I’ve been wanting to go back to Switzerland since I first went in 2019 and we finally made it happen this year with the relaxed COVID restrictions! We got caught up in the recent travel delays and had several airport sprints but everything turned out in the end. As of September 2022, there were no travel restrictions or extra paperwork for Americans either flying into Switzerland or back in to the US, though I did need to submit some information about where we were going to the airlines for contact tracing.
I’m not going to go into all of my travel tips for Switzerland (if you want a more in depth summary, I’d recommend my post from 2019) but my top recommendations are to buy a Swiss Travel Pass (they get you almost all transportation covered including lake boats and museum entry, except for most mountain tops) and to be aware that Switzerland has slightly different power outlets than most other European countries (hexagonal instead of round but the same prongs). You can find more information about what the Swiss Travel Pass does and doesn’t include on the My Swiss Alps site and this helpful Rick Steves post. Next time we travel, we’re going to try to bring a multi usb port so we have a lot of places to charge our electronics, since outlets in hostel rooms are sometimes very limited.
As a general trip overview, we ended up sleeping in Interlaken for all but one night in Zurich because I enjoyed the Bernese Oberland so much on my previous visit. We used Interlaken as our base to take trains to other parts of the country – which is feasible if you’re willing to take trains daily 2-4 hours one way but otherwise you might want to stay in other regions overnight. On our next visit, I think we’ll want to spend more time exploring the regions around Zermatt, Basel, and east of Zurich – but I don’t think you can argue that the Bernese Oberland is one of the most beautiful regions in Switzerland.
- Day 1: Flying in to Zurich and Hiking Harder Kulm in Interlaken
- Day 2: Hiking Klein Scheidegg in the Bernese Oberland
- Day 3: Hiking Allmendhubel in the Bernese Oberland
- Day 4: Exploring Lugano & Morcote
- Day 5: Ballenberg, Swiss Open-Air Museum
- Day 6: Exploring Basel & Bern
- Day 7: Hiking Hohenweg Hohbalmen in Zermatt
- Day 8: Exploring Lucerne
- Day 9: Exploring Montreux – Chillon Castle & Wine Tasting
- Day 10: Exploring Zurich
Day 1: Flying in to Zurich and Hiking Hard Kulm in Interlaken
After nearly missing our connection in JFK due to some delays, we arrived in Zurich at 10:30AM and caught the 2 hour train to Interlaken. We were fortunately able to check in early to the hostel and get a bit settled before heading out to hike.
We stayed at Backpackers Villa Sonnenhof, which is where I stayed the last time I was in Interlaken and would highly recommend it. It has laundry for 4 CHF (roughly 4 USD) in the basement, extensive kitchens, included breakfasts, towels included, and 24/7 reception. There is not any soap included in the showers, so you’ll have to bring your own (we picked up some extra shower gel at one of the many Coop markets in Interlaken). Last time I stayed here I was in a shared room but this time we did a 2 person private room (just 10 CHF more per night) and it was LOVELY and included a mirror and sink in the room.
After getting settled, we did the 3 hour, 5 mile, 2380 ft elevation (round trip) hike up to Harder Kulm (which starts by the Interlaken Ost station) and grabbed few drinks at the top. I didn’t drink much in restaurants while I was here last but it was cheaper than I remembered and beers anywhere were usually between 5-7 CHF (5-7 USD). The hike is a difficult one and you don’t get much of a view until you reach the top, but it is spectacular. You can take the funicular up as well, but that’s not 100% included with the Swiss Travel Pass.
Day 2: Hiking Klein Scheidegg in the Bernese Oberland
The forecast for our trip had rain for all but the first few days, so we ended up front loading all of our hiking (we did ultimately get a bit lucky and do a lot of sunny weather chasing for the rest of our trip). Because of this, our first full day in Switzerland was hike #2, which my boyfriend said was his favorite our of all of our hikes.
The hike to Klein Scheidegg starts in Grindelwald near the Grindelwald Grund station (a 30 min train ride from Interlaken – make sure to pick the right station or you’ll just be wandering around Grindelwald for a while trying to find the trailhead) and ends in Wengen (also a 30 min train ride from Interlaken). We ended up doing an extra few miles to Lauterbrunnen to finish out the hike but the walk from Wengen to Lauterbrunnen is just steep switchbacks down a mountain with no view, so I’d recommend ending in Wengen as guide books normally recommend. All transportation to Grindelwald, Wengen, and Lauterbrunnen is covered by the Swiss Travel Pass and there is transportation up to Klein Scheidegg if you’re not looking to hike, but this is not covered by the Swiss Travel Pass.
