Road trip through Switzerland and Austria with a detour into Liechtenstein!

Our trip itinerary

A road trip through Switzerland or Austria with your family, makes for a fantastic holiday. We’ve therefore put together this useful itinerary, to illustrate some great ideas on what to see and include.

This was the first time we’d attempted a trip, where we toured around since our youngest had been born. The girls were 4.5 yrs old and 18 months old on this holiday. We did our research and decided to follow this route;

Fly to Zurich, Switzerland

Grindelwald Grund, Switzerland – 3 nights

Trin (near Laax/Flins), Switzerland – 3 nights

To Innsbruck, Austria via Liechteinstein – 3 nights

Zurich, Switzerland – 2 nights

This route meant that the drives weren’t too long (3 hours maximum) and not too frequent. It also meant we still got to see a lot of Switzerland and Austria, with a little detour through Leichtenstein.

Arrival in Switzerland

We flew to Zurich from Heathrow Terminal 5 on British Airways. The flight was at 9.10am which is a great flight time for us as we live close by. This got us to Zurich for midday. We took car seats with us (see our post on travel essentials) which means there was no fuss when we collected our hire car and we were quickly on our way.

We drove the 2 hours to Grindelwald Grund which allowed our youngest time to nap and pulled into Airbnb late afternoon.

Grindelwald Grund

We stayed at the most beautiful Airbnb in Grindelwald Grund. This is the village just below Grindelwald itself. The airbnb was fairly nondescript from the outside but boy was it beautiful inside! It was decorated in a typical Swiss Chalet style and was a lovely mix of traditional and modern. There was a cot provided for our youngest and lots of toys for the girls. The views were pretty special too. We paid £765 for 3 nights, so it wasn’t cheap but we balanced it out by staying in cheaper accommodation elsewhere on the trip.

If you’re planning a road trip through Switzerland, then you must visit both Jungfraujoch and Piz Gloria. You can visit both easily from Grindelwald and you can read our Jungfraujoch post for more details on that day trip. Piz Gloria is on the top of Schilthorn where scenes from James Bond, His Majesty’s secret service were filmed. The views from here were arguably even more spectacular than Jungfraujoch, and that is saying something.

We visited the local swimming pool in Grindelwald on two evenings which our eldest loved and was a really reasonable price. The airbnb had a fondue kit so we made a chocolate fondue one evening – the girls absolutely loved it 🙂

Trin, near Flims

Trin makes for a great destination on any road trip through Switzerland. It lies to the east of the country, not far from the Austrian and Lichtenstein border. The journey from Grindelwald took us around 3 hours to cover the 155 miles and the scenery was beautiful.

We had a little difficulty finding our airbnb in the tiny village of Trin, but once we did we were greeted by another beautiful little apartment. Once again it was decorated in traditional Swiss style and the views were out of this world. A cot was provided for our youngest. We paid £774 for 3 nights.

What we did in Trin

During our time in Trin we visited the Children’s museum in Flims which was a big hit with the girls. It wasn’t cheap but we did spend most of the afternoon there.

We visited the local swimming pool in Flims twice and it was great, very quiet, warm and clean.

It was Mothers Day whilst we were there so we drove to Klosters with the hope of a nice day out. Unfortunately as it was a Sunday the town was exceptionally quiet, but we did find a nice restaurant for lunch and the girls really enjoyed playing in a very snowy park.

On our final day we took a picnic to eat down in the valley below our apartment. We misjudged the walk a little (it was much steeper than it looked!) but it was lovely to see the area from a different perspective. Throughout our holiday we didn’t see a drop of rain – it was wall to wall sunshine which must be lucky in this part of Europe in March!

Innsbruck

Driving between countries in Western Europe couldn’t be easier and if you’re thinking about a road trip through Switzerland, we’d recommend extending the trip into Austria and Lichtenstein too, as both have a lot to offer.

After a wonderful few days in Switzerland we headed further east to the Austrian Tyrol and the city of Innsbruck. It was a part of Austria we haven’t explored before, so were keen to see more of it.

