[Removed user]

4 September 2010 at 9:24:21 #803990

Hi everyone – I just wanted to thank all contributors. We enjoyed our trip to Switzerland late July to mid August and I am grateful for all the information I got from forum before we set off. I read answers to other people’s queries as well as mine so had lots of ideas (and details of trains, boats, buses etc) before setting off. The weather was not particularly kind to us this year but we did manage a few trips up into the mountains as well as visiting lots of places that were new to us. We were based in Hilterfingen on Lake Thun and took full advantage of our Swiss Pass to travel all over the place, saving ourselves a lot of money and time queueing for tickets!! We went to Zermatt for the day and up to Gornergrat and saw part of the Matterhorn through the clouds – not brilliant but better than the last time we went when we saw none of it! We visited the Verkehrsmuseum in Lucerne and highly recommend it to young families – it was brilliant; watching the youngsters enjoying themselves as much part of the entertainment as seeing the exhibits! This was our tenth annual summer trip and we never fail to have a wonderful time. The country is beautiful and fascinating and the people so warm and friendly, indulging our attempts to speak German (and occasionally French) with great courtesy. For the last few years we have spent a few days in Europe in early December, visiting places renowned for their Christmas markets and other Advent festivities and we are now about to book this year’s trip and have decided to try Switzerland this year. We are considering staying in Biel/Bienne as it has good rail links to Basel, Zurich, Bern and Montreux which all have markets we can visit. Does anyone know of any other places which have Christmas markets? What is the weather likely to be like in early December? Again my thanks to all posters on this great forum and I hope those who are still planning their visits have a wonderful time. Maggie

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[Annika]

5 September 2010 at 4:35:55 #831782

Hello Maggie. Thanks for getting back to us. It’s great to know that the forum helped you preparing for your trip. I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed your stay in Switzerland – again! It’s too bad though that the weather wasn’t that fine, but at least you got to see part of the Matterhorn this time. The Swiss Pass offers great ease of use indeed, and it seems that you profited quite well from all its advantages. I fully understand that you want to get back to Switzerland as soon as possible. It’s kind of an addiction, isn’t it? I don’t have knowledge of Christmas markets. This Christmas market page may help you, but it mainly mentions the markets you’re already aware of. It seems that these are the largest ones, so if you manage to visit Basel, Zurich, Bern and Montreux, you’d get to see the most important markets anyway. There’s one in Geneva too. This is rather close to Montreux and Biel, so you could combine these. The website of Hotel Les Armures in Geneva offers more information on Christmas celebration activities.

As for the weather: it’s a bit hard to say what it will be like early December. It will probably be rather cold and it can even be very cold and snowy. So be prepared for cold weather and take along appropiate winter clothing, especially if you plan on going up in the mountains as well.

[Removed user]

5 September 2010 at 10:26:15 #831783

Thanks Annika, I know the Christmas market website well and have used it before to research our previous December trips to Europe. I was looking at Austrian markets but they are difficult to reach from Birmingham and i decided to look to see what Switzerland had to offer as we have only visited Switzerland in late spring or summer and had not thought of going there in December before. I was really pleased to discover how many markets there are and know from experience how easy it is to travel around by train so it was easy to decide on a base in Biel from which to visit as many as possible. Thank you for your suggestion to check out Geneva as well as it wasn’t listed with the others. We are looking forward to a very busy time trying to do them all justice – we may indeed have to return in 2011 as well! Maggie