Alsace Lorraine

We flew Lufthansa from San Francisco to Munich connecting to Basel and a quick train across the border

Hi, Another option: fly into Paris, take the train to Strasbourg, TGV from Paris Est, ca. 2hrs 20 mins.

There are a small number of direct TGV trains from CDG to Strasbourg without having to transfer in Paris, but it's pot luck whether they coincide with your flight.

If Stuttgart is cheapest, that's probably the easiest. It's 90 minutes from Stuttgart main train station to Strasbourg. Very easy.

If you are in eastern part of France, go to St. Avold to see the American Cemetery, largest one for our troops buried in Europe, well worth it.

Your #1 option is good, as is Fred's suggestion. And try to spend at least one night in Strasbourg and see the center of the city.

Strasbourg (code SXB) and Mulhouse (code MLH or EAP) have airports. These don't get nonstops from the US, and so require a change. I didn't know this until reading it a few weeks ago on this website, but Stuttgart has nonstop flights from New York (I'm not sure if these are daily). You can also fly into Frankfurt and then take a Lufthansa bus to Strasbourg bus station (code XER), right next to the train station. This will all be on one ticket, so it may not be much more money than flying into FRA, and if your plane is late, they will put you on the next bus at no extra charge. Similarly, you can fly into CDG and take a train to Strasbourg (code XWG), all on one Air France ticket (your train is given an Air France "flight number"). Note that XER and XWG codes will work on Lufthansa and Air France's web sites, respectively, but don't always work on other sites like Expedia. I would use Kayak.com to look at all the options (for destination, use Strasbourg, but be sure to check "include nearby airports" to get all the options).

Thank you all very much for sharing your knowledge. We didn't realize we could fly into Basel which is so close to the many areas that we want to visit. We are flying Air France to Basel and renting a car there. We are planning to visit some of the lakes in Switzerland by car, Luzern, Interlaken's Thun and Brienz and Lausanne and Montreaux on Lake Geneva. We both love nature and beautiful scenery. I know trains are the desired mode of transportation in Switzerland but driving will give us more freedom on how we spend our time and we won't have to worry about figuring out what passes to buy, understanding train schedules and finding the right train to get on. Has anyone had experience driving in this area of Switzerland? Just worried about high narrow mountain roads which my husband wants to avoid. How is parking in general? Thanks again for all the great info.
Maxine

If you fly into Basel - "EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg" is its proper name - note that there are (or were a couple of years ago) two sides you can go out to get rental cars. The French side will have French cars. The Swiss side will have Swiss ones. If you want to drive in Switzerland you require a CHF40 sticker on the windscreen called a Vignette which allows you to drive on Swiss Autoroutes and highways. If you get a French car and it doesn't have one you will either get one at the border and spend 40 of your hard won Swiss Francs or you will get caught and pay much more. Even if you intend to only drive on secondary roads - and avoid the Vignette - you will find it very very hard to avoid all Vignette roads. Even some 2 lane roads display the autoroute/autobahn/autostrada sign, including along the Thunersee. Almost all parking - where available - is time limited Zentral Parkuhr machines. If you use them make sure you press the correct silver button for your space or enter the space number in the machine.