Thinking about traveling to Switzerland with kids? You’re making a great decision. In this blog post, you’ll find information about visiting the Swiss Alps, how to navigate the Jungfrau region, and a quick family friendly travel itinerary for the Alps and Zurich.
- Why visiting Switzerland with kids is perfection
- Why put traveling to the Swiss Alps on your family bucket list?
- Swiss Alps vacation theme views, trains, and playgrounds
- The nuts and bolts of traveling to the Swiss Alps
- What to do in the Swiss Alps with kids
- The Alpine playgrounds you don’t want to miss
- Attractions to see in the Swiss Alps
- How to get from the Juanfrau region to Zurich
- A quick itinerary for Zurich with kids
- Download our free Swiss Alps itinerary
Why visiting Switzerland with kids is perfection
I’m not one to be overly pushy or make wild insisting remarks, but I absolutely insist you visit the Swiss Alps with kids.
And since you’ve stumbled onto this blog post, I’m guessing you are more than considering a vacation to Switzerland so I am going to do everything in my literary power to convince you that this is a must-do vacation and show you just how successful you’re going to be leading your family through the Swiss Alps.
This was the best family vacation we’ve ever taken.
This was the most relaxing family vacation we’ve ever taken.
It was the most kid-friendly, family-accessible vacation we’ve ever taken.
And we’ve done Disneyland and Hawaii. The Swiss Alps (and Switzerland in general) is made for families.
Why put traveling to the Swiss Alps on your family bucket list?
Let’s chunk off exactly why my family picked this as our big vacation for 2023. There were two big reasons (one that you can probably guess, and one that you may not have considered).
Reason 1 to visit the Swiss Alps: The Views
People. The views. You know what to expect. You’ve seen Sound of Music. It’s stunning. You are living in a post card.
And it’s not a click bait “Instagram vs. Reality” view. It’s all legit. Switzerland is exactly as you are picturing it, just 10x better and way more family friendly than you realize (I’m getting there, just give me time).
Reason 2 to visit the Swiss Alps: The Trains
Ever considered how one gets around the Swiss Alps if you’re a regular person not a mountain goat?
It’s an intricate system of trains, trams, gondolas, cable cars, funiculars (not a typo), even busses and ferries.
What do kids love? Unique transportation and vehicles. What do 40-year-olds love? Unique transportation and vehicles.
Flying down the beautiful cliffs, over valleys, up mountains, and above towns that look straight from children’s literature: It’s just mesmerizing.
The transportation system in the Swiss Alps is as big a showstopper as the views… and we haven’t even talked about alpine playgrounds yet. This is going to be a long blog post.
Swiss Alps vacation theme: views, trains, and playgrounds
I’ve been staring at my computer for absolute minutes (I know, what a struggle) trying to figure out where to go with this blog post and how to structure it.
I think I know how to walk you through our trip (hi from the 4th wall).
I want to explain to you first why you are going to love traveling to the Swiss Alps with kids, why this was the most relaxing trip we’ve taken with kids, and why we would love to go back someday.
Visiting the Swiss Alps is safe, kid-friendly, and centered around parents having as nice a vacation as people who traveled without kids. This doesn’t happen a lot where I live in the US.
Here’s a brief breakdown of what I mean by safe and family friendly:
- There’s limited access to this region except by extensive train travel. Some towns are even car free and only accessible by trains. This makes it a very safe space for children.
- Restaurants and coffee shops often have playgrounds attached to them so kids can play while parents relax. What a concept.
- Places that don’t have playgrounds are still incredibly friendly and happy to have children visit, often producing kid menus that aren’t otherwise posted and finding toys for kids to play with to make sure parents (and kids) are having a fun time.
- Alpine playgrounds in the Swiss Alps are out of this world and many big ones are only accessible by gondola or cable car, start or end a hike, and in general, make things happier and easier for families.
Never in my life did I think, “Let’s take children to the Swiss Alps to relax and have a nice getaway.” I know better now and will treasure this trip for the rest of my life. If you have ever taken your family to Disneyland or Disney World, let me level with you: this was easier, more relaxing, and cheaper.
The nuts and bolts of traveling to the Swiss Alps
Alright: let’s get down to brass tacks people. Where did we stay? How did we get there? What do you need to know before setting off on your trip of a lifetime?
How did we get to the Swiss Alps?
We came by train after spending 5 days in Paris. Charles de Gaulle International Airport is often a less expensive airport to fly into in Europe so it’s a great starting point to get you onto the continent.
