Hi,

Need a suggestion for Grandpa - he's coming next week but we only have one full day for sightseeing.

I have done heaps of looking and have the following ideas. (see below)

My main concern now is spending too much time sitting in a train - he's a pilot so he will have done Sydney-Singapore-Frankfurt, then four hours on train to get to Zurich (although he did say he would be sleeping on his train trip)...

On the other hand, he's used to long travel in a small cockpit, so probably doesn't mind it so much

I have:

Round trip

Mt Rigi

Train Zurich-Luzernm Boat - Vitznau - Rigi - Fenicular to top - train down the other side Kaltbad - cable car Weggis - boat return ?

OR
Zurich - ArthGoldau - Cisalpino train - Rigibahn Krabel, Caplecar rigi schiedegg, cogwheel Vitznau - Boat Luzern - do you think we can really do this in a day ?

OR
Zurich - Bern - Interlaken - Brienz - BrienzRothorn - Rothorn Sorenberg - Sorenberg Rothornbahn - Postal car Schupfheim, Luzern, Zurich
or the other direction ?

OR
someone recommended Hoch-Ybrig because it's easy to get to and there's a decent cablecar and possibly snow at the top ?

(personally I hate cablecars so prefer train/funicular)...

OR
I also looked at the Brienz openair museum - Zurich-Interlaken- Geissbach falls, steamboat and funiculuar. Brienz Rothorn (steam train and cable car)

Any other suggestions - my problem is the three kids - so whereas I can rely on adults managing getting home late at night, the kids may not cope so well - then again, they may well sleep on the train all the way home - just trying to decide how far we want to go for our 'day' trip!

Any other suggestions - basically I want a day trip with train and a few other types of transport, a mountain would be good, and something cultural.

Thanks everyone!

I recommend:

We do this every time we have visitors. Saturdays there are steam trains on the Rigi. Nice to see but they take ages to climb the mountain and you need to reserve in advance. Take a paddlesteamer too - these are listed in the timetable.

In the summer we get off the boat at the Luzern Badi.

We did this last time with 5 kids - no problems. The Rigi has snow now too :-)

How long does it take - where do you start from ?

I am also looking at the Ballenberg open air museum - but only if the weather is good...

We start from Zug on the 9:30 or 10:30 train. You get up on the Rigi by lunch time, eat, take a walk to the telecoms tower. Leaving around 2:15 or 2:45 to come down. The walk from the cabel car to the boat is quite far, but taking the train all the way gives you a longer boat ride and a 1 minute walk.

The timetable for the Rigi Train is on the Rigi website. The Boats I think too, or look up the Vierwaldstättersee timetable on www.lakelucerne.ch

For halbtax holders it is about CHF 43 and without around CHF 83. Cheaper than Pilatus and you get a CHF 10 lunch voucher included by Railaway.

Great! Thanks!

Enjoy! Everyone we take enjoys it and it is good value for money.

I've got a family of 4 coming out at the end of the month (children are grown up) I looked on the CFF site and see that that trip is CHF168 each, I don't think they will fork out 680 francs for that.!

I think the 83 fare is because most of the transport used is included in an SBB travel pass.

I looked it up on SBB and got a similar price - Zurich / ArthGoldau / RigiKulm/Luzern/Zurich - round trip.

Not sure if it costs extra for the cablecar ?

Anyone ?

Could be wrong but if I remember correctly the Rigi funicular train is private and you have to pay separate tickets before you get on.. I remember because we got a shock at how expensive it was.. check it out though as it's beena few years since we were there.

This would be my favourite. Brienz - Rothorn is a better journey tavelling up as the train has to work hard for a living. It is best to travel on the steam train rather than the newer diesels for the best effect.

Rod

The prices I quoted in the previous post are for a Railaway deal from Zug.

The cable car option will be cheaper because the train and boat ride trip are both shorter.

http://www.railaway.ch/deutsch/monats-hit/rigi/

Great ! Thankyou!

I am planning to take my 'itinerary' to our friendly SBB office (Bahnhof Stadelhofen) as they seem to know us already (two Aussies with three kids in tow, people "recognise" us pretty fast!

Will do and see what special deals I can get!

Swisspea

Great - and thanks for the link - the German 'offer' is not what appears in the 'English' version - they still have the English version on a deal that is dated from 1 April - 30 November AND is only 10% off rather than 30% off!

Am Even more Impressed NOW!

German prices are 44.20 half, 79.00 full...

Excellent.

Might make a separate post on the forum pointing out that the deals are different and to not 'trust' the english version!

I never trust the English version of Swiss websites to be the same as what is in the local language. So many times, even the banking sites, don't have all the content in English. One example recently was the Transport Museum didn't have their open day where it is free advertised in English nor their special for their 2008/09 members card.

Hi,

Well, despite the nasty windy cloudy weather we went and had a fine time...

The weather cleared after lunch so we could see the lakes from the top, and the trip back down and across the lake to Luzern was lovely.

We now have an 'idea' of how far it is to Zug, and to Luzern from Zurich - I think Luzern will be our next trip out of town...

It was ok to go up Rigi in the nasty weather - you really don't have to be outside - there are heated waiting areas with food and toilets at each train stop...and the trains etc are all heated.

They also gave us a 10chf voucher x 5 for all of us - the kids included - which paid for half our lunch at the Rigi Kulm Hotel cafeteria, and that made the whole day feel great...

The kids are keen to go back when the snow comes...