olil

Hi! My husband and me are planning to visit Switzerland for the first time. We are flying from Manila, Philippines and we wanted to know which port of entry should we take so we can maximize our vacation. We intend to allot 10 - 15 days to this trip. Can you further suggest possible side trips we can take from Switzerland? We've already been to some major places in Italy, France and Spain and would appreciate it if you can suggest other places.

As a backgrounder, we are a couple in our mid 50's... and not too adventurous. We are still starting to do our readings about Switzerland and still couldn't say much at this point as we still do not know what to expect.

Any help and inputs you can extend to us will be appreciated. Tips for first-timers will be great as this will surely cover the must-do's and must-visit places in Switzerland, etc.

Thank you very much.

Lilo

nytraveler

You don't mention when you are planning to travel and that can make a big difference since Switz has long winter seasons and comparatively shorter summer ones.

Assume you are not interested in winter sports since you don't mention, so I would reco traveling in late May at the earliest to have pleasant weather and a very good showing of the beautiful pastures and wildflowers that make Switz so beautiful. The higher mountaintops will still have plenty of snow when you visit.

StCirq

There are loads and loads of guidebooks, videos, and websites that can guide your research. I suggest you avail yourselves of all of them and narrow down your choices. No one here can plan a trip that would suit you, as we all have different interests. So keep reading and come up with a plan, and people here will help you refine it.

If you want advice, it always helps to detail your budget (in the local currency), your interests, the time of year you're traveling, and for how long.

neckervd

...
You may have a look at

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html

What are your interests? In which month will you be there? From where will you come (directly from Manila or via another country?) and what will be your next destination?
...

PalenQ

for first-time visitors I highly recommend a visit to the fantastic Jungfrau Region around Interlaken which will fulfill the dream Alpine Wonderland of Switzerland that is perhaps etched in your minds; eyes-

- stay in a cute mountain village like Wengen or Grindelwald and be eyeball to eyeball with soaring glacier-girdled peaks rising thousands of feet above lush meadows - toylike trains and thrilling aerial gondolas go off in all directions:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jung...sm=93&ie=UTF-8

There are walks for all degrees of energy and a plethora of excursions to do, including boat rides on the two lovely Alpine lakes bookending Interlaken - each lake has several neat places to get off and look around and back on another boat. I'd suggest three full days here at least and then move onto say nearby Lucerne and then for something different head to the Lake Geneva area like Vevey or Montreux, perpetual favorites with Fodorites.

Montreux or Vevey offer several sweet easy day trips - again boat rides are nice on the lake and places like Gruyeres (classic old walled town) and the Broc Nestle Chocolate Factory for a Willy Wonkaesque type tour - be careful to not fall in the chocolate!

In Lucerne be sure to take the classic boat tour of Lake Geneva - to Fluelen and back from there by train - part of the William Tell scenic train (and boat) route.

Interlaken-Lucerne and Lucerne to Montreux you can take one of Switzerland's iconic scenic trains the Golden Pass.

Strongly consider if moving around a bit to say three different places the Swiss Pass which covers not only trains but lake boats, city transports and gives nice discounts off gondolas and trains to mountain tops. for lots of neat stuff on Swiss trains, lake boats, etc check www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com (check their online European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of Swiss itineraries by rail) and www.ricksteves.com.

The Jungfrau, Lucerne and Lake Geneva to me makes a perfect first-time initiation to gorgeous Switzerland.

traveller1959

Be aware that, due to currency exchange rates, Switzerland is by far Europe's (if not the world's) most expensive destination.

For mountain scenery, you might also choose Germany or Austria which are much less expensive. Just a thought to consider.

If it should be Switzerland I would fly into Zürich. From there, you have several towns in easy reach - Switzerland is small. Luzern is a neat historical picture-postcard town with a beautiful lake, easy access into the mountains (the Pilatus) and scenic boat rides.

Bern is Switzerland's capital and a beautiful historic city.

From Interlaken (which is rather insignificant) you have access to the Jungfrau mountain (as mentioned).

Basel has outstanding art museums, and more of them are nearby in Switzerland and across the border in Germany.

Obvios sidetrips from Switzerland are Alsace and Southwest Germany, with quaint historical towns like Staufen, Freiburg, Gengenbach and the Black Forest with unique scenery, traditional farmhouses, lakes, traditions and regional cuisine.

To put things in perspective: Every place I mentioned would be less than 2 hours driving time from Zürich which might serve as your hub from flying in and out.

PalenQ

Germany and Austria have nice Alpine areas but none so awesome IMO than Switzerland's Alpine areas - like the Jungfrau Region and Zermatt - many varied things to do besides Alps in the Interlaken area but yes it is more expensive than other countries but IMO oh so much more awesome in its Alpine areas - few areas have the plethora of mountain railways and gondolas going everywhere - you can spend days here - this is not to say Austrian Alpine resorts like Hallsatt or St Anton, etc are not nice just IME of seeing them all to me the Jungfrau Region is the best and also easiest way to see the Alpine Switzerland of most folks dreams.

marg

We had two weeks in Switzerland travelling by train and thoroughly enjoyed it. From memory we had five nights in Lauterbrunnen so that we could wander around the Oberland region, four nights in Lausanne (went to Montreux, Vevey and Geneva), four nights in Lucerne (Mount Pilatus and Mount Rigi) and finished with two nights in Zurich before flying home. The choice of destinations gave us a range of regions and beautiful countryside.

olil

Thank you everyone for your valuable inputs. We will be considering these as we map-out our travel itinerary.

