15471 posts
Hi Juliekzp,
Welcome to MySwissAlps! Chur is a small city: 3 hours from Innsbruck with one change. It’s in the north of the Graubünden canton (http://www.myswissalps.com/gr aubunden), and makes a good base for several day trips. Whether this is the best option depends on their plans. How long do they want to day, what do they want to do, where do they travel next?
72625 posts
Thank you! They only have 3 or 4 nights, then fly home to the US (probably from Zurich). So I was hoping to get them a quintessential Swiss Alps experience (they don’t need to see everything!) in just one place. My original thought is take the train to Interlaken and then maybe stay in Murren or Wengen. But that’s a 6.5 hour train ride with 4 changes.
72625 posts
From what I’m reading, I’m thinking I’d like them to get a little more into the mountains than Chur – maybe Samedan or Pontresina? Looks like those would be about 5 hours from Innsbruck. Is it worth an extra 1.5 hours to go to the Wengen area? They have never been to Switzerland.
15471 posts
You’re welcome! The St. Moritz area is wonderful and includes Samedan, Pontresina and other smaller villages: http://www.myswissalps.com/st moritz. It takes about 4 hours with two changes. The best choice also depends on the time of the year they are going: http://www.myswissalps.com/be sttimetovisit.
There are many wonderful areas in Switzerland. If travel time is important to them, I’d pick a place in the east of Switzerland.
72625 posts
Stick with Chur, easy to get to from Innsbruck (one change at Buchs SG).
I don’t think you need to go south of Chur for a base.
Chur is a good place to stay, especially as a good jumping off point if departing from Switzerland via Zürich airport. Chur is in the Alps (surrounded by medium high mountains) has a very nice nice old town, parks, river, castle etc and you can do day trips all around Canton Graubünden easily from the main station as it is a nodal transport hub. Using the ‘national railway’ of Graubünden you can easily do day trips to Arosa, St Moritz, Disentis/Oberalp/Andermatt, Scuol (fabulous castle), Davos etc – all are high Alps destinations with lots of Alpine views on the way.