3 days of open travel - limited budget

Please clarify .... I do not understand - prior to your 3 free days, where will you be - what city is going to be your starting point? Where else will you be traveling prior to these three days? Are you saying that you are looking for a city along the Swiss border in which to spend your 3 free days ( in which case Holland is out ) .... or will you be traveling to the Swiss border area AFTER your 3 free days? You mention a limited budget - how limited? How do you desire to spend your "limited budget" - on a rail ticket, a fine restaurant, several museums, or a good hotel? What are your priorities? More info, please, then someone may be able to provide you some specific alternatives.

Ok sorry, i am an american I will be staying with a friend in zwiessman.interlaken from 5/12 to 5/28..i will be sight seeing alone from 5/14 to 5/18 locally alone. We will be doing some travel with his car about 12 days, just day trips prehap a over night stay here and there but from 5/28 to 6/2 I will be traveling alone. i fly out of Zurich 6/2. Therefore I need to know where to stay what cities along the swiss border say france or italy I can reasonably travel and stay a night or two. And well if I take 3k usd is that a good amount of money to budget for my entire 3 week trip

I've edited this, as you've given more detail since I first posted. I'm not sure where you've been before, or what kind of place interests you. I know you can get direct trains to Zurich from Paris, and from several German cities. From Holland, it's probably going to require a change. You can get train schedules on http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. That site will not show prices if the train does not start or end in Germany, so you can use http://www.rail.ch for prices. For best prices, buy the tickets in advance (preferably as soon as they go on sale, to avoid missing out on the sale fares); ask here on a new thread if you need help with that. Here's my take:
Cities I liked in Holland: Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden, Rotterdam. Cities that were OK: Maastricht, the Haque. Cities I didn't like in Holland: Delft, Haarlem Cities I liked in Germany: Berlin (the clear winner), Frankfurt. Cities I was not as fond of: Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, Duesseldorf (nothing wrong with these, but not worth a detour, in my opinion). Cities I liked in France: Paris (the clear winner), Lyon (a strong second), Nancy (an overlooked gem), Marseilles (not for everyone, but interesting if you speak French). Cities that were OK: Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier (none recommended particularly unless you have a special interest). Cities I didn't care for in France: Strasbourg (except for the superb Museum of Alsatian Life), Dijon, Nice. Obviously, these are only my opinions, and can only encompass places I've been to. I've also left out smaller towns that some would would call "cities" like Aachen and Bonn in Germany, or Arles and Aix-en-Provence in France. If that's what you had in mind, let us know.

Berlin will be your cheapest major city option and one of the best options, period, IMO. In terms of time/distance and cost, you're probably best off flying with a budget airline - just be sure and read the fine print about what's allowable to check and/or carry on. Munich would be a good option, not as cheap as Berlin but a lot closer to travel to. Frankfurt is another interesting and reasonable option doable by train. Edited to say that Marsielle is interesting even if you don't speak French, and people on this board consistently underrate Strasbourg for reasons I can't fathom, as it's a wonderful city that I return to again and again. However, Marsielle is far away, you'd also have to fly. Strasbourg can be done from Interlaken in 4 hours, not too bad. I would love to recommend Paris, but it would be really tricky on your budget. Holland is expensive as well.

You don't need to go as far as some have suggested. Within Switzerland from Zweisimmen you can go up into the Lauterbrunnen Valley or down the hill to Montreux, Lausanne, Chateau Chillon, Geneva. Or nearby is Bern with its fountains and Basel (we recently fell in love with Basel). Luzern is a very scenic ride over the Brunig Pass on a cogwheel train leading to beautiful boat rides and really nice town. Just past Basel to the west of the Rhein is the French Department of Alsace with the wine route and Colmar and all the lovely villages as well as the city of Strasbourg. On the east of the Rhein is the Black Forest of Germany. To the south is Italy. Milan is easy to get to via the new BasisTunnel or from Luzern via Lugano. Maybe you'd like to see the Last Supper. As far as costs - far too complicated to me to calculate. It seems you are not paying for housing, and will your friend pay your meals too? If he is resident there can he get you a resident guest card (Lola, what's that called?) for the trains? No idea what you would spend for incidentals. Are you putting fuel in his car? Sorry not more help.

Annecy, an hour or so from Geneva by bus, is a great city. I've been there 3 of the last 4 years. You can read what I've written about it in 2009, 2010 and this year, in various postings on my travel blog: http://www.mainelywinenews.blogspot.com/.
Lyon is just a little further, and also a great place for a few days. I also wrote about it in 2010 in my blog.

Hi, My recommendations: First choice as far as watching your budget and all other aspects, Berlin. Take the night train Zürich-Berlin direct, spend a day in Potsdam too, other choices in Germany (if not Berlin): Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Lübeck, Dresden, Meissen. In France...no.1 is Paris (depending on your budget), Strasbourg (the cathedral, das Straßburger Münster, and everything else), Amiens. No recommendation for Holland.

Venice.