Go straight to Lake Lucerne on day one, not into Zurich: the direct train from the station under the airport reaches Lucerne in about 70 minutes, the boat and funicular take you up to Bürgenstock, and you spend your first two nights in one place with a terrace, a spa and an early dinner. The first big scenic train, the Glacier Express, belongs on day five or six, not day two, because you will sleep through the Oberalp Pass if you take it before your body has caught up.
What follows is the detail: when the flights actually land, how the airport station works, what the luggage services cost, the jet-lag routine that needs no pharmacy, and which hotels I would put you in for nights one to three.
What time you really land
Most of the one-stop routes from Sydney and Melbourne put you on the ground in Zurich early in the morning, which is both the best and the hardest way to arrive. On current timetables the Swiss flight from Singapore lands at about 06:15, Qatar Airways from Doha at about 07:00 to 07:15, Singapore Airlines from Singapore at about 08:00, and the Emirates A380 from Dubai in the early afternoon, around 13:30. These shift each season, so confirm your own ticket against the Zurich Airport arrivals board. Zurich Airport also warns that passengers from outside the EU and Switzerland now register biometric data at border control, so allow longer there. Either way you will have been awake, or half awake, for around 22 hours, with a whole day in front of you. Spend it in a hotel lobby waiting for a room and you lose two days, not one. Spend it outdoors on a lake and you are mostly recovered by day three.
From the plane to the platform
The railway station is directly beneath the terminal. You clear passport control, collect your bags, follow the signs for Railway and take a lift down to the platform. There is no shuttle and no second building. Zurich Airport puts trains to Zurich main station every 10 minutes with a journey of 15 minutes.
For Lucerne you do not need the city at all. The IR 75 runs through the airport station and continues via Zurich HB and Zug to Lucerne, which on the standard timetable works out at about 70 minutes from the airport platform to Lucerne station. At some hours it requires a change at Zurich HB, so check the SBB timetable for the train you intend to take. If you are travelling on a Swiss Travel Pass, the airport train is covered from the first minute, as are the Lake Lucerne boats and the Rigi railway, so there is nothing to buy on arrival.
| From Zurich Airport station | Time | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Zurich main station (HB) | 15 min | Every 10 min |
| Lucerne, direct on the IR 75 | About 70 min | Roughly hourly, some hours via a change at HB |
| Lucerne pier to Kehrsiten-Bürgenstock by boat | Under 30 min each way | Hourly, 09:07 to 19:07 in winter |
What to do with the suitcases
Swiss first class carriages have decent luggage racks and the platforms are level, so on the arrival day keep the bags with you. The luggage services need notice and earn their keep later, between mountain hotels. The figures below are SBB's current door-to-door prices.
| SBB luggage service | Price | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Door to door, standard | CHF 50 flat rate plus CHF 12 per item | Collected day 1, delivered day 3; order by noon the day before |
| Door to door, express | CHF 50 surcharge | Collected 07:00 to 09:00, delivered 17:00 to 20:00 the same day, in listed regions only |
| Car-free resort surcharge | CHF 30 | Applies to places such as Zermatt |
| Station to station | CHF 12 per item | Drop off today, collect the day after tomorrow |
The weight limit on all of these is 23 kg per item. For the flight itself, SBB's flight luggage service at Zurich Airport is now run by a partner, Airportr, priced through their own calculator and available with Swiss and Singapore Airlines among others. It is most useful on the way home, when the bags are collected from the hotel and checked through to Sydney.
Jet lag, the practical version
The arithmetic is more useful than any remedy. Sydney and Melbourne are eight hours ahead of Switzerland during the Australian winter and the European summer, ten hours ahead during the Australian summer and the European winter, and nine for a few weeks in between while the clocks change on different dates. You are flying west, which most people find the easier direction, and an 07:00 landing in Zurich is late afternoon at home. Your body thinks the day is ending just as Switzerland's is starting.
The routine is dull and it works. Get into daylight as soon as you can and stay there; a lake is better than a museum for this, which is most of the reason I send people to Lucerne rather than Bahnhofstrasse. If you must sleep, keep it to 20 or 30 minutes and finish by mid afternoon; an hour on the bed at 14:00 turns into four and you are awake at 02:00 for a week. Eat early, around 18:30, keep it light and the wine to a glass. Go to bed when the locals do, around 21:30, and not before. Day two, the same with a mountain in it. By the third morning most people wake at a normal hour.
