I would love to get your wonderful advice on what we should do on a trip from Zurich to Nice that spans 6 days. We will be landing in ZRH on Monday morning and then fly out of Nice on Sunday afternoon, we are open to anything along the way and would love to hear what you all think are must sees / do in between these two cities. We are open to renting a car if that would make sense, my DH and I are in our late 30's and would love a romantic trip that included good food and wine!! Thanks in advance for your help!!

Melissa

Renting a car in Zurich would mean paying a stiff cross-border crop-off fee. You could train to Geneva and rent the car on the French side of the Geneva airport to drop it off with no fee in Nice (use autoeurope.com or kemwel.com, and check their different providers--usually Europcar is the one without the drop-off fee).

From Geneva you could drive along the border between France and Italy, going over 5 mountain passes, assuming that your trip will take place in the summer.

Or you could speed down to the Provence and spend a couple days there on your way to Nice.

There are about 5 main itineraries between Zurich and Nice, some of them through the high Alps and closed between November and early June.
You may rent a car at Basel airport, French side (about 2 hrs by public transport from Zurich airport) and give it back at Nice or you may cross Switzerland by train, rent a car at Sondrio, Como, Varese or Domodossola and give it back at Ventimiglia in Italy, only a few miles from Nice.

All depends on what you plan to visit:
Switzerland, French Alps, Ardeche (prehistoric paintings), Provence, Aosta Valley (highest mountains of Europe like Mont Blanc, Matterhorn/Monte Rosa), Bernina - Lake Como, Milan, Turin, Italian Riviera .....

THanks so much for the help and so sorry for the delay in responding, for some reason I didn't get any notifications I had a response! It probably would have helped to say when we were going, it will be June 6-12 of this year so summer time but not sure how cold or how much snow is still left on some of the higher areas.

My husband has seen all of Switzerland many times so he isn't too interested in going there and we did Como a couple years back. Would northern Italy or Southern France be a better bet at this time of year? Italian Riviera vs. French Riviera? Thanks again so muc for the help, I am checking out all the things you mentioned above!!

Me again! We are thinking now that we will head down to Geneva then rent a car on the French side and drive down to Nice. Where should we go along our way? What cities should we see? All recommendations are welcomed!

Make sure that leaving the airport you do not enter Switzerland as it may require the vignette.


Chamonix, Annecy, Briancon

All depends on what you plan to visit:
French Alps, Ardeche (prehistoric paintings), Provence, Aosta Valley (highest mountains of Europe like Mont Blanc, Matterhorn/Monte Rosa), Turin, Italian Riviera .....