We decided to make the most of our plane tickets to Europe and knock off Paris first (which was also marvelous for kids).
We took the TGV Lyria train from Paris to Switzerland. It was a great 3 hour trip. Absolutely no complaints.
You could also fly into Zurich and train to the Alps on the Luzern-Interlaken Express. That’s what we took to leave the Alps which I’ll cover at the end of this massive post (in total, we went Paris to The Alps to Zurich).
Oh and we flew Iceland Air which was fabulous.
Where did we visit?
We went to the Jungfrau region of the Swiss Alps. It was marvelous. Everything I’ll mention about the Alps is in that region.
You’ll want to have this map of the region on you at all times and memorized.
There is one catch: this map and most others of the region show the view facing South. Keep this in mind if switching between this map and Google Maps. This was hard for me (TBH) but my 10 year old handled it so don’t let my shortcomings scare you.
Where did we stay?
We stayed in a town called Wengen. Wengen is quintessential Swiss Alps. It’s also (largely) a car free town which is amazing. You can only access it by train (or a ridiculously long, steep expert, level hike) so this felt really safe for our family – especially with kids who are exploring independence (10, 8, 7 for this trip).
We stayed in this AirBnB on the main “road” in the town. I would absolutely stay here again.
Wengen is fabulous and has everything you need. It’s just the right size. Some other nearby towns are smaller with less amenities while others are more major hubs for the area with lots of busses and actual cars. Wengen was Goldilocks: just right.
What train pass did we buy?
You need a good understanding of the train system before leaving, which you’ll find on the Swiss Rail Company website and app. The app is a must have. We could not have gotten around without it.
We opted to buy Swiss Half Fare Cards for the adults. This is a little confusing, but go with me: we were taking enough trains in the surrounding areas and Zurich later that it made sense to pay a little upfront to have cheaper train tickets. Think “buys Costco membership to save money.”
This gave us half price fares for adults and came with the Swiss Family Card which allows kids 6-15 to ride free (kids under 6 are always free).
The Half Fare Card also gave us a small discount on the Jungfrau Pass, which is the other transportation pass you’ll need to use all the trains, trams, gondolas, busses, etc in the region (aka: the fun stuff).
Having the Jungfrau pass allowed us to “swipe and go” at the many, many different transportation stations we used in the region. It was gold.
My husband loved his deep dive into the train system and highly recommend you visit this train travel website to get a feel for what to expect.
What to do in the Swiss Alps with kids
We had this pretty well planned out before our arrival. We knew what we wanted to accomplish and what our goals were.
For our family, our goal was not hiking. I’m sorry, I understand how that sounds.
We live in the Pacific Northwest and to be fair, a lot of the hikes in the Alps are pretty similar to the views we have here. We are nature spoiled.
Instead, our goal was to ride as many different transportation types as possible and visit as many epic Alpine playgrounds as we could fit in. We also wanted to see some other fun touristy things in the area that we don’t have in the PNW, like cave systems.
All that to say: you’ll notice a lack of long hikes on our itinerary, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t many that are fabulous and family friendly.
The Alpine playgrounds you don’t want to miss
Remember, almost everywhere you visit in the Alps will have a playground or a very close by playground for your children to get out their energy.
Here’s a run down of our absolute favorites that will forever be burned in our memories. We will, quite literally, carry them in our hearts.
Mannlichen “Cow Playground”
This was the entire reason for our trip! My kids saw a video of this playground on Youtube (actually called the “Alpine Herdsman Playground”) and we were sold. We flew half way around the world for a playground and I have no regrets. A cow with a slide coming out its mouth. Epic ropes course. Trampolines. Outdoor bowling. Small houses for kids. A café for parents to get coffee. On top of a mountain. We went twice.
We traveled to this playground via an aerial tramway that left from Wengen.
Bort Playground
This playground was something else. It was intricate ropes and platforms. And views for days. There was a small snack area where the kids got frozen treats, and also a restaurant if you wanted more. We arrived at this playground through Grindelwald (see our free itinerary for exact routes).
My husband opted to ride a trottibike from this playground downhill and take the gondola back up. He had a ball, but doesn’t recommend this for kids. I was happy to sittervise, give him that fun, and let the kids play instead.
