Switzerland and Austria?
 

Is it possible to see Austria and Switzerland in 10 days? What is a good intra-country airline to use? Is there an itinerary you would follow?

You cannot see it all in that time but you can make a good dent. I would plan on only 3 destination---the Berner Oberland, Luzern, and the Salzburg area. Fly into Zurich and home from Munich. Sorry, you do not have time for Vienna.

Oh good Heavens 10 days is not enough time to see just one of these countries, much less both. You could see some parts of each country but please do some research and decide what you want to see most. I'm a huge fan of Salzburg and Innsbruck in Austria and Lucerne and the BO in Switzerland. But without knowing your interests and priorities it's very hard to make a suggestion. Maybe if you give us more info about your interests we can help.

You asked about intra-country airlines. I don't know if any such airline exists but these countries are so small I don't see how flying would be a time-saver.

You need to get some guidebooks and travel videos/DVDs so that you get some idea of what these two countries are all about.

Then figure out what you want.

Mountains? Cities with lots of history and cultural events and architecture and fine living? Rolling country-sides with views of distant high mountain chains? Lakeside relaxation? French as the local language? Italian as the local language? And with the languages come the regional foods and customs etc. - which are you after?

Will you want to drive? Take trains?

Ten days will not even let you scratch the surface of one of these two countries that each have all of the above to offer in spades (well, Austria has no French-speaking region...).

Trains in Austria are at www.oebb.at, in Switzerland at www.rail.ch.
For planes look to mobissimo and kayak and for budget flights see www.skyscanner.net and www.whichbudget.com.

Switzerland has three international airports, BSL and GVA and ZRH, Austria has two, VIE and SZG

These are small countries - but have a lot to see. In only 10 days you will need to be very selective - and we can;t do that for you since we don;t know your interests.

Air travel makes no sense at all. If you're doing just 3 larger town then train travel makes sense - but in that area we always do road trips so we can stop as the moment seizes us to see a cute town or a waterfall or walk up a path tht looks like it leads someplace nice.

We are in our 50's and enjoy arts, architecture and local culture. But also appreciate small town enviroments. Not lake side-sitters. We live on a lake in norhern Michigan. We can drive or take a train. Have done both in other parts of Europe numerous times.
I have started reading and researching the area but I always appreciate the experience of other travelers to give opinions and some insight.

With only 10 days, I would recommend the following. This itinerary would probably work best with a car, but you might check it out using the train.

Day 1 Arrive Zurich - Drive to Stein am Rhein
Day 2 Visit Schaffhausen and Rhein Falls; overnight SaR
Day 3 Stein am Rhein to Hall in Tirol, Austrian Alps
Day 4 Visit nearby Innsbruck; overnight Hall
Day 5 Hall in Tirol to Konstanz on Bodensee
Day 6 Visit Mainau Island; overnight Konstanz
Day 7 Konstanz to Lucerne
Day 8 Mt. Pilatus; overnight Lucerne
Day 8 Boat ride on lake, etc; overnight Lucerne
Day 9 Lucerne to Zurich
Day 10 Zurich

Hi,
I agree you can't (well anything's possible!) see both in 10 days. In my opinion, If you choose Switzerland, use public transportation with a 10 day Swiss Pass. If it's Austria, we like having a car. We like Zurich airport for Switzerland and Munich airport is ideal (IMO) to visit Austria. Salzburg and Innsbruck area both roughly 2:30 hour drive from Munich airport. You could also see some of the sights/towns in Bavaria together with Austria.

Here are 2 trips we have done in both places with about the same amount of time:

Munich airport to Salzburg (we like to stay in the Berchtesgaden area, less than 30 min from Salzburg) to the Innsbruck area to Fuessen, Germany back to Munich airport.

Zurich airport to St. Moritz to Zermatt (via Glacier Express, 9hours!) to the BO to Luzern back to Zurich airport (from Luzern).

Hope this helps.

Paul

I just gave some other poster a list of things to do while based in Berne, the capital city (seat of the Federal Government) of Switzerland. It came to almost 30 websites - you would need almost a month to undertake all those daytrips, and that's just from one location in the middle of Switzerland!

Go see for yourself, many of those suggestions might appeal to you - the thread is at

http://tinyurl.com/bseq58

thanks everyone for all the input, I really appreciate you sharing your experiences.