EuroTrip - 14 days Trip to Switzerland, Italy and Austria (Part 1)

Part 2
Part 3

The Eurotrip has ended and, gosh, what a splendid trip it was. 14 days trip to the serene natural beauty, magnificent historical architectures, lakes and monuments that you attach with your childhood memories passed so quickly that two weeks of vacation felt less. We visited Switzerland, Italy and Austria on our debut Europe tour. Choosing countries/cities in Europe is always difficult and the foremost thought behind our planning was to have a mix of few things. So we started off with a visit to Switzerland to see the natural snow-capped mountains, followed by visiting architectural monuments in Italy and, finally, ending the trip with visiting the musical cities in Austria. In all, I was very happy with my planning as we found that just doing one thing, such as visiting monuments, churches, etc, would become utterly boring. After seeing so many beautiful churches in Italy, I doubt if I can go and see another beautiful church which is just across the street in Paris. So, in that way we never got bored and always looked forward to what the next city has to offer.

Planning was done entirely by us which took a bit of time, lot of reading, however, it was a great experience as I read a lot about what to visit and not visit and filter out unimportant things. We visited Interlaken, Jungfraujoch (Switzerland), Rome, Florence and Venice (Italy) and Vienna, Salzburg (Austria). Wonderful experience it was. I’m helping out with our itinerary (click Read More below) and places to visit, our experience, fares to visit monuments and few tips that may help you with your planning.

Train tickets

We took a 6 days First class pass for 3 countries (valid for two months from the stamping date) in Singapore. As specified, you need to get this pass stamped at one of the railway station in one of the three countries before beginning your journey. Also, you need not reserve in advance your seats in Switzerland and Austria, but that’s not true with Italian intercity/intercountry trains. You have to necessarily reserve the tickets in advance. Our experience with first class compartments in all countries was without any issues. 

3 Days in Switzerland
Recommendations/Tips
1. Stay at least a night in Lauterbrunnen valley
2. From Zurich to Interlaken Ost, go via Lucern
3. You get 25% discount from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch if you hold a Eurail pass
4. Plan your trip towards May end, early June

I arrived in Zurich from Singapore. Spend one day in Zurich visiting the downtown area, but there is hardly anything to do in Zurich. So, felt one day was enough. Next day, we both took a train to Interlaken Ost early morning. There are two ways to go to Interlaken, one via Bern (approx 2 hours) and other via Lucern (approx 3 hours). Via Lucern, the scenery is just amazing. Passing via mountains through lakes were just breath taking. We had one hour to spend in Lucern before getting onto our next train to Interlaken, so we went out and looked at the beautiful city. We could not take ferry at Lucern to experience the beautiful lake but if you could, then do take a ferry tour. The train route to Interlaken Ost is awesome and it is just a great feeling to look out of the train window and see the natural beauty. As soon as we arrived at Interlaken Ost, we took a train to Lauterbrunnen (25% discount on ticket if you have a Eurail pass). We decided to stay at Lauterbrunnen valley as the reviews on the net were excellent and when we reached Lauterbrunnen, we were convinced that we made the right choice. In all my stays so far in different cities around the world, this stay has been the most beautiful stay. Beautiful weather, awesome scenery, noise of cowbell all the time were mesmerizing. We stayed at Crystal Hotel and had  a breath taking view of the mountain. So, I would strongly suggest to book at least a night in Lauterbrunnen and have this wonderful experience.

Our hotel manager told us that the weather at Jungfraujoch is cleared and so we should go asap. The weather changes unpredictably, so make sure that you leave only when the weather is clear. It costs a lot to go up (again 25% discount if you have a Eurail pass). Suggest you should go Lauterbrunnen-Kleine Scheidegg-Jungfrau-Kleine Scheidegg-Grindelwald-Lauterbrunnen route.

On the way up, we got down at one of the stops before reaching Kleine Scheidegg. The valley, flowers against the snow capped mountains backdrop will not disappoint you at all.

After spending nearly an hour there, we continued our journey to Kleine Scheidegg. The whole route is so awesome that I cannot explain it in words. At Kleine Scheidegg, we quickly had our lunch and took cog wheel train to Jungfraujoch. The excitement of going to the top to see the alps kept us glued on the windows all the time (though after some time, we got into a tunnel which continued till Jungfraujoch). Never mind, the views from Jungfraujoch were just awesome. And thank god, because the weather changed after 30-40 mis. It started snowing which was an awesome thing for us as we both had not seen a snowfall. It was cold, it was windy but it was absolute fun to be out throwing ice at each other and taking snaps. Aah, this memory will last with both of us. We spend 2-3 hours on the top before taking our train back to Kleine Schedegg. The journey via Grindelwald is ok, felt nothing great once we went up. So we decided not to get down at Grindelwald and explore.

Next day, we got up early and explored Lauterbrunnen valley. The valley is just so beautiful, walking trail, sound of water flowing through, church against the backdrop, most beautiful cemetry and a huge waterfall closeby. We went to the top of the waterfall as well. It is worth a visit. Around 1pm we took train down to Interlaken Ost. We had planned to go to Harder Kulm, but the weather was not great, so avoided. Our next stop was Rome and the distance by train was just too much, so we decided to go via easyjet flight from Basel. In all, we felt that we should have spent one more night in Lauterbrunnen.

Here are some details on fares (per person).

My next post will be on 5 days in Italy covering Rome, Florence and Venice.