Switzerland the Emmental & Jungfrau Regions.
Five Days, Four Nights - Four late afternoon balloon flights scheduled.

 

Day 1 - We will meet you at Hotel Baur au lac in Zurich for a 10:00 a.m. luxury coach transfer to 5 star Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, our home for the next four nights. Our spacious and beautifully furnished rooms open onto views of the Jungfrau and the Bernese Alps. After our grand luncheon on the hotel terrace, we’ll embark on a walking tour of colorful, UNESCO-protected Old Town, with its 15th century architecture, patrician houses, arcades, bell towers and gardens. Our excellent guide, Annalise, has arranged a visit to the tower room of the town’s elaborate medieval clock as it chimes the hour. It’s wonderful to see the wheels and gears of this ancient machinery start to spin and clatter as it comes time to chime. We’ll also visit the loveable bears of Bern, returning to our hotel by horse-drawn carriage. Late afternoon balloon adventure through picturesque rural countryside with quaint chalets and rich green hills. Evening dinner party at our hotel.

Day 2 - After breakfast we’ll board an old fashioned lake steamer for a two hour cruise on the Thunsee. Enjoy a wonderful luncheon in the first class dining room, stopping at all of the lovely lakeside villages. The scenery is stunning! We’ll take the cog railway from Lauterbrunnen up through spectacular Alpine scenery to Kleine Scheidegg, at the base of the North face of the Eiger. We‘ve passed several majestic glaciers and are half way to the top of the Jungfrau, the tallest mountain in Switzerland. Enjoy an ice cream cone before starting back down through the thrilling vistas. The valleys, the surrounding mountains! Everything is so big! And so interesting! It will be a memorable afternoon, yet to be filled with our late afternoon balloon adventure in the Swiss meadowlands, followed by dinner in Bern.

Day 3 - Morning excursion by chartered helicopter, flying from the base of the Jungfrau through some of the most staggering mountain scenery anywhere in the world. For nearly half an hour, our helicopters take us behind the Jungfrau for a good look at the Aletsch, the longest glacier in Europe, then past Kleine Scheidegg, our train stop from yesterday, up the North face of the Eiger. We’ll explore dramatic glaciers and ice falls that create blocks of ice the size of houses. Be sure to bring your cameras! After a thrilling morning we’ll enjoy an elegant lunch at Interlaken’s luxurious Royal Victoria-Jungfrau Hotel, where we’ll be seated close by the grassy spot where the many sport parachutes touch down all day. Late afternoon balloon adventure through the charming summer pastures and farmlands of the Emmental, followed by an excellent dinner at our 5 star hotel.

Day 4 - Morning drive to the base of the Jungfrau Massif, for a visually thrilling tour of raging Trummelbach Falls. All of the melt water from all the glaciers on the west side of the Jungfrau, the Monk and the Eiger, flows into the Trummelbach River which rages down to the valley floor churning dramatically in 10 consecutive cascades…inside the mountain! We are able to visit this phenomenon via an in-the-mountain elevator and walkway system. For lunch we’ll take the cable car through four stations up to Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant on top of the Shilthorn made famous in the James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Across the valley the snow-capped peaks of the Jungfrau, the Monk and the Eiger are spectacular. Late afternoon balloon adventure through the picture-postcard Switzerland of dairy farms and chalets, with farewell dinner in Bern.

Day 5 - We will depart our hotel at 10:00 a.m. and return to Zurich, arriving Hotel Baur au Lac approximately noon.