PalenQ

Basel itself is a vastly underrated city IMO - really pleasant town center on Rhine - yes a good base - Switzerland is small - lots of neat day trips from Basel.

Sue81

HI, My two cents on this...I am also going on a river cruise but ending in Basel. I'd suggest that you fly into Zurich, do the Swiss Rail pass/and go down to possibly Zermatt for a couple nights by train about 3 hours or over to Wengen for the two nights. and then back to Zurich. I like Zurich for an night, expensive, but some fun places to eat/ beer hall with great food. Then take the train up to Basel about one hour I think from Zurich. the train is easy to deal with, they will deal with the larger luggage, the Swiss Rail. I wouldn't try to do too many cities as you need to be certain to make that ship in Basel. I'd also fly in one city and out of your destination city. Try checking prices for each leg separately as it can be much less expensive. You could possibly leave the big suitcases at the Zurich train station. Sue

Sue81

OK, since I am doing this route, but ending in Basel and then going down into Switzerland, here is a suggestion. Take your larger suitcase and let Swiss Rail take it, put it somewhere, maybe in Zurich airport or train station in safe keeping/ People on this Fodors Swiss site say it is safe. Then take a smaller suitcase, with rollers for overhead bin, with 3 days clothes for the 3/4 day trip before the cruise. That way you won't have to drag the larger suitcase all over the country. I am doing that but leaving at a hotel that I trust in Zurich. Sue

kja

You can find information about luggage storage at the same link provided above for luggage forwarding -- just go to the relevant station and check under "services."

WeisserTee

You can also store luggage very easily in Basel, we had a thread about that earlier:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ge-service.cfm

PalenQ

From Basle be sure to day trip to the awesome high Alps - like to Interlaken-Ost then take the train right up to glaciers and an Out of This World Look as they say.

Easily done as a day trip from Basle.