dawnnoelm

Greetings,
Me again - thank so much for all your help thus far.
I think we have it narrowed down a bit.
My dh would love to go to Switzerland - so Switzerland it is!
He would like to take the train from Paris on Monday July 2 to Switzerland - we are torn on where to go - Interlaken, Lucerne or Montreux - I have done a lot of "searches" and we have narrowed it down to this... now the challenge I am having is train routing. I have searched through fodors and other sites and am getting confused (am most likely fried) -

Direct Question:

Which of the above in question has the most efficent train routing from Paris?

On July 5 we will depart for either Venice or Florence again - depending on Train routing (my husband is VERY excited about the train - sees it as a "part" of the vacation experience - you can see the country side et) I have this apartment on hold after reseaching:http://www.italyperfect.com/Florence...i/Strozzi.html
It had a good review on Slowtravel and Lisa seems to get excellent feedback on this site as well. Thoughts?
Again - what train do you take? I have been on Eurorail website the TGV and a few others...
We will then head to Rome on July 9 and finish our trip there with our already (thank goodness) established plans.
I cannot thank all of you enough for your time and patience - I promise to write an awesome (or try to anyway) trip report upon return!
Dawn

McAllister

First, let me just say that I am jealous! My first trip to Europe was this past April - we started in Paris and then also took the train to Switzerland. Our first stop was Montreux and I fell in love with this place...just the other morning, my husband said, "I wish we were in Montreux." It is beautiful!!!! We went from there on the Golden Pass train (AMAZING scenery) to Lucerne. We also viewed the train as past of the vacation experience and overall it was a blast (except for being stuck for two hours on the tracks...but that is highly unusual!).

You can easily get to Interlaken, Lucerne, or Montreux...the hard part is choosing which one.

dawnnoelm

McAllister,
Thank you for your reply! Where did you purchase your ticket for the train to Montreux? How long was the ride?
I have NO clue which area to go to - dh is not a planner - I told him tonight at dinner I should make him in charge of the Swiss part as HE is the one wanting to go. I am not one to go and "wing" it - I feel like you can do that in perhaps Hawaii..but not in Europe (I am sure I could be wrong)...

Where did you stay? right now I have a hold on rooms at Grand Hôtel Suisse-Majestic Montreux

dawnnoelm

ttt

altamiro

>Where did you purchase your ticket for the train to Montreux? How long was the ride?

You can buy your tickets (for picking up in France or self-printing) from www.lyria.biz - it is a SNCF/SBB consortium that runs the TGV´s from Paris into Switzerland.

Buying in advance can get you significant discounts.

swandav2000

Hi dawnnoelm,

If you decide to stay a day or so in Montreux, here are some ideas of what you'll see there and what you can do there:

Montreux old town
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...reux_Vaud.html

Lavaux
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...reux_Vaud.html

Promenade Fleuri
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...reux_Vaud.html

Morges
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...rges_Vaud.html

There are two routes from Montreux to the villages of the Berner Oberland -- the fast way is via Lausanne & Bern, and the scenic way is an hour longer via Gstaad & Zweisimmen. If you decide to go the scenic route, this is what you can see & do:

Gruyeres
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR..._Fribourg.html

Saanen
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...wiss_Alps.html

Gstaad
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...wiss_Alps.html

To help you plan, you can use the Swiss train schedule at www.rail.ch.

Have fun!

s

beaupeep

There are direct TGVs from Gare de Lyon, Paris to Lausanne which is about 13 minutes from Montreux by train. If you then wanted to go onto Rome from here, you could take easyJet to Rome from Geneva airport, a direct train from Montreux. It's lovely here at this time of year (I live in Lausanne - just down the road a bit).

dawnnoelm

thank you SO much! I think we are going to stay in Montreux - I was able to get reservations here:Grand Hôtel Suisse-Majestic - checking reviews et still-
any feedback?
Regarding the train information - THANK YOU!
Beupeep - we are actually training to Florence and that seems a little more complicated from what I have thrus been able to gather so far... it looks like a change of trains in Milan?
You are all such a pleathora of information - SwandaV - that is amazing and I am going to print it out!

PalenQ

www.cisalpino.com has all the info for Suisse-Italy trains - which are called Cisalpino trains - one may well go from Geneva or Basel to Florence i think, negating a change in hectic Milan but i'm not sure. If coming from Basel you'd join it at Brig

dawnnoelm

Thank you PalenQ!