Austria, Germany, Switzerland Help!

I am not sure how many tourists were in Lugano when I was there, so I guess they must not have gotten in my way... but it is a beautiful place to visit. I have been there a few times and loved it every visit... however, all of Switzerland can be expensive . Salzburg is filled with tourists... and for good reason, it is a lovely place to visit and enjoy and The Sound of Music tour is fun! I had been to Germany about a half a dozen times before I went to Nueschwanstein and it was definitely worth the visit for me. My 11 year old grandson wanted to go there and we had a great visit. We enjoyed the outside and did not feel the need for the tour. We took the shuttle bus up to the Castle and walked down and it was a really special part of our trip. We also spent time at the other castle (or faux castle...don't know, don't care) and had a great time.
What a great adventure you have planned.

"What do you recommend as the best places to visit in Switzerland that are quintessential, beautiful, not overly touristy or expensive, and good for an older woman and younger woman?" Switzerland in general is extremely expensive. If you want some Alpine thrills, I would consider checking out the mountains in Germany or Austria.

For a place in German Alps, think about Oberstdorf or one of the villages (Fischen) down the Iller River from Oberstdorf. Just up from Oberstdorf is the Kleinwalsertal, a part of the Austrian Vorarlberg that is isolated by the mountains and only accessible from Oberstdorf. Kleinwalsertal is a beautiful valley. In the winter there is lots of skiing and in the summer you can ride the lifts up to the top of the mountains. I know of Germans who spend three weeks of their vacation there every year, riding the lifts up and hiking down.

"What do you recommend as the best places to visit in Switzerland that are quintessential, beautiful, not overly touristy or expensive, and good for an older woman and younger woman? Next, what is the best way to get there?" If "overly touristy" is a concern, well, you'll overdose on the "Sound of Music" tour, of course. AND you should drop Neuschwanstein for sure. It's a rather dull, overcrowded, 35-minute tour of a 19th-century private residence, not a castle, a place that is inundated with tourists, cheap trinket kiosks, etc. You'll spend 5 hours getting to the castle and back to Munich for your onward journey to Switzerland as well. I would save the time and money. Spend it seeing genuine the castles in/near Salzburg instead. http://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/ Then head for the Bernese Oberland: Lauterbrunnen is more scenic and less touristy than Interlaken, and closer to the Schilthorn - a pricey but worthwhile once-in-a lifetime destination. The German alps (as suggested above by others) are also quite impressive but they aren't the Swiss alps.

Second vote for Oberstdorf (thanks once again to Lee for pointing me there last year), especially if you don't want overly touristy... well, it is touristy, but almost all of the visitors are German or Dutch. I've only been there in the winter, but it is absolutely stunning. Although I think Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a more fun town, the scenery in Oberstdorf is a little more impressive. I don't find the Berner Oberland so much more scenic that it's worth the price or inconvenience of getting there over southern Bavaria. And the above poster tells EVERYONE not to go to Neuschwanstein, but I'm not fighting that battle again...

Thanks to everyone's advice! I do realize Switzerland is expensive, but it is a place I have always wanted to go and have my heart absolutely set on it...that doesn't mean I can't try to be economical with what money I do plan on spending though! Furthermore, I do try to avoid tourists as possible, although there are always "must sees" that are on tourists' lists because they're actually very good! Plus, the Sound of Music tour is non-negotiable as my grandma is so very excited for it (as am I, if I'm being honest). She had six children, all with similar appearance to the original Von Trapp family and my aunts/uncles grew up appearing in shows for it....naturally I was raised on the musical as well! Then in Germany, I've personally already been to Munich and Neuschwanstein once and loved it. It's a beautiful "castle" (Terry Kathryn, I'm with you on this one), with gorgeous views, and I enjoyed the walk up and then time spent in the small village. So I think we'll stick with that, but thank you! Anyways, I'll have to look into Lugano (though I think that's further south than we're able to go on time constraints). As for Lauterbrunnen and Muerren (as I read is close to Schilthorn), are these more used primarily for skiing and hiking? My grandmother is in great shape, but not up for skiing! Also, any recommendations on train travel from Munich to Füssen to Switzerland?? And does anybody recommend the Swiss Pass or even Half Fare Card? I've been reading about it and think it could be worth it, but wanted to hear others' experiences! Thanks!

I also love Hirschegg, by Oberstdorf in the Kleinwalsertal. You're perched on the hillside with a great view. In Switzerland I vote for Luzern or something different than the valley of Lauterbrunnen. The Four Valleys, like the town of Verbier, is great. You can catch the train to Paris from Geneva. This area is not over run by Americans.

Use the Bayern-Ticket from Munich to Fussen, as well as from Salzburg to Munich. The Sound of Music tour doesn't visit the sites in the old town. They are easy to visit on your own. I think a poster at trip advisor or fodors.com has a list of the places. Neuschwanstein has about 180 steps on the tour. My wife with knee problems found it difficult, but she made it.

If your heart is set on Switzerland, by all means go. There is no effective substitute! We love it there. Nyes, it has become quite expensive with the dollar/CHF rate so bad now, but you can avoid some of the expense with clever planning. Lugano is far our of your path and does not feel as quintessentially "Swiss" as places in the heart of the Alps. There a number of beautiful and welcoming places, but for a short trip, the Berner Oberland villages like Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, and Mürren make the most sense. All three are a short hop from Interlaken and much better for scenery and ambiance. Lauterbrunnen lies deep in a valley that looks much like Yosemite Valley,with cliffs and waterfalls. Above Lauterbrunnen is Mürren, perched some 3000 feet above on a bench. On the other side of the valley, not quite so high is Wengen. These are peaceful, car free villages. In winter they are ski resorts, but in summer they host lots of tourists whonare less active. As long as your grandmother has no serious mobility issues, she should love either one. Both are lovely, filled with flower-bedecked chalets and great views of the peaks and valley. I can suggest the less expensive places to stay in both high villages if you like.

