Renting a car in Swiss trip
May 30th, 2024, 02:00 AM
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In April, I took a visiting friend to Wengen and Gstaad (her choices). The scenery itself was not closed for the season 
but almost nothing else was open. My friend was able to get lots of photos. We did find a beer bar still open in Wengen and of the dozen or so people there, one was another mutual friend from Basel! Switzerland is such a village. The train ride to Gstaad was scenic; after we arrived, we took a long walk and had an early dinner at Rialto, one of the few restaurants that was open. Bonus: it snowed heavily in both places while we were there (friend is from Arizona, so she loved the snowfall).
However, we stayed in Thun instead of a mountain village. Everything in Thun was open and it's an easy train journey from there to the mountains. So maybe you could stay there and daytrip to get your Alpine experiences. It's also easy to get to Bern from Thun. For the Bernese Oberland and Zermatt, you definitely do NOT need a car. There are some pretty drives in the Gstaad area and in the Valais but ... you can't keep your eyes on the road and on the scenery at the same time. When a friend drives us to her chalet near Nendaz, it goes up a wonderfully picturesque but steep and twisting road; we have to keep reminding her to focus on the driving and to not constantly try to point out the best vistas.
but almost nothing else was open. My friend was able to get lots of photos. We did find a beer bar still open in Wengen and of the dozen or so people there, one was another mutual friend from Basel! Switzerland is such a village. The train ride to Gstaad was scenic; after we arrived, we took a long walk and had an early dinner at Rialto, one of the few restaurants that was open. Bonus: it snowed heavily in both places while we were there (friend is from Arizona, so she loved the snowfall).However, we stayed in Thun instead of a mountain village. Everything in Thun was open and it's an easy train journey from there to the mountains. So maybe you could stay there and daytrip to get your Alpine experiences. It's also easy to get to Bern from Thun. For the Bernese Oberland and Zermatt, you definitely do NOT need a car. There are some pretty drives in the Gstaad area and in the Valais but ... you can't keep your eyes on the road and on the scenery at the same time. When a friend drives us to her chalet near Nendaz, it goes up a wonderfully picturesque but steep and twisting road; we have to keep reminding her to focus on the driving and to not constantly try to point out the best vistas.
Last edited by WeisserTee; May 30th, 2024 at 02:22 AM.
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