Switzerland and France

[krystee]

My mom and I are hoping to go to Switzerland and France this summer or fall. I went briefly for a work trip and felt like Montreaux and Annecy were absolute fairy tale places I want her to see. I’d like to start or end in Paris, since I’ve never been there, so I was kind of thinking we could fly into Geneva and out of Paris, or vice versa. Are there any other places you’d recommend? I was looking at Gruyeres and Lausanne. I am a little overwhelmed about how to plan it out. Do we pick a home base (two home bases, probably) and do day trips? 1-2 nights in each place? I am leaning toward two nights in Geneva (do a tour bus trip to Annecy on the second day), one each in Montreaux, Lausanne and Gruyeres, and two in Paris. But that is a lot of moving around with our bags, and we are not light packers!

We love anything historic, cheese, chocolate, and the water, so this trip hits every single one of our very favorite things, and I can’t wait!

[gardengal]

We really enjoyed Gruyeres. We toured Callier chocolate factory (it’s kind of supermarket chocolate but is still amazing & blows US stuff out of the water) & a farm that also makes cheese & has a small restaurant that makes fondue. We stayed in an Airbnb near the farm & it was cool to hear the bells on the cows echoing thru the mountains. It was a long weekend & we easily filled it. Otherwise, we were on the other side of the country so probably not helpful.

Definitely look at various chocolate factory tours. Pre Covid they had lots of tasting opportunities which was awesome

[dutchgirl678]

There is also a TGV to Geneva from Paris. I took it one time when I visited a friend who lived in Geneva at the time. It only takes about 3 hours by TGV and with getting to the airport and checking in and out you could easily spend that much time flying.

I loved Gruyeres and Montreux. We took a boat trip from Geneva to that side of the lake for a day trip from Geneva.

I have also spent a week in the cute town of Lauterbrunnen. It is up in the mountains and there are several gondolas and trains you can take from there and do lots of hiking. We took the train up to the top of the Jungfraujoch from there. But it is probably a good idea if you have more time to spend in Switzerland.

[tvlmm]

We were in Switzerland over Spring Break if anyone is interested in my trip report.

[erbear]

We took the kids to Murren a few years ago and it was amazing. So beautiful, relatively easy to get to, and just a really cool place to spend a few days. Highly recommend.

[mrsukyankee]

I would totally look at trains - such a nicer way to travel and may take less time overall than flying between cities.

[tvlmm]

We only used trains in CH.

[sassystace]

May 10, 2022 7:38:30 GMT -5 tvlmm said:

We were in Switzerland over Spring Break if anyone is interested in my trip report.

Ooh, yes, please!  We are going in July.

[tvlmm]

May 31, 2022 11:06:51 GMT -5 sassystace said:

May 10, 2022 7:38:30 GMT -5 tvlmm said:

We were in Switzerland over Spring Break if anyone is interested in my trip report.

Ooh, yes, please!  We are going in July.

sassystace, please PM me your email and I'll send it to you.