The hike in total took us 8 hours (including a 1 hour break) and was 13 miles with 3800 ft of elevation gain, so it’s a tough one. Your main views are at Klein Scheidegg (unless you’re unfortunate and hiking on a cloudy day) but the rest of the hike is quite scenic with some flat stretches and you have a lot of walking through pastures listening to the quiet tinkling of cowbells, which is my favorite. Generally the signage along the trail is quite good and my only recommendations are taking the adventure trail route once you reach Klein Scheidegg and taking the slightly longer route closer to the cliff edge once you reach Wengeralp because otherwise you’re just walking along a kind of boring road instead of through the forest. You have several spots along the hike to stop and grab a bite or a drink, so definitely take advantage of at least one of them! Most of our hikes this trip were punctuated with a mid-hike beer or two.
Day 3: Hiking Allmendhubel in the Bernese Oberland
We took advantage of another nice day in this area to do the hike from Murren up to Allmendhubel and then down to Lauterbrunnen. I had also done this hike last time and this is probably one of my favorite hikes since it’s mostly downhill with only 500 ft of elevation gain. You get amazing payoff and views the whole day (and a lot of self-pay dairy fridges). The hike took us 6.5 hours (including a 1.5 hour break) and was 11 miles, so we were cruising with an average move speed of 2.2 mph.
The hike starts in Murren (travel up here is included in the Swiss Travel Pass and includes both a gondola lift and a cog wheel). Murren is an incredibly picturesque town far up in the alps and even if you weren’t hiking from here, I would highly recommend visiting for the views. You can travel up from Murren to Schilthorn, which I had done last time, but the travel up to this snowy mountain summit is now only 50% covered by the Swiss Travel Pass and it would have been a few hundred dollars for both of us to go up, so we passed on it.
You start the hike by following the signs from Murren up to Allmendhubel (a 30 min walk) and then come back down along the north face, which goes through an ultra beautiful mountaintop valley of Mirrenberg, which is one of my favorite views.
My favorite part of this hike is walking through Gimmelwald, which is a small town just below Murren. It has several self-serve dairy fridges where you put money in a tin for milk, cheese, sausages, and even fruit cake. I got some milk for 1 CHF and a very dense fig filled fruitcake that I nibbled on for the next few days. I also love grabbing a drink at Hotel Pension Gimmelwald, which is where you can find Schwarz Monch Schwarzbier, a super delicious Swiss black lager.
My second favorite part of the hike is walking along the Lauterbrunnen valley and 30 minutes from Lauterbrunnen you hit the last dairy fridge, which is a vending machine with goat milk products (I love the goat coffee milk).
Day 4: Exploring Lugano & Morcote
The weather forecast was grim through most of Switzerland on day 4, so we decided to make the 4 hour train ride (8 hour round trip) to Lugano. Lugano is in the Italian part of Switzerland and it really did feel when we popped out of the tunnel through the Alps as if we’d entered Italy. Lugano is in the Ticino region and one of the most prosperous cities in Switzerland. I had heard previously that if it was raining in the rest of Switzerland you could usually still find good weather in Lugano and that was certainly the case. Within the Ticino region, it seemed like Lugano was the best place to visit with Locarno being a close second. We did also consider stopping in Bellinzona (20 min by train from Lugano), which is known for 3 medieval hilltop castles but decided to pass since we had such a long train ride back.
We decided to take the lake boat to Morcote from Lugano once we got there. Morcote is 50 minutes from Lugano by boat (30 minutes by bus, once an hour) and has a lovely hillside church that dates back to the 10th century. It was voted most beautiful Swiss village of the year in 2016 (as we were reminded by everyone multiple times). It affords some really romantic views of the lake but expect to climb a lot of stairs! There is a route that seems to lead up to the castle from the church but doesn’t, so be warned! The castle is also only accessibly by appointment, so not something that’s easy to visit.
We didn’t end up going to Gandria but that was another town near Lugano we were thinking about going to. It’s a fishing village and has an olive tree path that’s supposed to be very beautiful. Gandria is also accessible from Lugano via boat and bus or is a 1-hour walk away (so very nearby).
