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7
Days / 6 Nights Swiss Harvest
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Highlights
- Discover:
Zürich or Schaffhausen, Heinzenberg, Lenzerheide, Appenzell,
Bellinzona, St. Moritz or Engadin villages, Feldkirch (Austria), Vaduz
(Liechtenstein).
- Attractions:
- lunch at a restaurant that was once an arsenal
- dinner at a grotto (stoned warehouse that was once used before the
refrigerator was invented)
- alpine berry-picking
- UNESCO World Heritage castles and their city walls
- lunch picnic at castle compound
- horse carriage ride through villages in the picturesque countryside
(optional)
- mountain visit for an impressive 360° panoramic view of Swiss
Alps / view of 1000 summits (optional)
- rodel toboganning on the world's longest toboggan run on rails
(optional)
- Heidi village
- lunch in the knights' or hunters' room of a castle
- Top of Switzerland mountain visit to see the highest ice-packed
mountains in the Eastern Alps and glacier (optional)
- various outdoor and indoor mountain spring mineral thermal pools
(optional)
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Day
1 |
Arrival
and pick up at
Zürich airport / Zürich main train station / hotel in
Zürich. Proceed to a charming medieval town in the northern
part of Switzerland, also known as 'the prettiest small town in
Switzerland' situated at the River Rhine. Next, go to Zürich.
After lunch, walk along elegant Bahnhofstrasse - a shopping stretch -
and visit a very pretty chocolate-cum-confectionery shop and a very
well-known chocolate boutique-cum-café. After that, walk
through narrow lanes in the Old Town area where the largest clockface
in Europe awaits you just around the corner - beaming, ready for a
photo shot. Then take a walk up one of the twin towers of the
Grossmünster and have a bird's-eye view of the city of
Zürich (optional).
A scenic drive along the Lake of Zürich, Lake Walen and the
majestic Churfirsten mountain range to the Holiday Corner of
Switzerland. Welcome to the land of 150 valleys, 615 alpine lakes and
937 mountain peaks. Pass the Heidi World, THE Pinot Noir region of
Switzerland and the oldest city in Switzerland. Continue to drive
through Graubünden, the most diversified and largest but the
least densely populated canton of Switzerland, known for her widely
untouched landscapes and home to three of the four cultures of
Switzerland.
Drive into the valley of castles & ruins before checking into
your hotel embedded at the foot of an inner alpine valley, also known
as the ‘Orchard of Graubünden'. Here, in the
geographic heart of the Alps, is the crossroads of the high and ancient
alpine passes. Complimentary welcome drink during dinner.
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(Note:
If you have been to Zürich, it might be replaceable with Rhine
Falls (largest waterfall in Europe) and Schaffhausen where you discover
the rare beauty and cultural diversity of this charming town with its
delightful countryside, situated along the River Rhine next to Germany.
The houses of the Old Town are richly decorated with 171 oriels and
valuable murals. Narrow streets invite the visitor to stroll and shop,
and if the weather is warm enough, the streets of the car-free town
centers are transformed into pocket-size Parisian boulevards. These
historical treasures date back to the Middle Ages. Optional: a visit to
a majestic 16th century fortress.)
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Day
2 |
Go to
the alpine pastures or forests.
Pick wild berries like blueberries, cranberries or raspberries. Collect
wild walnuts/hazelnuts. (As nature has her own special unpredictable
timing for bearing fruits or nuts, this itinerary will be changed, if
necessary.)
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Day
3 |
Visit a
winter & summer
sports resort. Here, you have various optional tours to choose from:
(1) Horse carriage ride through the villages in the beautiful
countryside (2) cable-car/chairlift ride up to one of the mountains of
the largest and highest canton of Switzerland, Graubünden, for
a panoramic view of the south-eastern Swiss Alps or a view of 1000
summits (3) rodel tobogganing on the world's longest toboggan run on
rails.
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Day
4 |
Bellinzona
- capital of the
Italian-speaking canton Ticino in the southern part of Switzerland,
designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its city walls and 3 famous
castles enclosing a picturesque vineyard.Visit the castles and if the
weather permits, have a lunch picnic in the castle compound. Next,
visit the famous medieval bridge in a valley where the opening scene of
James Bond 007 ‘Goldeneye’ was filmed or go to a
pretty lakeside town situated at the foot of the southern Swiss Alps.
