Hello, and thanks for your patience in advance

I'm trying to plan a solo trip to Switzerland. My thought is to visit Bern. Having read as much as I can find online about Switzerland (and having read the Fodor's Switzerland guide), I'm drawn to Bern for some reason.

My goal is to not only see interesting things, but to try to get some feel for what life is like there.

So, my current plan is to fly from my city (Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas) to Frankfurt, then take a train to Bern. My trip would have me arriving in Frankfurt Nov. 11, and leaving from there Nov 18.

As I'm traveling alone, and hopefully don't plan to be spending a lot of time in my room, I was thinking about staying at BernBackpackers.ch (hostel).

My main question is, should I try to go places other than Bern? I thought perhaps I would come back to Frankfurt a day early and explore a little.

I'm open to lots of advice and suggestions.

Thanks!
Michael

Have you considered flying into Geneva instead of Frankfurt?

Do you think there's enough to keep you busy for an entire week in Bern? I'm not sure about that.

From Bern you could easily take a train down to the Lac Leman area outside Geneva (Vevey/Montreux)? I can recommend Riviera Lodge in Vevey as a good hostel both near the train station and right on the lake.

Consider training down to Interlaken and the BO area. It shouldn't take long to get there. It's a great destination in summer and winter.

Hi MT,

From Bern you can visit Interlaken (1 hr by train) and the mountain villages.

It's only an hour to Luzern.

Two hours to Colmar.

Trains schedules, prices and tickets are at http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm

Enjoy your visit.

As suggested Geneva might be a better place to fly. Bern is a easy train ride from Geneva. Two options for excursions really stand out; from Geneva it is an easy train or bus ride to Annecy in France which is a lovely city to visit and from Bern the Berner Oberland beckons. I don't have much experience with Bern itself (I based in Geneva) but the trip I've outlined is one I took; from DFW to Geneva with side trips to Annecy (one night) and two nights in Lauterbrunnen Valley which has to be one of the prettiest places on earth.

Bern is a) a city I like a lot, b) an excellent base for day trips in all directions. I see nothing wrong with being based in Bern for a week.

Don't neglect the Swiss Railpass which even for a few trains can be a great bargain. Especially if you want to go from Bern to the Interlaken area (the highpoint of Switzerland for most tourists IMO) or to Lake Geneva, etc. I always give three great sources for anyone considering a Swiss rail adventure: www.swisstravelsystem.com links you to several great sites, including the sbb.ch or Swiss Railways for schedules and normal fares as well as lake boats, specialty scenic trains like the Golden Pass which you could take from Interlaken/Bern areas to Montreux on Lake Geneva, buses, etc.; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteurropetravel.com - the latter two sites have lots and lots of objective content on Swiss trains and passes - more than just the usual list of pass prices and an option to add to cart button. Swiss Passes are sold in Switzerland but last i checked were significantly higher than thru U.S. sources for the exact same pass. (Compare pass prices in $ on the two above sites with prices in CHF (Swiss Francs) on the sbb.ch official Swiss Rail site. My research has concluded that a Swiss Pass for most is better than a Half-Fare Card, etc. But if you are only going from the German border to Bern and back and nothing else then point to point regular tickets is your best bet. But though nice as Bern is the beauty of Switzerland is in the hills, like in the Interlaken-Grindelwald-Wengen areas IMO or in Lucerne, one of the world's most exquisitely scenically located cities.

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I'm looking into Geneva flights now. There appear to be no air carriers that go direct from DFW->GVA, so I would likely have a brief stop in UK on the way.

From what I can tell, the overall cost is the same, and the travel durations are about the same. So I have to choose between these options:

Direct flight to Frankfurt, then train to Bern
- or -
Flight to UK, then to Geneva, then train to Bern

While I was kind of interested in the train ride from the first option, I think I prefer Geneva as I could take a couple of days on my return trip to spend IN Geneva.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One more question (for now )

Is a full day trip to Interlaken/BO enough time, or should I overnight there?

I certainly want to experience as much as I can, but without rushing or missing perhaps the more subtle experiences that come from just "being around" for a while... if that makes sense.

Hi Michael - I used to live in Dallas, so I'm very familiar with the European flights from DFW.

I highly recommend taking the nonstop DFW-FRA. Nothing beats a nonstop, esp when the alternative is changing in London (and are the incoming and outgoing flights gonna be from the same London airport?)

The ONLY reason I would connect in London is IF I'm staying in London for 1-2 days. But since you only have 7 days total for your trip, a layover in London is a waste of your time.

Other good daytrip destinations from Bern which I would recommend are Fribourg and Solothurn - the former has a lovely old medieval quarter and the latter some beautiful Baroque architecture.

I have friends living in Vevey-Montreux so have flown there from Seattle 5 times over the past 10 years. I use British Air thru London, then transfer at Heathrow for a London/Geneva connection and it works out OK.

That's not to discourage you from going nonstop to Frankfurt, if you are actually interested in seeing that city, and/or don't mind the longer train ride to get to Bern.

