sailingmargo

Hello. Airport we will be leaving from is Atlanta, on Delta. Want to ultimately get to Basel Switzerland. Since, I am having a hard time with booking …could someone suggest a major city, to fly into and, and stay over nite, then take a regional airline to Basel. From the U.S. we are using Delta. Thanks for any input 👍

Sassafrass

If you can’t fly directly into Basel, it is super easy to fly into Frankfurt and right from the airport in Frankfurt, take the next train to Basel. We used to do this frequently. It is just under three hours to city center. Relaxing, cheap, no long lines, many trains every day.

https://www.raileurope.com/en-us/des...SAAEgKQ-PD_BwE

You don’t need to stay overnight. Unless you have some reason to go into Frankfurt or really want to, that is just a lot more hassle, taking luggage (or storing it), going to a hotel, going back to the airport, going through security again, etc. I quite enjoy a stop in Frankfurt because I lived there, but there is no point unless you want to spend time. There certainly is no point spending a night at some airport hotel. At any rate, if you decide to do stop, stay in town and forget about another flight to Basel! Expensive, time consuming, not enjoyable! Just catch a train from the airport or uptown.

Also, just in case you were not aware, some regional flights are from Hahn, not actually Frankfurt am Main, although they will list flights as Frankfurt-Hahn, confusing if you don’t think about it.

If you really want to overnight somewhere, take the train to Strasbourg (beautiful, charming, great food), overnight, then on to Basel. It is just under two hours to Strasbourg, then under an hour and a half to Basel. So, a wonderful, easy stop, all by train.
I hope this is clear and helpful. If not, please just ask.

Sassafrass

Just in case Frankfurt does not work for you, flight wise, check out Paris. Train is just a few minutes over three hours to Basel and that is, IMHO, a fun place to overnight (or stay longer).
https://www.raileurope.com/en-us/des...is-basel-train

Michael

You can fly into Paris and take the TGV to Basel. There are direct trains from Charles de Gaulle to Basel. Give yourself three hours for transferring when you make a reservation.

sailingmargo

Thx u

sailingmargo

Thank u so much. !

Sassafrass

This is an easy way to get familiar with Frankfurt airport. The train stations are right alongside terminal 1.
https://www.pilotplans.com/blog/frankfurt-airport
There are so many trains doing that route, Frankfurt, south to Switzerland, we have not reserved ahead.

dreamon

Zurich is close, then train directly from Zurich airport to Basel. Geneva or Strasbourg are also options. sbb.ch/en has train timetables - very easy!

Sassafrass

Dreamon gave best suggestion, Zurich to Basel is only about an hour by train, with many trains running, no waiting.

kleeblatt

I agree. Delta has many flights to Zürich and then it's an easy train trip to Basel. There's a train station inside the Zürich airport and you may have to change trains at the main trainstation in Zürich (Hauptbahnhof), but afterwards it's a direct journey.

balthy

You don't need to work this out. If you enter ATL as departure point and destination BSL on the DL website and add your dates, the system will calculate and offer you the best connections. It might be via CDG or AMS or somewhere else, all depending on the date you choose and what alliances DL are part of. If you start putting it together yourselves, you could get into difficulties if the DL flight is late or cancelled & you have separate tickets, however when it is all on one ticket, you get some protection and your baggage will be through checked to your final destination. DL don't fly direct from ATL to ZRH or FRA so why take a connection just to get to those places and then take yet another flight or train when it is not necessary?

There's a train station at ZRH airport but it is very busy place and you'll probably have to change at Zurich HB so that is a pain. I've tried it many times. Not so bad if you don't have luggage.
The train journey from Paris to Basel is about 4.5 hrs and a real pain as you need to get to the correct train station in Paris to take it. And you can fly ATL-CDG-BSL all on DL & their partner airline for CDGBSL.