Getting to Lauterbrunnen
Best option: “PLANE & TRAIN”. We recommend flying in to Zurich airport and taking the train to Lauterbrunnen (usually only 2 changes)
Click here the website of the Swiss Train service in English.
https://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html
Only other option: “AUTO-RENTAL” Rent a car at Zurich Airport: The Swiss drive on the right, its safe and the road system is amazing. Oh and we have free parking for you. But… you really wont need a car in Switzerland, the train system is so efficient.
The Train from Zurich Airport to Hotel Oberland:
The basics:
Train from Zurich airport to Lauterbrunnen.
Change trains in Bern & Interlaken Ost (approx 2 hours total journey time)
20 minute train ride to Lauterbrunnen, or take a taxi.
The detailed info:
So lets begin. when you get through Zurich airport security, go out the airport front door and cross the street and go down the escalators to the train station (if you are lost, ask someone in uniform, there is an info kiosk as soon as you cross the street and enter the building. Almost everyone speaks some English, and we have found from experience that if you don’t ask, it is more likely you’ll get lost and miss a connection. It can be quite confusing, there's trains going everywhere (Patrick, Cyrus and Stephen got a Franc for every connection we’ve missed then we’d nearly afford another hotel!)
When you get to the train station, we recommend you consider asking for a ‘half price rail pass for the month’. Its called a “Halb-tax”.
CHF100 is the approximate cost.
CHF means Swiss francs (Confederation Helvetica Francs, a long story and we’ll fill you in over some beers and rosti).
This half-tax ticket/card gets you the return to Lauterbrunnen for half price and all the personal train rides you might consider taking during your time in Switzerland would then also be half-price.
Then with that ‘half-tax’/half-fare'/halb-tax ticket you can then buy a first-class return ticket to lauterbrunnen. It will be half price now. Make sure you say you want a half price ticket. And any future trains you take will be half-price, this is very handy.
Or you could buy a second class ticket, return to lauterbrunnen. Second class is quite nice too and will prob cost in the region of CHF150 return from Zurich to Lauterbrunnen..
(1st class is a little nicer but almost double the price, which in Switzerland means its crazy expensive, it would probably cost around CHF240 or so. If you prefer this, buy a first class ticket to lauterbrunnen. It will be half price now. Make sure you say you want a half price ticket now.)
The Journey
The German for airport is ‘Flughafen’. The other station nearby is called ‘Zurich HB’ which basically means Zurich central station
Find platform 3 in the airport train station (which will feel like an airport not a train station). It’s downstairs.
Stand there until your train departs. Make sure you get into Cabin #1. First class. Theres even a tv screen that will tell where exactly your train will stop and in which position your first class carriage will be (it’ll obviously either be at the front or the end, but these are long trains and if you go to the wrong end, you’ll maybe not make it back to the other end before it departs)
Dont get into carriage 2. unless you bought a second-class ticket, which is a lot cheaper but the carriages are nice but usually packed, nothing wrong with that of course, up to you (its your vacation)
The Swiss are very punctual. The ultimate destination of the train you are on could be ‘Brig’ or maybe ‘Geneva’ but you will get off at Bern (the beautiful capital city) and take the train to ‘Interlaken Ost’. Its likely that you will arrive on platform 5 and will change to platform 4.
NOTE: These platforms numbers are subject to change.
Urgent: You usually have around 4 minutes to find Bern platform 4. If the platform number has changed then you may have to go up the escalators and then down nearby escalators to the proper platform number.
Ask someone in uniform! Don’t guess!!
The train staff in uniform are usually not overly friendly, but they’re efficient, and hey you’re not there to make friends, you’re there to get to the Swiss Bliss! Achtung…
Then your train departs for Interlaken OST (OST means east). Disembark there.
Urgent: Do not stay on the train and go to Interlaken WEST or do NOT get off at Interlaken WEST. Zat vil be ze gross problem fur zu. :)
You are nearly ‘home’ now!
Hop on the next train to Lauterbrunnen (20 minute journey). Sit back and gaze in awe at the glorious scenery you are about to have the pleasure of experiencing!
Usually the train departs from platform 2A to laurerbrunnen.
If everything goes pear-shaped, then dont panic. There’ll always be another train in 30 minutes or so, and in a worse-case scenario you can hop onto a taxi and go to lauterbrunnen in 20 minutes but for a whopping chf50 approx.
You arrive in the very cute Laurerbrunnen Train station (Lauterbrunnen Bahnhof). Its a 10 minute walk up the street to Hotel Oberland, although the scenery is so out-of-this-world amazing that it will probably take you 20 minutes. Or maybe ‘McWaMo’ can collect you.
WILLKOMMEN - WELCOME :)