Hi, I'm planning a trip to Switzerland but not sure which cities/areas to hit for some quiet time to just enjoy the scenery and perhaps do some tame day hikes. Heading there in mid Oct as I will just fly in from Frankfurt (after my biz trip). Why October? Off season -- I'm not too fond of crowds -- and cheaper. Any suggestions? Thanks!

When the weather in October is good.... than it is the best time of the year to visit Switzerland. Mid October is good because school holidays will be finished.

Do some research on Berner Oberland and Engadin and choose from the two (or do both!)

Hi jbtan,

The bad news is that there are TOO many places and it's going to be a difficult choice.

The good news is that you can't go wrong; it's pretty much all good!

Many first-time visitors enjoy the mountain villages of the Berner Oberland (Wengen, Murren, Grindelwald, & Lauterbrunnen) for spectacular mountain scenery and access to many mountain rambles. The villages are made of the dark-brown wood chalets that seem quintessentially Swiss. If you do a text search here for those villages, you'll find a lot of info.

Off the beaten track are the towns of the Engadin & nearby valleys, including Scuol, St. Moritz, Zuoz, Zernez, Guarda, Soglio, Pontresina, & Sils. The scenery here is more rugged (narrow valley and towering, rocky peaks), and the buildings are made of stone with colorful sgraffiti decorations. At the risk of stealing Ingo's thunder, I'm posting a link to his trip there in Oct 05 (which he said was a great time to go!):

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/229817/index.html


Somewhat off the beaten track are the towns at the invisible "border" between French & German Switzerland, including Gstaad, Saanen, & Chateau d'Oex. The mountains here are not as towering as in the BO; they're rounder, softer, and seem greener (to me, anyway). The villages are made up of brown-wood chalets again. This is a real hiking & biking paradise, and it's my new favorite. Here are links to my "reviews" that may help you decide:

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

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

You can find rail schedules at the Swiss Rail site, www.rail.ch.

Have fun!

s

Hi Schuler and Swandav2000, thanks for the quick feedback. I'm just very eager to get started on my research even though Oct is several months away! Never too early to plan for a vacation it seems... Will check out all the links mentioned. Thanks again!

I'm a great lover of the Lac Leman area outside Geneva, from Morges, Lausanne to Vevey, Montreux. That's the only place in Switzerland I've visited (but been many times) so I can't give pros and cons for other regions. It's the french-speaking part of the country. Stunningly gorgeous scenery, great food, friendly people, not overly touristy (well excepting Montreux), easy train service to and from Geneva airport.

How much time do you have? And do you want to see cities and towns as well as the mountains? We were there for a week last summer and it turned out our itinerary I thought was a perfect mix. We stayed 5 nights in Interlaken, doing two day trips up into the mountains for "tame day hikes", one day we spent on the lake - took a train to Thun and then a boat back to Interlaklen, stopping at a few lakeside villages. The 4th day we took the train to Bern, and then to Murten, both of which were wonderful. Then we moved to Lucerne for the last two days. One of those days I took the train to Zurich just for a few hours because I just wanted to see it. Zurich was OK, but Bern and Lucerne were really wonderful small cities that are as much a part of Switzerland as the mountains.

Hi Isabel, I'm thinking of a 10-day vacation -- just to wind down after a particularly hectic work year. The last thing I want is to run around like a headless chicken in order to hit all tourist spots. Bern sounds good as it's a historical place -- similar to Prague and Vienna, two of my favorite cities. Accessibility via train is important as I prefer not to drive at all. Any suggestions on reasonable hotels in Bern? Thanks!

If you think that Bern is like Prague or Vienna, I am afraid that you will be disappointed.
From Bern you can make day trips very easy, by train.

Hi Valtor, thanks for the advice re Bern. The reference to Prague/Vienna is just a generalization for old/heritage town (with cobbled stone paths and horse carriages; romantic & historical with some museums & interesting buildings), easy access to the outdoors and good transportation links with other towns. A place got to be downright terrible to disappoint me (and that's yet to happen). Thanks for the advice on availability of trains from Bern.

One question: Is language going to be a problem? Do most people in the smaller towns -- Zermatt, Lucarno etc -- speak English?

ibtan - English was spoken everywhere we went. Although Switzerland was expensive, it was probably the most "user friendly" place I've ever been. Everyone spoke English, everyone was very nice, and the trains really run like clockwork.

Last summer Bern was undergoing major construction, the entire main street was dug up. But even with that we thought it was charming. Nowhere near as large (or lively) as Prague, but quite beautiful. We didn't stay in Bern, just daytripped there, which was enough for us. We even went on from Bern to Murten for a couple of hours, which is another half hour or so past Bern (if you are coming from Interlaken). We choose to base in Interlaken for 5 days because we wanted to do a mix of mountains, lake and Bern and it was a central location. Interlaken itself is pretty touristy and less charming than any of the other places but I still recommend it for it's ease of getting to other places and variety of accomodations.

