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I am planning to travel Switzerland in December-end for 5 days from Paris. Possible travel destinations may be starting from Geneva and ending to Zurich (including Laussanne, Interlaken, Berne, Zermatt).

If I book my tickets in advance through TGV, then I could get cheap train tickets from Paris to Geneva, Zurich. So, traveling from Paris to Genava (or Zurich, interlaken ) is not a problem.

What are possible traveling plan for Switzerland in December-end for 5 days from Paris ? I am flexible to change my travel destinations according to cheap deals ( in hostels/hotel and trains).

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    It depends a little bit what you want to do. Do you want to see cities or small traditional villages or do you want to go skiing, or climbing? Do you want to see the mountains or stay in the flatlands? Oct 14, 2012 at 10:45
  • Thanks RoflcoptrException. I do not have specific preference. But, I would prefer cities/small traditional villages as well as mountains area. Oct 14, 2012 at 10:51
  • Be sure to book your Paris/Switzerland tickets early. This is a holiday period, and cheap tickets go away very fast. Oct 14, 2012 at 18:13
  • To clarify as others have asked - @AnkurBanerjee closed it because it was overly vague, broad and a polling question. There are soo many possible routes between Paris and Switzerland, so many dozens of cities, sites and more that it becomes polling. This is not a forum site, it's a Q&A site, where we try and find the single best answer to a question, not look for potentially dozens of different answers. It could be reworded and reflagged for opening if desired.
    – Mark Mayo
    Nov 7, 2012 at 21:49
  • For more information, see the faq. I'm about to update it to make it a bit more clear for the future.
    – Mark Mayo
    Nov 7, 2012 at 21:50

2 Answers 2

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This is a good question. If you have 5 days and you travel via Geneva there is an interesting option, which provides a good balance between time spent in trains, cities and mountains. This options involves using the scenic Golden Pass Line between Montreux and Luzern. The nice point about this trip is that it can be done at any time of the year. The trains are running all year round. And the mountains are always nice!

The trip runs as follows: Paris - Geneva - Lausanne - Montreux - Zweisimmen - Interlaken - Luzern - Zürich. Below you find a proposal of how to allocate the 5 days. The travel times are approximate. Use the website of the Swiss Railways to find out the precise information.

Day 1: Travel from Paris to Geneva (3 hours) in the morning. Visit Geneva and continue to Lausanne (40 minutes) in the evening. Spend the night in Lausanne.

Day 2: Spend a day and a night in Lausanne.

Day 3: Travel by train to Montreux (20 minutes) and take there the train to Zweisimmen (2 hours) and from there a train to Interlaken (90 minutes). You can spend the night in Interlaken or in Grindelwald or Wengen. The latter are two nice villages in the surroundings. It's a matter of taste (and possibly of budget).

Day 4: Spend a day in the mountains and visit the Top of Europe. Stay overnight in Interlaken, Grindelwald or Wengen.

Day 5: Travel to Luzern (2 hours from Interlaken), in the morning. Visit Luzern. When you are done, continue to Zürich (45 minutes).

Of course, the 5 days can be allocated a bit differently, according to your gusto.

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First of all, if you want to take trains in Switzerland, the website of the national railway carrier is a very important source of information. There you can find the whole train and bus schedule and most tickets you can buy there online. It is also important to mention that in Switzerland you can almost reach every village and every small town by train or bus. So public transport is very good, punctual and reliable in general.

You mentioned that you want to stay in Switzerland at the end of December. During that time a lot of people are coming to Switzerland to visit the cities and primarily go skiing in the mountains. So the accommodations will be quite expensive and also booked out.

If you want to visit both cities and small villages and also mountains, then I think you have mainly three options:

Option 1

The first option is to stay in the French region of Switzerland. Then you could visit cities like Geneva, Fribourg or Lausanne and then take the train to Valais and visit the rural mountain regions there. There are also some famous vineyards that you might be interested in. I added some pictures from Valais. There are the most famous mountains of Switzerland. By train it takes around 2 hours.

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Option 2

You could also travel to Berne which is the capital of Switzerland and has a really beautiful town or to Lucerene which has some beautiful sights. From there you could also take the train to Valais or the Bernese Oberland.

Option 3

You could travel to Zurich and from there travel to Graubünden. From Zurich to Chur, the capital of Graubünden and a good starting base to explore the rural regions it takes 90 minutes by train.

So it is very difficult to give a concrete recommendation. As cities I would recommend either Lucerne, Berne, Zurich or Geneva. And as a rural and mountainous region I would go to Bernese Oberland or Graubünden.

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  • Many Many thanks RoflcoptrException for comprehensive answer. I think I would go for option 1. Oct 14, 2012 at 12:15

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