My friend and I (2 women who love to shop) are going to Switzerland. We plan on staying 4 or 5 days in Zurich and then would like to move to another town, but have no idea where to go. What about just staying where we are and taking train trips. Any suggestions? I was also wondering about the possibility of travelling to Salzburg. Is that doable by train?

I'd recommend Lucerne and going around the area on daytrips (Jungfrau, Wengen, etc.). I don't know about the Salzburg question, though.

We took the TransAlpin train from Zurich to Salzburg. It departed Zurich at 9:30 AM and arrived in Salzburg at 3:29. It is a particularly scenic trip, and very nice. We actually stayed in Zurich last summer for 5 days and enjoyed it greatly. We took train trips from there to Basel one day, to Schauffhausen and the Rhine Falls, then a boat up the Rhine and into Lake Konstanz and a train back to Zurich for another great day. We also spent five days in Lucerne, but you could even stay in Zurich and easily do that as a day trip if you prefer staying put. Many people will tell you that there is nothing great about Zurich, and yes, Lucerne is more "picturesque", but Zurich is a very nice city and if you love to shop, you will find plenty of that.

If shopping is your main focus, I would suggest as well to visit Luzern and Bern. Both are easy to reach from Zurich, and both are beautiful places to visit.

You mean you folks are going to Switzerland and are not going to see the Alps? <BR> <BR>Why go to Switzerland? There is cheaper shopping elsewhere because Zürich is a very expensive town run by bankers! <BR> <BR>As for the Salzburg trip, it takes 6 hours. The scenery to me is not that great, just a long ride in a valley. <BR>But, I was coming from the Interlaken and the Grindelwald area, so what I saw was lower on the scale. (A day or two before we had been on Schynige Platte.) <BR> <BR>The trip is long enough that you could not come and go in one day and have any time to see much in Salzburg. <BR> <BR>Oh well, as an investment counselor told me once, when I told him I was not buying his plan, "Its your money." <BR>Indeed it was; and your trip is not mine.

Al, I think you have summed it up when you say that it is not your trip. It is not mine either, but I suspect that from the original post these two women are not that interested in seeing and experiencing mountains. I preceded my stays in Lucerne and Zurich with wonderful longer stays in Zermatt and Grindelwald, for the second time in each town, but I don't think that is what these two ladies are looking for. Believe it or not some people go to New York and don't see theatre. Some people go to Paris and don't do museums. Some people go to Vail or Aspen and never ski. To each his (or her) own. <BR>Or am I misreading your post, mr? If so let us know what other things you might be interested in. And after my original posting I started thinking that maybe what you two would like would be half in Zurich and half in Salzburg? I assumed you weren't talking about Salzburg as a day trip.