Early April, will be spending 3 nights in Zurich, then 3 nights in Montreux. Was planning on flying home from Geneva, but there is a conference and every hotel is booked. We can pivot and return from Zurich and spend 1 night nearby so we can take easy train to the airport. Any advice?
Any restaurants , activities or experiences we should not miss? Thanks in advance for any guidance

How about Rapperswil? We've used it as a final base when leaving Switzerland from Zurich. Beautiful town. Is there a reason you want to spend three nights in Zurich? Much better options, unless you have a specific reason for staying there.

https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/...pperswil-jona/

Hi famtrav12,

There are a few direct (0 changes) trains every hour from Montreux to the Geneva airport, and they take about 1h20. I don't think you need to move to either Geneva or Zurich the night before. You can see all your train options at the Swiss rail site at

www.sbb.ch

Have fun as you plan!

s

Direct trains from Montreux to Geneva airport in April:
Montreux dp 5.20, 5.49, 6.23, 6.49, 7.23, 7.49,...........
more connections with train change at Geneva Cornavin (city center)

Usual trains Zurich - Montreux:
Zurich dp 6.04 - Lake Biel - Lake Neuchatel - Renens (train change) - Montreux ar 8.50
Zurich dp 6.32 - Bern - Lavaux - Laussanne (train change) - Montreux ar 9.09
and then every hr until 22.04

Scenic trains Zurich - Montreux
Zurich - Lucerne (train chanage) - Interlaken (train change) - Gstaad - Montreux

FWIW, I think Zurich has much to offer.

No particular reason to stay in Zurich. We plan to explore Zurich on the day of arrival by then on day 2 go to Lucerne and Mt Pilatus for the day, return to Zurich, day 3 visit Rhein Falls and Stein am Rhein then return to Zurich. Thought it would serve as a good home base- do you recommend otherwise? My daughter will be joining us for the 3 days and then flies back from Zurich and we head to Montreux, so thought it would be easiest to stay in Zurich

Thanks for the info. We have a 9am flight from Geneva, so don't want to have such an early morning leaving from Montreaux. So now I'm thinking we may keep our flight home from Geneva and stay in Nyon (Geneva hotels are almost all full due to a convention). IF we stay in Nyon, might do a day trip to Yvoire, FR

We spend the week-end in Zurich every other month. Our must-do restaurant is Bindella (reservations required), just a short walk into the old town from Bahnhofstrasse. If you like mussels, Glogge (reservations also required) is a good bistro in the Glockenhof hotel. IF you get really lucky and can find a table, the Cafe Montmartre is a great place for a light meal or coffee. It's a tiny cafe tucked away in a tiny street in the old town. Hugely popular and serves some of the best cappuccino in Switzerland. https://lemontmartre.ch/montmartre/
For cocktails, we go to the bar in the Storchen Hotel (if lucky in winter we get a table by the fireplace) or the bar in the Savoy Hotel (run by the Mandarin Oriental chain), which has live piano music in the afternoon.

If you don't already have hotel reservations in Zurich, the Hotel Sheraton has become our default choice. You can get an executive room (quite spacious) for about 260 francs a night. That's roughly the same price as the Motel One, which we like, but Motel One is more basic and their breakfast is a mehhh, esp compared to the Sheraton's breakfast. The hotel has a #4 tram stop right outside its door, which will take you quickly to the main train station.

We only have about 1 day in Zurich last year and loved a boat ride we took on Lake Zurich. (website: https://www.zsg.ch/en/ ) There are different options you can take. On the boat ride we stopped at the Lindt Chocolate Factory. I thought it was really cool to see, although it was pricey (bc it's Switzerland) for a tour which I didn't think was really worth the price as it was super crowded. I would recommend getting a dessert at the cafe and checking out the store.

Great tips! Was planning on staying at Marriott Zurich because they have a room with 2 doubles for the 3 of us. Is Sheraton nicer/better location?

I suppose you checked the hotels in the French neighbourhood of GVA airport too (like Campanile Ferney Voltaire for example, 5 min by taxi or hotel shuttle from GVA airport).
May be you could sleep some 30 min longer with such a solution. On the other hand the train will leave Nyon at 6.20 for sure whereas a taxi might be late.
There will be no breakfast in both cases, however.

Great tips! Thanks, WeisserTee.