Lugano itself was nice but didn’t have anything we really wanted to see, so we just wandered around for a while and I ended up buying shorts and a t-shirt from H&M because I had packed for cooler weather and it was hot.
Day 5: Ballenberg, Swiss Open-Air Museum
We were feeling a bit worn out by our 8 hours of train rides the day before so we stuck close to Interlaken on day 5 and took advantage of the museum pass portion of our Swiss Travel Pass to visit Ballenberg, the Swiss Open-Air Museum, which has more than 100 original Swiss buildings dating back to before the 13th century that have been moved onto the site. It took us about an hour to get to Ballenberg from Interlaken (both a train and a bus) and we spent about 6 hours at the museum, including grabbing a very tasty lunch at one of the restaurants inside the museum grounds.
The museum is divided up into different Swiss regions and they give you a helpful map to help navigate the grounds. Most of the buildings are farmhouses but there are themed areas (hair salons, hat making, apothecary) and activities (petting zoo, wood carving, rope making) with little farms and animals (including a lot of baby animals) throughout. It seemed like an amazing museum for children and we really enjoyed it!
After visiting the museum, we briefly went to Trauffer World of Experiences, which was a 10 minute walk away. We didn’t go into the exhibit but I did buy a few of the small wooden cows as presents before we headed back to Interlaken for a relaxing evening.
Day 6: Exploring Basel & Bern
The weather was OK in Bern and Basel today so we took the direct 2 hour train from Interlaken to Basel (through Bern), spent some time exploring Basel, and then took the 1 hour train to Bern.
In Basel, we walked around the Old Town area for a while (it was fine) and then ended up going to the Kunstmuseum Basel. The museum had an impressive collection including works from Degas, Dali, and Reinhardt and had an exhibition on Picasso and El Greco that explored how Picasso had been influenced by El Greco and showing some side-by-side comparisons. We ended up being a bit rushed near the end and nearly jogging through the last floor of the second building.
We took the train to Bern for the afternoon and unfortunately didn’t float down the river like I wanted to (next time we’ll bring a dry bag and do it!) but walked around the city taking in the sights. Bern continues to be my favorite city in Switzerland and just has such a modern, vibrant energy and reminds me a lot of Portland, Oregon.
We started off by going to the Menta Festival, an annual vegan festival near the main Bern train station. The festival had great food and we grabbed some pita wraps with vegan smoked salmon that were amazing. We also grabbed some beer and a mojito for me! The festival was located next to this very punk area with graffiti, skaters, and kids hanging out on old couches outside of a grungy building. I was in love.
From there, we wandered around the city, visiting the titular bears of Bern, going to the University’s botanical gardens, a rose garden, and along the river walk – before wrapping up with gelato from Gelateria Di Berna, where I grabbed the same amarena (cherry) and grapefruit flavors that I’d gotten previously. I got the small size and should have gotten a large (next time!) and the grapefruit was even better and fresher tasting than I remembered.
Day 7: Hiking Hohenweg Hohbalmen in Zermatt
This was our one guaranteed nice weather day in Zermatt, so we took advantage of it to do a long hike along the Hohenweg Hohbalmen to get some Matterhorn views! It took us 2.5 hours to take the train the Zermatt (3 legs) and the hike took us 8 hours in total (including a 1.5 hour break) and was 12 miles with 3,600 ft of elevation gain.
The trailhead is quite difficult to find at the start but you start by heading up to Hotel Edelweiss Zermatt (where you can stop and grab a drink), then up a rocky hillside next to a river, before heading to Trift where you can stop at Hotel Du Trift. This was one of my favorite stops last time as well as it’s so picturesque and everyone there was getting the apple pie/cake and the house-brewed iced tea (which contains fruit juice as well) so we grabbed those both and some beers for a nice long stop with a gorgeous view. This was one of our favorite parts of the day and even if you ended your hike here (which some folks do), it’s definitely worth the climb!
From here, you go up to Hohbalmen (a high alpine meadow) with fantastic panorama views of the mountains and then pop into a flatter part of the hike with views of the Matterhorn. This is one of my favorite parts of the hike and I can never get over how striking the mountain is.
After passing by a glacier on your right, you begin the long and somewhat bone-crunching process of climbing down off the mountain and into the valley.
We wanted to go back into Zermatt through Zmutt (a small medieval hamlet) and I was trying to replicate what I did last time but accidentally stayed on the left bank of the river instead of the right, so we added another 30 minutes of walking into the route and walked far above the dam instead of next to it. (I would recommend trying to stay on the right bank.)
