<p>We are planning a graduation trip for our family and were planning on England, France and Spain, but the idea of England, France and Switzerland has come up. We could either drive or take a train from Paris, and we would have 5-7 days in Switzerland. suggestions, thoughts, itineraries? Neither H nor I have been there. This trip would be in July of next year.</p>
<p>I like Switzerland.</p>
<p>Go to Zermatt - where the Matterhorn (the real one!) is. You can take the gondola from the town up towards the mountain and then either hike back down on the trail or ride it back down. The views are spectacular. It’s kind of cool that they don’t allow any petrol burning veicles in the little town. </p>
<p>Lago Lugano (Lake Lugano) and the other lakes are very scenic. Almost everywhere you look is scenic. </p>
<p>Chateau de Chillon on Lake Geneva is a cool castle to tour - right on the water. </p>
<p>Make sure to eat some cheese and chocolate while you’re there.</p>
<p>I’ll second Zermatt. It truly is breathtaking! Lucerne is also very picturesque. I stayed in Montreaux when I was there (many, many years ago) and took the trip to Zermatt. The cheese and chocolate can’t be beat!</p>
<p>I’d definitely recommend traveling by train. The TGV from Paris to Switzerland to Basel is like 3.5 hours, with a car you’ll need minimum double this time. In general Swiss public transport is typically on time and has a quite tight schedule (on the majority of routes there is a train every half hour). And most importantly, I find traveling by train much more enjoyable than driving, and typically you get a better view of the landscape.</p>
<p>First, I agree that Zermatt, Lucerne and the Lake Geneva region (near Lausanne/Montreux, not Geneva) are probably the most “typical Swiss places”, other places you might want to visit (some random thoughts):</p>
<p>There are a couple of very scenic routes you might want to take, most importantly the Glacier Express from Zermatt to St. Moritz, though that might take quite some time. In my opinion the part from Disentis to St. Moritz is the nicest part, especially the Rhine gorge is very impressive and the Albula root has some really beautiful bridges.</p>
<p>Another nice area is the Interlaken/Grindelwald-area with the three mountains Eiger, Mönch & Jungfrau, there is a train, the Jungfraubahn that goes up to 3’400m, and, given nice weather, you have a probably unique view over the high-alpine landscape.</p>
<p>A really cool place is also the Walensee region east of zurich, the lake is settled very idyllic in a rather narrow valley.</p>
<p>If you like medieval cities, Berne is a very nice place to go, but also smaller cities like Murten or Spiez are very lovely.</p>
<p>And if you are in Lucerne (my hometown), I’d definitely recommend to either go up Mt. Pilatus or Mt. Rigi if the weather is nice, especially the latter provides a stunning view of (almost) the entire Swiss alps.</p>
<p>But i guess it depends a lot on your preferences; would you like to hike? do you like medieval cities? Museums? Good food? There’s lot of things to do!</p>
<p>what are you looking for in Switzerland?</p>
<p>Zermatt is very popular, as has been mentioned. Lake Geneva and the Chateau de Chillion are also very nice.</p>
<p>The train from Paris to Geneva is quite short, probably like 3.5 hours-ish.</p>
<p>Here is my recommendation:
Day 1: morning train leaving Paris, arrive in Geneva before lunch. Enjoy Geneva for a couple hours. Take a boat from Geneva to Castle de Chillion on Lake Geneva, like this: [CGN</a> -](<a href=“http://www.cgn.ch/eng/croisieres_touristiques/vos_plus_belles_croisieres/la_suisse_a_100_ans]CGN”>http://www.cgn.ch/eng/croisieres_touristiques/vos_plus_belles_croisieres/la_suisse_a_100_ans) stay overnight in Montreux.</p>
<p>Day 2: explore Montreux if you wish… they have a world famous jazz festival in July. It includes various professional acts as well as some world class amateur acts (saw a HS from California play there… they were amazing). In the evening, while it is still light so you can enjoy the amazing scenery, take the train to Interlaken. Overnight in Interlaken.</p>
<p>Day 3: Interlaken! A small-ish town with roughly 5000 people nestled between 2 lakes and nestled at the entrance to the famous jungfrau region. Takes about 25-30 minutes to walk from the train station on one end of town to the station at the other end. Interlaken is an adventure paradise. You can book tickets to go canyoning, white water rafting, sky diving, paragliding, etc etc. You can explore Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. You can hike up the mountain behind the city (2.5-ish hour hike) or you can take the cog train-ish thing. End of the day, train to Lauterbrunnen (20-30 minutes) and set up shop for the rest of your trip. Lauterbrunnen [Lauterbrunnen</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauterbrunnen]Lauterbrunnen”>Lauterbrunnen - Wikipedia) is in a valley with 70+ waterfalls (including the largest in switzerland), and was possibly the inspiration for Rivendell (lord of the rings)</p>
