Where to go after Grindelwald?
 

Hi! Our family of 5 (3 kids 13, 11, 10) plans on going to Zurich the. Grindelwald for a week in late July/August and we are looking For where we should go for the second week?
Ideally, we are looking for a lake or beach-type of environment to do some relaxing (more than touring), somewhere within a reasonable car or train ride away. Looking at a map, Strasbourg or Lake Como looked reasonable but I’m open to any opinions or others’ experiences. We will likely have a week to spend. Thanks for your advice!

jordan

Strasbourg is about as far from a "beach-type environment" I can imagine! And anyway a lot depends on where you will go after that second week - back to the ZRH airport? or where?
One lovely area in Switzerland I can suggest is the Upper Engadin. it is very very different from the Oberland - culture, language, architecture etc. There are also lakes there and some excellent kite surfing/sail boarding on lake Silvaplana. The Engadin is a high (1800m) mountain valley with mountains all round. it is in Canton Graubunden, in the extreme south east of our country. You are close to Italy - day trip on the Bernina line to Tirano is easy for example - and then only just over 3 hours by train to get to the ZRH airport at the end of the stay.

www.engadin.stmoritz.ch

Como is very nice but will be very crowded in July/August. If you want to go there stay near Como town and then you can get a direct train to Zürich HB station with a fast and easy connection to the airport.

From Grindelwald take a train to Spiez via Interlaken and take train to Italy and Lake Maggiore - Stresa is a great town for relaxing or beaching it and taking boats all around the lake. Book train tickets early for sizable discounted fares - check www.seat61.com for insights on doing that online yourselves - general info trains www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts. Lake Como is a bit farther by train from Interlaken (going via Lucerne and Arth-Goldau but easily done too. Lucerne itself is a nice lakeside city but may be too cool often for beaching it - but neat city with nice boat rides around the lake.