I am planning a trip to Switzerland in mid-July with my wife & 16 year old daughter. We're spending 3 days in Dublin, then flying to Zurich, where we will be spending 6 days with car rental. Zurich, Bern & Geneva are possible target destinations. Any helpful suggestions?

I would not miss Luzern, and I find Geneva to be very expensive.

Just wondering why you are focussing on cities when Switzerland's main attractions lie in the countryside, mountains, and small towns.

At least base yourself in Lucerne if you want a city. It is strategically located for wonderful lakeside and mountain excursions.

Instead of Geneva proper, I high recommend the towns of Lausanne, Vevey, and/or Montreux (approx. 1 hour outside Geneva by train right on Lac Leman). They really give you a much better impression on Switzerland imo.

Geneva is a big boring urban setting more appropriate for business than pleasure, again just my opinion.

I'd visit Lucerne for a couple of days as mentioned above and then head to The Bernese Oberland. Lauterbrunnen makes a good base. From there, you have many options to occupy your time for 4 days.


http://www.magicswitzerland.com/bernese_oberland.htm

Agree - you need to get to the tourist towns and villages up in the mountains. Zurich is primarily a business city - stay in Lucerne instead. Geneva has a cute old town but you might be better served in a smaller town along the shores of the lake. And I would definitely do one of the town in the Bernese Oberland versus Bern - which IMHO is quite boring. (I know other disagree, but we spend about 6 hours there once and it was plenty.)

Thank you all very much, your imput has been quite helpful