Swissdreamer

Planning a trip first week in May of this year flying in and out of Geneva to spend a few days with our daughter studying abroad their this semester. We will be spending a few days doing excursions with her most likely at the beginning, have never been to Europe and have a limited budget but anxious to see as much as possible. Want to see some typical sites such as the Alps also would be interested in the Ticino area maybe. We are planning on ending our last leg of the trip in Paris taking a train back to Geneva to fly home.
Question is do we stay at a couple of places and day trip?
Do we rent a car exclusively or Swiss pass or a little of both.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated not an experienced traveler, most excursions we do are local so this is a big deal for us and do not know if and when we will be able to return again so want to get the most bang for our buck.

Michael

Why Paris, aside from the fact that it is a city to be seen? How do you plan to get from the Ticino to Paris? One day in Paris is not worth it.

I would skip Switzerland and travel in France exclusively. If you insist on seeing Paris, do a round trip, which can easily be done without covering the same sites: for example, going to Paris via Burgundy and the eastern Loire valley and coming back to Geneva via the Champagne and the Jura. If you do rent a car for such a trip, make sure that you rent it out of the French side of the Geneva airport so that you do not have to pay a cross-border drop-off fee. You can use kemwel.com as your base for car rental costs.

The alternative is to forget about France and concentrate on Switzerland. In that case, public transportation might be preferable.

PalenQ

Switzerland for the tourist and what the average tourist wants to see IME is best done by train and public transports simply because the Alpine Swiss Wonderland etched in our minds' eyes exists in places like the Jungfrau Region, by Interlaken and cars are banned from penetrating this awesome Alpine area of snow-cappd peaks, glaciers, thrilling aerial cableways and scintillating tiny Alp climbing trains - for a great 3-4 day place to go head to Interlaken and then up to dreamy villages like Wengen, Murren, Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen and base there and explore this area with a myriad of multi-varied offering, including neat boat rides on the two lakes that boo9end Inter-Laken. And a 4-consecutive-day Swiss Saver Pass would be a great deal IMO to go there from Geneva and trek around once there (also 100% valid on lake boats and many mountain trains and gives 50% off things like cable cars to mountain tops, etc. - You could lovingly hop the fabled Golden Pass specialty scenic train from the Geneva area (Montreux) to Interlaken. Anyway if opt for Switzerland then check out these fab sites IMO to help plan the rail part and understand passes and things like the Half-Fare Card, Swiss Transfer Ticket, Swiss Card, etc - www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com - check www.sbvb.ch or Swiss Federal Railways site to compare ordinary fares to the pass - I like a pass because I can just hop on any conveynace practically in Switzerland without having to get a ticket, etc.

Swissdreamer

Thank you to both of you for your suggestions and input. As much as I agree about Paris our main purpose of the trip is to visit our Daughter who is studying in Geneva. We are planning to spend a few days with her break off and then end our trip with our last night back in Geneva to say farewell and I realize I put the wrong date in we will arrive the first week in April not May. I would love to check out the Interlaken area would it make sense to forgo the Ticino area? We also have not booked any hotels hoping to stay within a $150 a night budget so do not now if we get a better deal staying somewhere as a jumping point or keep hotel hoping. As far as Paris goes I do not see how I can be so close and not at least get a glimpse of Notre Dam and the Louvre. So trying desperately to fit it in.

PalenQ

Ticino area is much much farther removed from Geneva than Interlaken area - you can get to Interlaken in a few hours but it would take an all-day marathon riding trains to get to say St Moritz and then have to come back to Geneva.

PalenQ

For the average first-time visitor the Interlaken area a k a Berner Oberland or Jungfrau Region will much more fulfill the dreamy vision of Switzerland you expect to see than Ticino, nice as that area is but it does not offer as many dramatic Alpine scenes and again is much much farther removed from Geneva - all day on a train each way

Swissdreamer

thank you for your honest and prompt insight I am trying to rethink my route and looking into the other options of Interlaken. Any suggestions of where to stay bed and breakfast, hotels?

PalenQ

In Interlaken itself there are lots of budget accommodations that simply do not exist much in most Swiss cities - I've had hotel rooms for $35 with breakfast buffet and there are also B&Bs - I'd suggest Googling the Interlaken Tourist Office as they have a compreshensive listing and booking for all hotels, B&Bs, hostels, etc.

Many folk want to stay in remote villages like Wengen - and this will cost quite a bit more and I'm not saying it may not be worth it - but on a low budget Interlaken abounds in very affordable and IMO nice places. I've stayed in several different hotels and guest houses in Interlaken and always have been pleased. I am espcially fond of one guesthouse run by Walter and will try to track down the web site.

Swissdreamer

Thank you we are on a pretty tight budget which is why we were thinking of renting a car for it appears to be cheaper then the train pass but at this point I am leaning towards the pass and also thinking of not going to Ticino and traveling more in the Oberland Interlaken area