Me and the girlfriend are flying to Geneva post IMLP for a 11 day vacation. I have a sister in Geneva so that’s our launching pad.
In addition to our time in geneva, we’re thinking a bike trip to Montreux (lunch stop in lausanne) with a chocolate train tour before returning to geneva. i’ve been charged with coming up with something else to do the weekend of July 31-Aug 2nd.
Considering that IM+ is fresh in the minds of the people that went, give me some suggestions!!! Hiking close to Geneva or a camping trip to the south west would be acceptable options. The budget is maximum $500 per person.
i’m tapering like crazy and am so grumpy and tired, i need the ST gods to bail me out one more time. I’m looking for highlights anywhere accessible, rental car, train, plane, are options.
Take a train to Interlaken and then another up to either Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen and hike the Bernese Alps.
My brother and I were there for two days last month (one night in each) but unfortunately the weather was crappy and we couldn’t even see the peaks until the skies finally cleared as we were on the train on the way out But the lower elevation hiking we did was still cool.
Note: The Gletscherschlucht gorge hike near Grindelwald was closed when we were there.
Another option would be Zermatt (http://www.zermatt.ch/de/) to check out the Matterhorn and do some hiking.
You could tour other Swiss cities - Zurich, Luzern, Bern, Locarno all within 3/4hrs on the train (Locarno maybe more from Zurich I haven’t checked).
Keep in mind August 1st (Swiss National Day) here is kinda like the 4th of July - every small town / city will usually have some sort of celebration going on with fireworks in the evening.
Or hop on the TGV train and be in Paris in 3.5hrs.
My ex-wife is Swiss, so I’ve been through a lot of the country. If you’ve never been to Switzerland, and only have 3 days, then I would visit as many Swiss cities as time permits - take the train, get off, tour the city, take the train again. You could probably knock off more than one major city per day.
If you’re not interested in Switzerland, then hop on the train and go to Milan, Italy, which as close to Zurich from Geneva - that will definitely kill 2 days right there.
Hiking is the obvious choice, it is so spectacular. I don’t even know where to start with suggestions.
For an evening stroll, I’d take the car up Mont Saleve for great views of Geneva.
Should you ever fancy climbing a col with a road bike, there is one breathtaking and rather quiet option off Rhone valley which I only discovered last year:
Col du Sanetsch from Sion, climbs from 500 to 2.200m, ending at a glacier:
But the lower elevation hiking we did was still cool.
