Hi,
We are renting a car for our rhine valley trip and plan to drop it off in a german border town and take a train into lucerne(staying there).
What is the best town on the border to do this? Lindau, Konstanz, ??
What is the best way to get to lucerne using our swiss pass?
Thanks
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Konstanz, for 2 reasons:
1) It is the shorter rail journey to most places in Switzerland.
2) Konstanz is served by both a Swiss and German railways. So your Swiss rail pass is valid from Konstanz, and you will have no more to pay.
If by "best way to get to lucerne" you are asking about what trains to take, look up train times on the Swiss Federal Railways website: www.sbb.ch
Posted by
Green Bay
21139 posts
If you are in the Rhine valley, you could try Loerrach, just outside of Basel. Take the train to Basel Bad station (every 30 minutes), then the Swiss Pass takes over. Avis, Sixt, and Europe Car are located there.
Posted by
OP
Boston
22 posts
Thank you so much Chris and Sam.
I am assuming one of those towns would also be a great place to pick up the car on our way back into germany (heading into southern bavaria).
One more question -
We plan to spend one night in lucerne and move on to wengen for 4 nights before returning to Germany.
If we stayed in Grindelwald (instead of wengen), would you recommend we keep the car for our stay in BO?
Thanks
Madhavi
Posted by
Green Bay
21139 posts
I don't think a car in the BO is very useful, given the level of train service and the fact that trains go where cars can't. It'll spend a lot of time in parking lots with the meter running. Plus you will also need to get a Swiss Highway vignette sticker if you rent the car in Germany.