schnookies

How long is the train ride, how much was it and how was it? We're thinking about trying to see Switzerland when visiting Paris. Would you recommend it and for how many days?

jelane

We traveled from Marseille to Geneva, Geneva to OB and spent four days in Wengen, I highly recommend it, it is a wonderful country, and the train system is excellent, we then took a train to Italy. I think the four days was plenty. I don't know how long the train ride is from Paris but there are some excellent posters on here to guide you.

Maudie

We spent 3 weeks touring Switzerland by train and loved every minute. The trains are always on time and very clean. Here is the website that will give you all the info you need. http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm

suze

I think the train Paris to Geneva is about 5 hours? I would only add Switzerland to your trip if you had at least 4-5 days to spare. I like the towns along Lac Leman outside Geneva myself... Lausanne, Vevey, Montreux. Annecy and Gruyeres are also beautiful in that general area.

gruezi

The TGV train from Paris to Zurich is 4.5 hours. To Geneva it is about an hour less I believe.

We sleep most of the way - something about that train just knocks us out. We love leaving Zurich at 7 am and being Paris for lunch!

Training in France and Switzerland is lots of fun. In Switzerland, lots of people pack a lovely picnic complete with wine and wine glasses and make the train ride a little party.

Switzerland is a small but very diverse country. So much to see and do, but it depends on your interests and how much time you have. Search here for Switzerland and you'll get a ton of great information!

If you like scenery, gorgeous views, hiking etc. you will not be disappointed. Come on down!

gruezi

schnookies

Thanks for some good info! Has anyone been to Locarno? I'd love to see the "typical Switzerland" whatever that is

kleeblatt

Schnookies:

Locarno is not typical Switzerland. It's the Italian part of Switzerland. Locarno has palm trees, no snow-capped mountains and a nice lake.

Typical Switzerland for first-timers should entail Lucerne and Titlis or Pilatus or Rigi and Berner Oberland. These places are beautiful and relatively easy to get to.

Get a map and start reading up on Switzerland so get a feel of the places and distances. What might seem close on the map is in reality farther away because of the mountains. Use sbb.ch (En for English) to map out your train times.

Use myswitzerland.com for more info.

Ciao, Tschüss, Ade and Auf Wiedersehen

gruezi

Some favorite towns you'll read about here on Fodor's are Wengen, Murren, Lauterbrunnen, Guarda and Grindelwald.

Embarassingly, I haven't been to any of them yet!

So much to do, so little time

gruezi