Switzerland or Austria

I love parts of Austria, especially Salzburg and towards Vienna, but for me Switzerland every time. Very simply there is not a part of it that I do not like, although there is, for me, very little to do in Geneva.

I love them both, but I would probably choose the Berner Oberland in Switzerland, for the spectacular scenery. However I would chose Italy or France if I could only go to Europe once in my lifetime. :)

That is a really tough one! Are you certain you can't do both? I agree with Nigel. I absolutely love Salzburg and the surrounding area, but the one place we include in all of our trips is the Berner Oberland in Switzerland. To me it's the most beautiful spot on earth:) But if I were certain I were only going to be in Europe once - Those are probably the two spots I would make certain to get to!

Switzerland espec Berner Oberland area. In my top 3 of all my travels.
That said Switz. can be expensive so that is a big factor imo for some.

I did enjoy Salzburg, but something about Switzerland...I think it's the mountains...I still rem soaking up the sun in Murren in late Sept, barely a soul around, looking at the breathtaking mtns, playing with the adorable puppy at the restaurant we ate at....(it certainly isn't the dollar value)...Switz is def on my list to revisit some year...Austria, not so much...

I would choose Switzerland also, its is the most expensive country I have been to,, but so worth it. When my friend and I travelled around Europe for 3 months twenty five years ago ,, went to many many places, at least 10-11 countries, we both came home thinking Greece( the islands specifically) and Switzerland were our favorites,, and note, they are very different places, opposites in many ways( Swiss trains "always on time", and in Greece, the concept of time is "soon soon" , lol )
More recently have revisted Switzerland, and it is still as wonderful as I recall, I like the BO area too( we visited Wengen) , but also loved Zermatt and Lake Lucerne. If however I could only visit one city in Europe it would be Paris .

More helpful answers! Pat, I was not expecting your last sentence after the rave review about Switzerland. My brother and two of my sisters both said the same thing...Paris. I wish we had more time and money to spend in Europe!!! There are so many places we would love to go. We may have to put the countries in a hat and draw one. lol

Pam, Both countries have spectacular scenery. One of the most scenic areas in Switzerland is the Berner Oberland, but I would rate the scenery in Hallstatt to be equal (but in a slightly different way). Given a choice between only those two countries, my personal preference (by a slight margin) would be Switzerland. I'm planning to return to that area this year, and really looking forward to it! As the others have mentioned, it IS expensive so be sure to budget accordingly. Happy travels!

Hi Pam, I agree that the Berner Oberland is one of the most scenic area's anywhere. We loved our trips to Bavaria and Austria (and the Dolomites) also. Switzerland is expensive, hence we've taken one trip there and 7 to Austria and Bavaria. Salzburg is probably our favorite city to visit in Austria. If you wind up going to Austria and want to see magnificent alpine scenery, visit the Zillertal (not far from Innsbruck) and/or include a drive over the spectacular Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse. Even better, include a visit to the amazing Italian Dolomites, an hour or so drive south of Innsbruck. Paul

Pam, another consideration is...When are you planning to go? And have you considered possibly visiting both. You can fly fairly cheap with airfares on airlines like Easyjet and the like you can hop to both rather easy. I have visited both countries and love the scenery in Switzerland but I loved Austria. Especially, Salzburg!! It's beautiful and I think Austria has more to do. It was more fun to me. I did the Sound of Music tour to see more of the area and that was really great because I got to visit some villages I would have never thought to visit on my own. I've been to Salzburg during the Christmas Markets and that was fantastic! I hope you have the opportunity to see both but if you only get the opportunity to see one... I hope you enjoy your trip immensely!

All of you have made some very good points. After considering all of your comments, we have decided to go to Salzburg, and maybe into the Italian Dolomites. We would prefer to drive from Landstuhl, so that we can stop when we want and see what we want along the way. I found a good car rental deal on Priceline-Europe from the Frankfurt airport. Is it a problem to drive out of the state or country? My step-son seems to think that many of the car rental companies don't allow it. Is this true? The main things we want to do in Salzburg are The Sound of Music tour and the day trip to Hallstatt. I want to stay at Villa Von Trapp, so driving might be best, taking public transportation into the Old City. If we leave Landstuhl on Sunday afternoon or early on Monday morning, can we do all of this (including a drive into the Dolomites) and get back to Landstuhl by Friday evening? Are we crazy for wanting to drive, would it be better, cheaper, and more time efficient to take the train?