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8
Days / 7 Nights Swiss Gems
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Highlights
- Discover:
Appenzell, Stein am Rhein, Lenzerheide, St Moritz, Engadin Villages,
Münster Valley, Davos or Albula, Bellinzona.
- Attractions:
- German-speaking, Romansch-speaking & Italian-speaking parts
of
Switzerland
- prettiest small town in Switzerland
- a very traditional Swiss town whose inhabitants are very proud of
their traditions
- Bernina Express panorama train ride (optional)
- resort where the high society of the world go to
- resort where one of the events of the Ski World Cup is held every
March and where the Federer family has one of their holiday homes
- rodel toboganning on the world's longest toboggan run on rails
(optional)
- drives over scenic mountain road passes
- a walk around a lake that is said to have a second lake beneath it
- Top of Switzerland to see the highest ice-packed mountains of the
Eastern Alps, lake plateau (3 lakes in a row) & glacier
(optional)
- only duty-free oasis in Switzerland
- mountain visit for an impressive 360° panoramic view of Swiss
Alp
/ view of 1000 summits (optional)
- UNESCO World Heritage defensive medieval castles
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| Day
1 |
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Arrival
and pick-up at Zürich airport / hotel in Zürich /
Zürich
main station. Take a drive to a charming medieval town also known as
the prettiest small town in Switzerland, famous throughout Europe for
her medieval frescoes. Next, have lunch at a restaurant that was once
an arsenal. Try one of the best chocolate cakes in the world at a
well-known café-cum-chocolate boutique. Take a walk in the
old
town of Zürich with narrow lanes and little specialty shops. A
scenic ride passing by the Lake of Zürich, Lake Walen and the
pretty Churfirsten mountain range (7 mountains in a row), the Heidi
World, THE Pinot Noir Region of Switzerland before arriving at your
hotel embedded in an inner alpine valley in the geographic heart of the
Alps.
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| Day
2 |
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Visit a
resort where one of the events of the Ski Word Cup is held every year
in March, where former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, took
her twins to learn skiing and where the Federer family has one of their
holiday homes. Here you have various optional tours to choose from: 1)
1-hr horse-carriage ride through the picturesque countryside along
lakes and through villages and pine woods.2) Swiss Alps visit for a
360º
panoramic view or a view of 1000 summits of the Swiss Alps in
Graubünden, well-known throughout Switzerland for her
beautiful
mountains. 3) Rodel tobogganing on the world's longest toboggan run on
rails (according to Guinness Book of World Record) at 3.1 km long
(availability: Jun to Oct, Dec to Mar).
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| Day
3 |
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Take a
scenic drive over to the resort of St Moritz where the 1928
&
1948 Winter Olympics and the 2003 World Ski Championship were held and
where the wealthy go to enjoy their riches.
Optional: Visit Top of Switzerland for a view of the highest group of
mountains in the eastern Alps – the ice-packed Bernina
Massive,
the Engadin lake plateau (3 lakes in a row) and glacier that
was
shown in the movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore, former
U.S. vice-president. Next, take a drive through the Swiss National Park
to a quaint village situated at the easternmost valley of Switzerland.
Explore the village. Stay a night at this village. Enjoy Swiss wellness
of hay bath, pumpkin bath or evening primrose bath (optional).
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| Day
4 |
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Today
we drive to the only duty-free oasis in Switzerland. Next, go to the
Lower Engadin Valley. Take a walk in quaint villages to see typical
Engadiner houses. Optional: Take dips in various indoor and outdoor
thermal massage pools.
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| Day
5 |
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Spring/Summer/Autumn
Either
1) Visit the highest city in Europe. This is where 2000 of the world's
most elite people (politicians, business leaders, celebraties etc) go
to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) every winter.
OR
2) Drive over an alpine pass which cannot be driven over by coaches.
Take a hike around a lake
which is said to have a second lake
beneath it. If weather
permits, have a lunch picnic by the
lake.
Winter
Drive
over the Julier
Pass, mentioned by travel magazines as one of the most beautiful passes
in the world.
Then take a drive back to your hotel embedded in the holiday
corner of Switzerland and the rest of the day is yours. |
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| Day
6 |
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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. Explore the city or visit the medieval castle(s). Experience
the Saturday morning market and feel a different ambiance. Next, visit
a beautiful lakeside town situated at the lowest point in Switzerland
and at the foot of the southern Swiss Alps.
OR
If weather permits, we 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
7 |
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Drive
through the countryside area of Appenzell, famous throughout
Switzerland for her countryside landscape. Go to the very authentic and
traditional town of Appenzell and admire pretty Appenzeller houses.
Appenzell is not only known throughout Switzerland for her unique
Appenzeller houses but also her high quality cheese,
delicious sausages, beer made from mountain spring water,
sweets
etc.
Optional: Take a drive to the Queen of the North-Eastern Swiss
Alps for a 360º splendid view of 5 countries –
Germany,
Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy and Switzerland. |
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| Day
8 |
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| Hotel check-out. Scenic
ride to Zürich airport / hotel in Zürich /
Zürich main
train station. 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) Some tours are included as optional
tours because travellers MUST have the choice not to choose them in
case of bad weather. In Switzerland, views from the summit of mountains
are not always visible. Sometimes there is ZERO visibility
due to
low or heavy clouds. If the optionals are included
in the
tour price, then the mountain visit is a must-do even when the weather
is not suitable for a mountain visit. This would be unfair to
the
unaware traveller and it would be a wasted
trip. We always
check the weather one day before and advise our travellers
if the
scheduled mountain visit would be good or
not.
Otherwise, we either shuffle the itinerary and do the mountain visit
another day when the weather is good (as per forecast) or advise them
not to do it at all when the next days are not suitable for mountain
visits. For other optional tours like horse-carriage rides, thermal
pools, etc, some travellers might not want to do them for some reason
or some may have done them before.
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 / hotel in Zürich / Zürich main train
station.
- 7 nights accommodation in
countryside.
- 7 Swiss breakfasts.
- 7 Swiss dinners.
- 1 driver-guide.
- 1
tour guide.
- 1 touring vehicle.
6
Days Magical
Switzerland | 10
Days Best of Switzerland | 10
Days Swiss
Graubünden Special
14
Days West Switzerland | Tour
Schedule & Booking | Is this tour
for me?
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this tour for me?
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