Hello! I'm in the very tentative early stages of planning a potential trip. Nothing is booked yet. At the moment the outline is:
- Fly into EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, take the bus to Basel main train station, and take the fast train up to Freiburg
- Spend three nights in Freiburg
- Take the train back down to Basel
- Spend two nights in Basel
- Fly back out of EuroAirport on a very early flight
I have a few questions:
- On a basic level, does this seem like a sensible itinerary? Is there anything I'm missing that would render this "seriously not a good idea"?
- I'm a little bit confused about EuroAirport and how it works - I understand the idea of an airport that's jointly controlled by two countries, and so you have to choose whether you arrive through French customs and passport checks or Swiss. What's not clear to me is things like if you exited through the French side, is it still possible for you to take the frequent airport bus into Basel, or are you then "locked" in French territory and so you can't transit through Switzerland to get to Germany? Do you have to specify when buying a plane ticket which country you intend to officially "land" in? When flying back home, does it matter whether you "exit" out of the French or Swiss side, and does it have to be the same one you "entered" through? Basically any clarification on exactly how EuroAirport works would be greatly appreciated!
- And connected to that: what's the best way of getting from EuroAirport to Freiburg? There seems to be a few different options, some of which seem to be quite specific to "only the Swiss side" or "only the French side". I much prefer trains to buses, hence why my tentative plan is the bus to Basel then the train to Freiburg, rather than a bus the whole way, but if anyone has good information on the options here that would be fantastic.
- I have been in and out of the EU several times and am quite used to passing through Schengen passport controls and customs etc as a UK passport holder. However, is there anything different I would need to know about entering through Swiss passport controls? Are they stricter about anything or is the whole process basically the same as flying into the EU? And connected to that, are there passport checks on the train journey between Freiburg and Basel, or not because they're both in Schengen countries?
- Finally, a different type of question: if you were doing this trip, would you prefer 3 nights in Freiburg and 2 in Basel, or vice versa? I'm interested in seeing both, and I enjoy beautiful inner cities, pretty old churches, nice pedestrian areas for strolling, exploring the public transport, interesting museums, that kind of thing. I'll happily take a cable car up a mountain for a view but I'm not into "nature holidays" that are all about hiking and whatnot.
Thank you in advance for answers to any of these! I know it's a lot of questions; any advice or insider knowledge is much appreciated.