Free week, where to use it?
 

I have been given a certificate for a free week at a marriott and would like to go to Switzerland/Austria.
I'm not used to spending a whole week in the same town and would appreciate any input on which places would be the best for day trips out of the city. There are hotels in Zurich, Vienna, & Salzburg.

Unfortunately, your title is not clear. (I only opened the thread thinking you were asking about a time share swap somewhere) "Free week, where to use it?" could be asking about anywhere in Europe.

I'd re-post w/ a title something like "Free week at a Marriott. Our choices are Zurich, Vienna, or Salzburg. Which would be best/why?"

In my opinion, the city with the most daytrip options is Zurich, followed by Salzburg, then Vienna.
Within 1-2 hours in any direction from Zurich, you have a vast array of scenic alpine drives/trains and pretty little towns.
If it were me, I'd get a Swiss rail pass and not spend too much time in Zurich.

I agree totally with platzman, both in the order of preference for daytrips from the three cities, and in the idea of getting a Swiss pass.
But Zurich is a pleasant enough place to come back to each evening. And if you really wanted to, you could easily pack a few things and do one overnight somewhere a little further afield. After all the hotel is "free" anyway, and you could leave the bulk of your luggage there.

I with Patrick, Zurich sucks! (I'm only kidding). However - Zurich is quite a nice city - clean, safe, efficient, and really nice. At the same time there is a lot more to Switzerland than Zurich - In fact I'd go on to say that Zurich is far more German than it is Swiss (less German than Basel though). If you are in Zurich, take a day trip St. Moritz, the Boden See (Lac Constance to the Swiss), Locarno, Zermatt - heck, try to get to Montreux or even Geneva. Also try Gstaad or Neuchatel. Being in Zurich is great because you are "sort of" centrally located, by that I mean that you are in the heart of the Swiss rail network which brings all of the major cities in Switzerland to within three hours by train.

To give you one example -
You can take the ICN (the faster more luxurious inter city) or the IC (still very fast and luxurious, but not as cool looking as the ICN) from Zurich to Geneva in about 3 hours. There are departures every hour I think. This means that you could board a train at 6AM, have breakfast, sleep on the train and wake up in Geneva to walk around and visit, and take a late evening train back.

Hi All,

Just to add some thoughts to elmothehobo's post -- the train ride from Zurich to St. Moritz is about 3h21; the trip from Zurich to Zermatt is about 4h10; and the trip from Zurich to Locarno is 2h57. I think the trips to St Moritz and Zermatt are far too long for a day-trip, and a day-trip to Locarno is really pushing it.

Personally, I would skip Switzerland this trip and save it for the time when you could really experience the best it has -- the countryside and the mountains. I think Salzburg is a great town for excursions; I spent a week there and took excursions to Innsbruck, Zell am See, and Kitzbuehl (all under two hours). I also spent a day exploring the downtown and a day walking the hills above town. It's a delightful place.

But if you did decide to go to Zurich, here are my picks for daytrips: Basel, Luzern (worth at least two day trips -- one for a long ferry ride and one for the mountains), Rapperswil, Zug, Solothurn, Biel, Appenzell, Stein am Rhine, & Chur (all under 2 hours).

Have fun!

s