10 Day Family Switzerland & Paris

My family, comprising of my husband, and my 7 and 2 year old children, together with my mom and aunt went on a trip to Switzerland and Paris by rail. Since we were travelling with young kids and an elderly, we had to plan our trip which is safe, convenient and fun. But at the same time, we wanted to stay within a reasonable budget.

My family, comprising of my husband, and my 7 and 2 year old children, together with my mom and aunt went on a trip to Switzerland and Paris by rail. Since we were travelling with young kids and an elderly, we had to plan our trip which is safe, convenient and fun. But at the same time, we wanted to stay within a reasonable budget. The summary of our itinerary was as follows:

Day 1: Zurich to Berne, Tour Berne
Day 2: Berne to Zermatt, Eat and shop in Zermatt
Day 3: Zermatt (Matterhorn), then head straight for Interlaken
Day 4: Interlaken - Day trip to Jungfrau Mountain
Day 5: Interlaken - Day trip to Montreux via Goldenpass Scenic train
Day 6: Interlaken - Day trip to Murren, Lauterbrunnen, Spiez
Day 7: Interlaken - Berne - Paris. Paris Eiffel tower, cruise and illumination tour
Day 8: Paris - Hop-on hop-off Paris city tour
Day 9: Disneyland Paris
Day 10: Au revoir!

Day 1: Zurich - Berne

We arrived in Zurich, and headed straight for the train station. We booked the 5 day Swiss Pass. We contemplated buying the Eurail pass which covers both Switzerland and Paris but it works out to be more expensive. My travel agent whom I bought the Swiss Pass from advised us to pay extra and reserve our seats since we are travelling in a big group and with very young children. But this seat reservations gave us more of a headache in the beginning rather than helping us. You see, we had to sit in a specific carriage and specific seat, but when we saw trains passing us, the 5th carriage can be at different positions. For an 8 carriage train, and a 5 carriage train, the 5th carriage can be somewhere in the middle or at the end. And it didn't help that the Switzerland train system is so efficient and the doors open for a short while only. Also, the trains steps are very far apart which makes it difficult for the kids and also difficult to carry up huge luggage. If I were to travel to Europe again, I would carry a haversack and smaller bags.

Anyway, from Zurich, we headed for Berne. We stayed at the Hotel Continental Berne which was a 10 minute walk from the train station. So we thought we can save on the taxi ride. But alas a 10 minute walk with heavy luggage, and uphill with kids and an elderly felt like a half hour exercise.

After having lunch, we strolled through Berne. Berne is one of the few remaining medieval cities in the world. We saw the famous clock tower and bears.

Day 2: Heading for Zermatt. After checking out of the hotel, we decided to skip walking back to the train station and took a cab instead. The 5 min cab ride cost us about 15 Euro X 2 cabs!! We took the train from Bern to Brig, and then changed to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn train. It was a scenic ride from Brig to Zermat.

We arrived in Zermatt and walked 10 minutes to our accommodation. We stayed in a 2-bedroom apartment in Zermat called Haus La Perle which had a kitchenette and enough beds for all 6 of us. We didn't expect it to snow in June, but it did. For the evening, we headed out and did some shopping for Swiss watches, and Swiss army knife. Zermatt is a car-free area as part of its effort to protect itself from the environment. Transportation was limited to electric vans.

Day 3: Matterhorn

It snowed all night, and by morning, everything was capped with snow. It was beautiful! We checked out, left our bags at the train station locker and headed for the Matterhorn, the famous mountain found on the Toblerone chocolate.

There are a few train routes, but its opening depends on the weather. On the day that we were there, 3 routes were opened. We could have gone right to the peak of Matterhorn, called Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, but if we had done that, then we would not get to take the picture of the Matterhorn. So we went to Gornegrat instead. Up the Gornegrat station there was a cafe and a souvenir shop.

