We had such an amazing time in Switzerland! Sorry I didn’t respond sooner- lots going on since we’re home!
We all sat down and talked about what we loved and what we would do differently if we went again, so I’m sending some feedback for future clients! Obviously not everyone has the same interests, but hopefully some of this info will be helpful.
I know we booked our own flights, but they were excellent! We highly recommend British Airways and the timing was perfect to help with jetlag. We flew out at 7pm and arrived the following afternoon in Switzerland. The trip home was delayed a bit, but we left early afternoon and arrived home around 10pm and experienced little to no jetlag!
Our first hotel in Zurich was Glockenhof – very nice and good breakfast included! We loved the area and would have stayed there a little longer if we knew! The Rhine Falls tour was excellent! We did the optional boat ride, which is a must, and got some cool pictures!
The next tour was the Lindt Chocolate Factory and City Tour – another fun day! We so enjoyed the views on the boat ride over to the the chocolate factory and the tour was great! We loved the chocolate tasting & we bought lots of chocolate, of course! We were at our leisure to leave when we were done and had the transportation tickets to get back.
The train to get to Lucerne was easy even though we were not sure exactly what we were doing!
The hotel in Lucerne (Hotel de la Paix) was our least favorite. It was super small & not air conditioned and it was pretty warm while we were there! The location was good so that helped! The breakfast was nothing special. Although we were not fans of the hotel, the town was awesome! We all definitely want to go back and spend more time there! We were only there 2 nights so did not have nearly enough time to explore. It was a super cute area with a lot of beautiful views! The tour we did from there was Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe. This was the best tour!!! The stop in Interlaken was way too brief and we were rushed to get back to the bus. We had heard great things about Interlaken so were disappointed not to see more and have much time. The rest of the day was fantastic! The gondola ride up the mountain gave us the most breathtaking views and the cogwheel train through the mountains was great too! The best part was arriving at the top and looking out over the snow covered mountains! We walked out on the plateau in the snow, which was a unique experience! This tour was a highlight for all of us!
The train trip to Geneva was a long one, but again, not too difficult. The only issue was the fact that it said it was ending at the Geneva Airport and our transfer said we were being picked up at the train station. None of the stops said they were the train station. Thankfully the driver for our transfer texted because he saw our train was running behind. He told us the name of the station and we got off at what appeared to be the train depot and he was on the platform waiting for us! That should have been made clear with our tickets since we had to exit before the final stop.
The transfer to the hotel was totally unnecessary as the hotel was directly across the street from the station! It took longer to drive there than it would have to walk there since he did a circle around the block!
The Warwick Hotel was beautiful & we were happy to have A/C again! The first tour from there was the Golden Gruyere/Chocolate Factory. We were worried about it being redundant since we did the Lindt factory, but the chocolate factory tour was very different and the cheese factory tour and tasting was a unique experience! The Golden Pass train ride was a little unnecessary as the trees blocked a lot of the nice views, but it was relaxing after a long day. I think we would have been fine with ending a little earlier since we had some very busy days!
The final tour was booked through Viator – Chamonix and Mont Blanc. The town of Chamonix was very cute and we enjoyed our time there even though it was brief. The train up was fun and the views and ice caves were amazing, but there were over 500 steps down & back up, so that was not an easy trek! The glacier is also almost gone as it has melted over time, so not sure how much longer that trek will be available. Unfortunately, we were some of only a handful of people out of 2 full buses that did not get the cable car part of the tour. We also were not given a tour of any kind of Chamonix. They dropped us off and gave us very little info on what we were to do. Their instructions for the train were very unclear and we ended up figuring things out on our own. This tour was absolutely NOT worth over $700 for the 4 of us to do. I’m sure we could have made our way to France for a lot less and done the day on our own.
Overall, we wish we had spent less time in Geneva (busy city with less to explore) and more time in Lucerne and Zurich. We are hoping to go back to Switzerland someday to explore those areas more!
Thank you for helping us plan an unbelievable trip! We had so much fun and made amazing memories! The experience was one we will never forget!
(Hope this helps for future travelers! I only pointed out some of the negatives so you would know things that could change to make it even better. The trip itself was excellent!!)
Oh! Forgot to mention that after seeing people paragliding in Interlaken, we took the train back to a small town from Geneva for my son & husband to give it a try! My husband enjoyed it but said it was a one time thing! My son is obsessed with it and wants to do it again!!!
