We really enjoyed our train ride aboard the TGV Lyria. We took the route from Zurich to Paris, and…read morehad a very quiet and comfortable ride. The whole trip took about 5 hours (with a few stops here and there to pick up/drop off more passengers). The train leaves the station at a rather slow pace, but once you get into the open road, it really picks up speed. There is a monitor in the train car that tells you how fast you are going. I think the fastest we got up to was 316 km per hour (almost 200 mph!) On board, there is a café car with sandwiches, beer, soda, coffee, and some other snacks and drinks. There is also a rack above the seats for smaller carry- on bags and items, and a large rack area in the middle/front door-areas of each car where you can put your larger luggage. I think we may have had a newer model train, because the seats and the interior were both very clean and colorful/modern. The seats (at least the two that we were at) had power sockets, cup holders, reading lights, tray tables that fold down, and one ingenious part of the seat design - the seats have a small notch on the back of them to restrict how far back you can lean into the person behind you! It still offers quite a bit of pitch, but does put a limit on how much you can disturb the tray table of the passengers behind your seat. I thought that was great! On our trip back to Zurich from Paris, we had a group of school students join us in our quiet car (about 40 young students coming back from a summer trip with all of their band instruments) so it was a little less relaxing, but that is nobody's fault. Just bring headphones and take a nap or enjoy the view as it passes by!

The "Train à Grand Vitesse" was a revolution in train travel for Europe when it was introduced…read morenearly fifty years ago. Lyria TGV is the French-Swiss train line. It became even better, when SNCF's double-decker Lyria TGV was rolled out and the prices made it even more affordable for rail travel. For us retirees and for about $150*, we could go First Class from Switzerland to Paris in three and a half hours. Nice. I have attached the TGV service map to give you some idea of where to can travel throughout France and Europe. The German system ICE (Inter-City Express) also travels into and out of France and has a similar network. See service maps attached. Most European train stations are located in the center of the city. So no schlepping from a large airport several miles away to the city center. Btw, almost all European airports have a train into that very same central station. So you'll be traveling by rail no matter how you get there. LOL Oh yes, there are always several food options and Magazine/Newspaper stands, which also have carry-on food items available for your trip. It's absolutely a better, more relax way to travel. * Booked online several months ahead and prevailing currency conversion.

This small airport was located about 15 minutes from the port where we disembarked from our cruise…read more We paid for transfers to the airport (don't normally do this), but I was glad of it because not only did they transport us to the airport, but they walked us through the terminal, in the elevators, and over to the check-in / ticketing area. This was very convenient and we didn't have to think about anything. I mean, we could have figured it out, eventually, but this only took a few minutes. Security was pretty breezy. We spent a lot of time in the duty free shop before going to the gate. There were a few dining options, didn't love what we purchased, but we found plenty of seating to wait for our flight.

Along country borders, this smaller airport services France, Switzerland, and Germany. With clear…read moresignage, it's easier to navigate. There are places to eat inside and even game areas for kids. There's short term and long term parking nearby. It's easier to fix now, but know which exit to depart from- the Swiss or French side.

We recently took the Viking Rhein River Cruise from Amsterdam to Basel…read more We arrived several days early and were able to visit some of the wonderful museums in AMS, including the Van Gogh and RijksMuseum, which we would highly recommend. Having these few extra days also allowed us to get orientate to the city and reset our internal time clocks. We found the Viking River Cruise to be wonderful. We went with another couple and signed up for almost all of their excursions. We found all the prices to be reasonable and the sights to be very interesting. We started our day eating a light breakfast on board and then grabbing lunch locally, before heading back to our boat, the Viking Gersemi for dinner. Here is a brief Itinerary... Day 1 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands Day 2 - Kinderdijk, The Netherlands Day 3 - Cologne, Germany Day 4 - Koblenz & Rüdesheim, Germany Day 5 - Speyer, Germany Day 6 - Strasbourg, France Day 7 - Breisach, Germany Day 8 - Basel, Switzerland Viking describes it as: "Explore one of Europe's best-loved rivers, the Rhine. Discover the turreted fortresses, grand cathedrals, historic cities, medieval towns and spectacular scenery of the Middle Rhine--a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Taste the region's renowned white wines, the roots of its terraced vineyards reaching back to Roman times. Savor the various culinary traditions of Alsace." I cannot say enough nice things about the folks who worked for Viking on this cruise. From our Gersemi Hotel Manager Nebo, to all the staff and servers and Andrew our Cruise Director, everyone was spectacular and we never heard the word: no, or the phrase: we cannot do that. They were all exceptional. BTW, there are both pre and post cruise extensions, which means more days to discover your embarkation or disembarkation city, or grab a TGV train to Paris, as we did. Five Stars of fun.

