Hi! I'm visiting my niece (16) in April and she's in Basel. I'd like to visit Austria, Germany, France and Italy, while I'm there. Can anyone tell me the cheapest way to travel? Any suggestions what I should see??? Merci beaucoup! (I'm from Québec, Canada!)

I would guess that train travel would be cheapest. You can check route options here:

http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml

I hope you're not thinking about day trips.

Basle is right in the corner of Switz between France and Germany - and you can easily visit Strasbourg (about an hour by train) and the Black Forest area of Germany (but not sure about train coverage. But farther afield is really too far for a day trip (Paris is at least 3.5 hours each way and Munich more than 5). Getting to Austria and Italy doesn;t make sense as a day trip - no matter how you go.

I would focus on Switzerland and the areas closest to Basle unless you're willing to do trips of 3 or 4 days.

I'm thinking 3 or 4 days at each places, since I already visited Zwitzerland so many times before... Thank you both so much for your info!

Basle's traditionally been the centre of the mainstream Continental railway system: for those of a certain age, any journey to the Continent involved a 3 am train change there. Its (or rather its and Mulhouses's and Freibourg's) airport, OTOH, likes to think it's today's plane equivalent - but it's rather deluding itself:

Basle-Mulhouse has OKish flights to a couple of dozen key destinations - but only to those cities, and they're rarely low cost. Oddly, it's best at cheapo flights to places like London or Spain/Portugal: flights within 500 miles or so are mostly full-fare.

For Milan or Vienna, train's probably cheaper - but check flight prices, starting off from the "destinations served" page at www.euroairport.com.

However, although for us old farts Basle's stations still carry a certain glamour, the TGV revolution's slightly bypassed them. You still need to allow 5-6 hours for even nearbyish Italian destinations - and even longer for Rome or Florence.

Flanneruk,

Thanks for all your info!

I'll do day-trips in Switzerland while I'm there (such a beautiful country!!!), but I'd like to go to Paris for maybe 3 days then to from Basel to Avignon, Marseilles, Nice then Florence, Venice, Bologna, Pisa for about a week. So many things to see!!! It's hard to decide...

It's a very easy spot to get to lots of places. This website will help you with train information

http://seat61.com/

alihutch,

merci beaucoup! As you said, lots of places! It is so exciting! Can hardly wait to go!!! Thanks again to all of you!