<p>Day 4/5/6/7 - The rest of your trip will be spent enjoying the nature and awesomeness of the swiss alps. Some highlights include:
Trummelbach Falls [Trümmelbach</a> Falls ? in the Valley of the 72 Waterfalls - Switzerland Tourism](<a href=“Request Rejected”>Trümmelbach falls | Switzerland Tourism)</p>
<p>The restaurant from James Bond’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at the top of the Schilthorn [Schilthorn</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schilthorn]Schilthorn”>Schilthorn - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Murren, an alpine village overlooking the Lauterbrunnen Valley above Stechelberg [Mürren</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mürren]Mürren”>Mürren - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Gimmelwald, a small town of 100-150 people made popular by Rick Steves, about a 30/60 minute walk from Murren [Gimmelwald</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimmelwald]Gimmelwald”>Gimmelwald - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>You can take the cable car from Lauterbrunnen to the little town above it, and walk to Murren, which is basically a flat walk.</p>
<p>You can take the cog train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, and then take a gondola to Mannlichen, which is the peak between the Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald (not Gimmelwald) valleys. Takes 15-30 minutes to get from the gondola station to the peak on paved / walking paths.</p>
<p>You can walk from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg, which is like 90 minutes, and the last real train station. Kleine Scheidegg is the transfer point to take the train to the “top of europe” [Jungfraujoch</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<a href=“tourist%20trap,%20but%20cool”>/url</a> [url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleine_Scheidegg]Kleine”>Kleine Scheidegg - Wikipedia]Kleine</a> Scheidegg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfraujoch]Jungfraujoch”>Jungfraujoch - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>basically… you can use any of the small towns (Lauterbrunnen, Kleine Scheidegg, Wengen, Murren, Grindelwald, etc) for your base. This part of your trip is to enjoy the swiss alps. Grindelwald is a wider / flatter valley, that IMO is not as impressive. You can look at it from Mannlichen, or if you take the train to Jungfraujoch, it stops for 5 minutes twice in the tunnel and you can look out the windows and see it (if you are not looking into the clouds). Wherever you stay, they will be able to give you maps with hikes in the region and any info on what you are looking for. There are many walks that are flat and reached by gondolas, if you are worried that the hiking will be too intense.</p>
<p>On the last day, take the train back to Geneva (or wherever you are flying out of). I think the reason most people to go Switzerland is to enjoy the mountains, and that is where you should spend most of your time. Here is the map of the area: <a href=“http://www.ifjungo.ch/jungfraujoch/images/jungfrauregion_large.jpg[/url]”>http://www.ifjungo.ch/jungfraujoch/images/jungfrauregion_large.jpg</a></p>
![http://www.ifjungo.ch/jungfraujoch/images/jungfrauregion_large.jpg[/url]](http://www.ifjungo.ch/jungfraujoch/images/jungfrauregion_large.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>if you do a google image search of the various places I listed, you should be able to get a feel for them</p>
<p>obviously, in the mountains, you run the risk of having clouds… not only in the high peaks (the train/gondola stations have live video of the peaks they serve, so you can see what the weather is like there), but also in the valleys.</p>
<p>An alternative idea, is to base yourself in somewhere like Lauterbrunnen for the entire trip, and if you encounter a rainy day, use that day to take the train to Geneva or Montreux or Lucerne or Bern, or Zurich. But as I said… the real highlight of Switzerland is the scenery.</p>
<p>if you aren’t familiar with the forums on <a href=“http://www.tripadvisor.com%5B/url%5D”>www.tripadvisor.com</a>, they are very useful for travel</p>
<p>Wow, thank you all!</p>
<p>I am afraid we will be museum-ed and historical-sited out after England and France (we are doing Normandy as part of this) and maybe we will want something that is more outdoors scenery focused, kick back a bit. Thank you and keep any other suggestions coming!</p>
<p>Skippint Spain(Barcelona) for Switzerland? What about Venice Lido? Great beach hotel(s), and take free water shuttle to Venice for sightseeing. My kids call it surf and turf.</p>
