How many days in each place
 

Hello need advice on how many days are enough in each of these places as we have planned a 10 day trip ,
Zermatt, Black Forest & Lake Annecy? Also is it better to drive or take the train.

Who and how many are you?

What are your interests?

What time of year?

You need to allow travel time between each (half to a full day by the time you check in/out). So that means you only have 7 days max, less if you have to get to/from airport at the start/end of your holiday. Unless you have a preference for one over the other, perhaps just split it fairly evenly? www.sbb.ch/en and www.voyages-sncf.fr will give you train timetables. Your chosen destinations are not close.

You cannot drive all the way to Zermatt since the town is car-free. You have to park any car in a huge lot in nearby Tesch and take the train into town and then another train or one of the gondolas up to a viewing spot for the peak.

Frankly, I would not bother especially if you aren't skiing and if you went at that time of year you probably couldn't get many places to stay for under a week.

Black Forest and Lake Annecy are a good 250 miles from one another. Could you drive between the two? Certainly, especially if you flew into somewhere like Geneva.

OTOH, if you were willing to spend the night in nearby Brig you could find accommodation. However, the Matterhorn is often shrouded in clouds making viewing difficult so do you really want to go all that distance for a possible disappointment?

Thank you everyone for your responses.
We will be taking a train from Zurich to Zermatt, staying 2 nights in Zermatt & then planning to drive to Lake Annecy .

There are 4 adults, flying from LA to Zuruch & then taking a train to Zermatt.

>>> Also is it better to drive or take the train. <<<

What is your criteria of being "better?" If driving yourself is unconditionally "better", then there is no additional computation needed. However, if you want to consider the cost, realize that if you rent a car in Switzerland, but return in France, you pay a cross-border drop-off fee (Autoeurope says 220 CHF for an economy car) to the local rental company. This is in ADDITION to whatever you have been quoted as the "rental" part of the contract.

www.sbb.ch says the full price for Zermatt-Annecy train is 115 CHF. However, if you are traveling other segments in Switzerland, including high mountain transports, you would probably be using some kind of pass. In which case, many passes (I think except for the half-fare card) include trip into France up to Chamonix. In which case, Chamonix-Annecy is about €24. http://www.swisspasses.com/railpass/overviewmap_en.pdf

>>> We will be taking a train from Zurich to Zermatt, staying 2 nights in Zermatt & then planning to drive to Lake Annecy <<<

As previously mentioned, Zermatt is car-free, so it is not possible to drive to Annecy from Zermatt. I think the closest town you can rent is either Visp or Brig.

Zermatt - Annecy can easily be done by train via Martigny - Chamonix - La Roche sur Foron (very scenic itinerary).