vacation recomendations

RS has a Germany/Switzerland/Austria guide book that should answer many of your questions. It did for us in planning for our trip this summer.

Since you are flying into Zurich and only have 5 days, suggest you stay in Switzerland to limit your travel time and save Austria for another trip. Lucerne and Interlaken area would provide more hotel options for your wife. By staying in two places you also limit travel time and more time to just enjoy the country. Both cities provide many options for sightseeing. It also gives you a chance to get into the Berner Oberland mountain area which is beautiful!

gary, Just to confirm, you're going all the way to Europe for only five days? With such a short time frame, I have to agree with your Wife. Each time you change location will require at least half a day, so minimizing the number of places is a good idea. I'd also suggest having a look at the Switzerland and Germany / Austria Guidebooks, as they provide an enormous amount of information on good Hotels in various price ranges, transportation, sightseeing options, etc. You should be able to find the books at your local Library or larger Book stores. Many of the books are now available in E-book format, should you have a compatible reader. In order to suggest the most appropriate places to visit, it would help if you could provide further information on what type of "experience" you're looking for? Also, how old is your Son? Have you purchased airline tickets yet? It would be a really good idea to use open-jaw tickets, unless you're going to limit your stay to one country. If you could provide some further information, it would be a lot easier for the group to make specific suggestions. Cheers!

thanks so much for the suggestions i only have 1 week available for travel and i would like my son to experience europe therefore not lot of options. the idea of staying in switzerland seems reasonable. so will investigate further thanks so much for the advice. gary