switzerland

With a European winter now in full swing, the newspapers are full of European alpine ideas. Firstly, we have the New York Times with an article on night skiing in St Moritz - if you can afford to stay there, that is. Fortunately, it's not the only resort they list.

Still on Switzerland, the Independent goes ballooning in Château d'Oex, but at €227 for an hour's flight, it makes the aforementioned accomodation in St Moritz look like a night in a run-down motel.

The Independent also has a look at skiing in some of the lesser known areas of Austria's Tyrol region; and while you're there, why not have a weekend in Innsbruck?

As of December 9th, it's now much easier to cross Switzerland from north to south, with the opening of a new high speed rail link, in a tunnel through the Alps. Known as the Lötschberg tunnel, it runs from Frutigen to Raron, and will shave off around 30 minutes on trips from Bern to Brig.

International travel will also improve, with six daily trips from Bern/Basel to Milan starting in 2008.

With last week's opening of the new Paris to Basel high-speed TGV railway line, Switzerland is more accessible than ever. Four trains a day run to Basel, taking 3.5 hours; one continues Zurich (Paris, 8.28am, taking 4.5 hours).

Next Sunday (June 10th, 2007) marks the opening of the new eastern TGV high speed railway line, that will provide fast rail connections from Paris and Strasbourg to Basel, Zurich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. As The Guardian explains, this is likely to open up much of southern Germany and eastern Switzerland to rail tourism.

The services to Germany will be operated by a new company named Alleo, as reported by Marcel Marchon of trainblog.com, whilst services to Switzerland will be run by TGV Lyria.

In The Know Traveller reports that prices from Paris to Basel, one way, will be a hefty US$128.

Meanwhile, The Independent provides the Complete Guide to Switzerland in style.