[PAU: add personal note on how you plan the first afternoon for arriving guests, and whether you have found a sleep-time rule that holds for the 55+ travellers you work with]
Days one to three
| Day | Where | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Airport to Bürgenstock, above Lake Lucerne | Daylight, water, a terrace, an early night |
| 2 | Bürgenstock, with the Rigi or the cliff path | A mountain at an easy pace, no packing |
| 3 | Luzern-Interlaken Express to the Victoria-Jungfrau | The first scenic train, under two hours |
| 4 to 6 | Albula line to St. Moritz, then the Glacier Express | The long trains, once you are awake enough to see them |
Day one. The IR 75 to Lucerne, then a short walk across the station square to the piers in front of the KKL concert hall. The boat to Kehrsiten-Bürgenstock is a round trip of 55 minutes, so under half an hour each way, and from the pier the Bürgenstock funicular, Switzerland's first electric cable car, delivers you to the lobby. A private car from the airport avoids the changes. Either way you are there by late morning. Lunch outside, the Alpine Spa in the afternoon, and dinner at 18:30 with the Alps going pink behind the windows. Do not plan anything else.
Day two. Stay put. The Felsenweg cliff path from the resort is a 30-minute walk along the rock face with the lake far below, the right amount of mountain for day two. If you want a summit, the Rigi is the gentle one: boat from Lucerne to Vitznau, the cogwheel railway to Rigi Kulm, lunch, and back down the same way. A Rigi day pass is CHF 84 for an adult, CHF 42 with the Half Fare Card, and free with the Swiss Travel Pass. The whole day is done sitting down.
Day three. The first train that counts, kept deliberately short. The Luzern-Interlaken Express leaves Lucerne, climbs the Brünig Pass on a cogwheel section and runs the length of Lake Brienz into Interlaken Ost in 1 hour 50 minutes, with a seat reservation optional rather than required. You arrive at the Victoria-Jungfrau for a late lunch with the Jungfrau in the window and an afternoon in the Grand Spa. By now you are sleeping properly.
On the Swiss Wellness Grand Tour the shape is slightly different, with a first night in Zurich at FIVE and two at Bürgenstock, because guests arrive at every hour and from every direction. For a morning landing from Australia I would skip the Zurich night.
Where to sleep the first nights
The hotels I use, and why each suits an arrival from the far side of the world.
| Hotel | Nights | Why for an arrival |
|---|---|---|
| Bürgenstock Resort, Lake Lucerne | 1 and 2 | The lake, the spa and the view, nothing else to do. Boat and funicular, about two hours from the aircraft door |
| FIVE Zurich | 1, if you land in the afternoon | Fifteen minutes from the airport, a short walk to the lake. Right for the Emirates arrival, when little daylight is left |
| Victoria-Jungfrau, Interlaken | 3 and 4 | The first long view of the Alps, and the Grand Spa for the afternoon |
| Schweizerhof Bern | Alternative for night 1 | Two minutes on foot from the platform. A small, flat, arcaded city, easy on tired legs |
| Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, Geneva | 1 and 2, if you fly into Geneva | The same logic as Zurich in reverse, with the lake at the door |
One tip that saves the whole first day: if your flight lands before 09:00, book the night before as well. A room that is yours at 08:30, with a shower and a bed you may use for half an hour, is worth more than any upgrade. Hotels cannot promise an early check-in otherwise.
[PAU: add personal note on early check-in at these hotels and whether you book the extra night as standard]
Where the Glacier Express belongs
The Glacier Express is eight hours, 291 bridges and 91 tunnels between Zermatt and St. Moritz, and the best of it is in the middle, through the Rhine Gorge and over the Oberalp Pass. Placed on day two it is a very expensive nap. On the Swiss Wellness Grand Tour it comes on day six, after a night in Zurich, two above Lake Lucerne and two in the Engadin, and I would not bring it forward of day five for anyone arriving from Australia.
The sequence that respects the geography, Zurich, Lake Lucerne, St. Moritz, Zermatt, Montreux, Interlaken, is set out in my Switzerland by rail guide, and the line-by-line budget for all of it is in how much a luxury train trip in Switzerland costs.
When this works best
Australians tend to come in their winter, which is the Swiss summer, and that is when this plan is at its best: the time difference is the smaller eight hours, the Lake Lucerne boats run until 23:07 and the Bürgenstock terrace is usable until bedtime. The Australian summer gives you the Swiss winter instead, ten hours and short days, which argues even more for keeping the first three days slow and low. The month-by-month guide covers the shoulder weeks between, when the hotels above are cheaper and the mountains, in my view, at their best.