TRIP DETAILS

Trip length (including travel days) - 12 days

Time of year - September

Countries visited - Switzerland, Italy

Cities/Locations visited and time in each:

• Geneva/Lausanne (Switzerland) - 1 night

• Gruyeres/Bern (Switzerland) - 1 night

• Interlocken/Wengen (Switzerland) - 2 nights

• Ascona (Switzerland) - 1 night

• Como (Italy) - 2 nights

• St. Gallen (Switzerland) - 3 nights

PATH WE TOOK

Fly Denver thru Iceland to Geneva, Switzerland

Rental car for driving all throughout Switzerland & Italy

Train for day trip to Austria

Fly Zurich thru Iceland to Denver

HIGHLIGHTS

One highlight of this trip was getting to visit some ex-pat friends and spend time with them, seeing how they were living abroad. On this trip, they met us at Lake Como, Italy for a peaceful and serene 2 nights at an Agritourismo Hotel (https://treterre.it/), before we all headed back to their apartment in St. Gallen, Switzerland for 3 nights.

The other highlight of the trip was our time in Wengen, Switzerland which is in the Lauterbrunnen valley above Interlaken. From Wengen, we took a tram to the top of the Jungfrau and hiked on the glacier, hiked on The North Face Trail, and hiked on the Eiger trail beneath the famous “north face” of the mountain. We listened to swiss bells ringing on the necks of cows munching happily away as we walked past them, and enjoyed a picnic lunch on a high grassy plateau overlooking the small villages perched below. It was magical!

OUR NOT-SO-FAVORITE THING

This trip was our most hectic ever…we drove between over a dozen cities in 10 days…some just for a few hours, like Gruyeres where we stopped for a traditional Raclette lunch. At the end we were tired and cranky, so this was a lesson learned that we had packed too much into this visit.

WHY WE PICKED THIS LOCATION

As mentioned, we had friends living in Switzerland who offered for us to come and visit…we couldn’t pass up the opportunity! So we planned the trip to see them since we had never been to Switzerland or Italy (as adults).