Grindelwald Playground on Drosfrasse
Grindelwald is a main town in this region – there’s a bus and train terminal. It gets “busy” relative to the car free towns. This playground was epic. My daughter proclaimed it her favorite ever, regardless of the trip. We visited this playground often since our travel brought us back and forth to Grindelwald a few times.
We had a fun family picnic here our last day. I grabbed sandwiches and snacks from the grocery store Co-Op next door. It was a lovely little lunch.
Winteregg
This “town” is (more or less) just a train stop and a restaurant on the way to Murren (another car free town). The restaurant is fantastic and the playground with it was amazing. We hopped off the train on the way to and from Murren just to play here.
Flower Playground
From Murren, we took a funicular up to Allmendhubel and the Flower Playground. This funicular is not part of the Jungfrau pass and needed half fare tickets for adults. The playground has a marmot periscope accessible through underground tunnel. Repeat: a marmot periscope for kids to access via underground tunnels beneath the playground. When I say these Alpine playgrounds are epic, I’m not exaggerating.
Fun pro tip: The flower part of this park is a water maze. Don’t make our mistake, send a child in, and then touch the red button wondering what it does … he dried.
Treetop Path at Holenstein
his is a new playground and there isn’t much on the ol’ Internet about it yet. Absolutely a stand out. The zip line was epic and the structures to run and climb on in the trees were unreal.
This is a accessible two way: either via gondola from Grindelwald or Mannelichen or a 90 minute downhill walk from the “cow playground.” The walk is family-friendly, specially designed for kids, with a fun scavenger hunt. We didn’t have time to take this 90-minute walk so we hopped on the gondola from Mannelichen, then continued on to Grindelwald.
Attractions to see in the Swiss Alps
There was more than just playgrounds in the Swiss Alps, although I won’t lie: they were showstoppers and made every moment better.
But in addition to playground hopping, here are some other things we did in the Jungfrau reason (and there are many, many more things we didn’t have time to do).
Panorama Trail
This is a great 3-mile all flat hike from Mannlichen (the cow playground) to Kleine Scheidegg (which gets you to the train you’d take if you want to go to the Top of Europe attraction). We didn’t want to do that, but wanted to get as close as we could for free and then took the most an amazing gondola down to Grindelwald.
At the end of this hike, we ate at Gindelwalkdblick and it was (without question) the best meal of our trip. Also, there’s a small playground there for kids, because why wouldn’t there be.
Glacier Canyon Grindelwald
It took 250 million years for this canyon to form and it’s amazing. It’s a .5 mile walk through the canyon and tunnels, waterfalls and rapids abound. The coolest part is a spider web connected to the rock allowing you to walk over the rapids.
I did not participate in this but my family said it was amazing.
Truemmelbach Waterfalls
This was amazing – you take a funicular into a mountain and then wind your way back down seeing 10 waterfalls that formed inside the mountain. It’s pretty incredible. I don’t have great pictures from the in-mountain waterfalls, but take my word for it. It’s a must do. Note: they do not allow children under 4 at this attraction for safety reasons.
St. Beatus Caves
The legend is that St. Beatus slayed a dragon living in these caves. Today, you can walk through this incredible cave system and see stalagmites, stalactites, ponds, and waterfalls. It’s a 1 mile out and then back, all in the caves (about 90 minutes). I have pretty staggering claustrophobia but I was able to handle this and recommend it for others.
Note: Take the bus to this spot (and back) from Interlaken. It’s free with your train pass. We took the ferry which was very cool, but was too big a walk from dock to caves on a not-great road which we didn’t know until we found out (so don’t make our mistake).
Kugelbahn in Wengen
One of the many reasons to stay in Wengen is the elaborate kugelbahn marble runs set up around town for kids. Each ball costs 4-Swiss Francs and kids can play unlimited for the vacation and take the balls home with. They will love running around town looking for the each of the 10 stations. Our kids played this for 5 days straight and have dreams of creating runs for their friends here at home.
Even if you aren’t staying in Wengen, if you find yourself passing through, it would be worth buying even just one ball from the Wengen tourism office to play.
How to get from the Juanfrau region to Zurich
To get ourselves back home, we decided to break up the long travel with a few days in Zurich.
It’s about a 3-hour train ride from the Jungfrau region to Zurich. We didn’t want to go right from that into the 12-hour flight home.
We took the scenic train from Interlaken to Lucern on the Lucern-Interlaken Express. Make sure to book the right-hand side for the best views (select seats on the bottom side of the seat map).
