My fiance and I are stuck between Italy vs Switzerland for our August '06 honeymoon. We would prefer to go to places that are less touristy and less crowded and are open to any cities in these countries. Help! And thanks.

Have you ever been to either? Have you ever been to Europe? You can find places in either country that are &quot;<i>less</i>&quot; touristy... though many might say that if it is truly NON-touristy, well, then it's because it isn't all that interesting to a certain extent.

In August, you will likely prefer to be as many feet above sea level as possible, for climate reasons. Again, that doesn't exclude Italy, nor require that you travel to Switzerland.

You DO have to fly into a city to get to either country - - and every city of any size, in either country is either a) touristy (to some extent) or b) still crowded, yet not so extraordinarily intresting (both Milan and Zurich fit those criteria, in my opinion).

I personally think you need <i><b>books</b></i>. In the earliest dreaming/scheming/planning stages, books are probably a good deal more useful (to me at least) than the internet.

And of course, there's no reason why you can't combine some days in Italy and some days in Switzerland - - in regions where the differences are subtle... or striking.

Whatever your decisions, congratulations on your new life in marriage... and...

Best wishes,

Rex

Indeed, we are going on our second honeymoon to southern Switzerland and northern Italy. We started with books, and when we had an itinerary, we sought advice and changed it about twenty times (all for the better). We are flying in and out of Zurich as it works out well for our round-trip experience.

How about the Italian region of Switzerland? You could go to Lago Maggiore which straddles both countries and has lovely little villages with lots of things to see and do.

Catbert, you forgot this -

That's Ira's thing. I haven't come up with a good one yet.

Catbert, I havn't used them much, either, but it was a comment on your inspiration.

I agree with the above posters that you should do some initial research. Two things to think about for a start

1. If you don’t' like crowds, avoid August in general in Europe. This is when most Europeans go on holiday, so not only is it crowded with foreigners on vacation, but cities and in particular beach and lake resorts are also crowded with Europeans on holidays. Moreover in cities and some resort areas, many of the better restaurants will be closed as the staff gets a holiday as well.

2. Your posts says you are open to &quot;cities in any of these places&quot; Much as I love Switzerland (I lived there for 4 years), Switzerland is not about cities, it is about the countryside, in particular mountains and mountain lakes. It has very little architecture and none of really world-class stature like Italy and some good museums but again nothing compared to Italy. If you are not interested in scenic beauty and outdoor activities, you might want to concentrate on the great Italian cities like Rome, Florence and Venice (however, NONE of those cities would be my first choice in August, and definitely not Venice which will be crowded beyond believe.)

Even Switzerland's largest &quot;city&quot;, Zurich, has only 400,000 people and the main tourist parts can be walked in the better part of a day. It is still an extremely charming city no matter what many posters on this board say, they go to Lucerne, what do they know…If you do decide on Switzerland, Zurich has a quite famous hip hop street party a la Berlin's love parade the first weekend in August during which 1 million 20-some things descend upon the city, I would avoid that weekend unless you re into that sort of thing.

You have to decide what it is you want to see and do on your honeymoon. Depending on how long you have, you could combine a trip to both countries, but again, I would not want to be doing a lot of traveling by plane, car or train in August between the two.

See also your (much) earlier post - - you might not have realized how many answers it got.

Indeed, you might not have ever known about &quot;click on your own name&quot;!

You could fly into Geneva and train 1-hour out to Lausanne, Vevey, Montreux gorgeous towns along Lac Leman. From there you can head to Gruyeres, Bern, Zermatt, whatever.

Another option would be to go by overnight train (leaves Vevey at midnight) on to Venice and fly home from there.