England to Paris to Switzerland

I’m new to the forum and haven’t had a reply. Did I do something I shouldn’t have?
Prue

"I’m new to the forum and haven’t had a reply. Did I do something I shouldn’t have? "

No. We're all volunteers, so we give answers when we can.

If you're going to spend the time and money to detour to Switzerland, make it worthwhile. The places you list (Bern, Interlaken, Montreux, Geneva) are nice enough, but the real glory of Switzerland is being in the Alps (not near them, as with Interlaken, but in them). So, with limited time, just spend it all there.

If you haven't yet booked transit from London to Paris, instead book a flight from London to Zurich. Go right from Zurich to the Berner Oberland; stay your whole time in one of the towns there (Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald, Muerren, or Wengen). Take advantage of the many hikes, walks, and lifts. Then, take a train from there to either Strasbourg or Paris (I haven't looked at these connections).

If you are locked into the train from London to Paris on the 15th, you can still modify your plan to go to the Berner Oberland instead of Bern and Interlaken.

To find train schedules, use Swiss Rail: https://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html. They won't have posted exact times for your dates yet, but just put in a date next week; the rough frequency won't change much. Others have posted that Switzerland has at least hourly train service on all routes, so even if you "miss" a connection, you can take the next one.

No problem with your inquiry; people may just be otherwise occupied. Give it some more time. I'll give you my thoughts, but I am no expert on Switzerland.

I think if you want to move as fast as you're planning, you should consider asking what would be the prettiest route through Swiss scenery that fits your timing. I don't think you're really going to have time to do much feet-on-the-ground sightseeing at that pace, so why not maximize what you see en route? (This is not to suggest that your proposed route isn't great; I just don't know.)

I'm afraid you're going to have only blurred memories of such a brief, hectic sojurn. In addition, Switzerland is very expensive, so you'll be paying a lot of money in train/bus fares for just a few hours not spent sitting inside those vehicles.

Although Strasbourg is a convenient stopover and has a very pretty historic area, it is a large city, so you may find that you spend more time than expected traveling between the train station and your hotel, and vice versa. If I expected to have just a very few hours to sightsee, I'd choose a smaller town in hopes that there would be less time wasted on logistics. I like Bern, but another possibility would be to drop that stop and spend a bit more time in Strasbourg.

I have no experience traveling to Europe in April, but I believe that is considered not a great time of year for Switzerland. On an extremely short visit, you could have bad luck and encounter nothing but days of poor visibility.

Thanks so much. I appreciate all your ideas. I’m new so just wanted to check I was doing the right thing.

I will think about all your ideas. Very much appreciated

Prue

I completely missed that your trip was in April. That's supposed to be the worst month to go to the Alps. It's between ski and hiking seasons; it's also known as "mud season." The lifts close for a week or two each for maintenance. And they are fertilizing the meadows with liquefied manure, so there's an unpleasant smell in addition to the mud.

So, I retract what I said. If you really want to see Switzerland, you may want to go to Luzern and Bern. As cities, they will have things to do if visibility is poor. From Luzern, you can take cruises on the lake.

Thanks, I’ll keep this all in mind. If we go we will fly as you suggested, stay in one place and train out. Much better idea, thank you.

My husband has been in April around the 24th. He was lucky although one day they had was mucked around due to weather.

We possibly have the chance to stay in Murren.

Thanks so much again. I don’t have to lock anything in yet and will take all your thoughts very seriously and appreciate them.

Prue