It’s a little confusing because the train reverses direction in Meiringen. The right side becomes the left side but the best views are still out that side. Trust me on this one.
A quick itinerary for Zurich with kids
We did 3 days in Zurich before heading home, but I definitely think 2 would have been plenty. After all the nature and freedom of the Alps, being in a city was hard for all of us. We missed the Alpine playgrounds. We missed the cow bells in the distance. We missed the views.
Here are some of the favorites from our quick visit here:
The Zurich Zoo
We have a habit of visiting zoos in other cities. It’s a place to visit that our kids know and can count on. There’s no mystery. They know what to expect. This was fantastic zoo – and big! Great playgrounds and exhibits (although I missed the porcupine feeding time and am still upset about that).
Lindt Chocolate Factory
10/10 on this attraction. First of all, it’s a great museum. They do an awesome job with an audio tour available in tons of language and we all learned a lot about the history of chocolate, then we got to the unlimited chocolate tasting room and lived our Willy Wonka fantasies. I’m not kidding. Unlimited chocolate tasting room. And then on the way out, more free samples.
Old Town Zurich
With kids, you need about half a day to do Fraumunster and Grossmunster, wander the old buildings, maybe ride a carousel. We recommend taking the water taxi up the Limmat river to walk along Lake Zurich (this is included in your Swiss train pass).
Lenzburg Castle
This castle is a fast 40 minutes from the city by train (of course) and I really recommend it. It was the best castle turned museum I’ve seen. Each level of the castle is staged as it was that century, so kids get a very real understanding of life in a castle in the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. They were able to pick up the nuances, differences, inventions, and changes.
There’s also two sizable kids play areas here. One is set up with wood working and sewing, knight costumes, and other hands-on objects. The other is like a children’s museum but make it the top floor of a castle.
I am so glad we stumbled onto this castle because the day trip was perfect to end our vacation with and the surrounding town was idyllic. If you find yourself in Zurich, kids or no kids, take a train out to Lenzburg.
Download our free Swiss Alps itinerary
I know (oh boy do I know) how confusing it can get trying to map out this vacation.
To make it as easy on your as possible, download our itinerary (it’s free) as you start planning for what will and won’t work for your family.
There is so much to do in this region – we didn’t even scratch the surface. Make sure to keep up on your research to find all the perfect ways to visit the Swiss Alps with your family.
Make sure to check out Swiss Family Fun. This is a great website dedicated to family fun in Switzerland. We found it super helpful for planning our trip.
We were in the Swiss Alps the last week of September. It was in the 60s and sunny for our trip. We really lucked out.
We spent 4.5 days in Paris, 4.5 in the Alps, and 2.5 days in Zurich: we were gone for 12 days which was the longest vacation our family has taken.
We really appreciated the blog Swiss Family Fun. It’s full of great information on Switzerland, not just the Jungfrau region and Zurich.
Subscribe to my free newsletter and I’ll send you “35 Easy Toddler Activities to Break Up the Day!”
Rebecca says
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS DETAILED POST! I’m planning a family trip to Switzerland this summer. Your post was SO helpful, and also made me confident and extra excited in our choice of destination!
Ellina says
This is so great, thank you!! Did you have to change trains at all on the way to Zurich?
Kaylin Barr says
This has been SOOOO helpful in the planning of our Paris/Swtizerland trip. I’m curious if you’ve every written a post for your Paris part of this vacation? I would be interested in what your family did. Thank you!
KC says
We are just wrapping up our week in the Jungfrau region and loved our time here with our 2 & 4 year olds! We ended up doing the half fare card and Berner Oberland pass instead of the Jungfrau since we were staying in Speiz and the Berner Oberland are basically the same, but Berner Oberland covers a bigger area.
We loved all of the mountain playgrounds and various modes of transportation. A few things we did in addition to your itinerary since we had more time was the brienz rothorn bahn open air steam cogwheel train (covered by the Berner pass) and boats on Lake Brienz and Lake Thun. The boats we made sure to take the older boats that had the bear on the timetable because they had wonderful play rooms in the lower area of the boats. The play rooms were even manned by an employee and you could sign your children in to play while the adults got to enjoy the boat ride on the deck.
Also I met another busy toddler mom at the playground in Bort!
It was such a fun trip! Highly recommend the Swiss alps for families!
Hannah says
Hi Susie! Your trip looks amazing and actually just convinced us to go to visit Switzerland! We are going to be in Paris at the end of the month. I’m so unfamiliar with where everything is -we just want to do the Swiss Alps for a 2-3 days before we head back to Paris – where exactly do we take the bullet train to in and can we stay in one place to visit the playgrounds, waterfalls, and caves?
