We skipped Switzerland's tourist hubs for a quieter town. It made our family's dream trip even better.

A trip to Switzerland had been my mother's dream long before it was mine. She'd seen the destination in movies and travel videos for years and always said she wanted to see it in person someday.

Every few years, my family would talk about going, compare flights, and then let the idea go. The timing was never right, and the cost was hard to justify for a family of four from India.

When we finally planned a trip for December 2024 as a gift for my mom's birthday, I knew I wanted to make the most of it. It was one of the most expensive vacations we'd ever taken, so I spent a lot of time thinking about where we'd stay, knowing our base would shape the whole trip.

I had to make some tough decisions when it came to where to stay and what to do to make sure the trip was worthwhile and met all of our expectations, especially my mom's. I'm happy with the choices I made, especially when it came to which town to stay in.

Like most first-time visitors, I started by looking at tourist hubs like Interlaken and Lucerne. Both seemed like obvious choices — close to the attractions we'd planned to visit and easy to build an itinerary around.

But we were going to spend most of our days out exploring, not sitting in our hotel, and I wasn't sure it made sense to pay high rates to stay in such a busy tourist town.

Through travel articles, Reddit threads, and Instagram, I discovered Thun, a lakeside town in the canton of Bern that many visitors recommended as a day trip from Interlaken.

I mapped out how easily we could reach the places we'd planned to visit from Thun. We had a week in Switzerland, with the final two days already set aside for Zurich, so I wanted to make sure we weren't losing too much time commuting.

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It turned out to be the more affordable choice, too. We found a hotel overlooking the Aare River, which runs through the historic town, with two rooms for around CHF 1,500 (around $1,800 USD) for four nights — almost half what similar places cost in Interlaken and Lucerne at the time.

Interlaken is the main hub for the Bernese Oberland region, and many places we wanted to visit were easiest to reach from there. From Thun, it only took us 30 minutes to reach Interlaken by bus.

We'd bought the Swiss Half Fare Card in advance, which gave us 50% off most public transportation, which also saved us some money. Our hotel also provided a local travel card with free transportation to Interlaken, making day trips even easier.