My husband and I are driving from Burgundy and have one night in Switzerland before flying home from Zurich. Which town/city is recommended for our only Swiss evening? We wont have much time for sight seeing, but I am seeking a memorable atmosphere, a beautiful walk and a delicious meal before flying home to Australia.
Posted by
Chicago
4316 posts
Definetly Lucerne. And then you can take the train from there right to the Zurich airport.
Posted by
Franklin, TN, USA
1047 posts
Totally agree….stay at Hotel Balances or Hotel des Alpes in Lucerne, enjoy a dinner overlooking the river and chapel bridge and then train to Zurich the next morning.
Posted by
60 posts
Gruyères (the village) is a tiny place . Nice location but you really need to find accomodation options before deciding on staying there - if you add in the rest of the district of the same name you don't get much more. An alternative is the town of Bulle, 5km away, which has more options and a fairly old centre for evening exploration, although being in the centre of town restricts some of the mountain views. Murten is just inside the german speaking area , it's smaller, it has an old centre and a lakeside but has a similar range of accomodation options to Bulle. For me, the choice of Bulle or Murten in this scenario comes down to price.
Luzern is much bigger and the centre is packed with tourists. It has a large range of accomodation - priced to make the most of the tourists. It has the Instagram sights but for me, especially by car, I wouldn't bother for a one night flying stopover.
Posted by
Arctophilia, Northamptonshire, England
36736 posts
just wondering about the elephant in the room.
I see driving... Burgundy... one night in Switzerland...
what are you going to do with the car? If it is a French car, hired in France, it won't have a Swiss Vignette for driving on roads with a green sign (some look like motorways, some are anything but). That will run you CHF 40. Same price one day or 14 months. No daily rate.
Also, are you paying an arm and a leg for returning the car cross border in Switzerland? That fee can easily run into many hundreds of francs. General advice is to drop the car while still in France and take the train.
Car parking in Switzerland is almost never free and can run quite dear. Luzern is something like CHF25 from memory.
And back to the question on the table, with a flight out of Zürich the next day (what time?) trains go straight into the airport from Luzern in around 1H15. That would be my choice...
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
8186 posts
Luzern is stunning, one of my favorite places in the world. What time of year? What time is your flight from Zurich? If it is not really early in the morning, I'd stay two nights in Luzern and go directly to the Zurich airport from Luzern. Swiss trains are almost always on time and reliable. They will actually announce a train delay, of two minutes!
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
8186 posts
Nigel makes an excellent point. I think you could return the car at the Basel airport, on the French side? Train from Basel to Luzern is easy. Otherwise, you could return in Mulhouse. OR, return the car in Dijon and take the train which does appear to be faster to Luzern than a car.