Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations. We'd like to travel by train from the UK next summer for a couple of weeks at one of the "middle European" lakes.
Obviously we'll have to account for train tickets being higher in some countries but assuming all were equal, where would you head for? I think my parents stayed in Menaggio a few years back and enjoyed it. A few years ago, we flew to Geneva but you could take the train where we stayed for a few nights did a day trip to Annecy by bus before taking the train to Lausanne for a few nights.
While staying in Lausanne, we took a bus to Montreux for the day which was really lovely. Beautiful scenery, brilliant outdoor sports facilities, amazing swim and spa facility built around the thermal springs, bike rides round the lake. If those are thing things you look for in a holiday, I'd reccomnended Lake Constance, which borders Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Log in to update your newsletter preferences. For any train trip planning I would recommend seat Currently traveling around Europe with the family using trains and found this a useful planning tool.
You have direct trains from Paris to Zurich, Geneva, and Annecy from which you can change to anywhere else. Plenty more if you're happy to change. Switzerland is wonderful but expensive. We're going to Lake Maggiore this year because I like Italian food in the summer. German food is fine, but to me it's winter food. France is much cheaper. Como is nice, but there's not much public transport apart from the ferries and the city itself is pretty touristic.
Switzerland is much easier for reaching hiking routes by bus. France has great food, obviously. Aix-le-Bain is on a lake and also has thermal springs. We were in Annecy last week and it was fabulous but very hot between 33 and 37 every day and staying very hot into the evenings.
