Thank you for your reply. We were just in Lake Como over the summer. It’s not a place we enjoy very much. We’ve lived in multiple parts of Italy. My husband is from Sacile (1/2 hr north of Treviso). We don’t want to go to Venice been there many times and Rome too far. Also been there too many times. We do love, FIrenze we’re thinking it may be a bit too far from Zürich. We also love Spoleto and the entire region of Umbria, where we lived. Oh my, I sound impossible to help We are trying to find a place close to the Swiss border that is charming and enjoyable for Christmas. We may now actually rent a car because we’re feeling a bit overwhelmed with the thought of train and all of our luggage and the inflexibility of being able to come and go as we please.
Thank you for your reply. I have thought about that. We are just so comfortable in Italy and also the fact that it’s euro and our Heritage and language. Ticino is definitely a thought, but we just feel so much more home in Italia. We come to Switzerland often because we must, not out of choice. Italy has and always will be our favorite home but we don’t know the area just over the Swiss border very well. We were thinking Milano would be a bit too chaotic, love and adore and have lived in Liguaria region but perhaps too far from Zürich airport. Do you feel a big Italian vibe in Locarno/Ticino. is everything still in Swiss franc or is Euro used since it’s the Italian area? How about the language & cuisine? Do most people speak Italian in the area? We are in Kreuzlingen right now, but spend most of our time over the border in Konstanz… This is the area of Switzerland we come to frequently both for business and healthcare. we will leave our apartment Thursday or Friday heading back to Zurich by train and going to our chosen 7 to 8 day vacation home before before flying back to US on evening of Dec 23 to see family for Christmas out of Zürich airport. We have to make this decision today because if we rent a car, we’ve must get it rented and we also have to find a place to rent. We had hoped train would be easy but since we are so accustomed to always having a car…we are now leaning toward renting a car. Trying to push ourselves into the adventure of train, but feeling resistance ;-)
People speak Italian, but not everyone. And they use the Swiss money. Cuisine I don’t remember, but i do remember great pizza.
we have decided we will rent a car at Zürich airport, so it’s easy to return on the day of our departure flight. However, we want to keep the drive to approx three to 4 hrs max from Zürich. We don’t enjoy a lot of long travel particularly on flight day. We like to pick one place and keep it as close as possible driving distance for easy return back to the airport. Absolutely love Sanremo and definitely would do that but it’s over a 6 Hour drive from Zürich airport, so not an option in this instance. Especially since we only have From Friday me 15th to Saturday the 23rd. Piedmont/Turin also approximately 5 Hour Dr., which is just more than what we want to take on. Aosta was a small thought but again it’s a 4 Hour Dr. and if we did that we would go to Bergamo instead. Thank you so much for trying to help. I just hope that there was a closer Italian village to call home for our time. It’s sounding like we may have to choose Lugano. We will make our decision and book some thing today. Really had our heart set on back home to Italy but I think it’s just going to be a bit too far for our return travel day. With regard to Lake Constance, we stay in Kreuzlingen both because of that’s where we have business and healthcare but we do nothing socially on the Swiss side. All of our free time is spent walking or driving over the border into Konstanz and the surrounding German area that is more warm and with more of an Italian feel than the Swiss side. Our apartment in Kreuzlingen is by the lake and a five minute walk over the border so most of the time we leave our car parked, unless we go further into the suburbs of Konstanz. It’s important to know we just are not big fans of Switzerland, so we would not choose to stay on the Swiss side if we didn’t have reason to be here, but I always recommend others to choose the German side of Lake. Constance truly depends on personal preference. the German side has lots of amazing restaurants, lounges, and cafés and the people are really great. There’s also Fantastic shopping and incredible grocery stores as we love to cook and that’s also important to us.
Love Bergamo and was thinking about it but still a little bit longer drive from Zürich airport than what we’re hoping. We had hoped to keep the drive to approximately three hours. Bergamo would be a bit over four hours. We will definitely rent a car as we’ve realized train will just be too complicated and inconvenient.
I absolutely agree with you, Ian and for this very reason we have decided we will go back to our usual of renting a car. Train will just be too complicated and inconvenient as well as limiting. I am now trying to decide on a homebase within a three hour driving distance to Zürich airport. I will book from December 15 to December 23 so I must find a place today. Thinking of Locarno but really did not want to be on the Swiss side. I don’t know anything about Vesey but it does appear to be approximately three hours and 20 minute drive so that definitely could be a possibility! we want to stay away from Como for sure and the other locations would be fabulous but just too long of a drive. However, once we have our homebase, we can definitely visit the locations you mentioned. Thank you so much for your input.
Hi Pauline! So we literally changed everything. One hour ago I rented a car (always paying online prior to pickup) picking up tomorrow in Konstanz and will return it to Zurich airport on December 23. it was very important to us to be within a 2 Hour drive to Zürich airport and I almost booked at Lake Lucerne because of its proximity to Zürich airport, and I found some beautiful rentals there, but since we wanted to get out of Switzerland, our second favorite place (after Italy) is France. I booked a fantastic rental in the Alsace region of France. It’s within the 2 Hour drive to Zürich airport and meets all my high maintenance requests/necessities I always rent last minute and always find beautiful rentals. However, I don’t mind paying more for both the car rental, and the apartment/house. Beautiful well equipped Kitchens and large new bathrooms are very very important to us, as are both washer & dryer, Wi-Fi, TV, satellite, etc. etc. I’ve never had an issue finding last-minute rentals with all of these options but pricing does go up. Planning ahead just doesn’t work for us. I usually search Google for smaller rental European rental companies or owner direct and if I can’t find anything I go to AirBnB or VRBO. If I have a little more time, I sometimes find the exact rental I find on either one of those websites as an independent rental on the web and contact the owner to rent direct to avoid Airbnb fees, but I didn’t have the time, nor the desire to deal with it this time. Overall I’m not a fan of Airbnb as a company so I don’t like giving my money to them, but they sure do make life easy…. So I cave in when I must.
That’s great to hear! I haven’t stayed in that region, so it will be a nice change.
