My wife and I will be in Annecy for 6 days in May of 2020. Can anyone suggest a day trip or two from Annecy by train or bus. We will not have a car. Thank you!
Posted by
martinez, ca, usa
2380 posts
hey hey dlk4vr
we just spent 6 nights in annecy middle of september. it is a pretty area, the lake is gorgeous, loved the old town center. hope you're staying within the center. on fridays and sundays they have a big marketplace within it, so much to see and do, lots of shops, restaurants, cafes. sit have a drink people watch, take a boat ride on the lake, walk throughout old town with photo ops along the way. it can get busy.
had a fondue lunch at "rotisserie du thou", another day we ahd calzones and pizza at "al vesuvio" reataurant outside tables. bought meats, cheeses, baguettes and wine for our apartment we had for our happy hours. we had a grocery store right below our apartment which was so convenient.
we also did a private taxi tour with gaelle at taxiannecygeneva.net she speaks great english and we loved this day. took us to some small villages around the lake, saw the st bernard castle in menthon. disney came for a visit and was an inspiration for sleeping beauty's castle in disneyland.
stopped for a fabulous lunch at ferme de la charbonniere, a working dairy farm, with tables looking down thru glass floors at the cows and stalls. we had the lunch special reblochonnade (23E). this cheese is native to this area, brought like a small pizza oven to table to melt cheese then scrape it onto the potatoes, along with small pickles, meats, sausages and ice cream dessert.
off to col de la forclaz, see hang gliders soaring right above you from the mountains to the lake. stopped at a gift shop to buy real cowbells that the cows wear in the pastures, a memory for me since mom was a cowgirl on a ranch in hawaii. back to the two land country roads with swiss/french looking houses and bike riders to our apartment. you can email her, she's very good at answering back, if you are interested.
hope this helps you out. enjoy
aloha
GO NINERS!!
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7119 posts
Geneva, Chambery, Aix Les Bains.
Posted by
Portland, Maine
2916 posts
I'm not a fan of Geneva, but it is easy to get to by bus. Chambery is worth seeing, and is easy to get to by train. There are also small towns on both sides of Lake Annecy that you can get to by bus.
Posted by
New York City, NY
301 posts
In my experience that's a lot of time to spend in Annecy. We stayed there 2 or 3 days, I forget which, and enjoyed it but it's a short (and beautiful) train ride to Chamonix, which is dominated by Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe. Going up in a gondola to Aiguille du Midi, the highest point you can get to, was one of the peak moments of my life. Once up there, you can take another cable car to a point in Italy (and back), breathing in the purest air you can ever imagine and passing over needle-like peaks below. Rick Steves describes that cable car ride with a single word: "WOW!" Check it out in his France book!