PalenQ

where to sleep overnight & budget places to stay>

If on a budget then Interlaken IME has the widest array of budget accommodations I've ever seen in Switzerland - much much cheaper than cities like Zurich, Lucerne, Bern and Basel IMO - and besides budget hotels there are also hostels of all types if into that.

MLF611

PalQ, you apparently missed my post about the new hostel in Basel that offers many amenities and design features you'd find in a 4-star hotel.
http://www.youthhostel.ch/en/hostels/basel-st-alban

That aside, if the OP is traveling on business, the employer/client may be willing to put OP up in a hotel from the day of arrival. If the work trip is extended, the OP may be staying in a serviced apartment. Basel has a variety of those.

kakijalan

these are excellent, excellent recommendations!
TQ all

PalenQ

MLF611 - yes I did. Looked at the hostel site you gave and it seems nice.

PalenQ

On Saturday, I'm going from Bern to Brig (taking the scenic train that goes via Kandersteg), then to Zermatt (it might even snow!), then home.

Yes the very very scenic route that most tourists now miss with the new Lotschberg Tunnel that has you in a tunnel all the way from Fruitigen (sp?) to Visp - missing the great Alpine scenery of the old rail route that went by the much shorter old Lotschberg Tunnel - especially neat is the descent down to the Rhone Valley as the train snakes along the cliff edge with the valley thousands of feet down

So folks going between say Interlaken.Bern and Brig/Italy can still take this old route by transfering at Spiez (I would think) and ending up in Brig an hour later than if taking the all in tunnel route - but seeing the type of scenery that you came to Switzerland for in the first place.

Now with the new Gotthard Tunnel punched thru travelers on the Zurich to Lugano/Milan line in some years will also tunnel under the gorgeous Alpine scenery - soon rail travelers can transit Switzerland without seeing nary an Alp.

Slow down IMO and take the old route between Spiez and Brig - via the Old Lotschberg Tunnel - regional trains run regularly over it.

MLF611

The ride was pleasant, but the weather was rainy and misty so you didn't really see much. There were some snow flurries in Kandersteg. From Bern, we did not change trains in Spiez, it stopped there but no change required.

Brig was a pleasant lunch stop. The ride to Zermatt was very interesting - especially to see the slate topped roofs on all those houses. They look like patchwork quilts made of stone.

Best of all, it was snowing all day in Zermatt! We walked around the town in the snow, then stopped in the bar at the Hotel Pollux for some pinot noir.

Today I went to Geneva. Note: Swiss trains do NOT always run on time - just outside Nyon we came to a sudden halt. The train manager announced that a flock of sheep had wandered onto the tracks. The police managed to get them back into their pen and as the train finally went past, they were all looking very pleased with themselves.

It was windy today in Geneva - the lake was quite choppy, the swans were bobbing up and down, they looked almost seasick.

FWIW, the ride from Basel to Geneva is one of my favorite "regular" train rides (as opposed to the rides designated as scenic like the Golden Pass, Bernina Express, etc), especially in the fall. The fall foliage along the hillsides was in full color, the hills of vineyards around Biel/Bienne, the lake vistas, it's well worth taking.

PalenQ

Note: Swiss trains do NOT always run on time>

Yes in decades of rail travel in Switzerland that is one fallacy that if repeated enough folks will believe it - that Swiss trains run like clocks - always on time - but they are also IME never really late and with two trains an hour to most places you never have to wait long when changing trains.

rkkwan

The Swiss have some cushion built into their train timetables, from the train riding experience of yk and I last month over 8 days from one end of Switzerland to another. This means they can be often minutes late in the middle of the trip, but then make up time and make it to the final destination on-time.

One extreme example is our regional train from Celerina Staz to Tirano over Bernina Pass. The train was almost 20 minutes late when we got on (which is just the first stop from its origin - St. Moritz 3 minutes away), but we got to Tirano on-time or a minute or two early.

But if you're trying to make a tight connection in an intermediate stop, you may miss it. For example, the train we took from Lucerne to Bern was 4 minutes late getting there (the train continues to Geneva Airport). At Bern, there was a possible 4-minute connection to get on another train towards Interlaken, which would be missed in this case. [We already planned on stopping over in Bern, so didn't really affect us.]

In another case that I observed at Arth-Goldau, a Cisalpino train heading from Zurich down to Milan didn't depart until about 3 minutes past the schedule time when they kept waiting for customers hurrying towards the train. [Cisaplino is joint Swiss-Italian venture.]

Switzerland is definitely not Japan, when they run Shinkansen train sets as little as 6-7 minutes apart. There, they have very little leeway to delay trains, and one find many platform attendants there to make sure people get on and off quickly so the trains depart with no delays at all.