After Gornegrat, we went up another route to Sunnegga Paradise. This ride was different. We went up a funicular which cuts thgouth the mountain. It went really fast. So the kids enjoyed the rides. Sunnega Paradise was supposed to have a kids area with animals to see, i.e. according to the website. But we didn't see any animals. But given there were not many people there, my kids get to play with the snow without much interruptions. And we got great views without other people in our photos.

We departed Zermatt around 4.30pm and took the train back to Brig. We then changed to the normal fast train from Brig to Spiez and then changed again to Interlaken West. We arrived Interlaken at 7.58pm. Changing trains with luggages and kids was not very convenient. If we were to do this trip again, I would stay at Interlaken, keep our luggages there and bring a smaller overnight bag to Zermatt.

Day 4: Interlaken - Day trip to Jungfrau Mountain

We stayed at Rugenpark B&B which is walking distance to the train station, decent and reasonably priced. The only bad thing was we had to climb up the stairs to our bedroom.

After breakfast, we had to take 3 tains to go to the top of Jungfrau. The mountain views were breathtaking! Up Jungfrau, there's a couple of things to do such as taking pictures at the Jungfrau peak, visiting the Ice Palace, snow sliding and simply playing with snow. We missed the snow sliding as it closed early. Should have done that first. There were a couple of places to eat. We went to the second cheapest eating outlet (cheapeast being standing up and eating cup noodles). The plain ravioli was around US$20. The fries was US$7.

Day 5: Interlaken - Day trip to Montreux

We took the Golden Pass Panoramic train from Interlaken. This train traverses mountains and the countryside and brought us from the german-speaking side to the frech-speaking side i.e. Montreux. After the previous day's Jungfrau mountain ride, this ride pales in comparison. The ride was almost four hours long and we had to change train at Zweisimmen.

Upon arrival in Montreux, we took a short bus ride to Cheteau de Chillon (Chillon castle). It was our first real castle visit (not including the castle at Disneyland). Nothing really exciting, especially for the kids. The only thing I remember most about Montreux was the freshly made crepes with banana and chocolate sauce. Yummy!

From the castle, we took a bus back to Montreux and then took a cruise on Lake Geneva to Lausanne. Upon arrival to Lausanne, we had to quickly make our way to the train station to catch the train back to Interlaken.

In the evening, we did our souvenir shopping in Interlaken. We found out later that the souvenirs in Interlaken were more expensive than those found in Lauterbrunnen.

Day 6: Interlaken - Day trip to Murren

On our last day in Switzerland, we decided to go up the Swiss Alps again, but instead of going to the top, we went to somewhere in the middle i.e. Murren. This will allow us to see all the mountains and have beautiful photographs with greenery below and snowcapped mountains above. To go up Murren, we had to take a cable car ride and then take a train. Again, another fun thing for the kids. There's really not much touristy thing up in Murren, but I enjoyed this place the most because of its tranquility, crip and cool fresh air, abundant flowers amidst the greenery and against the beautiful backdrop of the snow-capped mountains. There was a playground where we just hung around and enjoyed the breathtaking view.

Day 7: Interlaken - Paris

We bid farewell to Switzerland early in the morning as we took a train from Interlaken to Berne and took the Bullet train from Berne to Paris. It took less than 5 hours to get to Paris. We arrived at Gare De Lyon at around 1.

We stayed at a hotel near Montparnasse station. This station is a train hub, so we can go to many places quite easily by train from our hotel.

After a short rest, we took the train to Trocaderro. This is the place to go if you want to get a good view of the Eiffel tower. After that, we strolled down towards the Eiffel tower.

We took a cruise down River Seine. The scenery on the evening cruise was beautiful with Eiffel tower twinkling, Notre Dame and other buildings illuminating. But there were plenty of kids on school trips who made so much noise, they spoilt the whole cruise. After the cruise, we took a Paris Illumination tour to see the Paris lights at night. As we were unfamiliar with the roads and with young kids, we thought it is safer to take a tour that sent us right back to our hotel. Unfortunately, because we started the day very early, departing from Switzerland, and because it was June and the sun did not set til 9pm, we were so sleepy during the whole Illumination tour.