Switzerland-One Base
 

My husband and I are considering going to Switzerland for about 6 days in June, and would like to be based in one location and take daytrips from there. If you were going to do that, where would you go and what side trips would you take.

Decide on an area that you would like to see. Berner Oberland? Lake of Geneva? Central Switzerland? Will you be going by train or car? Do you want to stay in a village or a city?

Once you've got that down, then we can help you a bit more.

Last June we did just that. Based ourself in Weggis, on Lake Lucerene (Luzern) and enjoyed driving to wonderful places each day. With a 5-day boat/train/Cable-cars 1st Class pass, we also enjoyed fiv days of long boat trips and took trains to many places. Mt. Riggi, Mt. Pilatus, Mr. Titlis are a must. Time permitting you can drive may gorgeous mountain passes.
Enjoy your trip and let us know of your experience and pics.....
You can visit my pics through; http://community.webshots.com/user/alkhoagi

Sorry.... i misspelled the site address, the correct is ....
You can visit my pics through; http://community.webshots.com/user/alkholagi

I would pick whether you are most interested in the french-, german-, or italian-speaking region of the country, they are very different in culture and food, etc. That will help determine which city would make the most sense as your base.

For me it would be the 'french' part and I would base myself on Lac Leman outside Geneva.

Thanks to all who answered.
We would probably fly into Zurich and use Swissrail passes. A friend had
mentioned Meiringen as a base. What do you think?

t

Hi audreyella,

I think Meiringen would be fine as a base; I thin Untours has one location there. It would be conveninet to get around the Berner Oberland as well as up to Luzern & Bern.

But since you're not that interested in staying in a mountain village, why not stay at the lakes? Think about a town like Thun or a village like Brienz or Beatenberg or Oberhofen. I would go for a lake-side town if not in the mountains --

s

It seems everyone here hates Interlaken but it certainly meets your criteria. We spent 5 nights there last July and did day trips. I liked it's central location. We did two days up into the mountains, one day we went to Bern/Murten and one day on the lake - took the train to Thun and then took the boat back, stopping in a few villages. We then moved to Lucern for two nights but you could do that as a day trip from Interlaken if you wished.

Interlaken itself is quite touristy - lots of big hotels and restaurants and tourist shops along the main street. But we stayed in a small Victorian hotel/B&B on a side street five minutes from the West Train Station and it was very quiet. Plus you do have all those restaurant choices, and each afternoon/evening in the center of Interlaken the paragliders land in the large park with a great mountain backdrop and that made for interesting low key entertainment, to sit and watch them land. Or you could go paragliding yourself. Anyway, don't ignore Interlaken just because it hasn't got much charm.

Count me in as one of those who doesn't care for Interlaken, but I have to agree with Isabel that it's a good base from which to visit the area (in fact that's exactly what we did one year).

On our first few trips to Switzerland, we used Bern as a base and it worked for us, but that was before we discovered the BO and our preference to stay IN the mountains in places like Wengen and Murren.

Meiringen would also work, as would Spiez or Thun if you're interested in the BO/Lakes area.

Whatever you decide, you're sure to have a great time as Switzerland is a wonderful place to visit!

I agree that Interlaken is a good base. It is really a perfect transportation hub.

Another idea would be Lucerne. Since you are flying into Zurich it would make sense - only a short train ride away.

Meiringen would be nice too. But you are right in the middle of the two big tourist regions "Jungfrau" and "Lake Lucerne". So travelling to those always requires some more changes and time. However, Meiringen itself is somewhat off the beaten path and has beautiful scenery and interesting places to offer in the vicinity - not the famous ones, though.