Landing in Geneva on June 6th and flying back on June 20th (TICKETS ARE BOOKED). Family of 3 kids (2, 7 and 11). We want to spend a few days in Geneva to explore the town and do a couple of day trips. After which we wanted to go spend some time in the Alps, however, the few routes we've mapped out aren't working out as we are unable to find affordable accommodation - everything we're now finding is a bit far out or excessively expensive but not even top quality (comparing it to Italy and France - but really shouldn't).
Budget is approx $250/300 USD per night. Have looked on Airbnb, Booking.com. Have searched on google map hotels and individually checked websites. Any other way to look/ other sites? We will need a 2 bed space to accommodate us. Considering it's early June (not peak season) I'm shocked at the pricing :(
Option 1:
Geneva -- Interlaken -- Zermatt -- Geneva (lots of day trips/plans from Interlaken and Zermatt)
However finding it extremely hard to get a nice spacious, clean spot for our family in Interlaken. Havent even gotten to checking Zermatt yet.
Option 2:
Geneva -- Zermatt -- Milan -- Geneva (However now the direct train from Geneva to Milan is not functioning after June 6th so we'll likely have a longer commute (with 3 cranky kids in tow)) so I'm not sold, but husband is pushing this.
So wondering, what other places can we use for our BASE aside from Geneva - (open to towns/cities in France/Italy too) where we can get the mountains, lakes, scenery, culture... avoiding extremely long commutes. Thank you!