casperjj

We will be travelling to Switzerland for 18 days not including arrival and departure days in late July 2015. We are travelling with three children ages 7, 9 and 12. This is our second trip. Our visit two summers ago was for 5.5 weeks. Our base was then, and will be again, Basel. I know its not the most central location but we really like it. Plus, hubbie needs to meet a few clients while we are there. We do have three days (Friday to Monday) planned to visit Zermatt. Other than that visit, our days will start and end in Basel. We will travel by train. I'd love advice and suggestions for daytrips.

I guess I should mention the places we have been as I'm looking for new places to visit On our last trip we did day visits to:

Bern
Lucerne (one day to Mt Pilatus and brief exploration of the city and one day to the transportation museum)
one day to Rhinefalls, Schaffhausen and Stein am Rhein
one day to Rhienfelden (Augusta Raurica)
half day Zurich/half day Rapperswil (visited the Knie Kinderzoo)
one day visit to the Alsace region in France

We also took six days and visited Murren (3n), Vevey (2n) and Gruyere (1n).

We're open to a few longer trips. Hubbie would like to take a day to visit Geneva and I know that will be one super long day. So maybe another would be fine. Otherwise I'd kind of like to limit it to within 1.5 hours of Basel. Or with a stop along the way to break up the trip at least in one direction.

I'd love your thoughts and suggestion!

mokka4

Solothurn for sure and Zofingen! Click on my name for my trip reports to these towns last fall.

PalenQ

Comar France in the Alsace wine district and a wine town or city is a short direct train trip from Basel and Strasbourg is not much farther - Strasbourg is an extraordinary city!

Nancy, France is also close by train or car and to me is one of the nicest cities in France.

Freiburg in Germany is also a short train ride. So for a taste of Germany or France it is super easy and all of those are super nice places.

neckervd

Aar river boat: Solothurn - Bueren (small medieval center) - Biel/Bienne
Jura Lake boats:
Biel/Bienne - St. Peters Island - Neuchatel - Murten
Neuchatel - Estavayer - Yverdon-les-Bains

Some highlights in the area(not exhaustive list):

Region des Trois Lacs

Check also
http://www.dreiseenland.ch/en/leisur...s/cycling.html
http://www.neuchateltourisme.ch/en/l...s/cycling.html

This area has a lot of sights, like
entirely walled medieval town of Murten
http://www.murtentourismus.ch/en/welcome.cfm?
Roman amphitheatre and Roman Museum of Avenches
http://www.avenches.ch/en/page.cfm/siteetmuseeromain
Roman Villa of Vallon
http://www.pro-vallon.ch/allemand/mo.../mosaiques.htm
biggest Romanesque church of Switzerland and Monastery of Payerne
Nature Park of Grande Caricaie
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/dest...er-le-lac.html
http://www.bafu.admin.ch/dokumentati...x.html?lang=de
Medieval town and spa of Yverdon
http://www.yverdonlesbainsregion.ch/...ure_Patrimoine
Roman mosaics of Orbe
http://www.yverdonlesbainsregion.ch/en/orbe_region
Monastery of Romainmotier
http://www.yverdonlesbainsregion.ch/...nmotier_region
Castle and Menhirs of Grandson
http://www.yverdonlesbainsregion.ch/en/grandson_region
Menhirs and Dolmen of Onnens
http://www.onnens.ch/textes-1/dolmen...rthoud,38.html
medieval town of Neuchatel with castle, cathedral and many fine museums
http://www.neuchateltourisme.ch/en/decouvertes.html
Biel/Bienne with it's small but fine city center, good museums and a lot to see in the Lake Bienne area
http://www.biel-seeland.ch/en/discov...enne.1239.html
Medieval Bueren an der Aare with wooden brige over the Aar river
http://www.bueren.ch/de/inhalte/tour...anchor=1010025
Natural reserve of Altreu and it's storks
http://www.artenschutz.ch/AareAltreu.htm
Medieval town of Solothurn with baroque cathedral and many museums
http://www.solothurn-city.ch/topic2477.html
La Chaux-de-Fonds, capital of watchmaking
http://www.neuchateltourisme.ch/en/d...onds.1500.html

