Hello,

I'm going to visit Switzerland in November this year and would appreciate some input from you guys. This would be my first time in Europe. I am flying in to Zurich from LAX.

I do not want to make too many hotel shifts during my stay, two or three places would be ideal. For each of these places, I can use them as a home-base before moving to the next one. Would Zurich, Lausanne and Lugano be good home-bases?

The places I would like to see would be the beautiful towns/cities and nature. I realize 10 days is not enough. That being said, what would be some places to not miss out on?

I plan to use public transportation throughout my trip, will look into getting train tickets/passes.

Any other input/advice? Thanks for your help.

First the bad news: November is a bad time of year if you are looking for picture-book Switzerland scenes. It's between summer and winter seasons - foliage is over, trees are bare (except evergreens, of course), the green grass has probably already turned to grey-ish/brown-ish. Many hotels in mountain towns/villages are closed, many cable cars/mountain railways as well, only a few boats will operate on the lakes. There might be snow or not, the clouds may hang low, the cities and towns in the flat lands are probably grey and dark. Daylight hours are short also. Expect rain/snow.

The good news: no crowds for obvious reasons. Lower prices for accommodations in mountain towns (if you find something open, though).

It's definitely the wrong time for outdoors and nature except you are fortunate and have a couple of the rare sunny days.

Lugano is probably a good idea because the weather is usually somewhat better in southern Switzerland in November - although I've seen a week with heavy rain and mud slides there in November also. So no guarantee. But if you're going early in November you might catch the last days of foliage season there and might luck out with some beautiful, sunny days.

I would not stay in Zürich. Better go to Lausanne - surrounded by mountains, smaller and more charming overall IMO.

Lausanne? Montreux or Vevey would by my favourites in that area. Smaller, more charming, closer to the mountains/nature.

A Swiss pass would be a good option IMO as you will probably do a lot of day trips and move around quite much.

I.

zatrams:
I took a chance last year from October 30-November 7th and had the best weather imagineable in Switzerland--You just can never tell! I stayed in the small, beautiful town of Rapperswil, just 30 minutes by train south of Zurich...I would highly recommend staying in this or another small town (close to Zurich if you wish to investigate that city more), as it will be much cheaper.
If interseted, click on my name to read more about my solo travel last Fall.

Thank you, Ingo and mokka4 for the great feedback, this really helped manage my expectations. Sorry it took me a while to post again.

I mostly had the Thanksgiving week in mind for this trip, so from the feedback I received on here, it probably means that visiting Switzerland during that time would probably not be such a great idea?

Would Italy, France or Spain (or any other country in Europe) be a good choice, given that I only would be able to travel during the Thanksgiving week? Please advise. Mokka4, I'll look through your travel section, that will be helpful for me.

Never been to Europe and I really would like to do a nice trip this year.

Thank you for your help.

I plan to use public transportation throughout my trip, will look into getting train tickets/passes.>

great info on Swiss transports and railpasses and things like the Half-Fare Card and Swiss Card (which offers everything the half-fare Card does and could be a better deal for some itineraries), Swiss Transfer ticket and such - www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com - if buying passes check prices in both US dollars if in States and Swiss francs for buying at stations in Switzerland - past several years typically same pass has been cheaper here rather than there but those things constantly change so what has been true often may not be true today

As for passes consecutive-day passes are often the best deal as they cover all or most of your transportation from get go to get gone - like the 8-day consecutive pass but you will be there 10 days - put one day of rest in landing city and a day in departure city before flight and use 8 days in between - I always have a pass and always use it much more than I previsioned - with pass you just hop on no tickets needed on most trains, boats, city buses and trams and also get free entry to over 400 Swiss museums - of interest in the often foul weather during the period you are going, unfortuantely.