Swiss mountains in rain ? Any point going ? And 34 degrees heat wwyd?

[Rainyswissmountains]

Hugely (for us expensive holiday ) is there any point going in extreme heat 34 , no air con thunder and rain
The idea was three days in Switzerland and go up some mountains which is also v expensive.
I'm wondering whether to just call it off ,scary driving etc too hot to sleep and can't see anything up a mountain ?
We are flying into Basel so could go into France /Germany instead with better air con ? What would you do.

Lucerne is lovely! If you are all strong swimmers, you can float down the river… plus there is the Lido. Here is a photo of Mt Pilatus that I took a couple of summers ago after a short storm. (Taken from up near the Kloisters, not far from the Lido).

At the moment I’d love to see rain, and would probably go for a walk in it!

Just remember that if it does rain it will cool everything off - and rain when it's hot is very different in terms of dampening impact on the day than when it's cooler! And lots of stuff to do indoors in Lucerne.

But with a car you can definitely chase the weather you want - it's unlikely to be rubbish everywhere. The mountains create loads of microclimates.

@DataColour is the tour this weekend ?

If you can cancel, cancel op. We have had holidays like this, and it really isn’t relaxing. The rain and baking heat is an uncomfortable combination. The mountain roads are scary if you are not used to them, and who wants to sit in the rain when there is wall to wall sunshine everywhere else? England is glorious at the moment, and France too.

Switch hotels to France. Enjoy the good weather and air con, and a proper holiday!

Driving on mountain roads with torrential rain is dangerous anywhere! it is certainly not enjoyable, and the weather has been beautiful in the U.K. all summer, why would op want to pay to sit in the rain??

OP they can rarely get mountain forecast right two days in advance let alone two weeks. The forecast is meaningless right now.

that said, YABU for booking a mountain holiday and expecting beach weather. We had a ten day holiday in the mountains in 2020 and had some glorious days and a couple of heavy rain. You just grab your raincoat and get on with it, but you should get some nice periods too. It’s the same in winter.

There are things to do in Lucerne indoors. If you check the meteo cameras on tv in the mornng you can see the weather in resorts around and about CH and judge where might be better to go. The higher peaks are often above cloud level and weather completely different to that at lower ground .

Talk about catastrophising. The roads are in much better nick than the uk motorways, and the storms are again, short lived. You call pull over for 20 mins and enjoy the storms.

(unless you are a professional pearl clutcher. In which case, don’t let me interrupt you…)

@Rainyswissmountains

Look OP, in the Alps you can’t get 34 degrees heat and also rain. It doesn’t work like that.

It sounds like you are worrying about what to do if it either rains a lot and heavily which might impact driving round and views.
But you are also worrying about it being too hot and not having air conditioning at night.
It’s an either or OP, because if it rains it will cool down and most people will be taking extra layers so they’ll be no heat to deal with.

I understand your thought process about cost though.
I find it much easier to be flexible, choose different activities and have a good time if I’m not forking out lots ( to me) of money to have a specific experience( for you it seems to be experience the mountains in pleasant weather).

Haha! Well we have driven on mountain roads in all seasons my friend, and it isn’t fun in storms and rain due to the way it washes down the mountain side. It’s certainly not a holiday. The U.K. has great roads thanks, and fortunately most are not treacherous.

Enjoy the sunshine op and an easier holiday. No one wants to be drying out soggy socks on a summer holiday let’s face it or making an ‘indoor schedule’ because the weather is so poor 😎

@Rainyswissmountains
And just to add. I live on the continent and friends that were in the Alps last week were sleeping under duvets, let alone needing air conditioning!

Lucerne is a town by a lake

Your point being? We lived nearby and there is plenty to do all weathers, you just have to be flexible where to go and when. Yes expensive but you knew that when you booked! The roads around Lucerne are not necessarily twisty or narrow and you can always take a train, boat or postbus.

Any indoor activity is going to be very expensive too op, I would prepare you for that too. If you are budgeting for a holiday with unexpected further costs.

People are saying its cooler in the alps but we wont be up in the alps we are down In a town by a lake !

Yes I feel reassured re the roads it was roads on torrential thunder storm rain I meant.

@LIZS the driving would be basel to Lucerne / Lucerne to engleberg /titlus and back then back to Germany.

None of which are mountain roads.

Fwiw if you're going to go on holiday to the mountains (any mountains) you have to plan for rain, take appropriate kit and go out anyway. If you get dry weather, that's a bonus but can't be expected.

Also mountian weather is very localised. The forecast for the region as a whole can be one thing, but the actual weather from one valley to the next can be very different.

@weavingrugs I agree but the BBC and accu are showing 34 and solid rain !

It is still the alps though and a breeze from the lake.

You need to keep an eye on https://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/local-forecasts/lucerne/6003.html#forecast-tab=weekly-overview

We have holidays in Switzerland in the summer op, and it’s a very different kind of holiday to one you would have by a pool in the south of France for example. There are things to do in poor weather - transport museum etc near you - but it’s all very expensive, and the children were really bored.

Your instincts on this are spot on.

If you do go ahead, be sure to pack warm jumpers, jackets too, as well as waterproof coats. As the temperature fluctuates all day. It was exhausting to be honest. Keeping everyone comfortable.

If you need to properly decompress and relax this probably isn’t going to be the ideal ‘holiday’ for you. It’s very expensive gamble. Solid rain is going to be crap for all of you.

OP, you've clearly made your mind up that the BBC 14-day forecast is infallible, the portable aircon unit will be crap and it will rain solidly the whole time over the whole of central Switzerland.

No one saying to you that they've never known the BBC forecast to be accurate in the alps even a day or two ahead, or that weather is wildly variable mountain by mountain and valley by valley, or that even the BBC is predicting 31/32 in Lucerne not 36 for 13-14 days out is going to make an ounce of difference.

So just do yourself a favour and cancel.