Berner Oberland and Alsace…please help me finish the trip plans

Good call with planning to stay in Colmar and Murren for a week each. So much to see and do. We spent a week in Colmar without a car during the Christmas market season. We day tripped to Riquewihr and Ribeauville and enjoyed both little towns in one day. I don’t think I would bother to spend a night or two in either of those towns, though. There are so many day trip opportunities from Colmar (Strasbourg, Freiburg, Basal, and many charming villages). To really hit some of the cute, smaller villages, you may want to consider renting a car for a day. We walked a lot. Trains and busses are available but we ended up taking a taxi a couple times, mostly to save time.

I would lean towards heading back to Switzerland the last 3 nights. You say you enjoy smaller towns vs. cities. I suppose Bern is a city, but it feels like a town to me. We love Bern. The town itself is fun and very walkable, but you can get out of town and enjoy nature very easily. If Bern doesn’t interest you, you may consider Murten. RS mentioned it is his Switzerland book so we day tripped there from Bern, which was a short train ride. Small, compact medieval town on a lake. Quite lovely. Based on your preferences, I would save Zurich for your last night, although unless your flight home is real early, you can consider skipping Zurich altogether. I am sure regular posters will offer other ideas. Have fun.

Thank you, Jay! I really appreciate your feedback. It’s good to hear you enjoyed spending a week in Colmar as well! I like the idea of staying in one place for a longer time for this vacation. Having a home base in the mountains for a week, and then Colmar for a week sounds wonderful, and less stressful than moving every two nights. I’m trying to balance ease of travel with seeing more places that are new to us this time. I will look into some of the cities that you mentioned for those last two nights. I never thought about Murten…

Thanks!
Laurie

Update from original plans : We don’t wish to stay in Zurich after all…

Our trip is coming up soon…and I’m rethinking the last two nights, currently planning to stay in Bern. We would then take the train from Bern to Zurich in our flight day, going directly to the airport. Maybe it would be even nicer to stay in a smaller town along the route? Bern takes us out of the way when looking at the map.

As we look at the route to Zurich from Colmar, via Basel, is there a small town along the route that anyone can recommend for our consideration? We do prefer smaller towns in general, and that would shorten our trip to Zurich on our last day.

Thanks for any additional ideas to share!

Laurie

Without a car, Colmar gives you access to Eguisheim by bus in 15 minutes.
Riquewihr can also be reached from Colmar by bus in about 25 minutes. Ribeauville is 20 minutes further. RIQUEWIHR looks like a medieval movie set with intact ramparts and turrets. RIBEAUVILLE has 3 ruined castles you can hike to— along with a Wine Cooperative where you can taste/buy wines from dozens of local vintners all under one roof.
If you opt to stay in Ribeauville, you can rent bicycles and ride on trails going through the vineyards to Riquewihr and KAYSERSBERG You also can go 2.5 miles north to the medieval town of BERGHEIM which has all of its fortified walls intact.
Riquewihr and Ribeauville can both be visited in one day.
Have a great Trip!

Thank you! I am looking forward to exploring those towns around Colmar and I appreciate your info. We will be there long enough that I think it will be fun to be a temporary local for the time that we’re staying there.

I think we’ll stick with our Bern plans. It helps to hear that other people really enjoyed their time there! And getting swiftly to the Zürich airport by train will make things easier on our travel day.

Thanks again!

Laurie