My husband and I are in Cologne on business until late afternoon of May 11 (Friday), then we have a week off for holidays. I have booked hotel for 3 nights at Paris from May 15, I will be heading home from Paris.
I would like to start with the Rhine river cruise on Sat, then get a rental car to drive to Zurich. I might stay in Zurich but after reading most of the posts here, Lucerne and Interlaken seem to be a better choice for Alpine experience. I basically only have 3 nights (12-14), is driving to Zurich a good idea? or should we just hop on a train? But renting a car for the 3 days is close to USD450 (not that it's any cheaper taking the train!) If taking the train, that would be 3 countries in 5 days?
If I just take the train and to Zurich (1 night) then off to Lucerne / Interlaken (2 nights). Is this a good plan? How far apart is Lucerne to Interlaken?
Any help would be MUCH MUCH appreciated.
VERY last minute travel plan ...... HELP
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About the only reason you might want to head to Zurich is to fly home from there which is not the case for you. What did you expect to find in Zurich?
You can look up time tables and the cost of point to point train trips at: www.sbb.ch
For train schedules in general, DB site is easiest to use: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query2.exe/en
I think you need to look at the map and place potential destinations to see how to connect them logically. For Rhine cruise, which section were you planning to do? Do you know that going south is going upstream and is the slower direction? For example, Mainz to Koblenz takes 6hrs but Koblenz to Mainz takes 8.5hrs
You can estimate car trip time, for example using the Google map. They estimates are optimistic, however. With a pressed schedule to big cities or a car free destination like this one, a car is likely to consume more time and cost than taking a train. But you have to plug in relevant parameters. You still have to travel back to Paris. How do you plan to do that from Switzerland?
More moving around than I would do in three days.
Why not the cruise then someplace relatively closer to Paris?
Bruges?
Not sure why you want to zip all over the place like that with only 3 days. Or why you'd want to go to Zürich. Or why you'd rent a car in country A and drop it off in country B (which will cost you big time).
Agree you need to consult a map and stick closer to Paris at the end of the trip - or just add the 3 days to Paris.