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.

Where are you going?
I have lived in Austria for nearly 2 decades now. If you're going in a "few weeks" it'll be mid to end of August and that is very definitely the beginning of autumn in the mountains. It starts to get a lot cooler at night and the day time temperatures are nowhere near as high. Don't worry about the heat!
I've often been on long-distance hikes towards the end of August where it's started to snow at the higher altitudes!

Apologies, you said 34 not 36 and I didn't notice until too late to edit.

The rest of my post still stands. Any holiday in the Alps you go and you're prepared to deal with whatever the weather throws at you as it's so unpredictable. Either you embrace that and plan accordingly, or cancel
if if lack of picture postcard weather is going to spoil your holiday.

Accu in particular is a really shit weather site. It's often wrong, predicts far too far in advance and can't be relied upon. The BBC is not much better.

Can't you change the hotel to Interlaken and then you can park the car and go on the trains up to Wengen, Grindelwald and Mürren.

You can go by train to Engelberg from Lucerne in about 45 minutes although itbis not a tricky drive anyway! Completely different climate there. If you are due there August 1st there will be Swiss National Day celebrations although with the current wildfire warnings any fireworks may be cancelled.

I don’t know which podcast you are looking at OP. BBC weather for Lucerne is showing temps between 13 and 33 over the next two weeks for me. Some of the rainy days are in fact 25-30% of rain. That doesn’t mean it will rain, and certainly not the whole day.

If you’re that worried, which you seem to be, just cancel. Don’t book a holiday again in Central Europe and then complain that it might be hot and rain. It’s summer - that’s what happens there.

If you go to Norway or southern Spain you will have guaranteed weather one way or another. Perhaps rethink for next year.

I also don’t see how the road from Stuttgart to Baden-Baden can be terrifying - it’s a regular Autobahn. If driving is so scary, perhaps use trains? All the destinations you’ve mentioned would be so much easier to do on the train.

@wojono I'm not sure we would have time i did consider that way around. Our flight arrives 6 ISH on Sunday night so it will be much further to drive and then we have two full days in Lucerne or interlaken

As someone who holidays in the French Alps every year I think you’re overthinking this. I can’t get Lucerne on my bbc weather app but Geneva is (on one day) 34/17 degrees and a thunderstorm is predicted. It will almost certainly be lovely first thing, get muggy at lunch with a short storm in late afternoon when temps will drop.
Lucerne is at 450m so while it’s not up a mountain it will be cooler than sea level.

i avoid Switzerland because of the cost and go to the less trendy parts of the French alps. But I would not cancel a mountain holiday due to a dodgy forecast at that range. Things always change in the mountains.

@ChiasMarineras inageee central Europe in July isn't ideal unless set around swimming lakes which I tried to do !
We don't normally go away in summer I much prefer may half term , Oct half term or very late August .
We have been planning around exams this year and then uni.
I tried to cover all eventualties within budget and had flights changed : easy jet. So tried to get somewhere with air con and not too far from Basel ...by a lake..
And we have had this astonishing summer and I thought now we have had the hottest part surely it will calm down but not. 34 and rain and storms.
And I don't think a portable unit between two rooms will cut it ! It would for under 30s.

The quality of the roads I'm sure is excellent ,it's driving in a new hire car on torrential rain in new surroundings that I find scary.

@Johnogroats thanks ! I can just imagine us stuck in rain with mist covering the mountains and nothing to do with older teens ,and spending a fortune whilst at it so can't even go to cosy cafes.

@LIZS I'm sure the road quality is fine it's driving in storms with flash flooding in worried about.

Is engleberg nice ?

Seriously in over 20 years of mountain holidaying that’s never happened. Yes it’s rained (usually one or 2 days out of 14), the rain doesn’t stay for days like it can do in the uk. I think you are catastrophising! Just posting a pic that was taken in July, in the French Alps at about 800m. It’s a typical day. Temps were mid/high 20s.

Unless you have very sporty outdoorsy teens ( I have 2/3 teens l like this) this kind of holiday is going to have very limited appeal, particularly in the rain.

Serre Ponçon in French alps

Yes lovely resort with plenty going on indoors and out. Lots of activities for teens to try out and glacier at top of Titlis with revolving cablecar and bridge over the drop! You tend not to get flash floods, they rebuilt the road and railway above river flood plain level a while back.

Or take the train if you worry about the road, very straightforward.

I had a week in Switzerland a couple of years ago, staying in Lucerne and Montreux. It was about the same temperature and it was GORGEOUS. Swimming in Lake Geneva, boat trips sitting on the deck enjoying the breeze, cooling visits to the top of mountains (and air-conditioned cheese / chocolate factories) wandering in the shade in Bern and Gruyeres. No air-con in either hotel but me and coach group of elderly travellers I was escorting all coped. I wish I could do it again!

Honestly, it will be fine. I know the area well. Firstly you will get max 1/2 day of rain , secondly if you go up the mountains in daytime, it will be colder up there but higher UV levels. The Alps can be stunning in most weather conditions. I assume you will go and have some fun on the glacier? (Not sure if they still run activities...)
But, please avoid the Rhine valley if possible (Colmar, Strasbourg, Freiburg, ...) It's hot, stifling heat. Stick to the mountains go up whenever possible- Blackforrest, Vosges and of course the Alps. Maybe have a look for some water sports for the teens to cool down.

As for torrential rain and motorway ... I have experienced this several times. At one occasion everyone just stopped on the motorway because of low visibility. But mostly people just go very slowly. Take your cues from the car in front of you and don't be in a hurry.

Is there a good reason you are not taking the train for this part of the journey?

We are flying into Geneva and going to Annecy later in August and we will get the train for that part (and bus/bike round the lake at Annecy).

You’re talking as though Switzerland is in the tropics and you’re going to get 24/7 monsoon rains on dirt tracks with motorway signs written in Thai 😂

Look, if you don’t want to spend this much money on a holiday that might be too hot or too rainy - don’t. Leave it. The Alps will always be there. I can’t really tell why you’ve posted. Do you want people to convince you to go? They’ve tried and you’re batting them away. So you must want people to tell you to go somewhere else. I’ll tell you: go somewhere else. No holiday is enjoyable if one person is constantly fretting about the chance of rain or the heat or how expensive everything is. You can stay at home and do that for free!

Cankle at home I can use my equipment to keep cool if I need to drive somewhere I know the roads and my car.

It'll be fine, but you don't sound very keen at all. Just change to something else you'd like better and will be less expensive if you can.

@drspouse yes Dr, I don't want to try end get trains and busses late at night into a new place. I then don't went to be on crowded trains with pick pockets and the occasional break down or stop and broken air con.

We are only there for two good days and arriving late at night .

If we had a week's leisurely break then yes we possibly consider the pass and trains.

We are also travelling from there up to Germany. I've spent a long time looking into it all.

@RubyPowderPuff that's v reassuring thank you .

It's a two day window we have

Swiss trains are among the safest, most reliable and least congested in Europe! Crime rate is very low. 6pm is hardly late. Are you normally this anxious about travel?