Matt2Vacation

We will be taking our teenagers (16, 16, 18) to attend a leadership camp in Geneva in July of 2013. They will be spending a week at the camp and then joining us for an additional 5 days ending up in Munich where we will catch our flight home. While they are at camp we (my wife, my cousin and myself, all 40-ish)

What we have is really two trips in one, the first with three fit adults, the second with teenagers.

I'm looking for suggestions for both sides of this trip. Obviously since we are ending up in Munich at the end, we will visit parts of southern Germany.

If money wasn't much of an obstacle, where would you make your base(s) of operations without kids for seven days in Switzerland. Also, with the kids, can you make suggestions on an itinerary between Switzerland and Munich, with taking a side trip up through Austria a real possibility.

We have traveled to Europe many times before but have not been to this area at all. We are very comfortable with either renting a car or using the public transportation.

I know that what I've asked is a totally wide-open question with millions of variables, but I'd like to see what suggestions come from you folks who have been there before and what you'd do if you were me.

swandav2000

Hi Matt2Vacation,

Will you be dropping off the kids and picking them up again from Geneva? Or will you be meeting somewhere else in Switzerland?

If you have to go Geneva - ?? - Geneva, I would recommend something like this:

Mountain resort (Zermatt or the Jungfrau region) x4 days
Montreux x 3 days

For the trip from Switzerland to München, I would recommend at most two stops, and I guess one of them has to be München for at least one night before you fly out. So I guess you could visit Zell am See or Hall in Tirol or Kitzbühl in Austria, or Lake Constance, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, or Mittenwald in Germany.

Have fun as you plan!

s

Matt2Vacation

Thanks swandav2000.

We are dropping the kids off near Geneva and will also be picking them up there as well.

Any suggestion for a town for a layover between Zurich and Austria?

Thanks again!

PalenQ

can you make suggestions on an itinerary between Switzerland and Munich, with taking a side trip up through Austria a real possibility.>

Well the fantastic Jungfrau Region above Interlaken is the essence of the galcier-drenched Alps of Switzerland etched perhaps in you and your kids' minds' eyes - a lovely place to spend 4 days or so and an easy enough train or car ride from there to Munich.

Trains in Switzerland are fantastic so consider taking the train - especially if in a place like the Jungfrau Region where cars cannot even reach many of the highlight spots - for loads about Swiss trains I always spotlight these IMO superb sites - www.swisstravelsytem.com; http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id3.html; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com. Strongly look at a 4-conseutive-day Swiss Pass if going by train will cover all your trains to places like Wengen or Lauterbrunnen or Murren, Grindelwald, etc and also get you to the German border en route to Munich.

swandav2000

Hi again,

Hmmm. Not sure what you mean. Do you mean a town in Switzerland or one in Austria? Are you now going Geneva - ?? - Geneva - Zürich? Have you decided on your Switzerland itinerary?

I guess the town of Lindau on Lake Constance would be a good stop-over between Zürich and Austria. But really it only takes 5-6 hours to travel from Zürich to your destination in Austria, and you'll lose more time by having an overnight stop.

Have fun as you plan!

s

PalenQ

Yup Zurich is so so close to Austria - to reach souther Germany you at most go thru a narrow slice of Austria - Lindau is a wonderful town in any case - on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Constance - from Zurich a neat way to reach Lindau is to take a train to a ferry across the Boden See (Lake Constance) to Frederickshafen (sp?) and then go by train (or car if driving) to nearby Lindau.