Dahlia says
I cannot express how extraordinary and helpful this blog post and itinerary are! Thank you so, so much for putting this together for future families to use. I am planning a trip here in one month with my almost three year old and we are so excited!
Lydia says
Hi, with the Jungfrau pass did you also have to purchase a pass for the kids or are they free with the Swiss family card (that comes with the half fare card as you mentioned) Thank you!
Tom says
Did you travel with car seats? It seems like you barely ever need a car, but is it never? Thanks for all of this information!!
Susie says
We were never in a car for this trip so no, no car seats needed. We were entirely on trains, planes, busses, and boats!
natalie says
hi, I have been inspired by your trip to Switzerland, i am trying to put together a plan for our family for next year and I am trying to work out the trains. What station did you travel too from Paris? was it direct? any help would be greatly appreciated, 🙂 natalie
Brittany says
When you took the Lyria train from Paris to Switzerland did you take it to Geneva or all the way to Interlaken? I’m curious because to Geneva is 3 hours but Interlaken is 6.5. If so did you stop off in Geneva and how did you end up traveling to Jungfrau from there?
Susie says
Hey Brittany – We didn’t do the Geneva route, and saved about an hour. We did Paris to Dijon and transferred to a train to Basal > Bern > Interlaken. It was 5h30 minutes. It was broken up into 3-4 trains and was the most pleasant full travel day. It’s not like a long day of airport travel, which was my only frame of reference for a day like that. I was dreading it but it was fantastic! It’s very different, easier, calmer than I expected.
Brittany says
Thank you so much! I was trying to map it out and was getting a little lost. I’m so thankful for your post. Not that travel blogging is your gig but it has been so helpful to have something with little kids in mind! Any chance you’re going to do a post on your Paris activities? I have 4 kids under 9 so I’m also researching some family friendly things to after a long travel day from the PNW as well! Thanks again!
Susie says
I’m working on it Brittany!!! Promise!
Imm says
For families with little kids, some of the long distance trains in Switzerland (e.g. in and out of Interlaken, also have a family carriage with a small play area/slide etc). You can find them in the online schedule with a teddy bear symbol.
Susie says
Thank you so much for adding this!
Christine says
Hi there! Thanks for the amazing information! Would you mind sharing where you stayed in Paris and Zurich? Definitely considering a trip much like yours, with the potential of a few days in Lucerne on the way to Zurich. Thanks!
Susie says
We did an AirBnb in Paris up in the 17th arrondissement across from Parc Monceau. It was perfect. In Zurich, we stayed in EMA House (a hotel). We found it harder to find space for a family of 5 (no real VRBO or AirBnB options) but EMA House was great and I would absolutely stay there again.
Julia at Home on 129 Acres says
Thanks so much for posting this. I’ve been waiting for this since you shared the trip on IG. It looks amazing. I took my first international trip with my 5yo this fall to Ireland. We had a great experience, and it gave me so much confidence in travelling with her. My MIL’s family is Swiss, so I’d love to take our daughter to Switzerland to see family and experience these epic playgrounds. The activities you describe are all things she would love. Thank you for sharing so many helpful details.
Susie says
I’m so glad this can help! Ireland is high on our list so send me your recs 🙂
Eileen says
Looks and sounds beautiful! I so enjoyed your stories back in September, love that it’s blog post now too!
My kids (and I!) would love this but affordability was making me hesitate. But I was excited to read that this costs less than Disney World. I’ve taken my kids twice, it’s around $5000 for us to go there (flights, park tickets, resort, meals, lightning lanes, etc.). Super pumped that Switzerland costs less than that- is it too nosy to request a cost breakdown, if possible? Thank you in advance!
Susie says
Not too nosy – it’s just subjective and varies a ton based on time of year. Our plane tickets in non-peak travel season (September) from Seattle were $650ish but that’s less than half of a summer plane ticket. Lodging cost was equal to what we see at Disneyland (we are west coast people) and the train tickets were less than a park entrance ticket. What was most shocking was the food pricing differences. Our family of 5 visited a bakery each morning. It was $12-17 for breakfast. Total. Our favorite lunch was 3 kid meals, 2 adult meals, 1 coke and extra fries for $70 (so much less than a meal in the parks). Hope this helps!!!!