Thank you, Lola! I would absolutely love information about less expensive places to stay in those areas. And it's not that my grandmother has any problems getting around...in fact, she'll be 80 in April, yet still substitute teaches full-time and is in near perfect shape! (I can only hope to be the same when I'm her age.) It's just that we won't be skiing or doing any extreme sports. We'll even be staying in hostels in some areas if need be...she's up for anything. :) Would you recommend cutting out Luzern AND Interlaken? Or just staying in Lauterbrunnen or Mürren in Interlaken's place? If it's car-free, how do we access it? Does the train travel to there from Luzern? Thanks!

Also, you mentioned a bad exchange rate from the USD to CHF....unless I have bad information from the currency converter site I've been using, it's not bad at all right now! $1 is equivalent to 0.91 CHF...and for me, as I'm currently living and teaching English in Spain for the school year, the Euro is much more of a killer to me than the CHF appears it will be!

"...$1 is equivalent to 0.91 CHF..." The US Dollar and Swiss franc have been more or less at parity for a while, but it doesn't mean much in terms of spending power. The high-cost of living in Switzerland negates the "favorable" exchange rate.

Yep, costs are stunning in Switzerland. I paid about $25 USD for a small salad bar plate and glass of wine at the airport in Zurich. Airport prices may be higher than normal, but the exchange rate doesn't convey the cost of Switzerland at all.

Airport costs are always high, anywhere in the world. You cannot compare them to the costs encountered when you are actually "in" the country. My standard lunch at a restaurant in the Swiss alp villages, a "mixed salad," is around 8 CHF; more if you get a large one. Soup, generally around 7-9 CHF; Rosti, around 12. Dinner entrees at a moderate hotel restaurant, around 25-30 CHF for a nice chicken breast, schnitzel, or similar. My favorite "bargain" spots in the Berner Oberland are Hotel Bären in Wengen and Chalet Fontana in Mürren. http://baeren-wengen.ch/home/ http://www.ferntree.ch/chalet/fontana_summer.htm A double room with balcony at the Bären, in summer, is 160-200 CHF. Not cheap, but for an additional 20 CHF per personyou get a four-course dinner in their excellent restaurant, which brings the total back down into the affordable range. A double room at Chalet Fontana, B&B with shared bathroom, is 85 to 95 CHF (that is for both people, not per person). Either one will set up the room with twin beds. courtney and her grandmother could be very happy in either place without spending a fortune. When we started travelin to Switzerland 10 years ago, the franc was at 80 cents. Now that it is up around $1.10, we have to try a little harder to find affordable travel there. But it can be done. Just don't buy your food at the airport! (Or go downstairs to the shopping area and buy your food at the bakery/grocery).

"Or just staying in Lauterbrunnen or Mürren in Interlaken's place? If it's car-free, how do we access it?" Lauterbrunnen and Interlaken are both accessible via car (or train, bus, horse cart, etc.). For Mürren, you can take a cable car or hike up the long trail via Gimmewald. Most people take the cable car, as you could imagine. Since you are dead-set on Switzerland, let me make a counter recommendation to the Berner Oberland that would seem to better fit your requirements of "quintessential, beautiful, not overly touristy or expensive and good for an older woman and younger woman." The mountain town of Flumserberg sits about a 40 minute drive southeast of Zürich, in St. Gallen canton. It's sort of like the weekend getaway for Zürichers, so it's considerably less touristy than other resort towns. It's also relatively inexpensive, at least for Switzerland (still more expensive than just about every other place on Earth). The advantage for an older woman is if you take the ski lift gondolas (open all year) up to the top of the mountain, there's miles of relatively flat hiking trails near the summit. So you get all the great views without the difficulty of climbing. Oh, and if you're a Heidi fan, the story was based in this area.

Courtney, You will love Vienna and Salzburg, two of my favorite places. Every person you meet in Salzburg is a tourist guide. "The Brothers" there have one of the best beer halls in Augustiner. You certainly want to spend time in Munich, as there's such so much to see, including Nymphenburg Palace and the City Palaces. A trip to Dachau is something everyone needs to take.
Neuschwanstein is just one of Crazy Ludwig's 1800's castles, and not a big one at that. I wouldn't drive 20 miles out of my way to see it. I don't know that you can get there by train, as it's in a pretty small village. Lugano's 40 minutes north of Milan on a beautiful lake just over the mountain from Lake Como, Italy. It's where many industrial barons of Italy live to escape some taxes. It's out of the way from the rest of Switzerland and best accessed from Milan. I would choose to spend my time in Innsbruck rather than Switzerland. The Swiss roll up the sidewalks at dark, and they're not nearly as much fun as the Tiroleans and Bavarians. The mountains around there are so large that it looks like Switzerland. Hotel prices are also very reasonable, and much cheaper than Switzerland. It's a great place to rent a car and take day trips. If you're going to Paris from this region, I would suggest you look for a budget airline. (I've driven it.) It's a long train trip, and there's just so many yellow mustard fields to see; they all look alike. You're very fortunate to build such memories with your grandmother, and that she's so fit for her age.

Neuschwanstein is not reached by train. You take the train to Fussen and then a short bus ride to the castle. But you don't really need to go there on this trip. you can go next time you are in Europe. Oh that's right, your grandmother is 80. Maybe you should go this time.