We find ourselves with an awkward interval in Geneva at the end of this month as we splice together two very different. halves of a 6 week long trip: arriving GVA at 1530 on day 1, and departing GVA at 0700 on day 3. So 40 hours in Switzerland, or 2 nights and one day. The sun will rise about 0800 and set about 1800.

We are not charmed by Geneva. We will not have foul weather walking kit with us. The weather will be unpredictable. We like trains (which have a tendency to be warm and dry when the weather is not.). We like having our picnic with wine and cheese on trains ....

idea #1: after landing, clearing customs, etc take a train to a “mountain town” — Lauterbrunnen? Gruyeres?, ???) for the night. Next day take a scenic train ride and return to an GVA airport hotel. This seems less than optimal as we would have a scramble after landing, would probably arrive at our mountain town after dark, and would be hauling our carry-on luggage.

idea #2a: book 2 nights at the GVA airport hotel. Not charming but .... I assume we will have Geneva cards to facilitate going into the city for dinner if time and weather (and flight delays) permit. Then on our full day in Switzerland — perhaps having armed ourselves with picnic food and drink — do an epic scenic train and bus ride — without luggage — commencing at daybreak and ending at sunset, so about 10 hours, a circular route from Geneva.

(Idea 2b: just make a day trip to Gruyeres, Broc, etc and do the cheese and chocolate thing. We prefer looking at jaw-dropping mountains while nibbling our picnic and sipping our wine, to watching food making demonstrations, if pressed for time).

(idea 2c: instead of train-riding in Switzerland, make a day trip to Annecy, Chamonix, etc)

We like idea #2a better than #1. A Saver Day Pass — purchased on the next few days — would be CHF 70 each (unless there is a Senior discount) which is not bad for a day’s entertainment.

The questions are thus: are we insane to prefer #2 to #1, and if not — if #2 makes sense — what route would you suggest to optimize scenic-ness (is that a word?)? Note that when we backtrack along the lake to Geneva, that could be after dark, effectively giving us a couple more hours of travel time.

Thanks for your thoughts.

EJZ (currently in blustery N Wales)

“Geneva hate?” I did not realize that stating “we are not charmed by Geneva” implies hatred.

We do not “hate” Geneva but have spent time there in the past and do not feel compelled to spend more time there.

I am not targeting Geneva for “hatred.” There are other cities we have visited and feel no yen to return to (eg, Paris, Copenhagen, Bangkok) And, on the other hand, there are cities we enjoy returning to again and again (eg London, Stockholm, Kyoto)

YMMV. Peace.

EJZ

Thank you to everyone for taking the time and effort to write thoughtful suggestions.

Much as we love long long scenic train rides and mountain towns, going only as far as Vevey makes sense, and sounds more appealing than the larger Montreux. We will want a quiet evening anyway after a day of travel. We will hope for brilliant weather on Saturday Oct. 26.

We will spend the second night at the iBis GVA hotel as our 0700 flight to Israel means arriving at the airport at 0500 — more easily done with a 10 minute walk than a 1.5 hour train ride.

Assuming our flight from Portugal arrives on time at 1530, I assume we will need a hour to clear the entry formalities and thus will be heading for a train at 1630. Is this a good estimate?

And we would like to store our Roll-aboards and take only our day packs to Vevey. Are there luggage storage lockers in GVA? If not, we might resort to taking our bags to the iBis hotel we will use on the second night, though this will be a further time sink.

Next task: find a modestly priced hotel in Vevey for a Friday night, easily reached from the trai station, and then make two plans for Saturday: fair or wet?

thank again.

EJZ

Again, thanks to all for the “brainstorming.” We now have better direction and quite a bit to research for our “awkward time” and so I suppose I should be hoping for stormy weather tomorrow in Wales so we are forced indoors and on the Internet...

We also need to curb our tendency to try packing four days worth of activity into a single day “because we are there!” ;-)

Neckervd — can you say more about our Chamonix options for a day trip? And if the weather is foul in the Vevey/Gruyeres region, is it likely to be fair in Chamonix? Or are the weather patterns deeply intertwined?

Again, thank you!