Seeking suggestion/info/ideas from Switz., Austria, & Italy residents??

4x4Dragon

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Nov 14, 2002
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Hi,

My wife and I are hoping to vacation for about 2 weeks over there next September and I was looking for any information or suggestions that could be offered to help in my planning.

My initial plan is to fly into Zurich and from there take either of the following routes:

1- Zurich, Lucerne,Lauterbrunnen, (ITALY)Florence/Tuscany, Rome, Positano/Amalfi Coast, Venice, (AUSTRIA)Hallstat, then back to Zurich to return home

OR

2- Zurich, (AUSTRIA)Hallstatt, (ITALY)Venice, Florence/Tuscany, Rome, Positano/Amalfi Coast, and then head back to Zurich with a stop in Lauterbrunnen and Lucerne before flying back home.

Ideally, i'd say we would want to spend 4-5 days in the Alps and then the rest in Italy. Our interests are in scenery, food, and good people. So in my mind im thinking quaint villages and relaxation. About as "touristy" as we'd like to get is maybe seeing the Colisseum, Pompeii, and I guess maybe the typical gondola ride in Venice. :)

I mean I think i've basically got a good start to our plans but Im worried about the train travel and times???? is it generally pretty simple? and what kinda schedule am i looking at? I plan on covering the longer distances over night(Zurich to Hallstatt or Hallstatt to Florence or Rome to Zurich). that way we can save money on places to sleep and not waste too much time on the train.

oh and are we in for a challenge with the languages?
 

alphamicro

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Sep 19, 2003
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Louisiana
I'll give you a little bump. Maybe some of our European friends will step out and suggest some things.

I'm not European, but I'll throw out a few ideas anyway. We did a two week bus tour (Trafalgar) of Italy & Greece in 2000 and another two weeker of Switzerland & Austria in 2002, so I'll give you a few rambling thoughts (and maybe not offend too many Italians, Swiss, & Austrians). :) Hopefully I'll be close on my spelling.

It looks like you'll be moving between cities via train. I don't know anything about that (other than the Swiss reputation for excellent train service). How will you get around otherwise? Are you planning on renting a car at any point? Big city traffic in Italy (in Rome specifically) is beyond intense, for what it's worth. To the extent that you can have someone else do the driving (local bus tour maybe?), you'll see more along the way (such as driving down the Amalfi Coast).

Italy: Based on what you've said you want to do (quaint villages and relaxation), I would blow off Rome. The Colisseum, Vatican, catacombs, etc. were fun for us to see, but you could blow some major time trying to get around and see things in Rome. We enjoyed Venice & Florence more than Rome. If art appeals to you, there is a lot to see in Florence. Pompeii was fascinating. See how much a local guide would cost (and tip the guide above that) in the Italian cities and Pompeii. In particular a local guide (besides being knowledgable and knowing good/fun places to eat) can sometimes help with tickets to places that would otherwise have long ticket lines. We spent a couple of nights in Sorrento. It was a good jumping off place to travel down the Amalfi Coast and/or to run out to the Isle of Capri. There was a cool inlaid wood business in Sorrento. We enjoyed a tour of a pottery (china really) factory in Derutta (Deruta?). In Venice besides the obligatory gondola "ride," you can check out Venetian glass (and glass factories) and boat out to Burano for lunch (and lace).

Switzerland: If you can wrangle a stay in Zermatt, you'll love it. I know trains stop there. It's near the Matterhorn. Spectacular views, no cars (electric transportation only), loved the cable cars to the Kleine (Klein?) Matterhorn (mountain close to the Matterhorn, has a elevator inside at the final cable car stop taking you almost to the top), and the walk to the top. The town is small enough to walk fairly easily. I can't say enough about what a neat place Zermatt is. Look it up. We also spent nights in Zurich, Montreaux, St. Moritz, and Lucerne. Of those, we had the most fun in Lucerne.

Austria: Most of our time there was in the northern part (Salzburg, Innsbruck, Vienna). We really liked Austria. I've seen neat pictures of Hallstatt, but that wasn't on the itinerary.

Have you checked out http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/welcome.cfm ? Also, http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2 had good information in the forums. You might also check out the travel books at Amazon.com (the books that are well rated anyway).

I don't know if it still holds true (but believe it does), the best exchange rate deals on foreign currency (Switzerland is not on the Euro, so you'll need at least two kinds of money) were to be had with ATMs (but your bank card needed to be tied to a checking account, not savings, and have a 4-digit PIN). Generally speaking, we had no problems finding ATMs.

As far a language goes, most of the people we ran into spoke English VERY well (definitely more understandable than what you hear in South Carolina). ;)

Wish I could help more.

Mike
 

Flying Turtle

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Was lucky enough to spend a summer many moons ago thumbing and riding the trains through Europe and England. This was when you could truly do it for $5 a day. As alphamicro said, Zermatt was a great stop. Back then there was a special narrow guage train you had to take into the town. We stayed in a youth hostel. I'll never forget seeing the Matterhorn shining in the early morning sun. We hiked from the town up to where you need guides to go further (10,000 ft.). Took most of a day. I was glad to have a light coat since we got above the snow line.

Hope you have a great trip.

Geoff
 

4x4Dragon

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alphamicro, thanks man! yeah i was wondering where our friendly european cpfer's were????

yeah, i doubt we'll spend much time in Rome at all. would only like to see the the Colisseum and maybe the Trevi Fountain and Piazza di Spagna. Yeah, im thinking our biggest interests' in Italy will be Tuscany/Amalfi Coast(Pompei,Positano,Capri). oh yeah and venice too, and yeah i had just recently learned of the glass making in a video. looks interesting.

in Switzerland I did want to see Lucerne(the Chapel Bridge and maybe Mnt. Pilatus) as well as Lauterbrunnen. I think if we head from Zurich to Austria then we will stop overnight in Appenzell to take a Daisy/cheese-making tour.

I'm sure Austria is awesome but i think we're only going to stop in Halstatt for a night or two and take the Salt Mine tour.

I very much appreciate your suggestions, you seem to be mention most the places that i was already planning to stop in.

i just have to figure out now whether i want to go Zurich-Italy-Austria-Zurich OR Zurich-Austria-Italy-Zurich
 

4x4Dragon

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Nov 14, 2002
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oh yeah, i was originally thinking of getting a Eurail Selectpass for 3 countries but im trying to see if it wouldn't just be cheaper to pay as i go? I did plan on doing a bus from Rome to Amalfi area
 
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