This is a guest post by Alexander from ACleggAbroad.com. Submit yours here.
This post wont be about what to see and what to do, rather, it’ll be about what I, myself, did! My trip may not be the most conventional, or the cheapest, or the easiest to accomplish, but I definitely maximized the time I did have.
Have you ever flown nine hours and back, only to visit said location for a single weekend? Well I have… Granted, that weekend was a holiday weekend so it actually was over a four day span rather than a two day span. None-the-less! That’s a lot of traveling to cram into in four days.
A few years back, my dad gifted me with a trip to Geneva, Switzerland, where we travelled around Lake Geneva for four days before I had to fly home to make it to school. The holiday began on a Thursday, allowing us to leave Wednesday night, and I flew back Sunday morning. It’d be good to note that the trip occurred in January.
But, although the trip was supposed to be centered around Geneva, we spent most of our time on the road, travelling by train that ran along the shoreline of Lake Geneva. Our first stop? Montreux. A short, hour long train ride from Geneva.
“We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline” anybody? Smoke on the Water? Deep Purple? No? Okay then well definitely go listen to it because it’s a classic. Here we were, on the shoreline of Lake Geneva in Montreux, Switzerland! I mean, look at that.
Sorry for the heavy editing.. I couldn’t find the original image. Either way, Montreux was beautiful, but unfortunately, as I was short on time, we were forced to move on after a single nights stay at The Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic.
During the time of the trip, I had a buddy, Michael, who attended the Leysin American School located on a mountain side in Leysin, Switzerland, which was only a short train ride away. He offered for us to come visit and he’d show us around, and obviously, I was ecstatic! We hopped on a train to head east to Aigle, situated below Leysin, where we then transferred to this ridiculous cog wheel train that took us up to his school.
The exact conversation slipped my mind, but somehow I mentioned to him how awesome it would be to go skiing. I didn’t have any equipment mind you; no ski pants, no ski’s, no goggles, etc. But, Michael was determined to make it work. The jacket I was wearing happened to be water proof, Michael had an extra pair of ski pants, and I had my personal bank with me (that being my Dad). I told you this trip wasn’t a cheap one.. Next thing I knew, after renting ski’s, a helmet, and bought goggles and gloves, I found myself slope-side in Switzerland!
The snow on the mountain was so deep, you could go over a slope-side restaurant and not even realize it. I’d say Leysin and Jackson Hole are tied for my number one ski experience ever.
When It was time for us to return to Geneva for our outbound flight, we hopped on the train and were swiftly back in city.
Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to go back to Switzerland, this time visiting Lucerne and Jungfrau. These experiences have easily boosted Switzerland into the number two spot in my Top 5: Countries Visited.
Even if you only have 78 hours to explore the grand country of Switzerland, there are numerous ways to maximize your time, this being one of them. So, in closing, never shoot down a trip because you think you don’t have enough time, it’s obviously possible to have a great time.
Alexander is a 20 year old from Washington D.C., who is currently attending university in Virginia, USA, where he studies Environmental Science and Economics. As for post graduation, he plans to take a gap year before attending graduate school. During this time he hopes to teach English in a country with need. Be sure to check out his blog at acleggabroad.wordpress.com and follow his adventures!
“I’d like to thank Maria from Travelling Buzz for having me as a guest writer. As I am still trying to broaden my network and expand my viewers, and allowing me to write for her, Maria has helped me reach a new crowd and essentially grow my blog.”
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