My husband and I are planning our first trip to Europe in October. We have plane tickets booked, flying into Paris on day 1 and flying out of Zurich on day 8 (so 7 nights). We're planning tentatively 3 nights Paris, 2 nights Munich, 2 nights Lucerne. Rail transport in between, no car rentals. I'm not sure if we'll have enough to do in Lucerne. While we both will enjoy the scenery of Switzerland, I think we're more "city" types, as we enjoy long days walking about town, seeing sights, and dropping into cafes and shops. I'm wondering if it is feasible to do Paris-Munich-Venice? Or Paris-Munich-Milan? Or Paris-Munich-?? I'm still getting acquainted with the rail maps and schedules, but since our flight leaves Zurich at 14:00, we'll have to be somewhere close by the night before (which is why we were thinking Lucerne, just a short ride to the airport) Am I wrong? We're trying to avoid a night in Zurich as we've heard it isn't worth spending an evening. We booked the ticket on a whim because it was so much cheaper than others.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Renae,
I suggest Bern for you city types, instead of Luzern. Bern has enough for 2 days, but not much more. You can still do a day trip to Luzern on one of your two Bern days if you like. If you travel one way via Interlaken and the Brünig pass, and the other way the quick route, you get your dose of mountains as well.
There two trains per hour from Bern to Zürich airport, taking 1¼ hours see www.sbb.ch for details.
I would also consider flying from Paris to Munich, it is a long way by train.
Posted by
Los Angeles
4853 posts
Good suggestion, Bern is a good city choice. And it's easy to get to/from Zurich and Interlaken.
And here's where you should stay
http://www.beauvilla-bern.com/?lang=en
You can also spend the night before AT the airport, so you can relax the day of your flight and take a short bus ride to your terminal. There's a pretty good sized shopping mall/train station at the airport so you could kill some time there. We stayed at the Hilton, but we saw lots of other choices.
We spent a day walking around Zurich, it seemed pretty nice to me.
Posted by
Stanwood, Wash, USA
9 posts
From Paris I would take the train east and visit Strasbourg, maybe check out the champagne region along the way. Then tour down the wine road to Colmar. Visit Basel and finish in Zurich. We visited cousins in Switzerland and they found no reason to show us anything in that city. (Zurich) We learned later that was because of so many hookers and drug users near the airport/train station but maybe that situation has improved by now. Maybe try to zero in on the types of activities you want to do then pick the city that has more of it. We were really open to just doing what was going on so we got to see a leg of the TourdeFrance when we saw that our itinerary overlapped with the race dates. Some of the villages are really small and quiet so if you want more action and nightlife be sure to identify where that can be found. Happy travels!!
Posted by
Los Angeles
4853 posts
I saw no hookers/druggies outside Zurich or Bern stations, or Montreux even though their mens room had that special violet lighting to discourage IV drug use.
Do they exist? Sure, they do everywhere. What disappointed me was all the young people standing outside the train stations smoking ciggies as if their lives depended on it. it was sometimes tough to pass through that scrum.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Phred, Renae,
Prostitution is legal in Switzerland, they don't hang about outside stations, they work in legal brothels and the local councils decides which areas they can and can't ply their trade. They even advertise and have websites (Dear webmaster, this is an example I found with a simple google search, I hope it doesn't break your website rules, as these businesses are 100% legal).
Druggies are also seldom seen.
Yes, smokers are a big problem. They aren't allowed to smoke in enclosed parts of stations, so they hang about outside, you just have to hold your breath and have a good macheté to hand to cut through the smog. :-)