Lake Como & Switzerland

Switzerland | Sep 1 - Sep 12, 2025

Outstanding location with amazing views on to Lake Lugano. We enjoyed a suite with a balcony. Easy walk to town, close to train station and bus station. Very friendly staff. Nice breakfast buffet.

The location is outstanding, right on the shore of Lake Como with amazing views, walking distance to the town, and the ferry right next door, and an amazing breakfast buffet. Public areas are very nice, rooms are VERY dated and sadly disappointing.

Outstanding location with amazing views over Lake Lucerne and the promenade area. Footprint of the room was smaller but everything was first class and comfortable. Soft drinks & some snacks from the mini bar were included and we enjoyed this after touring the city. Dyson hair dryer in the bathroom. Upscale all the way.

Great location in the center of Interlaken. Enjoyed watching the paragliding from our room balcony. Room was adequate with minimal comfort features and the bathroom was tiny (especially the shower).

Outstanding location with views on to Lake Zurich. Easy walk from the front of the hotel to the city or the benches by the lake. Very friendly and kind staff, very concerned with guest comfort.

Loved our tour of Bellagio and Lake Como with a boat tour included to get from place to place. Our guide, Laura, booked a wine tasting and charcuterie at an enoteca she knew well. She's a sommelier and that enhanced our experience as we discussed wines in more detail. She showed us around and explained the culture and history of both Bellagio and Como.

Our guide, Elena, is a teacher by career and this showed and enhanced our learning experience as we took a city tour of Lugano with her. She also shared personal spots for gelato, dinner, apertivo as well as taught us how to use the bus system to get back to our hotel.

Patricia arranged a beautiful lunch at a little place right along the lake. She helped us order traditional Swiss food and wine. Our conversation included discussing a love of family, origins, food, history, geography, and traditions. She guided us to a place to buy a little Ticino book I mentioned I was interested in acquiring. She also presented us with a little Ticino anniversary gift - two small baccolino cups. She recommended we try nocino over gelato. She worked to take some beautiful photos of us. She suggested we take the boat ride back to Lugano instead of the planned reverse bus & train. It was a lovely ride and great suggestion.

We enjoyed taking the train and bus to get to Bellinzona. Patricia shared the detailed history of the castles and area as we toured. A needed bathroom break lead to a little wine tasting and charcuterie by a local shop owner that Patricia is friendly with - he was so very gracious, kind and generous. We took photos as this really was special for us.

Miguel drove us to Mt. Pilatus and managed to both be detailed and informative and also disappearing at time to allow us some time alone. He shared details and history but also the best place to get lunch, the best views for photos and offered to take photos quite often.

Dave loves history and regaled us with many details along the tour - to our immense enjoyment. He is very knowledgeable and enjoys sharing what he knows. The details of the Chapel Bridge history and art work is amazing. He arranged a beautiful wine and cheese tasting at a perfect location near the Chapel Bridge. We learned that Dave and Greg worked for the same company in their past careers and his wife worked for Kodak which is headquartered in our home town of Rochester NY.

Richard is a wonderful guide who works hard to ensure his clients enjoy their tour. We shared learning that there are towns in the Lauterbrunnen area where cars are not allowed and he asked if we would like to go to one. We said yes and our tour was immediately edited to suit this desire. It was wonderful to travel to Murren, walk the town, see the outstanding mountain views, watch the BASE jumping and paragliding. It really was quite special. He shared his knowledge of the history of the area as we walked around. He is also very good at photographs. He took all the photos on his phone and them created a file for us to access and download the photos = perfect! We also toured Trummelbach Falls with him - amazing place and he was kind to share information on what we would see and experience in advance - temperature, sound, slippery conditions. Excellent tour!

Marta took us on a hike alongside Lake Brienz, a gorgeous turquoise blue lake near Interlaken. Following the tour, we viewed a waterfall nearby. You could hike up and walk behind the falls. For the return to Interlaken, we took a tour boat. Various areas along the lake felt like we were in a rainforest, lunch greenery with moss and ferns. She shared the local history and geography as we hiked.

Ivo gave us a very brief introduction to Zürich by car and then we drove to tour the Lindt House of Chocolate. It was a standard group tour and it’s a self tour with recordings throughout. It’s well done, lots of chocolate samples along the way. It was well attended. Following this we drove to a lovely restaurant only accessible via funicular for a traditional cheese fondue dinner while overlooking Lake Zurich and the city below. It was planned for sunset so we could see the view both in daylight and following sunset with all the lights.

We toured Mt. Titlus in the morning which was better for a less cloudy view at the top. It was quite crowded with some unruly tour groups. The views were clear but only briefly- at 10,000 ft! We did the glacier cave walk and the suspension bridge. It was amazing! Following this we had a caffe latte and snack in Engleberg and then a cheese making lesson at a local monastery. Our cheese maker was so enthusiastic! He shared lots of information about the local farmer traditions and making cheese as he taught us how cheese is really made. We made some curds and tasted some local farmer cheese at various ages. It was fun.