We are planning a trip to Switzerland and Austria for fall of 2020. Bern is a must because of family history. Salzburg is a must for this music lover. We have to to 2 weeks...suggestions for itinerary please?
Posted by
Paris
6919 posts
I would suggest an open-jaw flight: into Geneva or Zürich / out of Munich. I'm no Austria expert, but I have some ideas.
Counting nights, you could do, all by train:
1-2 Bern
3-5 Bernese Oberland (e.g. Mürren)
6-8 Luzern (can include a daytrip to Mount Rigi, Pilatus, Titlis...)
9-10 Innsbrück (or Stubai valley)
11-13 Salzburg (including day trip to Hallstatt or Zell am See perhaps?)
14 Munich
One of many possibilities!
EDIT for moderator: maybe move this to General Europe forum?
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8166 posts
I'm no expert on Switzerland, but have traveled Austria extensively. The Belso's previous itinerary is right on the money. If you're into music, the real Music City for Europe is Vienna--one of my favorite larger cities worthy of a 4 day visit.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16378 posts
Coming in autumn, you will miss the famed Salzburg Music Festival, which concludes at the end of August.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/salzburg-festival-music-art-drama-opera/
But there should still be some music to enjoybin Salzburg.
Imagree with the suggestion above to include Vienna, a must for a music lover. Skip Innsbruck and head to Salzburg from Luzern, then to Vienna, and fly home from there. With that adjustment, the itinerary suggested by Balso looks pretty good.
Posted by
OP
Gainesville, Ga, Usa
14 posts
Thanks for these great suggestions. Is there a way we could work in Gimmelwald or Zermatt?
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Gimmelwald is in the Berner Oberland, so if you follow Balso's itinerary you'll be there.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
Gimmelwald can be seen on a walk from Mürren -- or take the cable car up from Lauterbrennen. Walk around for an hour or so, then take the cable car back up or down.
Posted by
Maryland
869 posts
balso's itinerary is good since it breaks the Lucerne-Salzburg travel into two segments, otherwise it is a really long day on the train.
https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml
If you want to skip Innsbruck and spend a travel day on it you could also just fly Zurich to Munich and then go on to the Salzburg from there.
Bern, of course, has the Cantonal Offices which have all of the parish registries assembled and microfilmed (by the LDS decades ago) for family information searches. Regrettably the website and the office functions only in German, but if you have specific questions you can contact them ahead of time, and I believe that they can respond to an English request in that way. The original registers are not generally made available, but I have seen some when handwriting in my family history was ambiguous.
https://www.pom.be.ch/pom/de/index/direktion/organisation/mip.html