I have to go to this shithole in a couple months. Planning to travel around for a week after affairs are handled but literally have no idea what the fuck europoors do for fun in this wasteland. I can go anywhere by rail but won't have a car, at least I don't plan to rent one.
What's a good circuit to do, I don't necessarily have to fly back out from shitneva. I probably won't ever be back to this area for a few years. I'll probably hit up Zermatt first.
>Interests:
>Mountains
>Beaches
>Skiing
>Cool as fuck history
Do the Glacier Express route, not necessarily on the "Express" train, the local trains are cheaper, you can open the windows and get off and on at any stop you fancy.
You can also hike some of the route, some parts have scenic views.
Engadin valley is nice even for non-rich people, stay out of St. Moritz.
From the St. Moritz area head South either by train to Tirano or by bus to Ticino, both spectacular routes.
From there you can further explore Italy or head back North to airports like EAP or ZRH for additional connections back.
Ballpark pricing on this? How frequent are the trains, would I be able to spend a day in a mountain town and then hop back on the rail in the evening to check-in to a next town for the night?
Also is the skiing still good in mid-may up in the mountains?
Thanks!
>Ballpark pricing on this?
Zermatt to St. Moritz costs 120 bucks in one go, similar total price if you split it up over multiple legs.
You can easily cut the prices in half if you’re spending some time in Switzerland anyway, check out “half fare card” and “saver tickets” to learn more.
>How frequent are the trains, would I be able to spend a day in a mountain town and then hop back on the rail in the evening to check-in to a next town for the night?
Trains run every hour from 06:00 until about 17:00, afterwards they become less frequent and predictable.
You can easily get off in a place, spend a couple hours there, hop back on a train and stay the night in town further on the route.
>Also is the skiing still good in mid-may up in the mountains?
Zermatt has an all-year skiing area on a glacier, the slopes aren’t very challenging but you can ski even in late spring, great vistas included.
Much appreciated! I really know nothing about the area but understand once in Europe I can cross the shengen borders without hassle. Any "must see's" along the route? I'm going to be solo traveling so pretty flexible.
Well, you need to spend two full days (three nights) in Zermatt at least, one day for the views from Gornergrat and the other for going to the top of Klein Matterhorn (highest place in Europe you can get by cable car, glacier skiing plus some more views). Zermatt one of the nicer mountain resort towns, wedged at the end of a rather narrow valley.
On the other end, you'll have St. Moritz and the Upper Engadin Valley. I wouldn't recommend staying in St. Moritz proper, too expensive and the city is not as nice as the towns surrouding it. Recommendations are Pontresina, Sils and Maloja, each town has its own charm and specialities. Silvaplana and Samedan are more functional but are fine too for the stay in the wider valley.
Why spend time in two different mountain resorts?
While they are both the cream of the crop of European mountain resorts, attracting many wealthy and non-wealthy tourists alike, they are very different.
On the route from Geneva and in between I can recommend:
- Montreux + Chateau Chillon
- either Bettmeralp or Riederalp (villages reachable only by cable car, hiking between them has great glacier views)
- Fiesch, Andermatt as less prominent resorts
- any of the following passes: Furka (train, bus), Albula (train), Julier (bus), Bernina (train), Maloja (bus), Gotthard (bus, train). The last three passes go towards the South, perfect to experience the change of climate from the mountains to a more temperate mediterranean area.
- Bellinzona/Lugano/Locarno/Ascona is Italian culture managed by the Swiss - everything works as it should and it'll cost you as much!
>Zermatt has an all-year skiing area on a glacier, the slopes aren’t very challenging but you can ski even in late spring
is it worth the price for an semi-advanced skiier?
>Finally I did a night in Liechtenstein just to say I had been there.
Is it white (I don't want to travel so far and still be around multi-culti) ? If yes, what is worth doing while there?
I didn’t notice any diversity there. It is a globohomo tax evasion place so I’m sure there’s some.
There are a couple of castles and quite a few hiking trails in the mountains. Most Liechtensteiners live in the flattish Rhine valley. If you go in the winter you can ski. That’s kind of it.
>is it worth the price for an semi-advanced skiier?
It's worth it if you want to ski outside winter.
I personally wouldn't bother and just go hiking.
>Liechtenstein
It's just half a valley between Switzerland and Austria that is de-facto Switzerland, wouldn't go out of the way to visit it unless you're into country collecting.
Zermatt is really nice, plenty of excellent hiking all around. I don’t ski so can’t comment on that. Chamonix is pretty and more skiing orientated I think. When I was there I hired a car - Swiss trains are extremely reliable but didn’t align with plans. So I appreciate you may not care for this eurofag’s opinions. if you hire a car from the French side of Geneva make sure some sucker has already paid for the car’s vignette.
Laurerbrunnen/Murren offer more excellent outdoor stuff, with the Eiger dominating. There is rail to murren as they don’t let you drive there. Rigi over the other side of the country is also nice.
Finally I did a night in Liechtenstein just to say I had been there. You can do a hike (short, of course) to the triple point with Austria and Switzerland. I was there after the snowmelt so no skiing but good hiking.
If you can stretch time you can go to the dolomites in Italy which are more excellent mountains.
I wouldn't rent a car in Switzerland unless you're going to other countries or love driving on mountain passes (they're great fun though!).
Be aware that almost every town will garden gnome you for parking, even if you're staying overnight in a nice hotel.
Once you're on the road there are speed traps everywhere, keeping you constantly on the lookout as fines are steep and your rental agency will gladly garden gnome you some more to forward the payment.
On the other hand, locals who know their routes (and speed traps) by heart will tailgate you on mountain roads if you don't let them pass at the earliest opportunity.
Americans may also find that driving is more stressful due to generally narrow roads, different customs of driving and speed limits that are simultaneously too high and too low.
The absolute majority of trailheads can be reached by public transport plus there are paid luggage forwarding services if you plan to do long-distance hikes between hotels.
Idk man it might sound silly but why one should always strive to go to the top most coolest better ever locations? If I where you i would pack my stuff and take a comfy week off by moving south trough Annecy, Chambery, Grenoble, Montelimar and end up in Avignon.
Cozy landscape, great food, relatively cheap compared to Switzerland, Germany and other parts of France. There are many lakes with mountain views (annecy, bourget, aiguebelette) or cool rivers where to take baths like Gard (pic rel).
A lot of history if you are interested in that but also a lot of chill landscape if you wanna simply lay off a bit.
What kind of route is possible? Any chill beaches? I really just want to be able to do my own thing and chill outside without being approached by gypsies or rapefugees..