Swiss Christmas Holiday
8 Wonderful Days
- Leiusurely 7 nights in the Swiss Alps
- Stay in an authentic, character style hotel
- Genuinely inclusive, no additional on tour costs
- The festive tour experts
- Designed for Australians & New Zealanders
- Guaranteed group departures
Tour Overview
Unlike all our other Christmas tours this is not an escorted tour. It doesn’t need to be. It has been specifically designed with individual flexibility in mind and includes travel on the incredibly reliable and comprehensive Swiss Rail system.
We offer you the choice of staying in either of two superb hotels - the Hotel Alpenblick in the village of Wilderswil or the Hotel Oberland in the village of Lauterbrunnen.
Highlights
- Celebrate Christmas over 7 nights in your choice of hotel in the heart of the magnificent Bernese Oberland
- Excellent touring programme using the wonderful Swiss rail system – come and go as you wish using your included 8 day Swiss Travel Pass
- Versatility - you can start and end this tour from any point within Switzerland or any border point
- Visit the Christmas Markets in the cobbled stone squares of medieval Bern
- Travel through the soaring snow covered Alps on the Golden Pass Panoramic train from Zweisimmen, past Gstaad and Château-d’Oex, to Montreux on Lake Geneva
- Visit Interlaken, Luzern, Lake Thun and Grindelwald
- Enjoy superb access to Switzerland’s greatest Alpine destinations
- Daily buffet breakfasts and 4-course dinners are included
The Swiss Christmas Holiday is just one of many you can enjoy in Switzerland. Visit each destination page for more information for our other amazing tours!
Tour Itinerary
Day 1: To your Swiss Christmas Hotel
Using your Swiss Travel Pass, make your way from any arrival point in Switzerland to your selected hotel where you will stay the next seven nights. A buffet breakfast and four-course evening dinner are included each day.
Day 2 -7: At your Swiss Christmas Hotel
The alpine peaks of Switzerland are world famous and you will be staying in the heart of this incredibly dramatic scenery. There are numerous world class ski fields nearby and the area is littered with excellent walking and cross country skiing trails. Your included 8 day Swiss Travel Pass gives you daily unlimited access to enjoy so many exhilarating alpine rail excursions – to Luzern, medieval Bern, Interlaken, Brienz (noted for its wood-carvings), Thun, and Meiringen (of Sherlock Holmes fame and where ‘meringues’ originated) plus the chic mountain ski resorts of Grindelwald and Wengen.
We have also included pre-booked seats on the Golden Pass Panoramic train from Zweisimmen, past Gstaad and Château- d’Oex, to Montreux on Lake Geneva! You will be surrounded by stupendous mountains accessed by cable car rides and lifts such as to the Schilthorn (James Bond fame) and the Jungfraujoch – at 11,000 feet high the views are magnificent.
Day 8: Tour Ends
Today your Swiss Christmas Holiday ends. Your Swiss Travel Pass allows you to transfer to any departure point in Switzerland.
Incredible Value Inclusions
- 7 nights accommodation with private facilities in your choice of hotel
- Swiss Travel Pass with 8 days unlimited train travel throughout Switzerland on the incredibly efficient and user friendly Swiss
- Rail network
- Reserved seats on the Golden Pass Panoramic train to Montreux on Lake Geneva
- Buffet breakfast daily (B)
- 4-course evening dinners including Christmas Eve dinner (D) and Christmas Day Lunch (Alpenblick only) (L)
- Hotel tips
- Albatross Tours travel App
Your Hotels
Hotel Oberland, Lauterbrunnen - 7 Nights
The delightful village of Lauterbrunnen is located 15 minutes down the train line from Wilderswil. The setting is stunning with 1,000 foot sheer cliffs rising either side of this narrow ‘valley of the waterfalls’ (these are the cliffs that James Bond keeps leaping off when chased by the baddies). The Oberland Hotel dates back well over 100 years and is located in the heart of the village, 200 metres from the railway station. You will be the guests of Ursula and Mark Nolan-von Allmen. Mark’s passion for Swiss hill walking led him from Australia to Lauterbrunnen where he met and married Ursula. The dining is excellent, there is a relaxing bar/café, lounge and all rooms include private facilities, TV and radio. Please note the Oberland is a 4 storey hotel and has no lift.
Hotel Alpenblick, Wilderswil – 7 Nights
The small community of Wilderswil is typical of a Swiss rural village. Located 700 metres from Wilderswil railway station and only 3 kilometres from Interlaken, you have quick and easy access for all your included train excursions. With a history dating back 400 years, the Alpenblick has been in the Stöckli family for two generations and is now looked after by Richard Stöckli and his wife Yvonne. Richard himself oversees the hotel kitchen and has gained many awards from culinary institutions, and the Gourmet à la carte Restaurant was awarded 16 points by Gault Millau and one Michelin star; while the hotel received an award as one of the 25 best three-star holiday hotels in Switzerland. All rooms include private facilities, hair-dryer, TV, radio and safe. The hotel has 2 dining areas, a reading room/lounge and a cosy hotel bar. Please note the Alpenblick is a 3 storey hotel and has no lift. Pricing based on standard economy rooms. Room upgrades available on request subject to availability.Tour Reviews
The tour was perfect for people like my husband and me who are quite independent travellers. We liked the fact that our Swiss Rail Pass provided the means to make our own decisions to travel to various places each day and return to our base at the Hotel Oberland, Lauterbrunnen each evening. Lauterbrunnen was breathtaking and provided easy access to the amazing sights of the Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch and the beautiful villages you pass through on the way to these peaks. The Hotel Oberland was great. Our room was small but quite adequate with everything we needed and the bathroom was very modern and clean, having been recently renovated. The hospitality of hotel owners Mark & Ursula and their staff was outstanding. Nothing was too much trouble and they really made us feel at home.
Christmas eve dinner was excellent, with a visit from Santa who had a gift for everyone - what a lovely touch! The breakfast and dinner provided by the hotel as part of the package were good - definitely ate too much - four-course dinners each evening saw to that! The one organised excursion to Montreux travelled through spectacular scenery and was well worth the trip but it was a very long day on the train. We were blessed with the weather - no snow on arrival with beautiful clear days which provided ideal viewing from the Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch, then heavy snow falling on Christmas Day which turned Lauterbrunnen into the perfect place to spend the rest of our 'White Christmas' holiday. The information provided before our tour was useful and the advice provided by the Hotel Oberland staff was invaluable. We believe the tour was good value. Can't think of anything we didn't like about it and would definitely recommend it to anyone seeking to spend Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere - although apparently snow can't be guaranteed anymore.
Lynda
This is our second visit here the first being in 2007. I didn't think it was possible for things to get any better at the hotel but Mark, Ursula and their team are just fantastic and we have enjoyed every minute.
This whole experience is just amazing and being able to do things at your own pace is ever better.
Richard & Leonie, travelled December 2015
Dates and Prices
| Start Date | End Date | Price Per Person | Guaranteed to Depart | Availability | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Dec 2018 | 28 Dec 2018 | NZD $2,439 | Closed | |||
| 21 Dec 2019 | 28 Dec 2019 | Space Available |
Book with Confidence
If you book and deposit on any of our tours, as long as there are just 10 or more people travelling on your designated group departure, we guarantee it will travel.
Club Albatross
Have you travelled with Albatross Tours previously? Save $200 on our European Summer and Oberammergau tours (over 8 days) or $100 on our Festive tours.
No Additional 'On Tour' Costs
Over $100 value of extras per day are already included. There are no additional 'on tour' costs - even your end of tour tips are included!