I just did a quick switzerland stoppover and i am not writing a full tr but i wanted to give a short overview because there were a lot of thing in my planning that were annoying to figure out.
I landed in ZRH at 3:30 pm and it was very easy moving through the airport (there is no passport control for flights arriving from inside the EU), i went to the sbb desk to book a train ticket for lucerne where i was staying, they also exchange money at the going rate (or at least a better rate than the other airport changers). The trains to lucerne leave approximately every half hr with most of them requiring a pretty simple transfer in the zurich main station. When i got to lucerne train/bus station i took the bus to my hotel as i was not staying in the central area, the views from lucerne are on the lake so i chose to stay in a more secluded part with nicer views of the mountains (but not staying in lucerne caused a bit of a headache later on). The bus station is very easy to navigate with each bus having a designated station, they do leave exactly on time but they do not run so frequently for example at night they are only once an hour. I did not buy a swiss saver day pass (which is probably the best bet for someone going around for a short amount of time) rather i got the tell pass which covers the lucerne region specifically and it includes all trains buses trams and ferries but the main reason i got it is because it covers the lifts and cable cars on the mountains. The pass has a interesting fare base where it gets cheaper per day that you buy, i got 2 days which was 110 chf (although that is the winter rate the summer rate will cost 180 for the 2 day pass).
The next morning i got up early to spend the day on mt titlis which is around an hour away, but the bus schedule did not play in my favor, i missed the first bus into main lucerne causing me to wait half an hour for the second one, by that time i missed the bus going to the mountain and had to wait for the next bus which was in 20 minutes. From the bus towards the mountains you transfer to a train and by the train station there is a shuttle to the base of the mountain. I had the tell pass so i did not need to pay for the cable cars but i still needed to get the physical ticket which was very simple. On Mt Titlis there is a cable car system which takes you most of the way up the mountain but to get to the top where the views of the whole expanse of the alps are you need to take another larger rotating cable car which technically is a separate ticket but my pass covered it. One mistake i made was that the tell pass while it covers the lifts it only gives you one ride up on the larger cable car to the top, i didnt know this and i went down but when i tried going back up i got stopped at the turnstiles, so i had to buy another ticket up for 35 chf. The lifts stop at 4:30 - 5:00 depending on time of year, but if you get up before 12 it is more than enough time to see all the views and do a few activities. I personally went snowmobiling which was fun but not exhilarating, it took me 15 minutes to get bored of it. Obviously there is skiing but its not my thing, and during the winter there are other light snow activities and in the summer there is biking and a lake, however i was in between seasons and most activities were closed but it was still very enjoyable. I started going down at 4:20 even though everything officialy closes at 5, because i did not want to deal with the rush as there were a lot of tourists (mostly chinese). It does take a while to get down so 40 minutes was not so early but enough that we did not have to wait in line to get a cable car back down. The train back was the same as the way there, but i had to then get a bus back to my hotel to pick up my luggage before heading over to the airport which wasted an hour of time.
I could give more details but i dont need to waste my time explaining that the alps look very nice (if you want info on that pm me or click
here) i just wanted to go thru the basic layout and i hope this can help someone else.
