Hello,
Our family is spending 5 nights in Lauterbrunnen in June at the end of our 2 week trip. The family flies home from Zurich while my son is going to St Gallen to train with a soccer team. I am going with him. So we will be in St Gallen for 4 days, 3-4 nights. I will be by myself during the day. Are there any day trips to Austria or Germany or elsewhere I should consider? Thanks!
Posted by
Switzerland
383 posts
Definitely spend some time in St Gallen itself - walk around the very nice old town, visit the abbey & abbey library,
For day trips to Germany/Austria, you can easily reach various nice towns on the Bodensee aka Lake Constance in under an hour: Konstanz, Bregenz and Lindau come to mind. There are tons of boats criss-crossing the lake as well, including departures from Romanshorn, which is only about 20 mins by train from St Gallen. Nice area for walking/biking or swimming too. You can have a look at the website covering the whole lake region and see if anything looks interesting https://www.bodensee.eu/en and St Gallen region https://st.gallen-bodensee.ch/en/
In Switzerland itself there are plenty of other places worth visiting, depending on your interests - for example, you will be close (ca 40 mins) to Appenzell, which is a small but picturesque traditional village (with nice landscape/mountains around) or if you won't visit with the whole family, a day-trip to Luzern is doable - direct train, ca 2 hrs each way.
Posted by
Niagara, Ontario
1550 posts
"Definitely spend some time in St Gallen itself - walk around the very nice old town, visit the abbey & abbey library" - Yes.
I'm not sure about public transport connections or how far you are willing to travel but old town Konstanz, Meersburg, Uberlingen and Lindau are all worth a visit on the German side. Reichenau is good for easy walks and is a World Heritage Site. The Island of Mainau should be splendid that time of year. A bit further afield, Schaffhausen (town and Rhine Falls close by) and the pretty town of Stein am Rhein.
Posted by
The Heartland USA
8443 posts
Appenzell area? I haven't been, but have been wanting to for a long time. Covered well in the RS book.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC
367 posts
Rick does a sad job of covering this in his book. Lonely Planet is a bit better.
We were there for 6 days in December 2017. My daughter was finishing her term-abroad at university. This is what we did:
1. flew into Zurich, drove to St Gallen -- jet lagged! She took us to some "view"points but it was December and cloudy so not much to see. It snowed a lot that night and the next morning we ....
2. Awoke to sunshine and drove to Appenzall and took the cable car up Santis. Apparently you can see Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, France, and Italy from the top. I'm dubious of the last two, but okay. It was glorious.
3. My daughter's Swiss boyfriend gave us the grand tour of Luzern (such a charming city!)
4. St. Gallen Abbey, library, and Christmas markets. That morning my husband and younger daughter went for a snow hike in Appenzall -- my older daughter's pics from summer were amazing
5. We drove to Neuschwanstein in Germany because it's been on my bucket list for 40 years. Very doable, even in the snow.
6. Drove to Liechtenstein and up to their ski hill. I loved the capital Verduz, but then I tend to like obscure places.
Every night we hung out in St Gallen. It's the home of the most prestigious business university in Switzerland, and has the feel of a university town.
After that we left to ski in Austria, which of course you won't do in June.