Geneva's a huge city and pretty boring imho. But the airport is GREAT and the train station is right there (connected to the airport) so is extremely convenient & user-friendly. I love the towns outside Geneva along Lac Leman of Lausanne, Vevey, and Montreux.

www.rivieralodge.ch

I used Lufthansa to fly to Geneva (non stop from DFW to Frankfurt and then a short flight on to Geneva). If you are flying American Airlines then they will flip you on to British Air in London to go to Geneva. Flying might be easier, and cheaper. The train from Geneva takes, if I remember correctly, maybe an hour and a half to reach Bern (its 157 km according to google maps). Frankfurt is 425 km from Bern. I am sure Bern would make just as good, or maybe even better, base than Geneva but if all things are otherwise equal I would suggest flying to Geneva and then training to Bern. And, please go see the Lauterbrunnen Valley (or other areas in the Bernese Oberland). To fly all that way and not go seems such a shame.

I agree that Bern is a very good base for exploring Switzerland. Also, it is not as touristy as other cities/towns in the country and will give you a good idea for the locals' everyday life. I have stayed for five nights in Bern some years ago and loved it.

November is pretty dull/dead in the mountains. I wouldn't stay overnight in Interlaken - Bern is close enough to the mountains IMO and Interlaken is not *that* beautiful.

As for the flight - I highly recommend to fly nonstop. The train ride Frankfurt - Bern is not too long. If you buy the Swiss Pass in advance (that could be a little tight for timing) you only need to buy a ticket to Basel SBB from Frankfurt (and back) and can use the Swiss Pass from there/to there.

You'll certainly come back a day early to Frankfurt just to make sure you are on the airport in time for your flight back. You never know what happens during the train ride!

Beside the day trip(s) to the mountains I second the ideas of Fribourg and Solothurn - both very interesting and beautiful. Another idea is Luzern, maybe Lake Geneva (Vevey, Montreux with castle Chillon). On the trip back to Frankfurt take an early train and break up the trip for a few hours in Basel - I like this small city a lot. Plenty to do there, search for related threads here.

Have fun!

Ingo

I'm super pleased with the responses!

Everything suggested sounded good.

Thus far my plan is the non-stop to Frankfurt, and train to Bern.

Given Ingo's suggestions regarding the weather, I'll probably just do a day to Interlaken. However, I checked with the BernBackpackers hostel and they say the availability is good; so I may not reserve all days there (and instead just handle things on a one to two-day basis).

Now if I could just figure out whether to fuss with all the camera/laptop gear or instead take one point and shoot + pen and notebook

Oh and regarding train, it appears I can get a Swiss rail pass (2nd class) for about $315, and if I understand correctly that price will affect my Frankfurt -> Bern trip significantly (reducing it to $25 per way).

Who knows. Hopefully the people in Germany and Switzerland will be kind to a clueless American

Within reason I assume that I can't make too bad decisions if I try to stay flexible.

Gimmelwald, in the BO area, has a hostel that I've heard nothing but good things about. We stayed in an apartment right next door and visited with several people who were staying there. You can't beat the scenery. It sits right on the edge of the mountain overlooking some of the tallest of the Swiss Alp peeks.

Personally I would leave the laptop & fancy camera gear at home. Traveling around by train, solo, for only 7 days, and you already know basically where you'll be going... I don't see the point in hauling the extra weight or having to worry about safety of expensive possessions.

I have found the people in Switzerland to be kind and helpful, but also because the country is so dang organized it's pretty easy to figure things out regardless.

I can recommend Wengen for your BO portion of the trip. It is in what is called the "pleasure zone" so gets a good amount of sunshine. In BO quite often things close up in October and November before the ski season begins in December so you may have to work a bit to find accomodation. Still, if the weather report looks sunny, I'd head there for an overnight.

In Bern there is the Paul Klee Museum and I love the Kunstmuseum Bern as well.

There are weekly markets in Bern that are quite interesting, but you'll have to check the schedule. There is an onion festival coming up that is supposed to be charming but I'm not sure when you arrive.

The walk across the river to the bear pits is actually quite pretty.

I recently started working in Bern, but unfortunately my office is just outside the city so I don't get to see as much of the things I used to like to visit. I do notice large pieces of ancient wall that have been built into the train station and some of the restaurants underground there. I think this is some sort of UNESCO preservation and I've been meaning to look into that.

I have noticed you can't take a bad photo in Switzerland and usually the hotels have a computer you can use to check email. Leave the big equipment home, travel light, and be ready to change hotels if the weather is nice.

Enjoy!

gruezi

If you want to really see the famous Swiss mountain scenery you should go beyond Interlaken which is a jumping off point to get to the mountains. From Interlaken take the train to Lauterbrunnen which is on the valley floor (there are hostels and campgrounds with cabins) and if you like you can catch the trains to Wengen or Murren in Lauterbrunnen. Or, from Interlaken take the train to Gimmelwald.

In my trip, for whatever help it provides, I stayed two days in Lauterbrunnen, walked the foot paths among the dairy farms to Staubach Falls, visited Murren and rode the cable car up to Schilthorn. I think you would have to spend at least one night to truly experience the location but I can't believe that any of the towns, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Murren or Gimmelwald would disappoint if you chose to spend a night. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauterbrunnen

Oh, and I agree with Suze, the Swiss are very helpful and most speak very good English. Plus, everything is very nicely organized esp. transportation. Even so, if you are lost a bit, just ask and you will be quite impressed by the amount of time the average Swiss citizen will take to make sure you are not lost.