Travel Trip to Switzerland - Any advise?

Jun 10, 2008
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Hello everyone,

I am planning to take my parents to Switzerland for a week or two in October but need some tips from you.

I was in Switzerland last year but went thru the following schedule

zurich one day

bus tour from zurich to interlaken -top of europe one day

geneva one day

This time I'd like to take it slow and stay in Victoria Jungfrau hotel to spend more time in that area. How did you arrange your trip? Any tips will be greatly appreciated~ TIA!!!:yes:
 
Hi! we were in Saas Fee in 06. I loved it there. I love the alps. We also stayed in Zurich. I really would suggest you going to Saas Fee it's beautiful.
 
Thanks, Expy00! I am browsing thru some travel websites now. I agree with you. I need to stay longer in Lucerne and Lugano this time!!! :biggrin: Simply beautiful~

1303_22_3---Burgenstock--Lake-Lucerne--Switzerland_web.jpg
 
Oooh...I love Switzerland!!

This was our itinerary -

Zurich (2 days)
Lucerne (1 day)
Lauterbrunnen (3 days)
Lausanne (1 day)

I fell in love with Lauterbrunnen and the whole area there (Gimmelwald/Murren), and I also loved the smaller towns around Lake Lucerne (Vitznau, Weggis). If I had to do the trip over I would spend all my time in the Bernese Oberland area - stunning!!
 
Well do you want to know about something in particular? shopping? or what to do? New Years Eve brrr be prepared it can be quite cold and rainy...not fun!

I can recommend Lugano (you also might want to go to Locarno, its just 30 mins away, but its less shopping oriented), Bellinzona is also very close but its not a fancy place but it has 3 wonderful castles (and anyway you have to pass by Bellinzona if you are going north, like Zurich)

I spend my time between Zurich and close to Lugano so feel free to ask.
 
cool! I just want to know since we will only be in Zurich for 48 hours what we should ABSOLUTELY do. I read somewhere about thermal baths in Baden?? Ah... I am in FL right now in the most humid, hot, sweat drenching weather I would kill for a good freeze.. :smile:
 
There are thermal baths all over the place (Baden isn't that far), but there is also a wonderful spa in the Hotel Dolder Grand (its one of the most luxurious hotels in Switzerland, and you get a really fantastic view from there), you can easily just go there for the day. Otherwise I'd of course walk down Bahnhofstrasse (it goes from the train station to the lake) and is a great place to go shopping. For a nice view I think a great place is the Polyterasse (go up to the university, just take the polybahn from Central and you are there). Of course you will want to see the old center of the city (Lindenhof, Limmatquai, the many churches). Prices in Zurich are about the same as in London. Zurich is known for being one of the city with the best quality of life ( I can confirm they are probably right). If you are looking for a hotel I would say that the baur au lac, the widder, the schweizerhof are really nice places to stay, but of course Zurich is full of hotels.

If anyone is planing a longer trip I'd say that places to go would be zurich, lucerne, vals (there are great thermal baths there, and they were made by a very famous swiss architect), geneva and the south (lugano, locarno). Switerland is quite small so its not hard to see a lot. a logical itinerary would be to start in geneva (see maybe some of the countryside, its very beautiful and they produce very good wine), bern (its not a must but quite a nice place), zurich, lucerne, (take the train from here you get to see some wonderful scenery), bellinzona, lugano. (there is an airport in lugano agno if you want to fly back). Switzerland is full of mountains so its not hard to pick...
it also works in a reversed order, or how ever you like, Switzerland is so small...
Hope you all have fun!
if I'm not mistaken the state of Virginia is like 3 times Switzerland, that might give you an idea ;)
 
pleaseee go to Thun! I went to Thun for the day last summer and we went up to Mt. Niesen and took the Niesen Bahn up. Niesen is a pyramid shaped mountain that isn't snow covered it's self but I think that is better because it looks directly at alll of the beautiful alps and it is unforgettable! I included a pic below, it's my favorite pic of myself. Also, Bern is amazing. It's the capital, so you should definitely see it! It's also a lot less of a "city" than Zurich and geneva, if that makes sense.
 

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We stayed at the Baur au lac in Feb & I was not that impressed with it.
We actually were given grief over how much water/juice/soda we drank!
I told them we are from the desert, we are like parched lizards, we drink alot of fluids
ALL the time. Felt it was so inappropriate for them to even mention it.

Zurich was my least favorite, Lucerne & Geneva were my fav's! Would go back to L & G in a NY minute.
Bring your wallet, Switzerland is very expensive.
 
I actually didn't find it THAT expensive...but I wasn't luxury shopping or anything (not that vegas long legs was) just being touristy. I went to Paris and London afterwards and found that doing the same things there was WAY more expensive. Also, I'm from the US and the dollar was relatively good there (compared to the euro and pound) so that helped