Sorry I forgot to mention our travel dates. We will be arriving in Zurich 3rd week of October and have around 19 days to spare, excluding the flight dates from & back to the Philippines.

Here's our plan:

Stay in Switzerland for 5 days... We will just land in Zurich but will base ourselves probably in Interlaken, Lucerne or Bern.

From Switzerland, we intend to take the train to Salzburg for another 3 days...

from Austria, we go to Berlin and will be there for another 3 days...

Afterwhich we go to Prague for another 3 days

then go to Budapest for our last leg (3 days again) before we fly from there back to the Philippines.

Is this itinerary doable & practical? We would have wanted to check-out Brussels or Bruges for a day or 2 but we do not know where to put this in the route.

Your comments and inputs will be highly appreciated.

Comments will be appreciated...

Thank you very much

suze

I think you are trying to cover WAY too much ground in WAY too short a period of time!

Trying to see SIX countries (Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium) 17 days doesn't make sense. After you allow the time you need to move place to place (air, train, bus, car) you have less than 2 days per entire country.

PalenQ

Belgium and way off your itinerary as planned - way way off.

Kathie

Cut a couple of stops - at least. Remember that to get three days somewhere, you have to spend four nights. You lose at least half a day each time you change locations.

Belgium is way off your route, so cut that for sure. Because you forgot to figure in travel times, you have more days/night in your itinerary than you have for your trip.

nytraveler

Sorry - but taking your list of places I come up with 19 days in the cities plus at least 3 days for travel from one place to another. At the top you said yuo have 10 to 15 days (and is that full days on the ground or does that include the day you land an the day you leave)?

You really need to either turn this into a 3 week (plus 4 weekends trip) or cut several of your destinations.

As mentioned above to get 3 days in any city you need to have 4 nights there.

Suggest you lay out your itinerary a day at a time, listing where you will start, what travel you will do that days (and how many hours it will take) and where you will sleep. I think you will find that calculating in your mind you re double or triple counting some days.

Suggest a good map, a detailed train schedule and some discipline as to what you can actually do/see.

kja

I would strongly recommend that you get a really good guidebook or two, or consult several at a local library. Of the half-dozen or so I used when planning my time in Switzerland, I found the Michelin Green Guide and Rough Guide most useful. They will help you learn about your options, about the dramatic differences between Switzerland's main regions, and cover all sorts of things that you won't even know to ask.

Good luck!

PalenQ

photo copy the few relevant places in each of those guides so you need not lug around guidebooks but have several different takes on the few actual places you will actually be going.

traveller1959

>>photo copy <<

Ever heard of e-books? Welcome to the 21st century.

traveller1959

>>Stay in Switzerland for 5 days... We will just land in Zurich but will base ourselves probably in Interlaken, Lucerne or Bern.<<

Interlaken is the least interesting of the three cities, although it gives access to the Jungfrau. I would recommend staying in lovely Luzern (lake, Mount Pilatus, picturesque town) and take a daytrip from there to the Jungfrau on day with fine weather (weather cannot be planned).

>>From Switzerland, we intend to take the train to Salzburg for another 3 days...<<

The train from Luzern to Salzburg takes 7 hours, so a full day will be wasted. Honestly, I would skip Salzburg, because you will need five days for three days in Salzburg. Salzburg is nice, yes, but does not play in the same league as the other destinations. And everybody is right with saying you will cover too much ground.

>>from Austria, we go to Berlin and will be there for another 3 days...<<

If you skip Salzburg you can fly from Zürich to Berlin.

>>Afterwhich we go to Prague for another 3 days<<

No problem, the train ride is 4:28. You can even stop in Dresden for a couple of hours and see this splendid city (the attractions are in easy walking distance from the train station).

>>then go to Budapest for our last leg (3 days again) before we fly from there back to the Philippines.<<

Train takes 7 hours. Or you do something very crazy. You fly from Prague to Budapest via ATHENS! The fare is €116 and you see the Acropolis on the way! Or you fly with Pegasus and you see ISTANBUL! It looks crazy but it really works like that.

traveller1959

I entered a different dummy date and found a direct flight with CSA-Czech Airlines for €100. But isn't the flight via Athens tempting? (Athens airport is not far from the city centre)

PalenQ

I would recommend staying in lovely Luzern (lake, Mount Pilatus, picturesque town) and take a daytrip from there to the Jungfrau on day with fine weather (weather cannot be planned)>

No - it is a very long day trip by train and very very expensive - probably from Lucerne a couple hundred of bucks p.p. each way - and to me anyway staying in the awesome Jungfrau Region is the way to go - stay right up in the hills - making the Jungfraujoch train trip an easy few-hour ride up and down and cheaper than if from Lucerne (though investigate either the Berner Oberland pass if also staying in Lucerne - which is neat - a few days there and 3 or so in the Jungfrau Region is what I would recommend - Swiss Pass may be the best best, depending on what you want to do - also two lovely lakes bookending Interlaken and each is superb (as is Lake Lucerne) - so many varied things to do in the Interlaken-Jungfrau Region! Lucerne to me for the average tourist is good for a day in it and a day out on the lake or going to Mt Titlis or Mt Pilatus (though if going to the Jungfrau Region these places you will probably not nearly find so AWESOME in terms of an Alpine Wonderland - Engleberg comes close but is a relatively small area compared to the much more vast Jungfrau area - to me the absolute highlight of Switzerland for novice travelers to head for and public transit there is so so neat.

olil

Thank you all for your inputs. In the meantime, I will do my homework here and will be back to this forum soonest.

Looking forward to a memorable trip. With all of your travel tips, I'm almost sure we can come up with a great itineray!

Again, thank you very much.