So we fly into Zurich on August 26th at 3pm. Miracle upon miracles my wife has allowed our first stop to be Burgundy.
Anyone ever take the train from Zurich to Dijon? Just curious about all the transfers.
a) Train from Zurich Airport to Dijon then rent car/train to Beaune.
Our issue is the only direct train from Zurich main hub to Dijon is 30 minutes after we land, so that’s not going to happen.
So our only choice right now is
Zurich AIrport to Basel SBB —> Mulhouse City —> Dijon. Which will take about 4 hours. We arrive in Dijon at 10pm. Probably just stay the night there. My fear is missing a connection and being stuck. From Basel is there a customs check point into france?
Also since we arrive so late I figure there aren’t any car rentals available. Better to stay the night in Dijon or take the last train to Beaune?
If you change your plans I want my 5 minutes back this time!
If you are landing in Zürich Wynot see a little of Switzerland I drove from Beaune to Zürich, staying Interlakenhoheweg on the way and going up the Jungfrau by train! Pretty awesome up there!
Zurich is a nice albeit pricey place. Rent the car at the French side of the Basel-Mulhouse airport and you will save a bundle.
Caduff’s wine loft in Zuric is great for food and even better for mature burgundy. No list , you root around in the cellar and he makes you a price.
Better to rent a car in Dijon… most producer visits are 20-30 min drive from Beaune so you’re going to need a car every single day… it’s a easy/nice drive through Cote de Nuit, or a relatively easy/fast drive on the highway…
Or as Barry suggested - drive from Zurich to Dijon altho cost of car rental might be much higher if you go inter-country. It’s only 3.5 hours total to drive to Beaune from Zurich… i’d do that instead of a train if you can find a reasonable car rental from sixt or something.
If you do stop at Interlaken, it’s 1.5hrs zurich to interlaken, then 3.5 hrs again from interlaken to beaune so it’s a bit of a detour. but it is beautiful, and Jungfrau is very cool train ride up (and great views up there if the day is clear).
Zurich to Dijon on Sixt is $600. So i’m going to pass on that.
We aren’t gonna stop anywhere, we are going from Zurich straight to Burgundy. We’ll be touring Switzerland at the end of the trip.
What I was thinking is what Barry said, rent @ Zurich Airport. Return @ Basel Mulhouse on the swiss side then rent at the french side of the basel mulhouse airport. Just seems like a bit of a hassle, but I’m a bit fearful of the 15 minute transfer period from Basel to Mulhouse train from the Zurich to Basel train.
So it seems I can book a car from Hertz on 8/26 @ Zurich international to Basel for $140 (ugh)
Then pick up a car on the france side through europcar on 8/26 return to Dijon Airport on 8/29 for $182
That seems cheaper and a little more convenient than doing the train and getting in at 10pm and having to stay the night in Dijon opposed to going directly to Beaune
So my options right now are
rent a car, Drive from Zurich —> Basel—> Beaune on the 26th. Get to Beaune around 9pm.
train from Zurich to Dijon. Stay the night in Dijon and pick up a rental car morning of the 27th.
Price difference in minimal… but I figure there are tolls I have to pay along the road in France. Just wondering how tired I would be driving from Zurich to Beaune after a long flight. (LAX → LHR–> Zurich). But I figure it’s a semi easy ride.
Anything worthwhile to do in Dijon? If so I might take the train route and spend the morning touring Dijon on the 27th
How are you getting back to Zurich? If taking the train you should return car to the Dijon train station instead of the airport.
Also, the last thing I would want to do after arriving on a long haul tatl flight would be to drive a few hours. Flying in J will help, but you will probably be pretty tired. I couldn’t even stay awake for the 40 min uber ride into Paris and that was off a tatl flight in BA F.
Another thought, which I’ve done: train from Zurich to Geneva (I was driving to Rhone from there, not Burgundy, but it’s not that far out of the way). The train is a nice ride, along the lake with lots of vineyards to see. You walk through the airport, across the border, and pick up the car on the French side. I did this because I was returning the car to Lyon, and taking the train up to Paris, then over to London.
As for driving after flying in, I’ve done that dozens of times, it’s not so bad - but it does require mental toughness
unfortunately that adds a decent amount of time and costs more than the other two routes. It’s the same distance from Geneva to Beaune as it is from Basel, except the trip to Geneva is a hour longer and the train ride is more expensive than just going from Zurich to Beaune
You’ve actually just made me realize, why don’t I just take the train from the airport directly into Basel SSB, take the 10 minute bus to the airport and walk to the french side and rent a car. Would save me about $150 (excluding tolls, which I have no clue how much that costs). hmm. Food for thought is all, still tempted to just train it the whole way there.
Nothing wrong with train-ing all the way to Dijon, depending on schedule and speed of the train. But it should be pretty easy to get the car in Basel. I’m pretty sure the airport is actually in France.
Yep. The train is pretty easy, it just doesn’t arrive in Dijon until 10pm. So we’d be staying the night in Dijon and spending the morning there the next day and then driving down to Beaune for hopefully afternoon appointments. Then the next day, drink wine and tour the vineyards.
With having the car the whole way, we’d just go straight to Beaune and skip Dijon all together other than heading to the train station for Paris. Dont know if there is anything in Dijon that is must see.
Getting into burgundy that late at night, via car or train at 9-10pm is pretty rough. Why not just spend that first night in Zurich and then train out early the next morning to Dijon, grab a car then head south to beaune stopping at a few places on the way.
Haven’t spent any time in Dijon except to drive in and out to pick someone up at the station, but the one nice about driving from there to Beaune (assuming you take the wine road and not the A31 expressway) is that you drive past all of the CdN villages and vineyards, and get an instant introduction to the land. That drive south in the morning would be a nice one.
There’s nothing to do in Dijon really… and you can get from Dijon to appointments in about 20 mins (especially the northern villages)…
u can probably start with a 10am appt…
Very good idea. I think we might do that, in case of plane delays as there’s a train every hour to Basel. Wake up at 7am, head over to get the car and head off to burgundy.
