noram0720

Hi all! Would love some help planning this itinerary/getting your thoughts on how to execute this plan. We are flying from NYC into Paris. Plan on spending 4 nights here and then taking a train to Lyon (2 nights?) and then going from there to the French riveria (4 nights? - would love tips here) and then going from Nice via flight to Geneva (1 hour supposedly) and then spending 4 nights in Switzerland and flying back from here. Would love any recs on how to execute this without driving, tips along the way, and/or must sees. thank you all!

VANAARLE

route planning using public transport https://www.rome2rio.com/
The rest I have no idea. You fail to give us time of year likes and dislikes.
What research have you done so far?

Christina

I am not sure what you are questioning, you have an itinerary and you could obviously easily take trains between those cities (and you have the one flight planned for the other). So what are you concerned about the train question? Train to Lyon, then train to Nice I gather as you said you were staying there, fly to Geneva. If you want to know what to do in Switzerland where you can go on the train easily, I'd suggest along an easy route not too far from Geneva as you are flying into/out of there.

So I'd suggest you could do 2-3 nights in Montreux and 1-2 in Lausanne. From Montreux you could easily visit Vevey by train for a day trip (or vice versa, stay in Vevey and visit Montreux). Then move to Lausanne as it's a short train tip back to Geneva for your flight.

That's just one idea, you could go all north/NE of geneva if you want to do Lucerne or Interlaken or Bern or whatever. I think to get to Interlaken from Geneva, you have to transfer in Bern.

aliced

Trains on your route are great, go with that, easiest to stay in Nice. You can tour the coast via train or bus. Christina knows her stuff, she has been extremely helpful to me in the past, so I'd go with your proposed itinerary w her suggestions. We have seen Eze and Monaco twice, Villefranche and Cap St Jean Ferrat are just to east of Nice, and St. Paul de Vence has the Maeght Foundation and Colombe d'Or which we are seeing/enjoying next month. Eze was worth the ride. Nice has alot to offer w Chagall & Picasso musees and Matisse House if you enjoy art (same for Maeght). Geneva is so close to Lausanne & Montreux, you can stay in one and train to the other, but recm staying close to Geneva for departure. Loved Lausanne and Montreux, we were there based on Lake in Montreux.

gooster

I agree that time of year and likes/dislikes are very important.

You will find many things accessible via train and bus on the Cote d'Azur, depending on your interests. Nice makes the most sense as a base, to minimize connections, if you plan to day trip a lot. .

I disagree about picking up locations between Montreux and Lausanne. I used to live there.... the train trip takes 22 minutes. It is reliable and punctual. Pick one or the other cities and use it as a base to visit the other, plus other day trips. You can even reach geneve (or you can transition there for your last night). You can take trains or ferries to places like gruyeres, the Rochers des Nayes, Vevey, Geneve, Bern or even deeper into the mountains or the Valais (

Christina

I would agree sort of, I never intended to suggest one should stay at some place in-between Montreux and Lausanne. I think but am not sure you mean you would only stay in one place total as you can easily train to the other amongst all of that area (Lausanne to Montreux). Perhaps, I personally don't like to do that myself, and it's not due to train travel time necessarily. I just don't like only staying in one place that long and you never know if you are going to like your hotel or not. At least I don't. I"d rather do two and two. I also like having a different city to go out and explore for dinner, at night.

A lot of people make a big thing of moving hotels, doesn't bother me much but perhaps I travel more lightly than some. For a couple nights, I don't really "Unpack" that much, I may take out shoes and pants from my suitcase, but leave tops., socks, etc in it and use it like a dresser drawer, more or less.

This is just a personal choice if you know the options and distances which are easy to find out by looking at a map but also you can check the train schedules.

gooster

I did mean I would pick either Lausanne or Montreux. The train ride takes as little as 20 minutes and the trains come every 9 to 10 minutes, like clockwork. You can day trip from one or other, and the choice may make one preferable I'd also recommend taking the ferry as well, especially to the Chateau du Chillon and stopping off in Ouchy. The Olympics Museum is also not far from the ferry dock. I also suggested if they felt nervous about their flight they could spend the last night in Lausanne (really not an issue as Swiss trains are like clockwork -- when I lived there there was a national scandal and disgrace because the line between Lausanne and Geneve had the very worst on-time record of any line in switzerland. It was on average, an inexcusable 1 min 34 seconds in delay. A commission was formed to solve the problem). There are some nice things to see and do in Geneva.

MichGuy

You might consider changing your route to: Paris - Nice - Lyon - Switzerland. That way you could do it all by train and avoid airport hassles.
In Switzerland for 4 days I recommend that you stay in Montreux or Lausanne; the former for relaxation and proximity to the Golden Pass rail trip and Chillon castle, the latter for shopping and proximity to Geneva airport. From either you could do one day in Montreux, one day in Lausanne, one day in Bern, and one day on the chocolate train. Unfortunately you would miss the mountains.