Which city to visit in Switzerland?

Which city to visit in Switzerland?

Author
Discussion

Wynn432

Original Poster:

42 posts

78 months

Wednesday 26th March
quotequote all
We want to have a long weekend in Switzerland, never been before, which city would be best for a first time visit for newbies?

Wynn432

Original Poster:

42 posts

78 months

Wednesday 26th March
quotequote all
The initial message was deleted from this topic on 27 March 2025 at 19:11

Doofus

30,073 posts

186 months

Wednesday 26th March
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Why do you want to go, if you don't know why you want to go?

moles

1,818 posts

257 months

Thursday 27th March
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Dont go to a city go to interlaken. Close to the bond baddie lair, Eiger, amazing scenery train that takes you to the top of Europe.

Vasco

17,968 posts

118 months

Thursday 27th March
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It's not a place for cities. The scenery and smaller towns are the big attractions.

Fast and Spurious

1,773 posts

101 months

Thursday 27th March
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Vasco said:
It's not a place for cities. The scenery and smaller towns are the big attractions.
+1
Or Bruges.

Jonathan27

737 posts

177 months

Thursday 27th March
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Vasco said:
It's not a place for cities. The scenery and smaller towns are the big attractions.
Agreed, but if you do want to do a city break there I'd pick Genève over Zurich. Both great cities but Genève is beautiful whereas Zurich would be better described as smart and efficient.

By the way its insanely expensive.

Sylvias_Father

57 posts

42 months

Thursday 27th March
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Lucerne - beautiful medieval architecture and at the base of the Alps.

+1 for the expense - £140 for pizza for 4, and that was 10 years ago...

RayDonovan

5,426 posts

228 months

Thursday 27th March
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Zurich for me..

Fast and Spurious

1,773 posts

101 months

Thursday 27th March
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Innsbruck.

thepritch

1,564 posts

178 months

Thursday 27th March
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Fast and Spurious said:
Innsbruck.
Think you need some caffeine! We forgive you, it’s early wink

TwigtheWonderkid

45,818 posts

163 months

Thursday 27th March
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Lucerne is lovely.

But all those mentioned are nice too.

Guyr

2,415 posts

295 months

Thursday 27th March
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We stayed in Lucerne last year and really enjoyed it, plus it is near-ish to the mountains (which is the best part of Switzerland IMHO).

Zurich is a long way away from the mountains and Geneva is just a very big city.

Obviously it depends on what you want to see (city vs mountains).

As said above it's very very expensive. We drove in from Germany and almost everything apart from beer and petrol doubled in price.

Edited by Guyr on Thursday 27th March 09:20

Guyr

2,415 posts

295 months

Thursday 27th March
quotequote all
Fast and Spurious said:
Innsbruck.
It is lovely, but is in Austria. smile

thepritch

1,564 posts

178 months

Thursday 27th March
quotequote all
Guyr said:
It is lovely, but is in Austria. smile
After I posted earlier, I had a look at their other posts. Should have clocked their username sooner. Spurious indeed.


Gladers01

1,119 posts

61 months

Thursday 27th March
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Wynn432 said:
We want to have a long weekend in Switzerland, never been before, which city would be best for a first time visit for newbies?
We flew to Geneva and used the excellent trains as much as possible to visit Gstaad, Zermatt and Chamonix, the cable car ride up the Matterhorn is worth a trip as it travels through the clouds on an overcast day to bright sunshine and blue skies with the most amazing views.

More of a 5 day weekend for us and expensive for sure, however the flights are cheap as chips which offsets the overall costs. smile



some bloke

1,321 posts

80 months

Thursday 27th March
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Tbh I find most of the cities in Switzerland, and the country as a whole dull and uninspiring.

The flag's a big plus, though.

eyebeebe

3,339 posts

246 months

Thursday 27th March
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I‘ve lived in Switzerland for over 15 years. What time of year are you thinking and what do you want to achieve?

Fluffsri

3,271 posts

209 months

Friday 28th March
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As above, go to interlaken area. We did a weekend in Zurich a few years ago and it was nice but its a city. We did Interlaken for 4 nights last year and managed to visit Thun, Grindlewold, Zermatt and some other random places in the mountains. Its a great area to visit.

CLK-GTR

1,431 posts

258 months

Friday 28th March
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Lucerne, Lugano, Interlaken. If you really want a proper city Zurich is OK.