Switzerland – One Week Snapshot

Following my college graduation, my family and I headed to Europe to explore the beautiful mountains of Switzerland for a week. We flew into Zurich, Switzerland’s main airport, where we spent one night. The following morning, more well rested, we headed to Montreux, a town right on Lake Geneva. After spending two nights by the lake, we took the train to Interlaken, located in the heart of Switzerland, surrounded by mountains. We spent two nights there and then ended the trip in Lucerne for a night before taking the train back to Zurich.

While we had the opportunity to see several different areas of Switzerland, the trip felt rushed. I would recommend spending more time in Interlaken to explore Alps instead of trying to visit four different cities in one week (or spend longer than a week in Switzerland).

Following the trip with my family, I spent two weeks backpacking in eastern Europe (post here).

DAY 1-2: FLIGHT TO SWITZERLAND

Our trip started off with an overnight flight from the U.S. to Switzerland. My family doesn’t seem to have the best luck with flights, so we ended up sprinting to our connecting flight. Unfortunately, this meant that our bags did not make it to Switzerland until a day after we did.

Once we arrived in Zurich, we took the tram from the airport to the city center close to our hotel. We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then found a fondue restaurant for dinner. Following dinner, we walked around the old part of Zurich and ended the night with gelato.

DAY 3: TRAIN TO MONTREUX

After picking up our suitcases at the airport, we took the 2.5 hour train to Montreux. Once we arrived, we dropped off our bags at the hotel and ate a quick lunch.

Chateau de Chillon

We then took Bus Line 201 10 minutes to Chateau de Chillon, a beautiful castle on the lake. We spent around an hour touring the inside of the castle and walking around the grounds before heading back to Montreux.

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and explored Montreux. We ate dinner at a new tapas restaurant before watching the gorgeous sunset over the lake.

Sunset over Lake Geneva

DAY 4: CHOCOLATE TRAIN AND GRUYERE TOUR

Exploring Gruyere

We woke up early to go on an all-day Chocolate Train Tour. The old, traditional train full of character left from Montreux at 8:57 AM. It was a beautiful ride through the countryside to get to our first stop, the Maison du Gruyere. There we took a tour of the factory (which was ok) and tasted a few types of gruyere cheese.

From there we took a bus to the town of Gruyere, a cute but touristy mountain town. We had 2.5 hours to explore on our own. We took in the picturesque views of the mountains and then spent part of our time touring the Gruyere Castle. We then had lunch at a restaurant in town before we had to move on.

Exploring Gruyere

Cailler Chocolate Factory

The next stop on our tour was Broc, where we visited the Cailler Chocolate Factory. We heard about the factory’s history and were then able to taste several types of chocolate.

Once the tour was over, we returned to Montreux. We relaxed at the hotel before getting dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant on the lake. Once again we saw a beautiful sunset before heading to bed.

DAY 5: TRAIN TO INTERLAKEN

We had an early morning in order to catch our 7:40 AM train to Interlaken. The train ride was around 2-2.5 hours. After dropping off our luggage at our hotel, we headed back to the station to meet our family friends from Italy.

St. Beatus Caves

They drove us 15 minutes to St. Beatus Caves on Lake Thun. We had lunch there while admiring the views overlooking the lake. Following lunch, we took a tour of the caves.

St. Beatus Caves

After the caves, we headed back to Interlaken. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of a racluette, where we melted our own cheese to put on our food. During dinner, we saw people in traditional clothing walk by herding cows.

DAY 6: DAY IN THE ALPS

Cable Car to Schilthorn

We woke up around 9 to head into the mountains. Our end goal was to arrive at Schilthorn. We first had to take a bus and then a train to Launterbrunnen. From there, we rode the cable car and then another train to Mürren, which had amazing views of the Alps. We were even able to see Jungfrau, considered the top of Europe.

View of the Alps from Mürren

Once in Mürren we had to walk across town to get to another cable car, which we took to Birg. From there we took a final one to Schilthorn, which is famous from one of the James Bond movies. It’s supposed to have incredible views. However, there were clouds obstructing the view when we were there. We ate lunch at Piz Gloria, the 360 degree rotating restaurant at the top. There was also a James Bond museum there.

Train to Lucerne

Once we returned to Interlaken, we took the 2 hour train to Lucerne (Luzern in German). We were exhausted so we dropped off our stuff and then had a quick dinner near the lake before going to bed.

DAY 7: EXPLORING LUCERNE

Exploring Lucerne

We spent an hour or so in the morning exploring Lucerne. We went to the Lion Monument and passed by several churches and landmarks before walking back along Lake Lucerne.

Steamboat Trip around Lake Luzern

Following breakfast, we took an hour steamboat tour of Lake Lucerne, which we picked up from one of the docks close to our hotel.

Boat Trip on Lake Lucerne

Once the steamboat tour was over we headed into town to continue exploring. We walked across the town’s famous Chapel Bridge. We then had lunch by the lake before continuing on. We walked to the Musegg Wall, which has towers you can climb up to get beautiful views of the town and lake.

We relaxed at the hotel for a few hours before having a delicious 3-hour dinner. We then sat by the lake to watch the fireworks that happened to be going on that night.

DAY 8: TRAIN TO ZURICH

We left around 11 to take the hour train back to Zurich. Since it was rainy and a Sunday, there wasn’t a lot to do in the city. We ate lunch in town and then checked out the National Museum of Switzerland before doing some shopping in the train station.

We had a nice Italian dinner before calling it a night.