<p>Don’t make this harder than it has to be :-). We were fine with England (London, Bath, cross over to Normandy), France (start in Normandy, Loire Valley, Paris) and we were going to then take a train into Barcelona, see part of Spain and fly home via Madrid (our carrier doesn’t have a direct flight from Barcelona), but then the idea of Switzerland came up instead, mostly because Switzerland just sounds neat and none of us have been there before :-). We’re leaving it up to the kids to decide. I liked Barcelona a lot; I am just concerned we’ll want more of a palate-cleanser after England / France and thought that the natural beauty of Switzerland and seeing the Alps might be interesting. I’ll go nuts if you throw Italy into the mix :-). Seriously, I don’t want to shortchange Italy; I’d rather do a separate Italy / Greece trip. H and I have been to England, France, Spain. I have been to Italy. Poor neglected kids haven’t been any of these places. Switzerland is just a new thought / entry, but what you all have said above sounds intriguing.</p>
<p>If you are a music lover, I would recommend going to Gstaad for the [Menuhin</a> Festival](<a href=“http://www.menuhinfestivalgstaad.ch/pages/en/the-festival/the-festival.html]Menuhin”>http://www.menuhinfestivalgstaad.ch/pages/en/the-festival/the-festival.html), which takes place mid-July. It was founded in 1957 by violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Gstaad is a short train ride from Geneva and is up in the mountains. And you might even catch a glimpse of Roman Polanski if he hasn’t been extradited back to the US by then.</p>
<p>Soccerguy, will you be my travel agent??</p>
<p>I lived in Switzerland for several years, but its been a while so please confirm everything:</p>
<p>If you don’t go anywhere else, go to Interlachen/Lauterbrunnen. Soccerguy’s suggestions were excellent. I might not stay quite as long, though.</p>
<p>The revolving restaurant on top of Mt. Schilthorn (James Bond) is lovely and you can get up there and back in any combination of hiking or cable car. (Cable cars to the top of mountains are common all over Switzerland.) </p>
<p>The trip to Jungfraujoch (from Interlachen) allows you to experience a glacier up close and personal, but is expensive and often it is too cloudy to have much of a view. If I could only do one, I’d go for Mt. Schilthorn.</p>
<p>Some other random comments:</p>
<p>The SBB (organization that runs the trains–look for flyers at the train stations) had a lot of packaged day trips from major cities (take the train to location X, hike to Y, cablecar to Z, train back to starting point sort of thing) that are good deals. Some include renting a bike at one train station riding it downhill, dropping it off at another station. When I was there, these were not really marketed to tourists so much, so the info was only available in a local language. </p>
<p>Lucern is a very pretty city and it is easy to make a day trip to the top of a mountain from there. </p>
<p>Bern also has a charming downtown and if you are interested in this sort of thing, you can see the flat where Einstein lived while he worked at the Swiss patent office and did some of his most important work. But check the hours–it isn’t open all the hours you would expect a museum to be.</p>
<p>Barcelona is a serious fun place for teens. We took the girls there when they were 18 and 13 and stayed at Hotel Arts, right on the water (boardwalk). D1 and H were into architecture, just walking around the city was a great fun. I assume your twins will be over 18, the night club scenes would be cool for them, and there were quite a few around the hotel. The concierge could get you into clubs you normally couldn’t get into. H chaperoned D1 to few clubs while I stayed behind because I was too tired. The food in Barcelona was also amazing (after England and France you’ll appreciate that). Suprisingly, we have never found French food to be that great. We also did Barcelona after Paris.</p>
<p>We’ve been to many European cities, but Venice was definitely a wow for my kids. We stayed at the Hotel Excelsior (used to be part of Starwood), huge rooms and right on the beach. We took shuttles to Venice for dinners and sightseeing.</p>
<p>We were there recently with our college aged kids as part of a larger trip that included parts of Austria and Germany. Second the suggestions to see Lucerne(also sailed over to Mt. Pilatus) and Bern. We also loved the Lauterbrunnen/Grindelwald area - stayed in Grindelwald as a base to the Jungfraujoch (top of the Swiss Alps) and the glacier. I have heard that Interlaken is very touristy these days. We flew in and out of Zurich and saw a bit of the city as well. One of our favorite trips, the most gorgeous scenery everywhere and fun combination of outdoor activities and sightseeing that the kids really enjoyed.</p>