Then go to a stone warehouse where people from the Swiss south valleys
stored their foodstuff before the refrigerator was invented, to try
south-eastern Swiss cuisine.
OR
If the weather permits, do an optional tour: a panorama
train ride on the Bernina Express
which got inscribed on the
UNESCO World Heritage List
on 7 July 2008 for being a masterpiece
of engineering amidst
panoramic landscapes and cultural diversity. Enjoy riding the most
famous train in the Alps on board the Rhaetian Railway panorama coach
whose north alpine route is a 145-km stretch that cuts through
Graubünden, boasting the most beautiful railway routes in the
world. During the trip over the Bernina pass, the train reaches an
altitude of 2.253 m (7.390 ft) and masters gradients of 70%. The
Bernina Express runs without cogwheels, on the highest long-distance
railway transversal in the Alps over up to more then 200-metre long and
90-metre high bridges, through winding tunnels, past raging mountain
torrents, glaciers and a rich array of alpine flowers to southerly
Valposchiavo, over the spiralling viaduct at Brusio and on to Tirano in
Italy.
Note: If the weather is not suitable for train ride today, you still
have the opportunity to do it another day.
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Day
5 |
The
story of the little girl, Heidi,
originates from a village in the Swiss countryside. Visit Heidi village
to see the Heidi house with Heidi's room, attic, living room, cellar,
kitchen etc like it was over 100 years ago. Then go across the nearby
border to Austria to the city of Feldkirch. Next, hop across another
border just around the corner to Liechtenstein and visit the capital
city of Vaduz. A good range of cuckoo clocks is available here. If you
are interested in alpine nature (e.g. alpine animals etc), the
Liechtenstein National Museum is worth a visit.
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Day
6 |
Today we
visit the eastern part of
Switzerland, St. Moritz, in the Upper Engadin Valley where the wealthy
go to enjoy their riches and where the Alpine Ski World Championship
2003 as well as the Winter Olympics 1928 & 1948 were hosted.
The town is yours to explore. Optional: a visit to one of the mountains
in the eastern Swiss Alps for a very impressive 360° view of
the Alps including a close view of the Bernina range, the highest
mountain range in the Eastern Alps. On a clear day, depending on the
sun's rays, 7 or 8 layers of mountain ranges can be seen from here!
Graubünden has the most number of mountain peaks in the Alps
exceeding 3000 m, making it the highest region in the Alps and earning
it the name 'the roof of Europe'.
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(Note:
If you have been to St. Moritz, it might be replaceable with visits to
quaint villages in the Lower Engadin Valley where people go to see
typical Engadiner sgraffito-painted houses with huge doors and sunken
in funnel-like windows decorated with flowers. Optional: Take dips in
various outdoor & indoor mountain spring mineral thermal pools.)
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Day
7 |
Hotel
check-out. Scenic ride to Zürich airport / Zürich
main train station / hotel in Zürich. Please do NOT schedule
your flight to depart Zürich airport before 10:45 am. |
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Note
1) As we would very much want our travellers to get the most out of our
tours, the sequence and/or parts of the content of the above itinerary
are subject to changes depending on weather conditions, forthcoming
special events and unforeseen circumstances.
2) It might be possible to change above itinerary to an all-Switzerland
holiday. Please write to us at switzerlandtours @ hotmail.com.
3) If you have been to a few of the above-mentioned places but would
like to visit other not-to-be-missed places or experience some
interesting activities, we might be able to do some alteration. Do
write to us.
What's included:
- Transfer to and fro Zürich
airport / Zürich main
train station / hotel in Zürich.
(Transfer to Zürich on last day not included for budget tours.
Top-up applies.)
- 6 nights hotel accommodation in
countryside town.
- 6 Swiss buffet breakfasts. (Not
included for budget tours)
- 5 Swiss dinners. (Not included for
budget tours)
- 1 driver-guide.
- 1
tour guide.
- 1 touring vehicle.
Tour
Schedule & Booking | 7
Days Swiss Autumn | 10
Days Swiss View | 14
Days Swiss Panorama
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this tour for me?
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