We departed Phoenix,AZ on July 12, 2022, bound for a Viking Grand European River Cruise boarding in…read moreBudapest, Hungry on the Viking Aegir. We are very experienced cruisers with 9 Viking cruises for myself and 12 for my spouse. Upon arrival we were greeted by Viking representative at the Budapest airport and boarded a bus telling us they had called the ship, and someone would be there to greet us. Arriving at the dock the bus driver opened the luggage door and not speaking English motioned for us to take our baggage. 2 Ships were tethered together and not knowing which one was ours and about 20-30 steep stairs and a gangway we had to manhandle the bags down the stairs, not one Viking rep was to be seen. After finding our ship the Customer Service desk said they didn't know we were coming and made no effort to find anyone saying it was time for dinner. We soon found this lack of empathy was to be repeated over the next 2 weeks on 2 different ships and crews. Our luggage was lost by the airlines, as was 10% of the ship's passengers, it didn't seem much effort was being put into help to locate it. If effort was being made, they did not convey any information to the passengers. Due to low water levels, we were told we may need to change ships halfway through the trip in Nuremberg. We thought maybe this would be good as the staff seemed so inexperienced, dinner would take 2-3 hours because of lack of staff and experience (how wrong we were). Sure enough we did change ship to the Viking Embla after 2 days in a hotel with mediocre food. From the first day there was confusion when tour buses didn't arrive or arrived late. Our tours consisted of abbreviated trips because we were always late and due to lack of personnel, we often drove around the countryside oblivious to what we were seeing. I felt we had booked a bus tour rather than a river cruise, because so much time was spent driving around. Daily schedules were never correct with many event cancellations, confusion was the rule of the day. Once we were on the second ship the air conditioning did not work in the public spaces and the crew would never offer any explanation and dinner for 3 days was excruciating. We never saw any of the officers except the Captain for about 45 seconds when he told us we can freeze now as the air was fixed (he wasn't a people person). The staff was in the same condition as the first ship in that they were shorthanded, inexperienced, and overwhelmed. Several of the staff have to be commended especially the cruise director who devoted himself 150% with absolutely no help from the ship staff or it seemed Viking Headquarters, who seemed to parcel out needed information only after desperation set in. He was a one man show and desperately needed an assistant.

This hotel "The Essental by Dorint" is a nice place in Basel. It's rated "four stars". The rooms…read morewere a decent size. I can't comment on the price, my wife booked it, but I think it was a relatively reasonable price done by hotels.com In the garage downstairs, there was EV charging available (we were driving an EV rental car) which we had to pay for the electricity but it was convienient to have. In that area of Basel there was a bunch of restaurants in walking distance. With our rental car it was easy to access to highway to different places like Zurich, also it was a short drive across the bridge to Old Town Basel. Our reservation came with complementary breakfast from the restaurant downstairs which was pretty satisfactory. My only real constructive feedback is four star hotels I'd assume it'd be standard to have a refrigerator in the room, there wasn't, but that wasn't a big deal. It was a good trip.

The Dorint Hotel is a very nice place to make a temporary home. Hotels in Europe are so different…read morefrom the US so they should almost never be compared directly. I liked this better than all of the others I have stayed in by far. Here are the highlights: Bedroom, this accounts for about 80% of the room space. I asked for a king bed and got it, although it was not one king mattress but to smaller mattresses together. This created a significant ridge down the middle of the bed that reduced the useable bead down to a little more than a twin size. Something else I've seen from time to time is the 1/2 size comforter. The comforter is just big enough to cover a twin size bed, so on a king bed there are two of them side by side. It's not a horrible issue, but if you don't stay perfectly aligned with the bed and comforter, so body part is bound to find the cold night air. Desk Area: About two feet deep along the window side of the room. This is a decent work space with convenient power outlets that work with both of my US power adaptors. Enough room for Laptop, mouse and note book and more. There is a hardwire network connection that's available for an additional charge, but the WiFi was free. Bathroom: This is small. Not the smallest I've ever seen. That honor belongs to a particular hotel in Lyon France. The worst part about this small bathroom is the lack of counter space. Modern day travel required you to carry two toiletry bags, one for liquids and the other for solids. This was a struggle to find the space to keep these bags and still maneuver around the counter skillfully. It seemed whenever wanted to put something down, I had to move something else. The shower is a death sentence for the claustrophobic. I don't thinks its more 2x3 feet. Large frame guys like myself will find your self touching the walls very often. Restaurant: I only had the breakfast buffet which was quite standard for Europe. They have an "American" buffet as well as a more European style. Juices, coffee, tea are all available as well as fresh fruit and yogurt. Again not the best in Europe but no where near the worst, this belongs to a different hotel also in Lyon France. As I said, pretty standard for Europe. Price: Basel is not cheap. Expect to spend $220 a night excluding anything other than breakfast. This price not bad for Basel but depending on what you are used to, could be quite shocking after 5 days. The extras are extra, extra here. One night I ran out of water in my room. Not wanting to leave the hotel I went to the hotel bar to get replenished. What I got was a 24 ounce bottle of water for about $7. That's about 4 bottles at vending machine price here in the US. I think that was the only time I was truly shocked by the price of something. Location: While close to the #14 tram and #30 bus there are no sights to see in the immediate area. I hear the other side of the Rhine is more scenic, that translates to more expensive as well. For me, I'll save the extra dollars and take the Tram.

