I'm currently working on plans to visit Switzerland this year but it's a bit overwhelming given the train system is quite extensive in the country and there are many, many regional passes, half fare passes, etc from which to choose. I don't often feel defeated about planing a trip but this one has my head spinning. We think we are going to drive to have the most flexibility and also because I hate dealing with luggage on trains. No matter how hard I try, I will never be one of those people who can manage a 3 week trip with just a carry-on.
The other thing about Switzerland is that people say it is very expensive. I joined a Facebook group and of course I also still use TripAdvisor for advice. I don't feel the costs are substantially higher than in California right now. Most travelers complain about the cost of food more than lodging but I think if we stay in hotels where breakfast is included we should be okay. We typically don't eat much for lunch so the only cost would be for dinner. Im not sure about the cost of fuel but European cars typically get better mileage than cars here at home, we normally only have to fill up a couple of times in spite of the fact that we cover a lot of ground. Some of the hotels where we are staying offer a local pass for transport and admission so that's helpful.
Our rough itinerary is to fly in and out of Zurich and staying in these cities:
Zurich-Brienz-Wengen-Ascona-Annecy(France)-Montreux-Colmar(France)-Tubingen(Germany)-Zurich.
There may a day trip to Zermatt depending on the weather. I don't think there's any point in going to Zermatt if it's cloudy or raining and we can't see the Matterhorn. We're staying in a cool hotel in Brienz that was a filming location for Band of Brothers so Mike is excited about that. I'm really hoping we have good weather as our last two vacations have been cold, wet, and windy for the most part.
I'm still pricing everything out but I think this may be our most expensive trip yet, mostly because we upgraded to first class on the flights between Atlanta and Zurich. We arrive in Zurich at 8am and I want to be able to try to sleep on the plane, which never happens if I have to sit up the whole time. I want to mention that although I have a lot of Delta Skymiles it still wasn't enough to upgrade to first class. I'm beginning to wonder if the Skymiles program is really worth it. Maybe if we flew a lot more? I don't know. We now have Visa cards that offer rewards too so I may begin to use that more than my Delta AmEx card. Also AmEx still charges a foreign transaction fee while the Visa card does not. All those fees add if your spending a lot of money lodging, car, etc. Who wants to pay a bunch of fees? Certainly not me.
This will be a trip of beautiful mountains, lakes, and castles - just what we love!
