My partner and I will be travelling to central Europe for the first time this July. We will be flying into Geneva and we want to spend about ten days in Switzerland (we will be renting a car at the Geneva airport so we will have the ease and flexibility to visit places we plan on seeing). We want to then pass through Liechtenstein and spend a week driving through Austria, ending in Vienna.

My question is, with all of the gorgeous places to see in Switzerland, what should our itinerary look like for those ten days? We are a little concerned about spending too much time in either Geneva and/or Zurich, which will take time away from the small mountain and lake villages we desperately want to experience.

Thank you.

I think you are approaching the planning backwards.
>>> we will be renting a car at the Geneva airport so we will have the ease and flexibility to visit places we plan on seeing
>>> what should our itinerary look like for those ten days

Do I presuming you are coming from a place where you drive to everywhere?

I think the more rational process is to choose possible places to visit, THEN decide how you connect them.
In case you are not aware of, there are many places you are NOT allowed to drive into. For example, Zermatt and Berner Oberland above the valley floors are not reachable by car.

>>> We are a little concerned about spending too much time in either Geneva and/or Zurich, which will take time away from the small mountain and lake villages we desperately want to experience.

It appears you are choosing places culled from some kind of list satisfying someone else's interest as opposed to starting from what YOU want to accomplsih and choosing destinaitons offering what you are looking for.

You have answered your own question. If you want to spend time in mountain and lake villages, then do so. My opinion of Geneva is that you can easily give it short shrift. It's nice but it's not the reason to go to Switzerland, and you can always swing by there during some other trip. It's a lovely city, has some lovely places but I seem to remember mostly shopping. I haven't been to Zurich yet (we will be there this summer -- a short stop over to catch a plane) but I gather it is even less impressive than Geneva.

10 days is a decent amount of time to focus on your priorities and it doesn't sound like Geneva is one of them.

I loved Switzerland and ten days is enough time to see enough to get a good feel for the country. I will go over my notes and let you know what we found beautiful and important.

Thank you for your responses but rest assured that we both want to visit all of the places I mentioned in my initial post with the only variable being the time we spend in either Geneva and/or Zurich.

The reason we are flying into Geneva is because it is a direct flight from where we live and we can then travel west towards our last destination, Vienna. And while it is true that there are some small towns and areas that are not accessible directly by car, there is always a way to reach them by car indirectly. For example, Zermatt can be reached by taking a short train ride from Täsch, where we would park our car.

As it will be our first time in Switzerland, I am hoping you can offer us ideas of where to best base ourselves and which towns and villages you would highlight with the ten days we have so we can get the best out of our time there, remembering that we will be crossing the country from east to west as we make our way towards Liechtenstein. The places we have on our list are Bern, Lausanne, Lucerne, old town Zurich, Lauterbrunnen, Gruyeres and Basel, but I am sure I am missing some other spectacular places as well.

Thank you.

The places we have on our list are Bern, Lausanne, Lucerne, old town Zurich, Lauterbrunnen, Gruyeres and Basel, but I am sure I am missing some other spectacular places as well.

Yes, you are missing other spectacular places, but I think you'll find yourself pressed for time as it is, considering your large wish list and only 10 days to work with.

For instance, two nights in a given area will only give you one full day to explore, and in the case of Lauterbrunnen, the best of the area is above Lauterbrunnen so one full day there won't give you much time to explore at all.

So, what do you hope to see/do/accomplish in each place on your wish list?

We have no defined things we want to see or do or accomplish, we just want to be able to take in the feel and culture of the places we visit, and that can come from numerous experiences, from the people you meet, slow walks through old towns, nature scenes, food and wine, driving through the countryside, monuments, architecture and museums.

We are not absolutely set on all of the places I mentioned, so if there are others places that you feel we should see, please let me know.

Well, personally, I love the Engadine and the Surselva region. Lots of towns/villages to choose from in both, and you could easily spend your entire stay in one or both regions, depending on your interests of course.

One can 'take in the feel and the culture' by going pretty much anywhere though.

I'm confused. If you know that you want to visit all of the places you list, then surely, you know that you can't do that in the time frame you mention, unless your goal is to simply check them off a list?!?

I enjoyed all those places, and FWIW, I thought Zurich (which I preferred to Geneva) underrated, but I can't imagine going to Switzerland without going outside of the cities. JMO.

