My wife and I are planning a Rhine River cruise next year starting at Basel, Switzerland. We want to spend about 5 days before the cruise in the western half of Switzerland. Any suggestions? We are tentatively using Lucerne as our base for day trips around that areas.Any suggestions or recommendations?

What are your interests? Lakes, mountains, hiking?

Great Trip

We used AMA Waterways and were very pleased!
We stayed in Basel for 2 /12 days before we got on the boat.
Nice town!
One of the days we took the train over to Colmar France and loved it.
Easy and Cheap - Make sure you board the train at the French Station. (check out blog)
It may be a stop on our boat

We were in a Christmas Market Trip and had a very nice time. Temperatures did not slow us down.
Here is a link to our blog: Christmas Market Cruise on the Rhine

Highly recommend the Hotel Merian on the Rhine... Easy walk to where the river cruises board.

One of our most memorable trips included Lauterbrunnen. The valley, waterfalls and the peaks are amazing, I can still hear the cow bells in the fields. Not sure if you would drive or train?, quick google shows just over an hour by car and over 2 by train. basically you would get to Interlaken, then up the valley to Lauterbrunnen. From there I'd continue up via mountain train to Grimmelwald, Murren and a gondola all the way to the Schilthorn Piz Gloria!

I second what Beerman said! We did a Rhine River cruise out of Basel two years ago, and spent three days before the trip in Wengen, just up the mountain from Lauterbrunnen. It was an amazing trip! We traveled the entire area by train, gondola, tram and funicular, including Murren, Piz Gloria, Mannlichen and the Jungfrau.

I third what Beerman said. Great trip all around.

Ellen

Thanks. Looks line we need to put Lauterbrunnen, then continuing up via mountain train to Grimmelwald, Murren and a gondola all the way to the Schilthorn Piz Gloria!. Would you consider this a day trip or would you recvommend spending the night near there.

Spend at least the night.

One side of the valley is Murren and Schilthorn. The other side is Jungfrau.

Both sides deserve a visit. And the valley is pretty too. Lots of waterfalls.

I think we stayed 3 or 4 nights in Murren. Just loved it.

Ellen