Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - train or airplane from Paris to Switzerland?

This is something your parents or relative should help you with. I don't believe you can purchase an airline ticket yourself in any event, as most airlines cannot sell to a minor (although over the Internet I guess this may be possible.) I don't know the rules about minors buying rail tickets.

There are three main airports in Switzerland: Zurich, Geneva and Basel.

Where in Switzerland do you need to go? If you are going to Geneva, it is generally faster to take the train. If you fly, you first have to get out to the airport outside Paris, which will take at least 30-45 minutes with no traffic, plus you have to be there at least an hour before your flight, so door to door the train is usually faster and much less hassle. The super-fast TGV trains between Paris and Geneva take 3.5 hours to make the trip and require no changes. The other benefit of the train is that when you arrive, you are right in downtown Geneva (or Zurich or wherever) and don't have to get in from the airport to town.

If you are going to the Zurich area, it might be about the same time plane versus train. The fastest train takes just over 6 hours and will require between 1 and 3 changes depending on the train you take. The flight time is about 1.5 hours. So overall travel time with getting to the airport, etc you would figure about 3-4 hours if all goes well.

If you are going to the Basel area, the train would take about 5 hours and some require no change. It would be a toss-up whether the train or plane would be faster. The flight takes about an hour, so again overall travel time would be 3-4 hours. You may not be able to get a direct flight between Paris and Basel, so if you have to change planes somewhere like Frankfurt, the train will most likely be faster and of course there is little chance a train will be delayed, whereas a plane flight is easily delayed.

If you are going to another place in Switzerland, you first have to figure out whether you want to fly to Zurich, Geneva or Basel, and then take the train from there; or whether you should just take a train from Paris to wherever you need to go in Switzerland.

For train schedules go to rail.ch. This will give you timetables for trains between Paris and towns in Switzerland. It cannot give fares, but you can send an e-mail to them or call and they can quote fares. When asking about fares, do tell them that you are under 16 and are a student, you should be entitled to discounts. They can tell you the discounts which the French rail system would offer as well as the Swiss Rail system. If you have relatives in Paris or Switzlerand, they can probably get prices for you as well. I thnk you can get prices on the Rail Eureope site and they also sell tickets, but they do cost a bit more, go to http://www.raileurope.com/us/index.htm

There are almost no discount carriers flying between Paris and Switzerland, so it usually is cheaper to take a train, especially as you should be entitled to a student discount which airlines don't usually give. You might try looking at http://www.discountairfares.com/lcosteur.htm
and http://www.thissen.net/lowcost.html to see if there are any discount carriers still flying into Switzerland. Some fly into Basel, but this often requires a change of planes in Germany, which will add to the travel time.

If you do the trip during daylight hours, the train ride is quite pretty.