And I must say that the idea of using a car for the itinerary you propose makes no sense to me. First, you won't have time to just stop any place you want -- not if you want to see all these places in any meaningful way -- and even if you did, you'd have to find parking and get into the places you choose to stop, whereas the excellent public transportation system in Switzerland could get you right to the heart of any place easily, conveniently, and comfortably, and in most places, with both variously sized lockers and a manned desk for luggage, so you don't have to worry about your baggage. Not to mention that if you take trains or buses (or boats), the person who would otherwise have to drive would actually get to see the stunning scenery -- which a responsible driver who is unfamiliar with the area can't readily do.

Even if you do choose to drive, if you have to cross any time zones to get to Geneva, then PLEASE don't drive until you've been there for at least a day or so. Driving after crossing time zones is just as dangerous to yourselves and anyone else on the road as driving after drinking, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to avoid the risk.

If you haven't already seen it, you might find some useful information in my trip report:
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...thanks-983126/
Or you might look at some of the other wonderful trip reports that Fodorites have filed.

And BTW, I don't believe one can "take in the feel and the culture" by going ANY where for just a short interval. You can, of course, THINK you've done so. I sometimes have an entirely different reaction on a second day in a place, or at a different time of day, or when tourists have left, or whatever. JMO.

Good luck!

If you rent a car at Geneva airport and drop it off at Vienna airport, money isn't obviously an issue for you.
For "small mountain and lake villages we desperately want to experience" one of the best itineraries could be:

Geneva - Faucille Pass - Valle de Joux (watchmaker's Valley) - Orbe Caves - Vallorbe - Orbe (small medieval city, Roman villa) - Lausanne (medieval city center with cathedral) - Lavaux vineyards - Montreux - Chillon Castle - Aigle Castle - Col du Pillon (cableway to Diablerets Glacier and back) - Gstaad - Wimmis - Thun Castle (20 miles sidetrip to Berne if you like) - Spiez Castle - Blausee - Kandersteg - car shuttle train - Goppenstein - Fafleralp/Loetschental (unspoiled valley, close to glaciers) - Turtmann - Unterbaech - Moosalp (viewpoint to Matterhorn and
co) - Stalden - Saas Fee (rope railway to Mittelalallin revolving glacier restaurant and back) - Brig Castle (gondola from Blatten to Belalp/Aletsch Glacier and back) - Simplon Pass - Verbania (boat to Isola Bella and back) -Lake Maggiore river road - Ascona - Locarno - Bellinzona (3 castles) - San Bernardino Pass - Viamala Gorge - Thusis - Julier Pass - Silvaplana (gondola to Piz Corvatsch and back) - Scuol (thermal spa) - Reschen Pass - Glurns (smallest walled city of the world) - Mustair monastery (Unesco sight) - Schnalstal (gondola to Grawand, the highest situated hotel of the Alps, and back) - Meran - Bolzano/Bozen (medieval city center, Oetzi Museum) - Ortisei - Alta Badia - Bruneck - Lienz - Grossglockner road - Zell am See - Werfen Eisriesenwelt - Hallein - Salzburg - Linz - Melk Monastery/Wachau - Vienna.

As I said, we have no defined list of things we need to see or do, but we came up with a short list of a few places we thought would give us the best way to get to know the country in our ten days there but in no means was an exhaustive list, and that is why I joined Fodors to get more information and advice from those who have traveled to Switzerland.

We plan on staying at least overnight in Geneva before driving, which will give us time to rest and see the city. As well, we know it will be a little tougher to see all we want to see with a car, but we want to have the flexibility and freedom that a car provides. We also priced out the difference between leaving the car in Zurich and leaving it in Vienna and it works out to be about $500 more but saves us train transportation charges.

Thank you so much for your ideas, links and advice. It does give me enough to plan a fantastic ten days in Switzerland.

There's nothing on your list that would be better done by car than public transport. I live in Texas and drive everywhere, but when I went to Switzerland, I got an unlimited travel pass and did everything by public transportation. It's really the way to go in that country, as the train system is one of the highlights of Switzerland in its own right (the building of the train lines transformed what was a very poor, and isolated country, into the rich country that we see today).

Swiss cities have their attractions, but on a first time visit, I would spend no more than half my trip in the cities, and, ideally, more like a third. The Alps are the attraction, and you won't come close to seeing all they have to offer even if you were to devote your entire 10 days to rural Switzerland. There's a lot to see for such a small country.