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?
I agree with Gundersen that Interlaken is a good choice for what you want to do: sleep somewhere central with easy access to trains, boats, mountains, etc. and spend your days exploring.
Interlaken, like most tourist locations, consists of a main street with all the shops and touristy things. This is where the masses hang out - go one street to either side of this, or walk along the wanderweg path along the Aare river and you have peaceful Swiss beauty.
If you choose to stay here, I would even suggest Unterseen as a good location. Directly beside Interlaken with no discernible division from it, a lovely little town square and a bit more peace and quiet. We have often rented a bnb apartment there in the past.
Between Basel and Bern I would for sure choose Bern, as Basel is at the edge of the country and Bern more central.
Travel times from Bern to Zurich, Lucerne and Lausanne are all around one hour. You can reach the mountain village of Wengen in an hour and a half.
You can also check out times and distances from Thun. I find it very fast and convenient to take day trips from here in all directions.
Use SBB.ch to explore your train, bus and boat options.
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.
There are a couple tools to help you visualize the options.
