vibhav

Hi ... We are a couple with a 5 year old son .. We are looking to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in Europe in June ...

Switzerland has to be on the list ... We are looking to go to the Bernese Oberland and Zermatt regions .... While we know that we can spend 16 days in BO and still not be enough, but we want to add one more area just for cultural and landscape variety ... looking at the europe map, not wanting to go to Italy for the third time just yet, and not very interested in France and Germany, we were contemplating Prague and Czech republic ... So planning for 10 days in Switzerland and 6 days in Prague and around ...

My husband is an avid photographer ... So we like to really take our time in a place, soak it in .. We are beginner hiking and beginner biking enthusiasts to allow our son to cope up ... we love to do some high "bang for buck" type of short hikes/bike routes ...

We have been on many many trips using fodorites advice ... So I would hate to waste anyone's time ... I have started to do my due dilligence of reading older posts and trip reports ... Once I have a better idea of the details, I will post a day by day itinerary for critique and feedback ... but before I get too deep into these regions, wanted to make sure that at a high level, this itinerary of 10 days for BO and Zermatt, and 6 days in Prague and Czech is do-able ... COuple of questions

- 10 days will allow for some key highlights and some relaxing time in BO and Zermatt regions of Swiss?
- 6 days will suffice for Prague and CZech country side?
- We are planning to do the trip between June 16th - July 3rd ... Any concers about weather, tourist crowds, snow, etc ??In both swiss and Prague
- Other regions of Swiss in that vicinity that should not be missed out by a photographer?
- From Zurich/ Geneva, driving or taking the train to Prague is a reasonable option? Any preferences?
- if we drive from Switzerland to Prague, we will cut across Germany I believe. Any MUST DO sights on the way that we should plan a day or two for?
- If you can help with any detailed trip reports/ posts that you have found to be useful in the past, for any of these places, then please let me know and it will help me get started with the details

Looking forward to having fun while planning a fun vacation ..

Thanks,
Sakshi

JeremyinFrance

If you drive from Geneva to Prague then you will have the flexibility to stop off in places like Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria, the Sumava region on the Czech/German border and Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. But you may well have problems taking a hire car into the Czech Republic (some companies allow it, others don't, or with certain models of car). Are you then planning to drive back to Switzerland? Dropping your car off in Prague would be an expensive option. You could buy a train ticket from anywhere in Germany to Prague for a very reasonable rate - as long as you buy in advance (2-3 months).
One great place, and largely unknown by interenational tourists, is the Teplice rock city. It is a national park full of weird shaped sandstone pillars. Brilliant for photographers and a five year old would love trying to see shapes in the different rocks (they are labelled as you walk around). I have some (not brilliant) photos here: http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/adrspach_...e_skaly_1.html

eurotrash

6 days is plenty of time for Prague and the surrounding countryside. I spent a week there and actually found it to be more than I needed to see the city (with 2 daytrips; to Karlstejn castle http://www.hradkarlstejn.cz/home1/ and the Sedlec Ossuary).

Dukey1

Ten days is MORE thasn enough time to do both the BO and Zermatt, IMO. You might want to at least consider spending some time along the shores of Lac Leman; possibly taking a scenic rail ride or two such as the Golden Pass route; consider visiting Lucern

vibhav

Thanks Jeremy ... We are looking to drive but are open to taking the train as well... We will fly into Zurich and probably fly out of Frankfurt or Munich ... So after we are done with BO region, we can take a train to Prague, then rent a car if needed and then take the car/ train to Frankfurt/Minuch ... So we are open to suggestions based on the best experience of fodorites..

Where I am struggling with is the Swiss railways website ... It does not show me a price option for a schedule right away ... it says that it wills end me an email later .. that makes it hard to do research and finalzie options ... Anyone else have this same issue or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks eurotrash ... Will research more on boht those places in czech ...

Dukey, we are definitely looking into more things to do in BO and Zermatt... We want to take it all at a leisurely pace but not too much and miss out some of the easy things to do ... We are looking at rail tours ... Is the Golden Pass route different from the Glacier express? I believe it is ... We were considering rising the express from Zermatt to Andermatt or someplace in between and then go back to Zermatt ... For a one day trip, we will not be able to get to St Moritz and back ... Not sure of the half round trip is do-able and if we see the best landscape or not ...