New Years in Switzerland
 

What town would you spend New Year's in in Switzerland? We have 2 night and will be coming from Germany. Looking for best town to explore and celebrate New Year's Eve. Considering Lucerne, but a friend mentioned that it is probably not great at that time of year. TY

I'm curious, what did your friend say is wrong with Lucerne? It's a beautiful city, I think it would be perfect.

Don't sell Zurich short. It does a great celebration along the lakefront. The old town is beautiful. Lots of restaurants will have New Year's special dinners.
https://swissormiss.com/2023/switzer...f%20the%20year.

Stay within an easy walk of the lakefront. Hotel options could include Motel One (best for a moderate budget), Sorell St. Peter (a 10 min walk to the lakefront and located very close to one of our favorite restaurants in Switzerland: Bindella). If you can splash out for a luxury hotel, there's the Mandarin Oriental by Paradeplatz, Widder in the Altstadt, the Hyatt just a very short walk from the lake. I would choose a hotel with a restaurant.

Much as I love our home city of Basel, not so sure how it will be for New Year's. There are murmurs about getting rid of the fireworks displays.

Lucerne sounds fine too, lots opportunities to get views of the festivities right from your hotel room. OTOH, if you prefer something more intimate, Gstaad does a nice NYE celebration with surprisingly good fireworks and no mob scene. There are some less expensive hotels/restaurants in town, it's not all 5-star luxe. Here's a video from the most recent:

Note: if you decide to celebrate in a ski resort like Gstaad, you need to book ASAP. For example, there is only one moderately priced hotel in Gstaad within walking distance of the fireworks and that has vacancies for a short stay (Dec 30 - Jan 2). And they only have four rooms left. Of course if you're willing to spend a whole week, you'll find more vacancies (and much higher prices). In resorts like St. Moritz and Zermatt, the rates will be as high as the mountain peaks.

My friend said it's beautiful in Lucern and she enjoyed a boat ride but thought it might be tough in winter when the weather isn't so great.

Thanks for coming back to answer my question, I appreciate that. Does your friend think the weather will be better in another part of Switzerland? With all due respect, I still can't make any sense of that,and I would not hesitate to visit Lucerne at that time of year.

We've visited Switzerland often in the winter, and in my experience, it can be foggy and dreary near the lakes, whereas at higher elevation the skies can be beautifully blue.

We tend to spend most of our time in mountain towns, but for NYE festivities, I'd imagine you'd want to be in a city.

I guess it depends on what your idea of a nice NYE is...city celebrations?

Some ideas here:

https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/...ik=newyearseve

Melnq8, now it makes sense, thanks.