Switzerland

chica7484

DH and I are going to Switzerland for 10 days this summer with my parents. We plan on spending some time with them in Zurich and going to Zermatt with them for a few days (they honeymooned there and plan on spending quite a few days there; we'll probably only spend two days there). Any recommendations on what to do/ see while we're there? We're open to pretty much anything that won't cost us a ton. We can't wait!

 Thanks! 

Jells2dot0

We stayed at Baur au Lac in Zurich, which is awesome for people watching. We spent our lunch outdoors at Terrasse, which was expensive but a gorgeous setting. We also toured the Swiss National Museum. Our favorite meal was fondue at Adler's Swiss Chuchi. It's a little touristy, but we thought our meal was great! You can't beat cheese

allibally

Swiss National Museum and the Kunsthaus (art museum). Take the Dolderbahn and swim at the pool up there. It's so gorgeous up there. Take the train up to the ?etliberg. It has great views of the city. Boat tour on the lake is great too. Lots of walking in the old town. Check out the three main churches!

We didn't go out to eat much when we lived there as things were expensive and we were saving money. But I can highly recommend this place! http://restaurant-le-rendez-vous.ch/  The prices are equal to what you see elsewhere in the city. But the presentation and service was fantastic!

Hope you have fun. I miss the place oddly enough and prefer it to Chicago. I see myself in 5 years moving back.

Oh the Tram Museum too! I found the trams really cool when I lived there. They have a small museum where you can get in and look around at the different antique trams.

chica7484

This all sounds great! Any other cities/towns/regions we should hit? Thanks!

ooolalalolo

Day trip to Lucerne?

Jells2dot0

We also stayed in Lucerne and Interlaken. My FI enjoyed Interlaken more. We took the cog train up to Grindelwald and spent the day wandering around there. We wanted to do the Jungfraujach "Top of Europe", but the weather was not cooperative. We stayed at the Victoria Jungfrau. My favorite was Lucerne. We stayed at the Palace Luzern and I really just enjoyed walking around the town. We went to the Bourbaki Panorama museum. It is a media museum. It was really my FI's thing, but it was kind of interesting. He really wanted to see the panorama because it depicts a war scene and he is a total war history buff. We happened to be in Lucerne on a Sunday, so there wasn't too much going on.

SmileyFace

I liked Bern and Thun.

ooolalalolo

If you are going up into the Bernese Oberland, we stayed at Hotel Oberland in Lauterbrunnen. It was really nice, and we had a view of the tallest waterfall in Switzerland out our window. Stunning. 

The town was a wonderful size and well situated for day trips to Jungfraujoch, Trummelfalle (a series of waterfalls in an interior canyon), the Schilthorn, etc. There are lovely walks around the valley and surrounding hills.

ktmae55

I liked the area around Interlaken. There are tons of small towns around there and lots of hiking, biking, etc. I really liked Thun. It's gorgeous! http://www.flickr.com/photos/musaedq8/6250044443/ and it was like 15 mins from Interlaken. From Interlaken you can visit Junfrau mountain (take the train up) which is very cool. And there is a smaller mountain that you can go up by gondola and then take a trotti bike (like a scooter crossed with a mountain bike) back down which is really fun.  

I also LOVED the area around Vevey. They have a summer weekend market with wine tasting and there are vineyards you can hike through/to all around in the Lavaux area. http://www.flickr.com/photos/32426709@N00/977814291/ 

chica7484

Interlaken was at the top of our list, so it sounds like that's the place to go! This is what our itinerary looks like so far:

Land in Zurich and head right to Zermatt with my parents

Spend 3 days in Zermatt with my parents

Head to Interlaken for 3 days (just DH and me)

Meet my parents in Lausanne for 2 days (they're already booked here)

Head to Zurich for 2 days then fly home with my parents

 

I looked into Lucerne, and we might sneak a day trip in while in Interlaken. I really wish we had more time! 

ktwed09

We were In Switzerland this past summer, and we loved it! We stayed in Lucerne and Interlaken, and stopped in Bern for a day trip on our way to France. While we were staying in Interlaken, we explored some of the Berner Oberland (Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Gimmelwald, etc....). I highly recommend getting into some of the smaller towns. In fact, if we had it to do over again, we probably would have stayed in Lauterbrunnen rather than Interlaken. Interlaken was nice, we just liked the other towns better. Happy planning and enjoy your trip!!!

allibally

Personally stay in a village near Interlaken. Interlaken is just full of tour buses and a huge tourist trap. It has a Hooters... enough said. I could add even more about my opinion of what a trap the place is. Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald would be a lot nicer in my opinion.

Back when we lived in the mountains Thun was the closet "big" village to us. So it has a personal place in my heart as DH and I went there a lot. I like Bern and Luzern too. 

From Zurich you could go to the city that's at the end of the lake called Rapperswil. It's really nice could easily be a day trip to just walk around at. Nice views too! You can take one of the S-Bahn (commuter trains) which is I think 1.5 hours or you can take the boat from Zurich Burkliplatz all the way to the near end of the lake. Which is 4.5 hour one way. We took the train there and the boat back.

M6girl

We did a road trip and stayed in Montreux for a day.  We got a room with a balcony that over looked Lake Geneva and got room service and ate on the balcony.  We also walked up and down part of the lake and went to see this castle:

http://www.chillon.ch/en/ 

Publius

I haven't read the replies do I apologize if this was already mentioned, but there is a somewhat difficult hike out of Zermatt that will give you an amazing view of the top of the Matterhorn. It'll take about four hours to get to the top but the view is well worth it. The info is in my blog under the Switzerland label. I also have a lot of day trip options in there from last year when we loved in Geneva. The link's in my sig.

kjring11

I would definitely go to Interlaken. I spent a couple weeks there last summer and it was so beautiful. We stayed in Ringgenberg (just outside of Interlaken, on the edge of the Brienzersee). Ringgenberg has castle ruins that they're working on rebuilding and a really neat old church built into the ruins.