Switzerland - Opinions Needed
 

For those Switzerland experts out there ... I am interested in seeing the following towns of Switzerland. My problem is ... I'm not sure which town to stay in/make as my base (if needed).

My husband and I will be going into CH from Germany. We plan on staying in CH for 6/7 nights. We will have a car. We plan to travel end of July/beg. of August.

*Enter Switzerland by Lake Constance. Stop at Meersburg
*St. Gallen
*Appenzell
*Urnasch (haven't read much about this village)
*Maienfeld (heidiland)
*Chur (maybe not)
*Guarda
*Tarasp (possibly)
*Lucerne
*Bern (possibly)

then we plan on heading back into Germany making our way towards Cochem and flying out of Frankfurt.

I'm sure many of you have read my previous posts. The more research I do the more places I seem to want to visit.

Of the above places I mentioned ... which do you recommend we stay/make a base in? Is this too ambitious?

Also, did I name a place that maybe isn't worth a visit or did I not name a place that is worth a def. visit?

The other half of our trip will be spent in Germany. I would love to visit Grindlewald and further south/west but I will have to save that for another trip.

Thanks for being patient with me and all my posts!

Spend four or five nights near Meersburg on the lake and roam from there, you'll cover everything on the list aside from Luzern and Bern, except maybe Guarda and Tarasp which are tucked away in different valleys of Graubuenden, the large south-eastern canton where Chur is the portal - Chur is worth a brief stop on the way through maybe. But if the weather holds, even they should be possible, too, although that will be a long day.

I suggest then to stay two or three nights in Bern, it's a stately but very alive city that has a historic core you can walk forever, under arcades, getting a sense of history mixed with modernity. It's the seat of the federal government, with tons of good shops and restaurants, interesting museums, has great views onto the alps, and from Bern you can do day excursions into the Berner Oberland or in the opposite direction, the Jura mountains, and to many interesting places in between. Luzern is just over an hour by train or by car, so you can do that also, very easily.

Bern is on the autobahn so you'll have no trouble getting out of there in a hurry when the time comes to go north into Germany.

WK

Urnasch is a small village that offers really quaint architecture of the Appenzell area and a wonderful folksmuseum inside one of these house. I really enjoyed the museum. You'll have seen it all in three hours.

In Lucerne, they offer a folk evening at Stadtkeller. They have yodeling, singing and wear the typical outfits. It's supposed to be quite good.

Thank you WallyKringen and Schuler for your helpful replies. I am thinking we will make our base in Meersburg and make day trips to Appenzelland, Urnasch, Maienfeld and Chur. I'd love to see Guarda and Tarasp if time permits.

Is St. Gallen worth a visit?

Thanks!

In my opinion,the whole southern shore of the Bodensee (incl.St. Gallen) is pretty dull.

About making Meersburg your "headquarters" for a few days.

I like Meersburg very much, but it is awkward for car trips on the other side of the lake. Every time to do that, you have to take the car ferry from M.to Staad and back. The wait at the ferry is quite unpredictable; last June I got right onto the ferry (around 10AM), at othert times I have seen long lines of cars on both the Meersburg and Staad side. So what's the alternative? Stay in Staad. There are several hotels near the ferry terminal. Take feryy (without car) to Meersburg, and then on the Staad side of the lake see all the places you want to include in your itinerary. BE SURE to allow at least half a dau to visit the Insel Mainau and ii's gardens, little Schloss (palace) and church.

Hi. What an interesting wishlist! I love finding place names that are new to me, and schuler's mention of a folkmuseum in Urnasch gets my attention. (I'm a big fan of the one in Chateau d'Oex.) Anyway, I'd agree that maybe you should pick a base in the Appenzeller region. It will make a day trip to Guarda a real possibility. (viamichelin says St. Gallen to Guarda is under three hours.) I'm glad to see that WK recommends Bern, because that's one of my favorite Swiss cities. If you'd like a smaller alternative nearby, you might consider Thun on Thunersee. p.s. just to complicate matters, try to fit in a visit to Lindau on Bodensee. J.

p.s. Take my comments with a grain of salt, because I'm a dedicated train traveler. But if you really like to drive and would like to use one town as your base, what about Rapperswil? It's a spit more than two hours to either Guarda or Bern and very close to the Appenzell villages. J.

Chur is a very large industrial city with a small old town core located on the floor of a a broad valley. Guarda and Tarasp are lovely villages up in the mountain near the bottom of narrow mountain valleys. Chur is like the 4th largest city in Switzerland and the major highway and rail hub for western Swizterland, I think you may not be expecting this. I would pick Guarda far and away over it. St Gallan's old town is more intesting than Chur's as well, IMO, and its cathedral and library are among the best in Europe.

IMO Raperwsil is not a good base. You might as well stay in Zurich which is only about 25 minutes down the road and has many more restaurants and a lovely and large old town.

But wouldn't it be easier to drive into and out of Rapperswil? Katzen is probably going to do the four night, three night split. I stayed seven nights in Rapperswil many years ago, and never ran out of daytrip possibilities. Then again, it probably doesn't look now the way I remember it. By the way, k', it might be a good idea to select hotels with air conditioning. Global warming or whatever has reared its ugly head even in Switzerland. Again, you're wish list of towns is wonderful. Good luck with your planning. J.

oops. That's "your wish list."

Hi! So it looks as if I may cross Chur off our list. Let me also say that the beginning of our trip begins in Rothenburg then moving forward my husband and I would like to hit Munich and Fussen ... switzerland (which is what I wrote above) and then head back into Germany towards Cochem and fly out of frankfurt. I've been told that I am out of my mind in trying to do this (meaning I won't enjoy any one place but instead be running crazy). Once again I believe I need to rethink my itinerary.

We are trying to create a nice honeymoon trip for ourselves by combining Germany and Switzerland (my two favorite countries). My problem is that I want to hit too many places and as you all know .. the more you read on places like fodors and Frommers, the more places you want to add to your itinerary!

A bit of background: My husband and I are in our early 30s. My husband has not been to Europe before so anywhere is going to be special to him. I have been to Europe 3 timee, twice when i was a child with my family and we traveled extensively all around (I don't really count this as I don't remember much other than what I see in pictures) and once in '96 in which my friend and I did a whirlwind backpacking tour in 3 weeks time (included Germany, Austria, Swizerland and Italy).

I appreciate all the help I have received thus far. Please keep the suggestions and opinions coming as they are valuable to me in my planning.