We will be in Interlaken for 3 days in June 2020 and then will be meeting family in Amsterdam. Would it be better to fly from Basel or Zurich? We will be taking an early morning train from Interlaken to one of those airports. Any suggestions?
Both airports are similar times from Interlaken by train (2h15 and 2h21). Those times include the bus connection to Basel airport.
I would choose based on availabilty of flights and cost.
Both Easyjet and KLM fly from both airports to Amsterdam, Swiss also flies from Zürich only.
Thank you!
If you are willing to stay on the train you can get all the way to Amsterdam Centraal in just over 7 hours from Basel, including a 20 minutes change in Frankfurt.
I would also take the train all the way, because once you add in some buffer for train issues (rare in Switzerland but you never know), 1.5-2 hours at the airport in Switzerland, and about 1 hour from plane to downtown Amsterdam, the time saving of the plane is limited. Not worth airport hassles in my book.
I will consider the train--thanks for the advice!
when you look at the train notice that some connections involve changing trains several times and a few go through with just the one change. There is also one a day, in the afternoon, which goes all the way through from Interlaken Ost to Amsterdam Centraal with no changes at all.
If you need help finding those come back...
Coming back after double-checking the trains, they do take closer to 9-10 than to 7 hours. Train to Basel, bus to Basel airport, flight to Amsterdam might be significantly faster.
not all.
7hours 15:
Basel SBB dep 08:13 ICE 372 Intercity-Express Direction: Berlin Ostbahnhof
Frankfurt(Main)Hbf arr 11:08
Transfer time 21 min.
Frankfurt(Main)Hbf dep 11:29 ICE 126 Intercity-Express Direction: Amsterdam Centraal
Amsterdam Centraal arr 15:28 7b
... and its friends
Thanks to everyone for the information!