Where to fly/travel to in Switzerland?

[FlyingOnAPlane]

Not travelled due to ill health for 10years, feel out of practice. Looking to fly from maybe Bristol airport as smaller rather than Heathrow. I want to go to Switzerland, or see some spectacular scenery. We will be hiring a car. Any hotels or suggestions of where to go?
will likely be going in June or July this year if can work it. Or maybe a Scandinavian country, or any mountains or spectacular scenery but not more than a couple of hours flight.

Switzerland is lovely. If you only want to fly from Bristol you will have a limited choice of destinations. Have you looked into what direct flights are available from there to Swiss airports?

I believe from Bristol you can fly direct to Basel, Zurich or Geneva.

Geneva you could do around Lake Geneva including Lausanne and then through the Jura Mountains including Vallorbe and Neuchatel, or go down to Annecy, which is in France but stunning and a lovely place to visit.

Zurich you could go down to Lucerne or up to St Gallen and Appenzell, or up to Schaffhausen for the Rhine falls.

Basel you could go up to the Black Forest or over to Strasbourg / Colmar.

Bristol you can also fly direct to Copenhagen, but I don’t think you can fly directly to any other Scandinavian country. You can go from Copenhagen over to Malmo though easily. There is lots of lovely scenery etc in Denmark but it might not have the wow factor you’re looking for

Yes, there are direct flights from Bristol to Geneva. From there it's about 40 minutes to the Haute-Savoie area of France, which is stunning. (Oh, I see a PP agrees with me about the Haute-Savoie, which is where Annecy is.)

Basel is a lovely small city. Stay a couple if nights, then get the train on to Zurich and then train again to Konstanz, just over the border in Germany. You're then on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) which is fab.
Or hire a car at Basel airport (Swiss side, not French side) and the motorways and main roads are quiet and easy to navigate.

But, frankly, although Switzerland is lovely it's also crushingly expensive, so sticking to southern Germany and/or Austria might be a better idea!

Thanks, I’ve just had a Quick Look at hotels and it is not cheap! Will look at some of the suggestions, really thanks!

Switzerland is horrendously expensive! But beautiful.

the French alps can be less horrendously expensive or up to Bodensee might be an idea as PP mentions

@FlyingOnAPlane

Switzerland and cheap cannot be put together in the same sentence! Ditto Scandinavia! I would stay in Interlaken as it has amazing rail connections and good choice of places to stay.

If you fly to Toulouse, you're close to Andorra which has spectacular scenery. Or Grenoble is close to the French Alps and you can get there by Eurostar and French rail.

Where do you fancy visiting or doing! There are plenty of b and b and hostels if you are on a budget https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-gb/?utmcampaign=124-93100-14-05077(n:gsn)(m:uk)(l:en)(t:cbr)(i:hq)UKKendigiiCPlaaCPCGoogle-Searchhpaid-search&utmsource=(n:gsn)(m:uk)(l:en)(t:cbr)(i:hq))UKennRSAGoogle-Searchh(n:gsn)(m:uk)(l:en)(t:cbr)(i:hq)(s:brand)x&utmmmedium=paid-search&utmcreativeeformat=RSA&utmmarketinggtactic=aud&utmid=(n:gsn)(m:uk)(l:en)(t:cbr)(i:hq)(s:brand)&gaddsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD89i1BptemdnNhKJW-Djpl28rni&gclid=CjwKCAjwl4yyBhAgEiwADSEjeMUDPH7OMRa8skAesuJQcLANv8JCja6OMQfxnncyPpFDH8cfvFn2whoCB6UQAvDD_BwE

I think you can fly direct to Innsbruck from Bristol, is that right? Then it's an easy train south to the Dolomites in northern Italy which are gorgeous and everything is much, much cheaper than Switzerland. Or equally you could stay in Austria, lots of gorgeous scenery in the Tirol region, or southern Germany.

Thanks @ChocolateJigsaw i think that might be a good shout. Didn’t realise quite how expensive Switzerland would be. I just want to see some mountains/feel like I’m not in the U.K. I think. I don’t want to go and lie on a beach for a week. Going in the sea is nice, but not lying on the beach for me.

Any other suggestions welcomed!

We go to Switzerland every year in the summer. It's so beautiful. Photos don't do it justice!
We tend to self cater as eating out is so expensive. You can have bbqs in the mountains. There are some amazing walks in the mountains.
You may not need a car. Public transport is excellent (super app) and part of our holiday is looking at the scenery whilst traveling!
I'd suggest middle Switzerland, it is very pretty with mountains and lakes (lucerne, interlaken, gstaad, murren, grindlewald?).
We are going back to lucerne this summer. Can't wait.

This might be a slightly left field suggestion, but you could fly into Krakow and drive down into the Tatra mountains, staying in places like Zakopane and over the border to Slovakia, places like Tatranská Javorina or Vysoke Tatry. It looks gorgeous and very good value accommodation.

You could also fly into Milan and then get a train or hire car and stay in the lake Como area. From there you could do some day trips by train or car into Switzerland if you wanted to.