What to see in Switzerland after 3 days in Geneva?
 

My wife and I will be traveling to Geneva in the middle of May 2004. We will fly from Chicago to Geneva and arrive on Friday morning. We will stay in Geneva for business until Sunday morning and will then need to return to the U.S. on Wednesday. What should we do in Switzerland from Sunday until Wednesday. We can arrange our flight home from any city in Switzerland. Also should we take a train or rent a car for those few days. Thanks for your help. David

Hello,

I always love to visit Zermatt or Grindelwald in Switzerland and always recommend these two places to my travel clients as a travel agent. Zermatt is close to the Italian border and very close to the Matterhorn. Grindelwald is tucked into this tight valley with cows grazing up the sides of the mountains towards the Jungfrau. Geneva is beautiful. Zermatt has many excellent restaurants and wonderful hotels. Grindelwald is much smaller, but very Swiss. In both locations, you can take a tram up into the Swiss Alps. You could easily return to Zurich for your flights home.

Personally, after having lived in Europe, I like to ride the train. It is affordable, trains run on time, are relatively clean and are a very good way to see the country. I would ride first class and it really feels like an extension of your vacation.

Please feel free to e-mail me if I can offer any assistance to you.

Best Regards,
Julia

Give us a clue as to what you want to see. Are you saying you want us to tell you what there is Switzerland to look at?
I have several hundred suggestions.
Take the train to Gstaad and spend your time is a luxury hotel.
Take a car to Zinal, Hotel le Trift, and get Robert Guilhaume to give you snowboarding lessons. He is a very good teacher. There should be enough snow left for that purposse.
Besides, the hotel is very much like a Swiss mountain hotel of the last century in the forties.
You can get a room with bath and WC for about $90 during the week for 2 including breakfast.

Pick out a car inaccessible place like Wengen, take a luxury hotel, and view the beauty.

Or take a lesser place and view the beauty.

One warning. Many mountain resorts are not in full operation in May.

If you enjoy Colonial Williamsburg in the United States, you might enjoy Ballenberg in Switzerland. It's a collection of Swiss colonial buildings from several periods. They have artists and craftspeople working there, living farm animals, rides in a farm wagon, etc. It's set in the mountains and is just a wonderful place to spend a day. There is excellent bus service or you could rent a car. At any rate, if you take a car, you will want to take the bus back from the end of Ballenberg to the entrance because it's quite large.

You will love Switzerland. It's the cleanest place I've ever visited.

Because I know and love the area and with just a few days I wouldn't go any farther than Lausanne, Vevey, and Montreux... easily done from Geneva on the train and the towns then walkable from the station. Stroll the quai - lakeside promonade, shop the shops, have great food in the smaller local cafes.

The castle of Chateau de Chillon & Rochers de Naye tram up the mountain in Montreux are highlights. There's boat cruises on Lac Leman, and wine tours to the vineyards in the Vaud region. Many fabulous restaurants.

If you want to rent a car the town and castle at Gruyere is nice.

Others might suggest more ambitious plans that suit you, but you could easily relax do this and fly back out of Geneva (the airport and the train station are side by side so it's a breeze).

Thanks for all of your suggestions. We've been reading Fodors and Frommers but it seems like there are so many different places to go and see that it is hard to decide what to do and how far from Geneva we should go. My wife an I enjoy to eat at nice places and enjoy nice wines so a vineyard tour or tasting would be nice. Touring a castle our walking through some small villages sounds like alot of fun. We do like to hike but probably only for an hour our two. We are both good skiers but wasn't sure it would still be ski season at that time and would rather not carry our ski clothes (we were in Snowbird already this year). Additionally, I am looking for a Swiss watch and was wondering if I would be better off buying it there or in the states.

We LOVED Zermott. It is a wonderful town. Good restuarants, fun shops, cute houses with flowers in the windows. Taking the car up the mountain to see the Matterhorn is a definate high light!!

We also loved Lucerne. Great shopping, eating, sites to see, etc.

If we go to Lucerne should we fly back home out of Geneva or leave from Bern?

David