We ended up leaving Zermatt shortly after getting back in but did stop at the Montbell store, which is one of the 4 Montbell stores not in Japan (apparently Montbell is a Japanese company, which I didn’t realize).
Day 8: Exploring Lucerne
My boyfriend wanted to get a dose of history in Lucerne (or Luzern, depending on whether you’re spelling it the French or German way) so we took the 2 hour train to Lucerne from Interlaken. We decided to take the boat to Vitznau (you don’t need to buy a ticket if you have the Swiss Rail Pass – you just walk onto the boat and then show your pass when they come by) and then the cogwheel up to Rigi Kulm like I did last time and didn’t add in the extra gondola portion to Weggis since that involves a little more walking and my boyfriend’s knee was acting up. This is, however, all included with the Swiss Travel Pass whatever route you take.
In total the trip from Lucerne, grabbing some lunch at one of the restaurants at the top of the mountain, and coming back Lucerne took us 5 hours, so I would plan on budgeting at least that much. The view from the top is literally mind boggling and doesn’t photograph that well since it’s so panoramic but you truly feel as if you’re at the top of the world.
When we returned to Lucerne, I walked along the city wall and climbed the towers, which affords some great views of Lucerne, and leads to the Lion of Lucerne – an impressively large monument to the Swiss Guards killed during the 1792 French Revolution carved directly into the sandstone quarry. The lion is next to the Glacier Garden of Lucerne – a rather odd museum reviewing in part the geological effects of glaciers, as well as some rather philosophical musings on the nature of man and a really trippy house of mirrors.
Day 9: Exploring Montreux – Chillon Castle & Wine Tasting
My boyfriend wanted to experience the French region of Switzerland and see some castles, so we headed to Montreux on the eastern edge of Lake Geneva. Very coincidentally, we ran into someone else from my boyfriend’s program in Ohio who was honeymooning in Switzerland and told us a harrowing story about a large hornet in their hotel room and how it’s illegal to kill hornets or bees in Switzerland and can result in thousands of francs in fines.
Montreux itself doesn’t have the most to do (though it does feel like the French Riviera – but with pebble beaches) but it is a 30 minute walk from Chillon Castle, which is touted as one of the most impressive castles in Switzerland and has entry covered by the Swiss Travel Pass.
We did a self-guided tour through Chillon Castle for several hours (and grabbed some food at the cafe just outside) and then caught the train to Lavaux Vinorama – a prime wine-tasting spot in the area.
Lavaux Vinorama is surrounded by vineyards and the view from the top of the vineyards is quite beautiful (with a walking path up). Generally, I found the price of the tasting to be a little pricey but not outrageous (ranged from 15-25 CHF for tasting 3-5 wines with light snacks).
Day 10: Exploring Zurich
Day 10, we packed up our suitcases in Interlaken and headed to the Zurich Youth Hostel just outside the city center where we were to spend our last night in Zurich before flying out.
I’d highly recommend this hostel if you’re looking for a place to stay in Zurich. The breakfast is great with lots of food options and included fancy coffees from the machine, towels are included, and the inside is quite modern compared to the plain exterior of the building. We again got a private 2 person room for just 10 CHF more per night and they actually gave us a private 4 person room with an attached bathroom and shower, which was pure luxury.
After dropping our bags in the 5 CHF deposit lockers, we grabbed a late lunch of raclette at Raclette Factory. Raclette is an alternative to fondue where the cheese is melted and then placed on top of items like potatoes, meat, bread, or pickles.
After our late lunch, we walked around the city for a few hours, checking out the Anne Frank exhibit at the Zurich Landesmuseum (Swiss National Museum), eating a Mont Blanc, and visiting the University of Zurich Botanical Garden (which I loved) and the China Garden along the lake, which was nearby a biergarten where we grabbed a last drink before heading back to the hostel to drink our leftover wine and watch the first episode of House of the Dragon.
Conclusion
We concluded our 10 day stay with a mid-day flight out the next day that got delayed and then resulted in more sprinting through JFK with the real MVPs of the trip being Global Entry and TSA Pre Check, which allowed us to smoothly sail through the checkpoints to narrowly catch our flight back late Friday night.
I loved Switzerland in 2019 and I loved it this trip as well! I would highly recommend Switzerland to anyone who loves hiking and enjoying view of the Alps (and who is willing to spend a bit more than usual).
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