ayc

My friend and I are planning a trip to Switzerland and France in early August. Here's the itinerary:
Day 1 - arrive at Paris in early morning, ride train to Avignon and stay a night
Day 2 - day trip around Avignon for lavender fields
Day 3 - leave Avignon and ride train to Geneva, stay at Geneva
Day 4 - leave Geneva for Zermatt and stay a night there
Day 5 - leave Zermatt for Grindelwald, stay at Grindelwald for 3 nights
Day 6 - day trip to Jungfrau region
Day 7 - day trip to Murren
Day 8 - leave Grindelwald for Luzern in the morning, stay at Luzern
Day 9 - leave Luzern for Basel, mainly visit art museums then ride train to Colmar (takes less than a hour) and stay at Colmar
Day 10 - Leave Colmar and go back to Paris, stay at Paris
Day 11 - Catch a plane at Paris and go home

We'd appreciate any advice and tips for the above plan We've been to Paris and Southern France and the trip to Avignon is mainly for the lavender blossoms, therefore we don't plan to stay there long and go to nearby places. As for Colmar, it seems to be a lovely spot to stop by on our way back to Paris... Not 100% sure it worths a day in such packed schedule.
Please let us know if the plan is feasible

Thanks very much!! 

jamikins

I actually dont think lavendar is still in bloom in August, its usually mid June - mid July I think so you may be disappointed.
http://provenceproperties.typepad.co...ime_to_se.html

kenav

Sounds like a lot of traveling around Switzerland. Perhaps think less places and more time in each. You'll be spending so much time just re-packing, checking in and out of hotels, and taking transportation to and from.

neckervd

Zermatt deserves more than only half a day. You can go from there to the highest cableway station of Europe (Matterhorn Paradise), to the highest open air cog railway station of Europe (Gornergrat), all just a few miles from the highest mountains and glaciers of Switzerland.
If you plan a whole day for Muerren, you should plan at least 3 days for Zermatt.
Jungfraujoch is fine if the weather is fine and if you like to travel with the (impressive) most expensive mountain railway of Europe and stay with hordes of tourists from overseas. The views to Concordia Square and the Aletsch Glacier are tremendous, however (like those from Matterhorn Paradise to the Glaciers of Switzerland and Italy)

1 day is not enough for Avignon (even if the lavender will no longer be blooming).

In early August, the world biggest Picasso exhibition will just have closed the doors in the Basel Kunstmuseum.

Gretchen

Why not just fly to Switzerland. This sounds like a tiring trip.

Gretchen

Have you been to Paris and Provence a lot--"seen it all".

ayc

Thanks a lot for ur replies! I'd love to go earlier than August, unfortunately the spots to take leave in July are full
We've been to Avignon and Paris 2 years earlier (in May) and visited the places we wanna go I guess lavender is kinda the only reason we go to Avignon again. I understand early August may not be the best time... but I read that it's likely we can still catch *some*.
Our flight options are quite limited.. Either we fly in from Paris, Zurich or Milan...
One option is to forgo France altogether and just spend those days in Switzerland...
Is it possible to have 2 bases in Switzerland only and visit Zermatt, Interlaken & Jungfrau region and Lucerne?
Having a hard time to pick

Edward2005

Can you fly into Zurich and then depart from Paris? It would save a lot of back-tracking.

Zermatt and the Interlaken area both offer essentially the same thing: great mountain views. Maybe do one and not the other. There seems to be more to do in the Interlaken area than near Zermatt. From Interlaken you can make day trips to Berne.

neckervd

As the distances between the "places to visit" in Switzerland are seldom bigger than 20 km, you can find a lot of bases for day trips during a week or so. The best places are railway hubs in scenic landscapes and with extremely small distances between affordable hotels in quiet pedestrian zones and main railway stations.
At Berne, even the Youth hostel matches these criteria, at Lugano, it's a hostel.

A good example for a nice queit historic place within 30 minutes by train from 3 climate zones and 3 language zones is Brig, a good base for day trips to the highlights of the Swiss Alps:
Zermatt/Matterhorn (1 1/4 hrs by train)
Riederalp/Aletsch Glacier (1/2 hr by train and cableway)
Saas Fee (1 hr by train and bus)
Loetschental (3/4 hrs by train and bus)
Crans-Montana (1 hr by train and cablecar)
Stresa/Lago Maggiore (1 hr by train)
Isola Bella botanical gardens and castle/Lago Maggiore (1 1/2 hrs by train and boat)
Berne (1 hr by train)
Interlaken (1 hr by train)
Lake Geneva/Chillon castle (1 hr by train)
Milan (1 3/4 hrs by train)
Sion castle and cathedral with the oldest playable organ of Europe (3/4 hrs by train)
Martigny Roman theatre (1 hr by train)
(Brig -) Domodossola - Locarno (- Lugano): very scenic railway line with brandnew panoramic trains
http://maggioreevalli.ticino.ch/15/c...=45689&lang=it
http://www.lagomaggioreexpress.com/
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/tr...ina/1657309114

ayc

Thanks for your tips! Now we've (kind of) changed our plan completely to stay at each base for 1 or 2 more days:
day 1 - arrive at paris, train to colmar and stay
day 2 - visit colmar, train to lucerne and stay for 2 nights, plan to visit basel +/- zurich
day 4 - leave lucerne for grindelwald and stay for 3 nights, plan to visit wengen, murren..
day 7 - leave grindelwald for zermatt and stay for 3 nights
day 10 - leave zermatt at noon, back to paris via lausanne (will be arriving at 8pm) and stay for 2 nights
day 12 - go home...
What do you think?

neckervd

Basel is just in the middle between Colmar and Lucerne.
If you make day trips from Lucerne to Basel and Zurich, you will have no time for the visit of Lucerne and central Switzerland.

Gretchen

Well, I think you have a 10 day trip to Switzerland. I love Switzerland, but have usually found that I like the mountain scenery more than the pristine cities that have a bit of a sterile feel to me. I know--that's me.
You have sort of traded Paris and Provence for quite a different feeling trip, in my opinion.