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Vienna/Switzerland Trip Planning

I'm trying to get a head start on planning a family trip for June 2017 to Vienna and Switzerland. We have 9 nights total. There will be 6 of us. Husband and I are in our 60's. One son and wife are in mid-30's and other son and girlfriend are in mid-20's. We think we want to fly into Vienna, spend a couple of days there and then take train to Switzerland, perhaps to Bern. Spend one or two nights there and then go to Berner Oberland for two or three nights. My husband, I and our sons stayed in Murren about 10 years ago and loved it so we know we want to stay in that area again. Finally probably to Zurich to fly home.

Is this doable? I'm trying to plan a combination of city/mountain sights. We picked Vienna because most of us haven't been there. But if there is another city you'd recommend please do. It looks like travel time between Vienna and Bern via train is more than eight hours. I realize that's one full day on the train. We will be totally dependent on trains other than arriving and departing flights. Zurich doesn't hold enough appeal to go in and out of there so we want to either start or end somewhere else. Thanks for any suggestions.

Posted by
8965 posts

mkenney
Nine nights is not a lot of time. I would not want to waste a whole day on the train. If it were me I would either go to Vienna and stay in Austria (Salzburg, Halstatt, etc., ending in Munich) or, do the whole time in Switzerland. I agree that Zurich is not that great, but the nice thing about flying in or out of there, is that with the convenient train station at the airport, you can reach anywhere else in Switzerland the day of arrival without wasting time in Zurich itself. Or consider Geneva or even Milan as your gateway.

Posted by
7799 posts

Murren to Vienna is 13.5 hours. You would be going through the entire length of the country of Austria. Agree with others that you should pick one or the other country. Or, here's an option that would give you Switzerland with Italy. We did this route (ended up in Rome), and all of the connections worked well.

Fly into Zurich & take train to Murren. Night #1
Nights #2-4 Enjoy the Berner Oberland area (sleep in Murren)
Train to Stresa, Italy (3 hours)
Nights #5-6 at Stresa (take the ferry out to enjoy Isola Bella & Isola Pescatori, possibly Isola Madre)
Train to Venice (4.5 hours) OR to Florence (3.5 hours) OR to Milan (1 hour)
Nights #7-9 in Venice, Florence, or Milan

Posted by
4853 posts

Another possible gateway city would be Munich. Esp. since there would be a lot of flight choices.