we already have flights booked but we have one extra day to add to one of our destinations. I am torn between Paris or Wengen. This is our first time in both places.
Arrive in Brussels
-4 nights Bruges
-6 nights Paris
-4 nights Colmar
-5 nights Wengen
fly out Zurich late
Would you suggest we add another night to Paris or to Wengen? We will not be interested in visiting museums in Paris. If that helps. We love hiking and trail running in the alps.
Hi Karlee, which month are you planning to go?
We will be gone the last week in June through early July :)
If you can add another night I would spend 2 nights at Lucerne. Beautiful area on a lake and river. Close to Zurich and the airport.
I appreciate the suggestion but we don’t have any interest in visiting larger towns in Switzerland on the lakes. We’d prefer to stay in the mountains or Paris
As pretty as Wengen is, we felt we saw the entire place twice in 90 minutes. I would be bored out of my mind 2 days there. If you love that scenery, then hit up Gimmelwald, Grimmelwald, Murren, etc. It's all in the same area. I would just stay in Interlaken and pay half the price for a hotel and get better restaurants then visit those other places - and take a boat to Thun and back.
Paris is a multi-level city. You can hit the normal tourist spots, but you can drill down into various districts and find many unique attractions. You can definitely keep yourself occupied but it takes some research and effort.
Colmar is a great choice but again a day or two is enough - unless you want to rent a car and go to all the Plus Belle Villages within a few miles or up to the Konigsberg Castle about 10 miles away.
I felt Bruges was a bit over-rated. I made day trips to Ghent, Oosterand, etc. Bruges has some water and nice little city center like a mini-Brussels. You can see it all in an hour or two.
Everybody has their own opinions. My husband & I have stayed in the Lauterbrunnen area twice. The first time we stayed in Lauterbrunnen. The second time we stayed up in Wengen. The views were outstanding! We had a balcony with those views to wake up & enjoy each morning. We wouldn’t have wanted to stay in Interlaken and have to head over to Lauterbrunnen and up either side of the cliffs to get up to the gorgeous views. The time & expense on the trains is also a factor.
If you’re interested in a couple of day trips from Paris, then I would add your extra day there. Otherwise, since you don’t want to visit their museums, I would give your extra day to Wengen since that month should be great weather.
Why not spend a night in Lille?
I vote for the extra night to go to Paris, lol. But then...I love Paris. You can use the extra time to do a day trip or just continue to see sights in Paris!
I've stayed in the Lauterbrunnen area a couple of times and thought it was outstanding. I'm glad you have 5 nights there. That gives you 4 good days for hiking. I'm not sure the point is to "tour" Wengen but the hiking trails out of there are jaw-dropping if you've never been before. You can hike on the Wengen side, the Muerren side or down in the valley itself. Wonderful! BTW, I live in the Intermountain West. I can see mountains from my yard. I hike and drive in the mountains of the US West for recreation....and the Wengen/Lauterbrunnen/Muerren area made my heart stop it is so gorgeous.
BTW, for Colmar, do you have smartphones and will you have data? The Tourist Information office has a wonderful brochure for a self-guided walking tour thru town. Each of the specific locations has a signboard and they all have QR codes for you to scan and get more information. I was not fully up to date with my QR scanning skills, lol, but I finally figured it out. I was also pretty pooped one day and decided to take the little tourist train. Don't bother. It can't really go into the pedestrian areas where all the interesting stuff is.
I would take one night from Bruges and give one more night to Paris and another night to Wengen. Your first night in Bruges is recovering from jetlag, so this leaves you two more days in Bruges.
Thank you! I would like to do a full day biking in Belgium as well as a day trip to Ghent so I feel like we definitely need all four nights on top of the jet lag.
