day trips from switzerland

If you are in Switzerland, I would stay in Switzerland.

In 3 hours you can get to Milan or Stuttgart or Strasbourg but why?

I agree. If you were in Basel, Zurich, or Geneva, it might make sense. You may also be underestimating the hassle and time of driving through tunnels filled with tractor-trailers and so on. It is fantastically more expensive to stay in Switzerland than the adjoining countries, so it makes no financial sense.

Do you have a guide book, such as Rick Steves Switzerland? He has lots of day trip and sightseeing ideas from your locations.

Agreed that those Swiss regions will have plenty to see and do. For instance, see Rick's itinerary outline if you have two or three weeks. If you just want to touch Italy, you can take local bus #C12 from Lugano to Mennagio on Lake Como (1 hour each way, fewer on Sundays, see p. 309 of Switzerland book) .

What I was hoping to get was day trips in Switzerland from these 5 locations; we will be staying in each place 3-4 days.
We want each trip to be IN Switzerland- not outside; because we will be in each place for quite a long time we were hoping to get some suggestions from these locations for trips of up to 6 hours roundtrip.
Any help would be appreciated.

There are several places you should visit if you are going to be in Switzerland for a couple of weeks. Among the possibolities are Geneva, Montreux (especially Chateau Chillon), Gruyere, maybe the chocolate factory in Broc, cruise on a boat on Lake Geneva (Lac Lemans), Basel is worth at least a day trip, maybe go into France to Mont Blanc/Chamonix or even Evian Le Bains, Zermatt and the Matterhorn, etc... The list goes on and on, and I never even mentioned anywhere east of Zurich. Get a good Switzerland guidebook that covers the entire (very small) country; Rick excludes at least half of it for no apparrent reason?