Basel to the Schluchtensteig Trail

Whether you arrive in Switzerland or EU is trivial. They are both in Schengen. To get to Wehr, the best way is through Basel SBB station and there are buses from Basel airport (on the Swiss side) to Basel SBB every 7 1/2 minutes. That is much easier than taking the shuttle bus to St Louis station then taking a train to Basel SBB, which is much less frequent than the buses.

There are AFAIK no direct flights from the US to Basel. So you will be connecting through some other airport. If that other airport is in the Schengen area you will do immigration there, and in BSL you will usually just walk out after picking up your luggage.

If you come from outside the Schengen area you will do immigration at BSL, and you can choose wether you have French or a Swiss border guard process you, but in the end it does not matter, because after immigration everyone ends up in the same luggage hall. That there are both Swiss and French border guards is just to spread the workload. After you pick up your luggage you can choose if you exit in to France or in to Switzerland.

Take the Swiss exit, and then the bus to SBB, and train from there. The whole route can be planned on www.sbb.ch, just select "Basel Euroairport" as origing and "Wehr (D) busbahnhof" as destination.

Note that if you can get a direct flight to either Zurich or Frankfurt that may be a better option. Then just take trains from there.

Your profile gives no hint as to your location, but previous posts seem to indicate your location has direct flights to Zurich. If that is the case, that would be the easiest, rather than taking a connecting flight to Basel Europort. If you wish to start the hike in Stuehlingen, it is a combination of trains and buses from Zurich Airport that will get you there in 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hours. If you want to start in Wehr, it is about 2 3/4 hours from Zurich Airport, simplest via Basel SBB.

I wasn't sure if it was too esoteric of a question to ask but was very pleasantly surprised at the amount of helpful information forum members provided. Because Switzerland is not an EU member, I stupidly assumed it also wasn't a member of the Schengen Area. That makes a ton of difference.

The consensus both here and from the tour company is flying direct to Zurich from the US will be the best best for us. I will have to keep an eye on those rail closures as well.

Thanks everyone for the help!

P.S. "me.crewe" your tip to train to Schleitheim and just walk to Stühlingen was genius. So much simpler. I don't know why the tour company itinerary advised train to Lauchringen and then bus to Stühlingen?

Thanks for the video link! Schaffhausen looks interesting. I think we need to plan on spending a day just exploring it.