<p>Just be warned that even on Swiss trains, there are robbers. I had my pocket picked traveling fron Geneva to Interlaken. Keep your wallet tight in front of you, not behind. Also, more importantly, your passport should always kept separately from the wallet.</p>
<p>We had the pleasure of several days in Switzerland in June. It is a beautiful country, and was my fav on our trip (Germany Austria, & Switzerland). We were unable to go up the Schlithorn because of rain and fog, and ended up in Gruyere instead. It is a beautiful little town with a castle and old town area to tour. We actually enjoyed Gruyere castle more then Chillion because it had more decorative furnishings and tapestries. Cellier Chocolates is located in Gruyere and they give FREE chocolates after the tour. We also went to the Gruyere cheese factory (free cheese samples also). In traveling we went across the Jaun pass and came upon the little village of Jaun, which was picture perfect. Just wanted to mention a few high points of our trip that no one else has brought up. Enjoy your trip!</p>
<p>My family lived in Switzerland, and I think soccerguy had some great ideas. The background photo on my computer is one I took when we went to see Trummelbach Falls!</p>
<p>You can also get some good ideas from Rick Steves’ books–but the hand-drawn maps in his books are often inaccurate and I cannot agree with his statement in his book Switzerland 2007, “Skip the big, dull city of Geneva…” Geneva is an expensive city, so when we visited, we stayed across the border in France and drove across every day. I loved touring the UN office (formerly the headquarters of the League of Nations) in Geneva as well as walking through the nearby parks and along Lake Geneva.</p>
<p>If you enjoy hiking, you might want to know that you can find maps of walking trails throughout Switzerland (wanderweg) online. You can get both a walking trail map and a public transportation map in order to explore and give yourself some flexibility.</p>
<p>I like Gruyer also. If you can, try spending the night at the hotel inside the castle. It is a different place in the evening after mosts of the people are gone.</p>
<p>The trains are wonderful. Innsbruck and Bern make nice day-trips from Zurich.</p>
<p>One interesting point about Switzerland is how it goes from German speaking to French speaking to Italian speaking areas in such a short distance. You might want to make sure you hit all of these 3 regions so you can have some nice Wienerschnitzel in one area, Lasagna in another area, and whatever the French like to eat (snails?) in the other area.</p>
<p>We were driving along once when I spotted a castle up on a hill so we drove over by it and went up to it (Bellinzona castle). We toured it but it was just us, another party of 2 guys, and the tour guide. The tour guide only spoke Italian but a guy in the other party spoke Italian and German so he’d translate the Italian to German and then I’d try to go from German to English with my 2 years HS German capabilities (i.e. not much). It was fun doing this. While the other party was off looking at something the tour guide kept saying something to us in Italian but I didn’t understand him. Finally he basically grabbed our camera - he wanted to take a picture of us at the castle for us to have. </p>
<p>Touring some of the more off the beaten track places like this can be fun.</p>
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<p>Pizzagirl, we honeymooned in Interlaken and it was perfect - you can do as much or as little as you want. A great place to chill/commune with nature after the musuems. You can hike up and down, ride up and hike down, or just ride…trains, chairlifts, gondolas, etc etc. You can ride in a boat and get off and walk around the cute towns on the lake…or just stay on the boat.</p>
<p>In Switzerland, you can buy a ticket for 30 Swiss Fr (about $26) and you can take trains, bus, and all the public transportation for free for that day. It only works for 1 day. So if you happen to take the train from one city to another, this is probably cheaper than to buy the train ticket itself. However, these one-day tickets are popular and you have to buy them in advance.</p>
<p>I would add Lucern with with 13th century bridge. Fribourg is a very nice place to relax and it is less crowded. Bern is definitely good to visit for a day. There are some other less popular places that aren’t tourist crowded. Oberland and Interlaken are some of them. This place has one of the best scenes I’ve seen. You can visit the waterfall, then take the cable car down to the river and take the ferry. Or you can take the cable car up the mountain to see a lake up there and experience a drop of about 20 degrees C. I was there in May and was walking in my t shirt in summer-like weather. I took the cable 1500m up the mountain, it was snowing. A change from summer to winter in minutes. Definitely worth a visit.</p>