Anyone familiar with Switzerland?

[bluecheeze]

Will be in Switzerland for a few days and I am having trouble deciding where to stay.
We land in Bern 7pm on Monday (Oct 6) and need to fly out of Geneva 11am on Friday (4 nights).
Was thinking we would go somewhere we could hike for 2 days and then finish in Geneva for the last 2 days.
Would Lucerne be a good choice? We won't have a car and will be on public transport- would you advise purchasing tickets in advance or is it easy/cheap to just do it in country?

Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks!

[chemgeek]

Lucerne is lovely! Swiss public transport is amazing. Prompt. Clean and efficient. We always just bought tickets as needed while there, never ahead. We didn't do any hiking, but this site seems pretty comprehensive:

http://www.luzern.com/en/walking-and-hiking/hiking-tips

[yoyalia]

I lived in Geneva - small, sleepy town, don't need more than a day to explore. Lucerne and Bern are wonderful. Public transportation is probably the best in the world. Sooo reliable and pretty much always on time! I always bought train tickets on the spot. Enjoy some chocolate and cheese for me :)

[Stashing Swiss-style]

Train to Lucerne, boat trip and then incredibly steep cog railway up Mount Pilatus - then walk down.  Fantastic trip

http://www.pilatus.ch/en/railway-cableways/golden-round-trip/

Bern is beautiful - spend a few hours in the old town, go and see the bears.

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-gb/destinations/holiday-destinations-in-switzerland/bern.html

Grindelwald is an incredible beautiful area for hiking

http://grindelwald.ch/

Public transport is excellent.  Expensive for people on short trips as it's not worth getting the special passes.

http://www.swiss-pass.ch/en/swiss-card/

Geneva in October is not that interesting. 

October can be fresh - bring warm clothes.  We had an awful summer this year, cold and rainy. This means that at high altitude there is snow so if you plan some serious hiking be prepared for snow !

Have fun.  Eat some rosti, fondue or raclette, lots of chocolate and plenty of good swiss wine :-)

[bluecheeze]

Awesome tips thanks!

Sounds like we should be staying 3 days in the mountain area and only 1 day in Geneva?
Also seems like I just should be buying train tickets as we need them when we arrive.  Found some decent prices for ~100 a night on airbnb for rooms so not as bad as I was thinking for such short notice.

Lots of people recommended Lucerne and it seems easy enough to get to from Berne so I think that general area is a go.

Most definately plan on eating chocolate- didn't know the wine was highly regarded- but then again I personally regard all alcohol highly living in a dry country (-: