In November 2019, I took an impromptu five day trip to Zurich. Zurich is not the most interesting city for tourists, so I planned to use Zurich as a base and take day trips to see as much as I could during my short time. On one day, I took a tour from Zurich to the Jungfraujoch, which is the highest train station in Europe and is sometimes referred to as “The Top of Europe”.
This is a very long day trip, with most of it being spent on transportation. I knew that going into it, but I don’t think it quite set in how long it would really be until I did the day trip. Thankfully, I enjoy scenic drives and my entire goal for this trip was to have a little time in the Alps, even if I knew this would be very short.
Should You Take a Tour?
I normally opt to do things on my own. It’s just what I prefer. However, this was different and I chose to book a tour. If you’re not starting in Zurich, I think that going on your own is a lot more feasible. But if you’re trying to tour Jungfraujoch from Zurich, there’s a lot of transportation and logistics required.
If you do it on your own and one train is late, that can mess up your whole day. With a tour, they were going to take care of it. So for me it came down to simplicity. I booked the tour.
What Does Your Day Look Like
Obviously the day can vary slightly, but here’s what my day tour from Zurich to the Jungfraujoch looked like.
Zurich to Interlaken via Lucerne
My day started when I boarded my bus in Zurich at 7:45. Promptly at 8:00, we departed. Our first stop was brief and was just to pick up more passengers in Lucerne. Those of us who started in Zurich (which was most of us) didn’t even get a chance to get off the bus. After this brief stop, our tour actually started as our guide gave us more information about Switzerland.
The first major stop is Interlaken and is about two hours into the journey. In Interlaken we got a little time to wander and explore. It wasn’t a lot, coming in at just less than an hour, but it was enough to get out, stretch my legs, and get some nice initial photos of the scenery.
The morning started out cloudy and rainy so unfortunately my photos didn’t come out as perfect as I would like, but the weather improved as the day went on so I can’t complain too much. Since I was here right at the end of November, I got some color in the tree leaves which really added to the scenery.
Travel Time Zurich to Interlaken: 2 Hours
Interlaken to Grindelwald
In Interlaken we picked up a few more passengers before continuing on to Grindelwald. From Interlaken, it’s another half hour bus ride to Grindelwald. Our guide continued giving us bits of information about Switzerland, but I’ll be honest. I was paying more attention to the scenery than I was to our guide.
Travel Time Interlaken to Grindelwald: 30 minutes
Total Travel Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg
At Grindelwald, we switched transportation and boarded a train to Kleine Scheidegg. Our guide tried to keep us together, but the group was very large. I wasn’t too bothered by it though since as long as I knew where my guide was, that was good enough. The skies were clearing and we were really getting into the Alps now. This was the scenery I wanted!
If you’re here in the winter, expect to share your train with a lot of skiers.
Travel Time Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg: 25 minutes
Total Travel Time: 2 hours 55 minutes
Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch
At Kleine Scheidegg, the skiers exit to enjoy their day of skiing. For those going to the Jungfraujoch, you will transfer to a cogwheel train for the final journey up to the Jungfraujoch. After a long journey from Zurich to Jungfraujoch, it’s exciting to to know you’re almost at your main tour destination.
The journey itself isn’t really scenic because you’re in tunnels for most of the time. However, once you get to the top, you’re up in the Alps surrounded by snow and mountain peaks. And good news for me, by the time we reached the top, the skies were completely clear!
Once we finally arrived, we had two hours of free time to explore. This is plenty of time to hit the main sites and take in the atmosphere. In summer, you may want a little more time since more of the walking paths are open. If you visit in winter, two hours is sufficient.
Travel Time Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch: 35 mintes
Total Travel Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Jungfraujoch Exploration
Now that we finally made it to our destination, we had some time to ourselves. So what do you do at the Jungfraujoch? The obvious answer is to take in the scenery and enjoy the views. Walk through the tunnels and see the ice caves, visit the viewing platforms, and just enjoy yourself.
We had about two hours to explore, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but was plenty of time. This two hours allowed us to travel at a leisurely pace without feeling too rushed. It was also great because we had plenty of time and could visit the top things in any order we pleased. Any more than two hours would have been too much time.
Jungfraujoch to Kleine Scheidegg
The tour has to end sometime and it was time to start working our way back to Zurich from Jungfraujoch. We worked our way back down the mountain and took the same cogwheel train back down to Kleine Scheidegg.
Travel Time Jungfraujoch to Kleine Scheidegg: 25 minutes
Total Travel Time: 3 hours 55 minutes
Kleine Scheidegg to Lauterbrunnen
Instead of heading back through Grindelwald, we went to Lauterbrunnen, which gave us a bit more scenery. From here, we could actually see the Jungfraujoch from our train. Seeing it from down below really puts into perspective how high you were.
Travel Time Kleine Scheidegg to Lauterbrunnen: 45 minutes
Total Travel Time: 4 hours 40 minutes
Lauterbrunnen to Zurich (via Interlaken and Lucerne)
Once you arrive in Lauterbrunnen, it’s back on the bus and it’s very uneventful. Since I toured in winter, it was already dark and there was no more scenery the entire drive back. And it was a very long drive back.
Travel Time Lauterbrunnen to Zurich: 2 hours 30 minutes
Total Travel Time: 7 hours 10 minutes
More Thoughts About the Tour
When I journaled after my tour, I wrote that I enjoyed the views, but not the tour from Zurich to Jungfraujoch. Since I booked the night before (I was waiting to see what the weather would do because I wanted to make sure I would actually be able to get those views I wanted), I was left with what tour companies were available. I’m sure there are more than one company who run this tour, but I was not very impressed with my tour.
The group was huge. We traveled from Zurich on a double decker bus and it was nearly full. While I’m not the biggest fan of group tours, I much prefer it if it’s a smaller group. I’ll admit that I should have done more research here, but this was the best I could find at the time. The other thing I did not enjoy was this was a multilingual tour so everything was given in two languages. This isn’t a huge deal, but it felt as if I was one of the very few English speakers on the bus and I just felt out of place. I think this was a disappointment because I didn’t realize I was booking a multi-lingual tour—and that is 100% on me.
So Was It Worth It?
This is a difficult question to answer. On the one hand, I would advise not doing the Jungfraujoch as a day tour from Zurich. It’s just a long day and I think there are other, better options to get some amazing views of the Alps. On the other hand, this was part of my last Europe trip before the Covid-19 pandemic, so I’m grateful for everything I got to do before we went into lockdown.
I think my final advice would be the Jungfraujoch is incredibly touristy and if you’re going to visit, visit from somewhere significantly closer. Even starting in Interlaken would save some serious travel time (nearly four whole hours on a bus!). If you want to go into the Alps, there are better ways to do it. That said, you can still take the tour and even if I didn’t love my particular tour, I think a guided tour still makes sense for a trip like this, just to organize all of the transportation logistics.
Final Thoughts
It is possible to visit the Jungfraujoch from Zurich, but it will be a very long day even on a tour. Personally, I’d recommend looking into other day trips from Zurich. Save the Jungfraujoch until you are actually staying at a hotel somewhere significantly closer.
Continue Your Adventure
Switzerland: For those with limited time, check out my five day Zurich itinerary. It’s perfect for a long weekend.
Liechtenstein: For another day trip from Zurich, take a trip to the tiny country of Liechtenstein and visit its capital of Vaduz.