The drive took about 3 hours in total and we went via the tiny principality of Liechtenstein – the 4th Smallest Country in the World. You can drive freely between the borders of these three nations without any passport control. We had initially read that there were restrictions and you had to specifically have EU number plates to leave Switzerland. On landing in Zurich, the car rental company advised this ruling had only recently been changed, so travel between these three nations is essentially border-less, bar a few signs.

Liechtenstein rally is TINY. We drove the 15 miles from south to north of the Country via the capital Vaduz where we stopped for lunch and an ice cream. It’s a fascinating, pristine little Country and I’m so pleased we took the time to explore a little.

Unfortunately when we arrived in Innsbruck we were greeted by an Airbnb apartment that was not as advertised, filthy and run down. Such a shame as the city itself was brilliant. I haven’t reported the apartment and somewhat regret it but have been in touch with Airbnb regarding it and they have reassured me that as the hosts aren’t writing reviews for their guests they will be investigated and hopefully reprimanded.

There is an element of trust with Airbnb and this shook my faith in them a bit. Fortunately the children were non the wiser and Innsbruck is such a great city we could be out and about for most of the time we were there.

What we did in Innsbruck

The first thing we did was a hop on hop off Sightseeing bus tour – which is a great way to see a city with children. It gave us a good idea of what we’d like to do during our time in there.

We decided to take the Nordkettenbahnen Cable Car up to Hafelekarspitze (2334m) which is broken up into 3 sections. You can stop at any juncture but we decided to keep going to the very top. The weather was a bit rubbish by the time we got up there so we took some quick pictures and then ducked back in for shelter. On a clear day though I expect it’s spectacular.

We visited Innsbruck Zoo which to be honest was a bit of a let down. The animals were all inside their houses (fair enough really) and it was very hilly, so almost impossible to negotiate with a double buggy. But we had a great lunch and a lovely ice cream which definitely made up for it.

On our last day we visited the Innsbruck Bergisel Ski Jump which was great. It has been home to two Olympic Games and numerous Ski Jumping events and is quite the sight. It’s extraordinary how people actually jump from that high! It gives great views of the city too. We got the bus and then walked up but it is one of the stops on the hop on hop off bus too.

A lot of what we did in Innsbruck was included in the Innsbruck Card, read more about it here. We found it incredibly good value for money and meant we did a lot more than would have been possible otherwise.

Zurich – the capital of Switzerland

Having explored Innsbruk for three days, the final leg of our road trip through Switzerland was a drive back to Zurich. The drive was about 3 hours and, fortunately, we were greeted by a great Airbnb, which made up somewhat for the failure in Innsbruck! As we were flying home at 7am we stayed right next to the Airport in Kloten, a suburb of Zurich. We paid £346 for two nights and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. It was really well equipped with a cot for our youngest, great facilities for washing and drying clothes and a little ‘pay as you go’ shop full of essentials in case you needed them.

The airbnb was a few minutes walk from the train station. The train to Zurich only 15 minutes long and they came frequently. When we arrived in Zurich we walked to the Fifa World Football Museum. We didn’t really know what to expect as it hadn’t been widely advertised (it only opened in 2016 so is fairly new) but we loved it. As a family of football fans, we found it fascinating and could easily have spent much longer there had we not had the girls with us!

Whilst in Kloten, we visited the local swimming pool, which was probably the best of the trip. The children pool was lovely and warm, clean and a great size.

The following morning we were up bright and early to fly home and we really appreciated the decision to stay close to the airport.

Final thoughts

When we started planning our road trip through Switzerland, I hadn’t appreciated how active this holiday would be and how much there would be to cram in. I feel that we had some really treasured experiences during this trip and days out that we’ll remember forever. It was a really special holiday to two (or three including Liechtenstein!) incredibly beautiful Countries.

For more on our travels, check out our youtube video on Innsbruck and don’t forget to subscribe!: