I am taking a girls trip with two friends in June 2017. We'll be flying into Switzerland from Spain for three days before we head home to the US. I am interested in beautiful landscape (mountains and wildflowers), somewhere easy to fly into from Spain, a quaint town with wonderful people. I am not as interested in architecture or museums. Have I given enough information to ask for suggestions? I would appreciate advice.
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
Zurich is your only option I think for a departure flight to the USA. Luzern would therefore be my choice.
Posted by
5 posts
We are flying into Geneva - easier and smaller airport.
I would suggest verbier Zermatt, Saas Fee or Appenzell
Posted by
Green Bay
20090 posts
A smaller quaint town might be Appenzell. Still easy to get to from Zurich airport.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
So you only have 2 nights to spend in Switzerland? If that's the case then your travel choices are limited. The most stunning area as far as landscape would be the Berner Oberland area in the Swiss Alps near Interlaken. Changing trains in Interlaken will take you to the Lauterbrunnen Valley with alpine villages perched high on either side of the valley. That's where you'll see the landscapes you described.
Much closer to Zurich is Lucerne and the nearby lakeside villages of Weggis and Vitznau. It's another stunning area and located at the base of the Rigi.
Look at www.sbb.ch to see train schedules.
Posted by
OP
58 posts
Thank you all for your replies. This is our first trip to Switzerland. I'm honestly still debating between Switzerland and Italy, but Switzerland seems SO expensive. We will be in Barcelona before Switzerland, so I would like to avoid a busy city. I'll start researching your recommendations. I really want to find a quiet city, where we can have picnics, go on hikes and maybe a few great pubs to go to at night if we choose.
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
To be honest it's not really worth flying to a new country for just 3 days. Extend your time in Spain and fly home from Barcelona or Madrid.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32209 posts
If you'd like to have a brief look at Switzerland and especially "beautiful landscape (mountains and wildflowers"), I can't think of a better location than the Berner Oberland. There are few Museums but an abundance of gorgeous scenery and quintessential small Swiss towns. Have a look at these.....
http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/tags/lauterbrunnen/
Is there any possibility you could add a day or two? In that area, the two favourite towns to stay in with many of the group here are either Lauterbrunnen or Mürren.
I doubt that flight schedules will be released yet for June 2017, but you could look at a flight with easyJet from Barcelona to Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, and then take the train to Interlaken Ost (about 2 hours). You could also look at a flight with Vueling from Barcelona to Zürich, and also take a train from there (about 2H:15M - there's a rail station right at the airport). Book your flight home from Zürich.