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Zurich or Lucerne...Best itinerary and base for 5 nights from Paris then Italy

We are a group of 4 adults taking the train from Paris to Zurich and want to do day trips via train or car for our first ever trip to Switzerland. We plan on traveling in April and would like to stay in one city (possibly two cities at most). We know we won't be able to see a lot of cities in five days, but the cities we are most interested in is Bern, Interlaken, Lucerne, Zurich, Basel. We would also love to see the Rhine Falls, but is it worth it? Doing some research, it seems Zurich or Lucerne is the most central for the cities, but we do have to be back to Zurich to catch a train to Italy, so we'll need to be back to Zurich at some point. We are not a group that does a lot of hiking, we mostly enjoy the scenery, the culture and the food. Any advice or recommendation on itinerary and base for 5 nights/6 days?

Thanks in advance!

Posted by
7300 posts

Hi!
For starters: I think the Rhine falls are really in the "meh" category. They are not very impressive by American standards.

With five nights, you could either spend them all in Lucerne or split between Lucerne and Interlaken.
Lucerne is a good base for the surrounding mountains (Rigi, Pilatus, etc.) as well as Bern. It is also possible to do a day trip to the Interlaken area (Jungfrau, Schilthorn, etc.) but it takes a while, hence the suggestion to spend some time in Interlaken too (maybe 2 nights).

Zürich and Basel seem skippable in a short trip like yours.