Hello all.

My wife and I are traveling to Zurich nine days at the beginning of June, 2006, which is going to be my Wife's first trip to Europe... in fact, it is her first trip outside the United States. After what will be 16 years of marriage by that time, it is really our honeymoon, as well.

Thanks to my job, which requires frequent travel, our hotel is paid for (Zurich Marriott). We want to thoroughly explore everything Zurich has to offer, but we should have plenty of time for day-trips, as well.

I would love any advice on the best locations within reach of Zurich (such as Luzerne). We are not skiers and my wife doesn't much care for hiking, so we are looking more for Swiss culture/history/architecture, as well as the countryside itself.

Any thoughts/advice would be welcome.

Thank you in advance.

What a coincidence! My hubby and I stayed at the Zurich Marriott on his travel points for a 5 night duration. It is a wonderful trip for a Europe first-timer, IMO, as it is an easy country to see due to its size and lack of typical problematic issues one might face in other countries.

We used Zurich as a "base" and walked/toured the city for the first 2 days-phenomenal! With our Swiss railpass, which I purchased online for us prior to the trip, we also saw the following cities on day trips: Luzern (from there you should boat to Weggis), Lausanne, Lugano and Bern. Luzern was my favorite on that portion of our trip and Bern was my hubby's. The Marriott had wonderful breakfasts and their service was fantastic. To see these cities within the time constraints we had, we used the free hotel shuttle to get to the train station every morning on its first round. We'd shop at the COOP for snacks and water the night before to prep our daypacks. Let's GO book and novels in hand on the train made the trips pass by quickly, and the lack of a seat reservation never seemed to matter (we just walked until we saw unreserved seats). By the time we were off the train, we knew exactly where we wanted to go and often had time to wander the streets discovering, eating, browsing...etc. We always timed our return back to Zurich so that we were able to catch the last free shuttle to the Marriott of the night. There were plenty of taxis around, but the Swiss trains are so punctual, no worries!

An area that you and your wife could ADD to your trip (if you're willing to pay for another hotel and extend your trip by 2+ days)is to the Lauterbrunnen Valley or thereabouts in the Berner Oberland. We did and are SO glad. Upon Fodorite advice, we booked a cheap hotel run by an American and his Swiss wife, the Hotel Staubbach. After the Marriott, it took a little getting used to, but the view from our balcony of the mountains and waterfalls more than made up for it!

Hi DevinW,

Strongly recommend Rapperswil on Lake Zuerich -- beautiful castle on a small hill, wonderful old town, wonderful small port with lakeside cafes. Very nice excursion. Take the ferry one way and the train back.

Also strongly recommend Basel, about an hour from Zuerich by train. Tremendous museum, fascinating Muenster church and Town Hall, great old town full of shops and cafes, very nice river walk.

Finally, I suggest you do a text search here for "Zurich" and look specifically for posts from Cicerone, who used to live there. Cicerone gives tremendous details on restaurants and sights for the city.

Train schedules are at www.rail.ch, and ferry schedules for the Zuerichsee are at www.zsg.ch (English pages too).

Have fun!

s

And while we're composing a daytrip list for Zurich, let's add Stein am Rhein, Schaffhausen, Appenzell, and tiny Regensberg on its hilltop near Dielsdorf. J. (Happy New Year, S!)

Hi Ya jw!! Hope you're enjoying your freedom and your coffee!!

DevinW, I'm afraid you're going to get so many suggestions that you're going to gave to extend your trip!

s

Zurich is a pleasant city... This website has a wonderful collection of travel journals and other pertinent information about Zurich (and Switzerland):

http://myswitzerland.igougo.com/plan...LocationID=642

Good morning, did find the abbey at Einsiedeln interesting for a partial day trip out of Zurich and from there you can continue down to Luzern by rail.
Richard of LaGrange Park, Il..

It's a good thing that you're not skiers because June is not the best time to ski in Switzerland.

Personally I prefer the smaller towns in Switzerland. If you venture west by train you'll find wonderful small towns that will be quite rewarding:
Aarau, Solothurn, Murten,Biel/Bienne. You can make a train stop in Aarau on your way to Basel, and Solothurn would make an even better stop on your way to Bern. Murten has a nice comfortable old town with an intact wall. Close to Bern, there is Fribourg/Freiburg is a nice student/university small city with an interesting natural setting. Lucerne is of course the quintessential central swiss city with a small town feel. Have a great trip!