Switzerland?

baderle

MH and I are planning out a Europe trip for this summer and we would like to end in Switzerland.  Has anyone been to Geneva/Lucerne/Bern?  Any ideas or recs?

TIA!   

Publius

Yes to all three. I lived in Geneva for a couple years. How many days are you looking to spend there and what do you like to do?

gakester8

we LOVED lucern and really liked bern. Here is all our Switzerland info (we spent 2 weeks traveling all around it):  https://sites.google.com/site/gakester8/other-travel-destinations/switzerland  Let me know if you have any ?s

baderle

We are looking at about three days, give or take a 1/2 day because we'll be flying out of Zurich.  We like to do just about anything....sight see, historical stuff...just things that will give us a good feel of the culture as this will be the first time either of us have been to Switzerland! 

baderle

gakester8:

we LOVED lucern and really liked bern. Here is all our Switzerland info (we spent 2 weeks traveling all around it): https://sites.google.com/site/gakester8/other-travel-destinations/switzerland  Let me know if you have any ?s

 

Oh my gosh, thank you so much!  This will definitely be helpful!   

Publius

Bern's a really cute city and you can easily spend a day there.  You might want to look into Montreux too.  It's on the far side of the lake from Geneva.  It's got a nice feel to it and there is an old chateau on an island in the lake within easy walking distance.  

 

I have a lot of things to see on my blog under the labels Switzerland and Geneva. The link's in my sig.

PittPurple

I second Publius's recommendation for Montreaux - we spent a week in Glion a few years ago (right above Montreaux) and absolutely loved that area. Chateau Chillon is one of the prettiest castles we've seen and the walk along Lake Geneva waterfront (from the castle to Montreaux) is stunning. It's really easy to get around Switzerland on the train so you could go out for the day.

ktkl09

I live in Neuch?tel, Switzerland about hour from Geneva. I agree with PPs about Montreux, also a nice city and area is Gruy?res. You can visit Cailler chocolate factory (there's a tour and an amazing tasting room, also they do classes a few times a week... www.cailler.ch), the Gruy?re cheese factory (not as fun as the chocolate factory, but maybe still interesting) and you can visit the very cute city of Gruy?res, there's a nice chateau to visit and you must try the cr?me double de la Gruy?res, which they are famous for, and have a traditional fondue. You can take a train to Gruy?res or drive. Gruy?res is located in the canton of Freibourg, around 40sh minutes from Montreux/Lausanne.

Bern is one of my favorite cities in Switzerland, make sure to visit the Old Tram Depot Brewery/Restaurant, it's just above the area where with the bears. They make their own beer and have fabulous, fresh, hot pretzels.

And where I live, Neuch?tel, is cute also . It's a small city but very picturesque with the Alps, a lake and cute downtown. If you want to make a side trip! 

 

 

Jells2dot0

I'm a big Lucerne fan! We stayed right along the water at the Palace Luzern. I also really enjoyed Zurich, actually. Yes, it a bigger city, but we couldn't get done everything we wanted to do in the time we were there. I also stayed in Interlaken. The big draw there is to take the cog train up into the little mountain towns. We went to Grindelwald. We wanted to do the "top of europe" ride, but it was still closed due to bad winter weather. I am a bit jealous of pp since I would do just about anything to move to Switzerland. I love it there!

allibally

Take a day trip to one of the mountains! I've been to the Jungfraujoch (top of Europe) and Mt. Titlis. Yes they are bit touristy but they are more accessible to get to from where you are. Mt. Santis is awesome too it's more rocky which I found interesting.

If you want the typical Swiss mountain village go to Adelboden. But it's a distance you get to compared tot he cities you mentioned.  It has a great waterfall and beautiful views without the masses of tourists. 

I loved Zurich and it's a lot of fun. Bern is great and has a lot more of a medieval feeling then Zurich. I've been to Luzern but only for a few hours we stopped there on our way back from Mt. Titlis. But it started pouring rain and we took shelter at the train station. But it would be great to visit too. I've been to Montreux too and I found the Chillon castle there lovely.

The best way to experience Switzerland I guess is to not over plan but instead just enjoy it and walk around. Go to Spr?ngli in Zurich for chocolate and coffee. They also make mini macrons called Luxemburgerli. That taste delicious.

I could have more recommendations for Zurich but if your spending a day or less there I would just walk around and enjoy. Grab lunch from one of the grocery stores and sit by the lake and eat with a beer or some wine. If you want more I'll stay tune here. Or page me on the international board. I have some pictures from my travels in my blog too (I have a swiss and travel tag) and within that on my Flickr there are some too.