My wife, 2 daughters (8 and 10), and myself will be spending the 3rd week of July in the Lauterbrunnen Valley this year. We have a list of day trips and half day trips that we want to do based off of location and weather so I think we are pretty well set there. But we have not book our final night yet. We need to be at ZRH by 10:30 or so and would like something with in a hour train ride maximum. We tend to be budget conscious travelers when it comes to lodging as we like longer stays not fancy hotels. But for our last night, we would like to splurge a little and treat the kids to something unique. We were thinking of Berggasthaus Aescher but it's a bit of a stretch to ZRH and the lodging is closed for 2017. Maybe a castle converted to a hotel? Any and all ideas are appreciated.
Thanks
J

Just to add to the criteria, nothing modern. Thinking medieval village center, cobblestone streets. Hotel Adler in Stein am Rhein looks good but also a bit of a stretch to ZRH.

If you sleep at Aescher (Wildkirchli), you will have good chancess to miss your plane.
If you leave Aescher at 7am and take the first gondola down to Wasserauen, you will arrive at Zurich airport railway station at 9.41

Take a look at www.appenzell.ch/en/home.htm - a very traditional town with lots of character. There's bound to be some lodging that qualifies for your wishes.

Also google Appenzell and search for images, then enter Appenzell in YouTube. If you like what you see, go for it.

If you can get there the day before in time to go up on the Säntis, even better:
https://saentisbahn.ch/en

To get to the airport by 10:30 you have the following options:

Lv A. 07:38 ar ZHR 09:16
Lv A. 08:00 ar ZRH 09:41
Lv A. 08:30 ar ZRH 10:11
Lv A. 08:38 ar ZRH 10:16

Forgot to mention: For trains see www.sbb.ch/en

OOPS - omitted the l at the end of the URL, make that

http://www.appenzell.ch/en/home.html


Sorry!

<i> Most unique / best place to stay within 1hr from Zurich with kids
Posted by: jlm43 on Feb 12, 17 at 11:19am</i>

Consider Zug, a beautiful little town on the Zuger See with a magnificent mountain across the lake. Frequent trains take you to Zürich Flughafen in under an hour.

Thanks for the tips. Zug definitely looks like it might work. Aescher is definitely out and they are remodeling the rooms this year and lodging is not an option. Appenzell looks like an amazing town but still a little far for what we want to do.

We do have the 8 day travel pass and plan on leaving Lauterbrunnen early in the morning so we can enjoy the town we stay in for the last night.

Thanks again
J

What about Konstanz, the the passenger boats hub on Lake Constance (boats to Reichenau Island and Abbey - Stein am Rhein - Schaffhausen/Rhine Falls, Unteruhldingen Celtic Lake dwellings, Mainau Island subtropial gardens, Meersburg medieval castle, Friedrichshafen (aircraft museums), Bregenz (gondola to viewpoint Pfaender), Rorschach (cog wheel railway to Heiden), Romanshorn (commuter trains to St. Gallen Unesco site monastery and medieval city center).....?

Direct trains from Konstanz to Zurich airport every hr (journey time 1 hr).

Neckervd, Those all look great! It makes me want to make it a 2 week trip. Any lodging recommendations in Konstanz? There is 4 of us but 2 rooms could work also. Maximum budget for the last night is $500. Obviously less is better but that is what we have to work with if the place is worth it.

We looked at Stein am Rhein but logistically it was pushing it to make it to the airport on time. Konstanz is on the list and so isn't Zug. They both have the direct routes to ZRH making it a little easier especially with 2 kids. Being able to get the Germany stamp going to Konstanz would be awesome.

Stein am Rhein - Zurich airport by public transport:

Stein dp by train 8.06 - Zurich airport ar 9.08, change at Winterthur (same platform)
Stein dp by bus 8.28 - Zurich airport ar 9.38, change to train at Frauenfeld (same platform)
Stein dp by train 9.06 - Zurich airport ar 10.08, change at Winterthur (same platform)
etc. etc.

Thanks again Neckervd, I was using Google maps and for the transit times. It is now obvious that I should be using the SBB timetables. With that, I think Stein am Rhein just moved to the top of the list.