If one were trying to get to Switzerland from Dallas - how would you recommend getting there? Flights from Dallas to Zurich are so expensive and also just LONG? Has anyone flown to germany or italy instead and then gotten to Zurich? Would love some ideas!
Dallas to Amsterdam seems great - but don't see an easy way to get to Zurich or Interlaken? We are a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children)
When?
Set up price alerts on Google flights. Select different destinations and change the dates by a few days. Google Flights is a great resource, you can see the prices for the entire month, as often changing dates by a few days can reduce the price significantly. Use this as a research tool. Always buy flights directly from the airlines.
That being said , prices are higher, and you will need to be diligent , checking often, to find acceptable prices. If you have a lot of time, open an airlines credit card to receive bonus sign up points and discounts.
Good luck!
You are going to have a connection somewhere to fly to Zurich from Dallas (DFW).
I assume this is a summer trip since you have 2 children, s presumably school-age. I see lots of flights on the British Airways website, using a combination of American Airlines, Iberia, and/or British Airways, that have an overall flight time of 14-16 hours, which is not bad at all. The connection airport will be Madrid if you have Iberia in the mix; otherwise it will be at Heathrow. Price for any of them is around $1400 roundtrip; that is pretty much what people are seeing for summer 2024 travel. But as noted above, prices can vary day to day, so if you are flexible by a day or three, that may help with a slightly lower price.
A direct flight to Amsterdam only makes sense if (a) you want to spend time in Amsterdam, (b) you want to spend time in Germany, and (c) you are OK spending time and money on trains. The train trip between Amsterdam and Zurich or Interlaken is around 9-10 hours at best, so you need to break that up with at least one overnight on the way. The simplest route I can see is via Frankfurt and Basel, but there are other options. We actually did this ourselves on our way to Switzerland in 2018, but we wanted to visit friends in Amsterdam, and we had several extra days to spend on our way from there to Mürren. So we made overnight stops in Bamberg (which was out of the way) ;and Basel. I doubt that would work for your family’s vacation in Switzerland.
But if there is a direct flight to Amsterdam from your airport, you could certainly take that flight on your way to Zurich (or Geneva). That is, make Amsterdam your connecting airport in Europe.
Fly to a major airport on the East Coast, either connect that day or spend the night.
If you follow Phred’s advice make sure your flights are all on one ticket. You should not fly to a US airport and then have a separate ticket to Europe the same day. Too risky. And spending the night will just add expense unless you have friends to stay with for free.
Ya gotta pay to play
Thank you all! Great tips and smarts :D
There are direct flights to Zurich from places like Washington DC. Get a cheap Southwest flight from Dallas to DC and then fly direct overseas. But no matter how you do it, flights to Europe aren’t exactly cheap.
