Mischka

My husband and I will be in London for a week (15th-22nd September-a business trip for him), after that we will be taking an Easyjet flight to Basel(probably).

We have 14 nights before we fly back to London for 3 more nights. We fly home from LHR 9th Oct.

We have been to Switzerland,France,Germany,Italy etc before but not to this area, although we have been skiing in the Austrian Alps. We have also been to Lake Garda and loved it.

We are only traveling by public transport.

Ok, that's the background, now the confusion. Between DH and I we think we want to see Basel, Freiburg, Colmar, Strasbourg - thought we would stay in Freiburg for 5 nights to do this.

4 nights - Jungfrau area. Here I am very confused as to what we can do by train/bus. We do not want to do any serious hiking, although we are not opposed to lots of walking and usually walk as much as possible when traveling.

I have read a lot about Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Grindelwald, Wengen, Interlaken, the Eiger, Monch, Jungfrau, Schilthorn (James Bond connection should make DH happy). My head is spinning with all the information and I am having a hard time imagining how to go about this or even where to go and where to stay.

All we really want is to enjoy the wonderful scenery, probably do the trip up the Jungfrau or Schilthorn (which is best at this time of year?), walk through quaint villages, enjoy lovely food and wine, basically do the best with the short time we have.

5 nights- Lakes. Maybe Maggiore, maybe Locarno or Lugano. We would love to hop on the ferries and see various places around the lakes. How easy would it be to travel by train/bus to Lake Como or does anyone have any other ideas. We like the idea of Lucarno because we can go into italy easily by boat, where is worth making stops?

Well as you can see, I really am confused and would appreciate any help anyone could offer. Ideas for 2/3* hotels or appartments would also be great.

Thanks a ton.

bobthenavigator

I would stay in Lauterbrunnen as your base for the BO--easy access and centro location. Then , take the train via Interlaken and Brig, to Stresa. See www.stresa.net for hotels. Have fun !

GranthamMommy

I am no expert. However we just got back from our first trip to Italy.
We took a train from Como, Italy to Lugano.

It was very easy to do. I think it was about a 1 hr trip, most of it spent sitting at the border crossing. From Como you have about a 15 minute walk or quick taxi to the waterfront where you can take a boat to explore the rest of Lake Como.

LLindaC

It is easy to see lots of the beautiful BO by train and bus. However, it's not cheap. A Swiss pass helps with the regular transportation, but the train trip up to Jung. is about $100. We didn't get to the Schiltorn, but would have liked to. However, we loved walking through Murren and having lunch at Gimmelwald. We based in Wengen, but were more avid hikers. Still, you can catch the bus through the valley. They run frequently and are easy to use. I hope you are okaty taking cable cars, because you will miss out on lots of incredible places if you don't ride up. I was leery at first, but once I saw the Swiss engineering, I felt at ease.

PalenQ

If traveling Basel-Jungfrau area - Italian Lakes then strongly look at the Swiss Rail Pass - probably a 3-day Flexipass and then you get 50% off everything for the days in between the 1st and 3rd unlimited travel day.

50% off everything except the Jungfraujoch train - the discount as of july, 2007 with a Swiss Pass has been reduced to 25%

I always refer folks for Swiss train/pass info to www.budgeteuropetravel.com - request their free European Planning & Rail Guide on the home page as it has a wealth of info on European and Swiss trains in particular. Passes are sold in Switzerland but currently about 15-20% higher than in U.S. and other countries for some reason.

Mischka

Thanks for all the replies and useful information.

We will definitely look at getting the railpass before we leave.

Bob, you obviously think we should stay in Stresa rather than Locarno etc, any particular reason? I was toying with the idea of staying in Lauterbrunnen, so thanks, I will look into that farther.

How about the Freiburg area?

Ingo

Lauterbrunnen makes good sense for the BO. I would opt for Locarno instead of Stresa for the lakes region, simply because it is included in the Swiss Rail passes. Travelling to Italian places along the lake from there is easy.

I stayed in Freiburg two or three years ago for 4 nights and LOVED it. I did day trips to Colmar, Basel and the Black Forest. Didn't go to Strasbourg because I had been there before, but it's well doable.

Ingo

PalenQ

baden-Baden, a venerable European spa is also an easy day trip from Freiburg.

and i recently took a sideline train from Freiburg up to Seebrug (sp?) - anyway a lake high up in the Black Forest mountains - a nice little jaunt with hiking possible around the lake.

janisj

Mischka: Just a suggestion - do you see how the frame w/ the thread titles is messed up now?? That is because your title has no spaces in the string &quot;<u>Basel,Freiburg,Jungfrau,Schilthorn,Lak e Maggiore.Lugano....&quot;

Titles don't wrap - so when one posts long strings of characters w/o any spaces everyone else has to scroll back and forth to read every title in the list.

So next time - please use spaces.
</u>

janisj

sheesh - I screwed one up -- just shows we all make mistakes

This is better . . .

That is because your title has no spaces in the string &quot;<u>Basel,Freiburg,Jungfrau,Schilthorn,Lak e</u> Maggiore.Lugano....&quot;

Titles don't wrap - so when one posts long strings of characters w/o any spaces everyone else has to scroll back and forth to read every title in the list.

So next time - please use spaces.

PalenQ

especially since it affects all 50 current postings, making them all hard to quickly read.

and don't take janisj or my suggestions as criticisms - we realize you didn't know and until janisj spelled it out i didn't realize what it could do either.

Mischka

AHH Janisj, thanks for clearing that one up for me, I've always wondered why that happens.

Thanks PalenQ, I don't have a problem with GENTLE corrections

So Freiburg and Lauterbrunnen seem to be good ideas, thanks everyone.

I can feel the fog clearing from my confused brain