotel and it just felt less touristy since they don’t have cars there. We were really glad we stayed in Wengen over some of the bigger towns like Grindewald.

Lauterbrunnen: a pretty mountain village with waterfalls. Definitely worth taking the cogwheel train to. You can also access Mürren and Wengen from Lauterbrunnen, both are cute no-car mountain villages with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

*View from the gondola ride up to Grindelwald-First*

Grindelwald-First: We did the Bachalpsee hike and the “first cliff walk” by Tissot.

Paragliding: I got sick the day we were supposed to go so my husband went on his own. He loved it but we later saw people paragliding from Grindelwald-First and Lauterbrunnen and we thought those locations would have had even better views than where he went in Interlaken.

*View from the Männlichen gondola stop at the start of Panorama Trail*

Panorama Trail: This was my favorite hike of our trip. If you start on the Männlichen end and hike to Kleine Scheidegg, it’s a downhill walk (you can hop on a cogwheel train at Kleine Scheidegg so you don’t have to double back to the start of the hike). You could hear cowbells ringing down the mountainside pretty much the whole hike—it was so dreamy! If you don’t want to hike, the views were incredible just from the Männlichen gondola stop, and the cows seemed to congregate there as well. There’s also a really cool playground at the gondola stop if you’re traveling with kids.

*View from the Sphinx Observation Terrace, entrance included in the “Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe” pass*

Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe: A train ride that takes you to Europe’s highest railway station. Once at the top, it’s like a winter wonderland. Some snow sports are available, or you can walk through the ice caves (included in the ticket price) and walk through snow to take a photo with the Swiss flag.

Zermatt

Zermatt was a close second for me after Jungfrau. It had my favorite city center of all the towns we visited, and beautiful scenery. We did two days in Zermatt, which worked out well because it was rainy and cloudy the first day we were there and we couldn’t see the Matterhorn at all (the clouds cleared the next morning and we were able to get a better view). We were also on the last leg of our trip so it was nice to take this area at a slower pace. But one day is enough to see Zermatt’s highlights if you’d rather add more cities to your itinerary. We stayed city center and it was totally worth it! We loved walking the town and listening to the local church bells chime the tune to “Three Blind Mice”.

*View of the Matterhorn from Gornergrat, close to the Riffelberg train stop*

Gornergrat round-trip train ride: This was my favorite paid activity we did in Switzerland. It’s a hop on/hop off train ride that takes you to the top of Gornergrat, a mountain next to the Matterhorn. Each train stop offers a different view of the Matterhorn and/or opportunities to hike. Once you’re at the top, you get a final grand view of the Matterhorn, plus a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountain range. It was seriously so stunning. In the summer, there’s also a flock of Blacknose sheep that you can find through their GPS tags. We hopped off the train to follow the sheep in the morning, and then did a little hike to get up close to them in the afternoon before hopping back on at another train stop.

Say Cheese!: We saved fondu for Zermatt because we heard they do it best there, and it ended up being our favorite meal of the trip. We got a cheese fondu pot for dinner and a chocolate fondu pot for dessert. We were able to get a reservation same day, but I’d recommend booking in advance just in case. One thing to note about Switzerland is that food is really expensive. $100 was a typical dinner bill for the two of us, and most of the meals we ate were pretty average (i.e. we weren’t trying to splurge on good food, that’s just how much a normal sit down meal cost there). Switzerland is a hodgepodge of the cuisines that come from neighboring countries, so even locals we talked to agreed that you can get better food on the other side of The Alps. I liked this place because the food was good, plus it felt like we were paying for a quintessential Swiss experience, since fondu actually did originate in Switzerland.

Nikon F100 and Yashica Mat 124G on Kodak Portra 400 film.