My husband and I are going to Switzerland August 2024 for about 1 week. We'd like to have a 'base' city to stay at nightly and take day trips via their train system (so we're not taking our luggage and unpacking every day or 2).
We depart back to the states from the Zurich airport. I've read Bern or Basel is a good 'central' base. Any hotel suggestions or another good 'central' location to stay at and travel from via train. Thank you in advance :-)
Were you not happy with the responses to your earlier post? Perhaps if you include additional info regarding your interests?
Enjoy this beautiful country. Safe travels!
Interlaken is a good base for a week. Nice town, though it gets a bit of flak on here for some reason. Two lakes, close to some famous mountain villages. Quick enough to Bern, Lucerne and Basel (Basel is at the border with France, not central to anywhere).
Staying in one of the mountain villages will add to your travel time.
Basel is a good base if you also want to take day trips into France or Germany but it’s a hour and a half to Interlaken with a change in Bern. Kind of adds a lot of train time on to the Alpine sites. Was there something about the previous recommendations for Lucerne that you didn’t like?
Bern doesn't get nearly enough love. Its my favourite city in Switzerland. The city centre is entirely authentically medieval as it has never been destroyed by fire or war. Easy connections to Zurich, Lucerne, Geneva, the Berner Oberland and Basel. Its the national capital and about as central as it gets.
I would consider Thun, which I loved. It's a little closer to the Berner Oberland, which seems to be everyone's (including mine) favorite area.