Gorges of Areuse, Seyon and Taubenloch

boats plying between Yverdon, Neuchatel, Murten, Biel/Bienne, Bueren and Solothurn
Cablecars Biel/Bienne - Macolin/Magglingen, Ligerz - Preles, St-Imier - Mont Soleil, Neuchatel - Chaumont
Many trains (the trains from Yverdon to Ste-Croix, from Neuchatel to La Chaux de Fonds and from Biel/Bienne to Tramelan bring you up to 1000 m of altitude).

neckervd

Geneva:
the train ride to Geneva takes just 2 3/4 hrs, trains every 30 min, once via Biel/Bienne - Lake Bienne - Neuchatel - Lake Neuchatel - Yverdon - Lake Geneva
once via Berne - Fribourg - Lavaux vineyards - Lausanne.
Both itineraries are scenic.

Copy from an oldr post:

LAKE GENEVA

"Geneva seems the least Swiss of Swiss cities."

I don't agree. Geneva corresponds in no way to the cliché of German speaking Heidiland Switzerland with a chalet for the cheese maker, a chalet for the watchmaker, a chalet for the chocolate maker, a chalet for the banker, surrounded by cows ruminating Edelweiss and Rhododendron (Alprose) in front of overseas tourist's trinity Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau.

Geneva with the Red Cross and Human Dignity Museum, the European UNO seat, the CERN, a lot of NGO's and Governmental Organisations, pharmaceutical, electronic an other precision industries, an old university and many famous scientific institutes is an integral part of Switzerland. It would be impossible to imagine Switzerland without Geneva. Poeple often forget that Switzerland is not a country with only ONE language and ONE culture (how boring!), but a Confederation of 26 cantons with their own governments, administration, laws, taxes, police...., a country with 4 languages and 4 cultures of equal value each one.

But I agree with Michel, Geneva is not a touristic must see place, unless you are interested in the stuff mentioned above or in the elegant historic paddle wheel steamers plying Lake Geneva.

May be therefore, some people don't realize that a journey from Geneva to Aiguille du Midi (12600 ft) in the middle of the glaciers of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain of Western Europe, takes less time (and costs much less) than a train ride from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch (11333 ft).

The whole Lake Geneva (Lac Leman in French) area has a very good tourist infrastructure (including luxury hotels and top restaurants with gourmet meals for 200-300 USD/pax) since the end of the 19th century. It's one of the sunniest places of Switzerland (together with the Cantons of Valais and Ticino). The most scenic part is between Lausanne - Vevey - Montreux - Villeneuve). The whole area is never really crowded, despite many day trippers from all over Switzerland.

Geneva has only 200.000 inhabitants (500.000 with suburbs), but the amenities of a big capital. People from all over the world (among them many Arab princes) fly to Geneva for shopping (and so).

Weather changes from year to year. Usually, the warmest month is July, with maxima around 30-32 and (noon) minima around 20 degrees. June is often more rainy.

Geneva airport is small but efficient. Local people use to arrive there from town (5 min by train, 20 min by bus) less than an hour prior to the plane's departure. Direct flights to almost all important places in Western Europe. Easyjet offers actually July flights to many European capitals for less than 50 USD (with 1 piece of checked in luggage).

Mont Blanc, the highest mountain of Western Europe can be seen from many places in town, from the Lake and from Mont Saleve, the "house" mountain, which can be reached by city bus and cableway.
Buses and trains from Geneva to Chamonix (2 hrs trip), from where you can go up to 3800 m by cableway (..cross the glaciers by gondola and go down at the other side to Courmayeur in Italy if you like).

Some places around Lake Geneva or not far away from it:

historic steamboats on Lake Geneva:
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/fileadm.../2013/3150.pdf
http://www.cgn.ch/eng/flotte

Blonay-Chamby historic railway:
http://www.blonay-chamby.ch/index-en.php

Chillon castle:
http://www.chillon.ch/en/

Gruyeres castle, cheese diary and chocolate factory:
http://www.chateau-gruyeres.ch/e/mul...spectacle.html
http://www.la-gruyere.ch/en/navpage-...FR-120085.html
http://www.lamaisondugruyere.ch/inde...=142&Itemid=56
http://www.lamaisondugruyere.ch/inde...=142&Itemid=56

Chatelard-Emosson (Mont Blanc area):
http://www.chatelard.net/english/pages/descr_e.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emosson
http://www.emosson.ch/PublicEN/default-en.htm

