I will be in Switzerland in April and I'm looking for a nice place to stay for one or two nights in the Alps. I'll be spending the weekend in Lucerne visting friends before flying from Basel to Prague and I'm looking for a semi-romantic hotel in the mountains (hopefully close to Basel or at least in between Lucerne and Basel) to spend Monday and Tuesday nights before heading to Prague. Not sure if it will still be ski season but I'm looking for a remote place that won't completely ruin the budget. Any suggestions?

I'd head to the Interlaken/Grindelwal area - bout 2 hours train ride from Lucerne via the Golden Pass route and the Brunig Pass - one of the most scenic trains in Switzerland - spend two nights in what to me is the essence of the Swiss Alps - Grindelwald sits at the foot of dramatic glacier-girdled peaks and then it's not much longer from Interlaken to Basel as it would be from Lucerne.

Author: bettyk ([email protected])
Date: 09/14/2006, 11:23 am
We recently spent 3 nights in Lauterbrunnen (in May) and loved it also. We stayed at the Hotel Oberland with a balcony overlooking the street and those amazing mountains! We never heard any noise from the funicular construction though we could see it when driving past. I think the rates at the Silberhorn and Oberland are comparable as I checked both before our trip.
Plenty of trip reports like this from Fodorites - just search for Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen (near Grindelwald and high up near the high Alps)

There is a great hotel in Interlaken named The Beau Rivage. The staff is so nice and helpful (my family had an incident where our laptop was stolen in a different Swiss city and they helped us file police reports, etc.) and the city of Interlaken is just breath taking. There is the water on one side, and the mountains on the other. Beau Rivage is highly recommended!!

The countryside between Basel and Lucerne is not particularly mountainous...hilly at best. You could either head north into Germany to stay in the Black Forest (not Alpine mountains, but still pretty) or go beyond Lucerne.