After 2 weeks in Italy & Bavaria we leave from the Zurich Airport at 10:30 am. Can anyone recommend an interesting place to spend our last night? Someplace quaint and throughly Swiss/European, yet easy to get to the airport by 7 AM. No chain hotels. We will have a car. Is Bern to far? What about Konstanz am Bodensee?

Bear in mind that Zürich has rush hour traffic like American cities. If your flight leaves at 10:30, you will need to be in the line to check-in well ahead of then. I suggest a full two hours of lead time to make the check-in and security procedures something less than a hectic push.

We flew home last year from Zürich on Delta and the line at the check-in counter was quite long. Security itself was not the problem it is in the US. We were checked rather thoroughly however.

On the other hand, the Delta counter was not as heavily "employeed" as one might expect. The line moved fairly slowly, but everyone got through and we left relatively on time.

Also the airport in Kloten can be a little tricky to find! I have found it by car once, but we did not turn the car in until the morning we departed and we scouted out the place the evening before.

Given that there is a train station right in the airport building, you could stay elsewhere and take a train directly to the airport.

Why not stay in Zürich itself?. Trains from the main station in Zürich run frequently, more than 3 per hour and they start early in the morning.

The ride to the airport is less than 15 minutes. You arrive by train in the deep basement of one of the two main airport buildings. You can then take an an elevator up to the main floor. Then you may need to cross the street and go up a floor to the check-in counters.

As I recall Swiss Air has one building; other airlines have counters in the other building.

We spent last Friday night in Zurich before our 10:45am flight home on AA. We stayed at Alstadt Hotel just a block from the water. Beautiful setting, great location. We had a double for 220 CHF which is about $175. USD.

The hotel has a quaint bar and a great breakfast included in the price. The rooms are spacious enough. You can get non-smoking rooms but the hotel and most all restaurants allow smoking inside which really surprised me.

Oh, the airport is about a 15 minute drive from there. We got to the airport at 9:15am and had no trouble getting through all the security checkpoints in time.

One poster on Fodors raves about this place which is 10-15 minutes North of the airport. I would have considered it myself, but I wanted to stay in Zurich since I'd never been there before.

http://tinyurl.com/3bxqkk

I fly out of ZRH at least twice a year. I have enough status with UA that my gold star alliance card allows me to check in at the first class counter, no matter which class I am flying. If I were flying coach, I would allow time for a longer line. If I recall correctly, UA has only about 4 people working the counter. The check-in location has changed recently, since Swiss is now part of the star alliance. UA and Swiss are in the same terminal.

Once you clear security, you will still have a bit of a walk, plus a shuttle out to your remote terminal to your plane (depending on the airline). There are signs telling you to allow 15 to 20 minutes to get to your gate.

Shops in Kloten airport are very tempting! You need to build in extra time if you want to have a look, because you still have that long walk and tram ride ahead of you.

I would agree with scouting around the airport the night before, so you know exactly where you are going. There is a gas station right at the airport for that last minute fill-up, but it is on the way OUT of the terminal, if I remember correctly. DH usually drops me off, with the bags, at our departing terminal, and then goes to fill up the car and drop it off.

We always stay at the Seidenhof Hotel, which is just a block off the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. It probably takes us 20 minutes to get to the airport. You really have to WATCH THE SIGNS closely, leaving Zurich. You almost have to "know" where you are going because it's confusing at best.

Carol

I forgot to suggest the thought of turning the car in the night before, and then taking the train from ZRH main bahnhof out to the airport. That way, you do not have to worry about getting lost or getting stuck in traffic. Just a thought...

Carol

Why not turn in the car the day before? It simply doesn't make sense to drive from Zürich city to the airport. Take the train there - it is easier.

Where will you be coming from, Italy or Germany? What month and day of the week is your overnight in the Zurich area. How much time would you have to spend the night before, would you plan to arrive just for a late dinner or would you have a whole day to spend? What will you have seen on this trip, i.e. there is not a lot of sense to me is staying at Lake Konstaz if you will have been to Lake Como or other Italian lake areas on this trip. Have you ever been to Switzerland before? What car rental company are you renting from? All this would help me give better advice. It may be possible and a lot easier for you to drop the car off the day before in Zurich or even another city and train in to the airport from there the morning of your flight.

Bern and Lake Konstaz would each be about 1.5 hours drive from the airport, so they may be a bit farther than you would want to drive in the morning AND drop off a rental car all before a 10:30 am flight.

'Very much agree with the folks who advise that you turn the car in the night before, stay in Zurich near the train station, and take the train in. This avoids the extra car hassle in the morning, and the train is a very easy, direct route.

Just in case you're still interested in Budman's recommendation, here's a Bulach website link. I actually look forward to my night before a flight. There are early morning buses from a block or two from the Zum Golden Kopf, but if you intend to keep the car until departure morning, the drive should be easy. I don't remember any traffic along the country roades that the Bulach/Kloten bus route follows.

http://www.buelach.ch/cgi-local/sfc....tadt/intro.htm

J.