Zermatt-Gornergrat:
http://www.gornergrat.ch/home/index.php
http://www.klein-matterhorn.ch/photos/
http://www.zermatt.ch/en/index.cfm

Entirely walled city of Murten:
http://www.murtentourismus.ch/en/nav...nFR-99305.html
http://www.murtentourismus.ch/en/nav...-MurtenFR.html

PalenQ

http://outreach.web.cern.ch/outreach/

Geneva has something no other city has - CERN - and the home of the Haldron Collider which you can tour - well not the actual collider but the whole complex, in suburban Geneva straddling the French border.

Well not for everyone but for some something very special!

kja

You have tons of options, including those already mentioned!

FWIW, I would add the the Latenium (outside of Neuchatel) -- IMO, an excellent museum of prehistory that I would think would appeal to children, and could possibly be combined with Solothurn.
http://latenium.ch/en/

And if you make it to Fribourg, there's a small, but IMO interesting, museum of marionettes:
http://www.marionnette.ch

Thun is another option.

(I trust that you've seen the toy museum in Riehan, near Basel --
http://www.spielzeugmuseumriehen.ch
and the Paper Mill Museum in Basel -
http://www.papiermuseum.ch/en/the-museum/)

Hope that helps!

WeisserTee

You cannot see the whole of CERN. It's not an amusement park you can just walk around. What you can see is determined by what they're working on at the time.

I though the Roman ruins were in Kaiseraugst, not Rheinfelden. At least that's what I see every time I take the bus through Kaiseraugst.

Also, you really do not have to go so far afield to have an excellent day trip. From Liestal, you can take the bus to Reigoldswil; even though it's not in the Alps, it's one of the prettiest bus rides in Switzerland, taking you through scenic valleys and villages. Get off at the stop before Reigoldswil and walk into town. It's a wonderful walk.

Then walk through town to the gondolas at the edge, take them up and enjoy the great vista and scenic hike back down to Reigoldswil.

I'm in Vienna on holiday now but will post more details and some other daytrip suggestions when I get back home to Basel.

casperjj

Thank you everyone for the wonderful suggestions. I had thought of Cern but hadn't looked into it. I think my husband would really enjoy it but unfortunately, the website states that children under 13 aren't permitted so it will have to wait until a return trip when the children are older.

The Latenium looks very interesting. I'll add it to my notes for Neuchatel. We had planned to visit the area on our last trip but didn't make it. We will definitely visit once, if not twice, this trip. I'd like to take the boat and visit some of the smaller villages as well as Solothurn and Neuchatel.

Mokka - I had actually started to read your trip report quite awhile ago. Thank you for the link. I finished reading it yesterday and it was wonderfully written.

neckervd - I think we will take both routes. One to and one from Geneva. Thank you for the links! I have work to do

Kja, we have visited the toy museum in Rhien as well as the toy and paper museums in Basel. We may return to the paper museum as the children really enjoyed it on our last trip.

WT - you are indeed correct. The ruins are in Kaiseraugst. I was going from memory and was incorrect. We will check out Reigoldswil!

I think we will visit Strasbourg as well! We had a private guide and visited many locations on the Route des Vins last time but didn't have much time in Colmar. I thought we would return ... but maybe we'll visit Strasbourg instead I also want to visit the Black Forest. It was dropped from our last trip. My problem is that I've narrowed it down to three stops... but the train route between each is long and I really don't want to rent a car. I'd like a driver but the company I've contacted is very expensive. Does anyone have any suggestions? (I thought we'd visit Freiburg on our own and then visit Gengenbach and Triberg)

Thank you again!

mokka4

Loved Gengenbach, stayed there in an apartment for a week taking daytrips. Triberg is very small, not much to see beyond the (smallish) waterfalls with red squirrels, and the big cuckoo clock. The outdoor museum Vogtsbauernhof wad nice...

PalenQ

http://www.goetheanum.org/The-Goethe...33.0.html?&L=1

The Goetheanum - association with Rudolph Steiner and his followers is a special interest/ off beat site just outside Basel - never been there but some friends did - they loved it but they're into Rudolph Steiner too!

https://www.google.com/search?q=goet...=1600&bih=1075