Switzerland trip review

Switzerland | Mar 15 - Mar 24, 2025

Day 1
Bellevue Hotel was very nice; comfortable room with scenic view, central location, excellent breakfasts. Street noise fairly minor.
Day 2
Tour guide Celio Marquez (not sure of spelling) was charismatic and he was very interesting to talk with. Highlight of the day was Blausee, a small lake in a forest near Thun. Very clear water with many trout swimming.
Day 3
We found a good hike near the hotel, and Liam and Alan climbed about 350 m above the town for fantastic views. Wendy took a flatter walk along the river to Brienzersee. In both cases the trails and paths were very nice. It was great to have a full day unstructured. By the way there is a lovely gelateria and sandwich shop near the hotel called Bella Ciao where we had lunch – we highly recommend it!
Day 4
Ivo was a really nice tour guide. The tour itself was also good but entailed a lot of driving. We loved visiting a small family-run goat cheese factory , the village of Gruyere, and wine-tasting at a very scenic vineyard looking down on Lake Geneva. There are two things we would change however. First, the Cailler factory chocolate tour was rather disappointing. During most of it we were held captive (literally!) in a series of rooms that each described an episode from in the 1000-year (?) history of chocolate. Only at the end did we get close to any actual chocolate that we could taste, and by then we were just looking to escape (although we did appreciate being able to view a small example of a production line just before the tasting).
The second thing we would change is the large amount of driving. We first drove north at least an hour from Interlaken to Dallenwil for the cheese factory (Odermatt Käserei). We then headed first northwest and then southwest, passing Otten, Bern, and Fribourg on our way to Gruyere – a drive of about 2.5 hours. We then had another 45 minutes drive to the winery (Domaine du Daley, near Lausanne), and at the end of the day 1.75 hours back north to Bern again and southeast to Interlaken in darkness). The total driving was around 6 hours. For the future it might work better to package this differently. We would have enjoyed having more time at the hilltop village of Gruyere and the cheese factory tour might have been paired better with the Day 7 activities closer to Zurich. I think that just the southern stops could be done from Interlaken with about 4 hours driving?
Day 5
We loved the Jungfraujoch! It would have been helpful to have a bit more description in the details about what to expect at the Grindelwald Terminal. We ended up following the crowd and taking the cable car up to Eiger Glacier station to meet the cogwheel train. It worked out fine in the end.
Day 6
It was hard to leave Interlaken – we really enjoyed our stay there. Travel to Zurich went smoothly. Helmhaus Hotel was quite nice, the staff was fantastic, and they did come through with a sofa bed for Liam. The hotel is at the corner of a busy plaza which made it a bit noisy during the weekend, but the tradeoff was a great central location.
Day 7
The tour with Richard was interesting, but we would have appreciated a bit more discussion of the history around the stops we made. We did have a great conversation about comparisons between Switzerland and US governmental structure on the drive.
Day 8
The tour with Robert was fantastic, the best of our trip! He is extremely knowledgeable about the area also very charismatic and an interesting conversationalist. It was worth the tour just to meet him. The organization of the tour was also perfect, culminating in a ferry ride to Kilchberg, Lindt chocolate factory visit, and cable-car up to Felsenegg restaurant for fondue and a spectacular view. Wow!
The Lindt factory is much, much better than Cailler. Self-paced, beautiful building, ample sampling, and a view of an impressive pilot factory.
Day 9
Burgenstock spa was excellent, with spectacular views of Lucerne area. It is a little complicated getting there with all the different modes of transportation, but we were able to work it out with the instructions you gave us. Thank you for reorganizing this for a different day from what was originally planned.
Day 10
Alan’s departure went smoothly; airport transfer driver showed up as planned.
Wendy enjoyed an afternoon at the Zurich Zoo and it is very easy to get to form central Zurich.