One might want to mute the sound on the computer before opening the hotel link, or be faced with…read moresome hideous musak. That aside it is truly a non-cheesy experience staying at the Hotel D. HD calls itself a 'design hotel', and that would seem to be accurate. The lounge adjacent to check-in is all clean lines and tasteful yet cheerful colors. I enjoyed an espresso while leafing through a copy of Gala after a long afternoon of hoofing around town. (Did you know that Seal has moved on from Heidi and that Prince Albert of Monaco is being upstaged in the 'class' department by his nephew? It's all there in Gala!) I absolutely loved the standard-sized room we stayed in facing the back of the hotel (read: no street noise). The room was 'klein aber fein'. The bed was firm, the shower was like a water fall pouring from the ceiling, and all was tastefully decorated. The hubs felt like he was wasting water using the shower, and took the shortest showers possible out of guilt. The TV had, as one could imagine, German, Swiss, French, and Italian channels. The BBC was also available, and I think we were able to catch a re-run of Graham Norton. The gym, tidy yet small, has one stationary bike, one stair machine, and one treadmill. I went early enough in the morning to do a little sweating, so I didn't not have any competition for the machine I wanted to use. We skipped breakfast (not included), and braved the streets for our fare. I'll share a pretty rockin' brunch spot we found out toward the German border in a soon-to-be-written post. On both check-in and check-out we dealt with the same young woman who was friendly yet professional. I forgot to mention that Hotel D is located approx. one street over from the Rhein, and, on a sunny day, that's right where one wants to be!

This is one of the nicest small hotel in Basel. Yes, if you want to have a grand hotel with grand…read moreentrance and grand pool etc to impress your in-laws, this hotel is not for you. But, for business traveller or family, this hotel is very nice. Service is great. They always smile. The room is not big but elegant and modern. The shower .... ahhh the best.

Serving the number 8 tram line as well as some bus lines, Kleinhüningen is located along the Wiese…read moreRiver near where it meets the Rhine quite close to the German border. The nearby structures are mostly tall apartment buildings though there is access to the port from here. I walked from Kleinhüningen to the Dreiländereck Skulptur. This is a street-level stop for the 8 tram line that runs about every 5-7 minutes during peak time. It is between Kleinhüningeranlage (towards Weil am Rhein) and Wiesenplatz (towards Neuweilerstrasse). The shelter is a bit more significant than others. It does have the usual ticket vending machine that accepts coins, notes and cards. It's the first time I've ridden a tram line that goes across a national border. [Review 21211 overall - 61 in Switzerland - 175 of 2024.]

We loved Basel and had a great stay! Central location and walkable to many sites and cafes…read more Sprüngli (chocolate shop) was a 2 min walk from the front door. Celine was incredibly helpful with getting us acquainted with the area, providing local recommendations, arranging transportation and even offered the hotel wicklefisch to float down the Rhine (highly recommend, especially if it's warm out - it was perfect weather when we went). We also really appreciated Daniel and Ivan for giving us good recommendations, being very attentive, and kind. Did not know what to expect, as we had never been before, but Basel was one of our favorite visits. Would definitely come back again for the great service, cleanliness and convenient location.

I've never been to a hotel where I was left feeling so abused before. I'm not sure if this is just…read moreSwiss hospitality or if the attendants at the hotel are particularly rude but it wasn't a terribly nice hotel stay. The ladies at the bar were lovely.

I did not stay in the hotel but I did visit. They are a part of the "Bounce" program and open on a…read moreSunday so I was able to leave my suitcase here for the day while I went off to explore Mulhouse. The lady at the check-in desk was polite, spoke perfect English and took care of business promptly. I had no issues. The location of the hotel is excellent, located in the core of the city's shopping areas. It is a very short walk from a tram stop or maybe 10 minutes from the Gare de Mulhouse. And from what I can see, the hotel is in great condition. I'd certainly consider staying here the next time I am in Alsace. [Review 21194 overall - 112 in France - 158 of 2024.]