I didn't find that much English spoken around Vevey/Montreux (french), but it was not a problem in the least. Agreeing with the "user-friendly" comment above, Switzerland is so darn well organized it's easy to figure things out. And at the airport and train stations someone always spoke English.

Of all of Switzerland I don't think Bern would be my city pick though.

One question: Is language going to be a problem? Do most people in the smaller towns -- Zermatt, Lucarno etc -- speak English?

In the German-speaking areas [including Graubunden]English is widely spoken, but not so much in the French and Italian-speaking areas, at least in the villages, as German is the second language there and takes priority. That's my experience anyway - I could be wrong.

Thank you all for the tips. Another question: I know that some online hotel reservation sites are better than others. I find that Expedia is not good for Europe; europe-hotels is fine at times; CheaperThanHotels is better (for certain cities) in terms of pricing and selection. How about sites for Switzerland? Have checked out the official Switzerland website which offers hotel reservation but not sure how this compare with other websites (which I may not know). Any suggestions? I always prefer B&B for small town/village stays -- need to get away from biz hotels where I seem to have spent over half of my life ;-) My budget would be around CHF80 to 120 per night, tax inclusive. My requirements are simple: a quiet non-smoking ensuite room. My rough itinerary revolves around Berne, Bernese Oberland area, Zermatt and Geneva (best way to fly out). Thanks a million!

One of the reasons we stayed in Interlaken was we had heard good things about the Hotel Lotschberg ( www.lotschberg.ch/)and it was true, we really liked this place, and the owners. We had been thinking of staying overnight in Bern but couldn't find a hotel that sounded good in our price range (about what yours is). We actually stayed in Susi's B&B which is the B&B part of the hotel. That's why we did it as a day trip. which as I said turned out to be fine.

OK, my Switzerland itinerary is near completion. Here it is in brief:
3 nights at Bern
3 nights at Interlaken
2 nights -- Brig or Sion?
3 nights at Zermatt
Any suggestion for a 2-night stop prior to Zermatt? As per my usual vacation style, this is my once-in-a-year chance to unwind/relax and enjoy the scenery. Will do day trips to Thun, Wengen, Grindelwald etc. from these cities. Do you think this is workable? I'm going to rely 100% on train and public transport. BTW, I can only spare up to 14 days max. Thanks for your advice/suggestion!

Sounds like an itinerary I would have thrown together. I like it, but if it were me, which it isn't, but if it were me, I would trim a day off Bern.

I also enjoy staying in Zermatt. When I hear people say that there is not much to do in Zermatt, I just shake my head and smile. Lots of things to do. Maybe these folks just do not like getting out on the trails.

Trim a day off of Bern, add it Interlaken and that would be a trip plan that I would give a hearty approval.

One minor point, I would stay in Grindlewald rather than Interlaken, but Interlaken might be more of a central location for you.

Anyway, enjoy. When do you plan to go? Did you say October? I have never been that late. I think most or some of the cable transports are still open.

We stayed 5 nights in Lauterbrunnen. It is a quiet, sleepy town outside of Interlaken (about a 20 min scenic train ride).

We took a couple of hikes, rode the gondolas, saw Trummelbach Falls (waterfall inside a mountain), day-tripped to Montreaux & Bern, went up to the Jungfraujoch, and just relaxed. We thought it was a great base for many activities.

And best of all, we had cows right outside our window. Not to mention lovely scenery everywhere.

We stayed at the Hotel Staubbach which had wonderful views of Staubbach Falls from some of its rooms & in the breakfast room.

If you are looking to relax I would recommend Lauterbrunnen over some of the more 'touristy' areas.

Montreaux is also a good day-trip. You can take the Golden Pass Train & visit Chateaux de Chillon, a well preserved castle on Lake Geneva - definately worth seeing.

Bern is worth a day trip, not much more. We also saw the town of Murten just outside Bern, all in the same day-trip.

I recently posted an Italy thread, but I too am really looking for ideas on what to do and where to go in June 2007 for 3 days after we arrive in Geneva from Paris by train and before we depart by air for Venice. Suze and Ness have already been kind enough to reply, but any other ideas for what can realistically be done and seen with 2 college-age daughters and 3 days to spend in this area of Switzerland would be helpful. P.S. The girls are much more into shopping, scenery, strolling and eating at the cafes, etc. than they are strenuous mountain hiking, or museums & churches, etc. Thanks.

for SBrown8243,

Here's my list of recommended activities around Lake Geneva:

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

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

You can look into staying at Vevey or Montreux. Rail schedules are at www.rail.ch.

Have fun!

s

For a peak at what those towns look like you can check their tourist websites at: www.vevey.ch and www.montreux.ch