Hello All - My wife and I are spending a week in Greece and 5 days in Switzerland for our honeymoon and would love some tips on the Swiss portion. We are flying into Milan and heading north from there, leaving from Zurich 5 days later.

We are looking for the quintessential Swiss experience, relaxing hikes, hot tub with mountain views, thermal pools. I've read good things about the lauterbrunnen area.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated, incliding romantic places to stay!

Thanks!
-Ryan

And the subject is......"Honeymoon Tips"......

Gentlemen - start your engines ...........

Fit bride, to overweight groom, after the honeymoon night:

- "Thanks for the tip" -

Haha ... should I have said Honeymoon travel tips...

1. Leukerbad is a great Spa place - try the Lindnerhotel
2. Gstaad if you want some glitzy luxury, Zermatt too (both better in Snow, but still nice)
3. I live near Lauterbrunnen, but don't especially like it to stay in.....Wengen and Mürren are carfree places clinging to the side of the Lauterbrunnen valley, much nicer to stay in.
4. Graubunden area is worth a visit too - Arosa is nice with a couple of very special hotels.

All these places are small, but mountainous, good for walking, spas etc

Congratulations and PM me if you want more details about the Oberland / Interlaken areas

I highly recommend Hotel Belvedere: http://www.belvedere-grindelwald.ch/en/hotel/

My husband and I went there for our first wedding anniversary and it was wonderful. Out of all of the places we have stayed at and visited, this one was the best!

Down in the Italian speaking part of CH (Ticino) there are some wonderful places but particularly enjoyed staying in Hotel Eden Roc in Ascona for our 10th wedding anniversary. But it was rather pricey ... oh and also not really your typical Swiss experience perhaps (which is what you asked for ... sorry)...

As for Zermatt (lovely suggestion Caviarchips at any time of the year) we stayed last year in a fab place called the Omnia. Should be very expensive but got it at a real cut price deal by searching online - that would definitely be my idea of a honeymoon destination.

I recommend traveling from Milano to Zurich by motorcycle, and hitting as manny passes as possible! (figure 10/day)

Tom

You're nothing but an old romantic.

This forum is the best, keep 'em coming!

I love the motorcycle idea but I'm not sure she'll be into it!

It seems a bit far to get to Zermatt from Milan ... am I correct in saying it's a 7 hour train ride?

Yes, I believe it would have been wiser!

Well, first time I met my girlfriend, was to fix her moped.

Second was an afternoon ride up to Sighignola with my sidecar (currently off the road due to a cracked bike frame (second time, repairing the first frame as it's in better shape) and also a broken sidecar frame (crap British sidecar!).

Third was a road trip to a party in the middle of nowhere on my ST2 (somewhere in the hills above Calice Ligure, on a road so steep that if I used the front brake, the bike would slide backwards), with lots of strange people, and attack geese wandering around! Oh, and we stayed in a tent!

We've been together 5 years next month!

Tom

How about this!

Tom

No, a little over three hours, and only around an hour out of your way, the main train line between Milan and the mountains goes through Brig/Visp which is where the train to Zermatt leaves from

If you are close to Lauterbrunnen make sure to stop by Blausee. It's...well, a blue lake. Beautiful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blausee

THe Lauterbrunnen valley is lovely. I agree with the poster who suggested staying higher up though, in Wengen, Many of the hotels have lovely views and I can personally recommend the Baren hotel - ask for one of the rooms with a balcony - fantastic views and very romantic atmosphere. . Plenty of options for walking in the area, cable car up higher, cog train to Jungfrau etc.

I've just re read your original post and think that you could really not put a foot wrong with Hotel Edelweiss above Lake Lucerne on Mount Rigi. It is a modest (although 3 star) hotel with a very typically Swiss mountian vibe. It is perched on edge of Mount Rigi at 1650m but as luck would have it, reachable by cog wheel railway - and unlike many other supposed car free resorts (Wengen and Zermatt amongst them) this is genuinely car free. The hotel is lovely, they have a honeymoon room, with log fire. The food is delicious and all locally sourced - (go for the half board menu rather than the a la carte) and they have a wellness area with hot tub with views that are just sublime.

Best of all, the young couple who run it are charming. It is a place where you will instantly feel at home and certainly for me, quintessentially Swiss.

You reach Rigi either by rail from Arth-Goldau or from Vitznau (or by cable car from Weggis). Arth-Goldau is on the main train route through the Gottard Tunnel then on in direction Zurich/Luzern. Or you could travel via Luzern, across Lake Lucerne on a paddle steamer and connect with your train up the mountain in Vitznau.

www.edelweiss-rigi.ch

This is the view from the Cambrian hotel and spa in the Bernese Oberland (Adelboden to be exact).

Need I say more?