Hello

I am dropping this note with some questions, and someone'll be gracious to acknowledge..

My wife and I, with our twin daughters (age 10 / 4th grade> will be moving to Switzerland later this moth from NJ <USA>.

I'll be working in Zurich / Wife in Basel..We both are professionals and 'll be traveling quite a bit..

For the sake of commute / proximity to ISZL we are seriously considering Luzern, especially Horw / Kastanienbaum.

We've been to Luzern twice in last 14 months, unfortunately didn't visit other proximity.

Major concerns are: Daily commute to KKL <how long does it take / is it by commuter train, or by Bus?>, location of COOP or MIGROS close by <how far?>

Would love to hear from another parent whose child/children being enrolled in ISZL..

Thank you for your kindness in advance/

Regards,
D

KKL? What is this?

Luzern is pretty far from Basel and Zürich.

You want to relocate there because of the International school??

Maybe Baden or Aarau would be just a bit better for you as
far as the commute goes.

Thanks for your quick reply Doc Holiday;-)

KKL Luzern is the main train station..

We 've been to Basel a few times.. Although a nice town, it's not as vibrant as Luzern is, and frankly speaking we were not *thrilled* with ISB : <Int' School, Basel> option..

Given a choice Zurich would be OK, but my wife relates it to big apple <NYC>, and not too inclined either..

Thx/

Can't help on most of your points, but we often stop at Horw for petrol and/or shopping on our way between Basel and Engelberg. Looks like a nice enough area, and has at least one large shopping centre (or Mall, I guess you'd call it in US-English) Pilatus Markt, with Co-op and other stores. Opening times in Kanton Luzern are quite poor, though, so it closes at 4pm on a Saturday, for example, which is, frankly, a PITA.

KKL is not the Luzern Railway Station itself but the Kultur- and Kongresszentrum Luzern, right beside it. (Great place for good music!)
Check out commute times with the SBB timetable - all the information in the Transport Forum Public Transport Sticky.

Something else to consider is that the Luzern Campus of the ISZL only goes up to 5th Grade. So the girls would only have 1 year there. The older children are in a campus in Zug.
Maybe better to look around Zug then?
Also if you are going to be commuting a lot to Zurich airport bear in mind the travel hassles, especially very early or late - the trains only run to a certain time at night, and sometimes don't depart early enough from Luzern to make an early morning flight.
Hope you are able to quickly find the right place to live! And if it doesn't end up being Luzern, you will be able to visit often when you have free time!

Hi all..

Thank you for some critical info..

I am well aware of ISZL campus serving only up to 5th grade..<Thus the change to Zug next year>.. Yet Zug is not a viable option for us at this time..<Eventually, yes..>

I was not aware that the market timings are limited;-(

Having been to Baden <visited ZIS in Sept.>, we were informed by the local Realtor that not many vacancies are around <for large size Condo / Single Family house>, and if needed out of town locations are off by 20 min / need car etc..

Honestly this is my first relocation <with family> at Int'l location.. Thus mentally I am prepared for some *surprises*.. Yet only *surprise* I don't desire is school.. As long as children are settled, everything else can be sorted out..

Having seen the internal road network <Luzern to Zurich / Basel to Zurich> I've no desire to commute by car <have heard first hand experience through my wife's colleague..>.. So only choice is by train..<Thus the question of commute from Luzern main station to Horw..>

At least having visited Switzerland 4 times in last 18 months have given some perspective.. Yet I also know that limited visiting v/s relocating are entirely different chapters..

Thank you/
D

Commute to Luzern SSB will depend on where you live in Horw, it's 8 minutes from Horw train station to Luzern, looking at SBB, Kasteinenbaum is 22 minutes by bus. It's a pretty short bike ride too, that's another option.

There are plenty of people here who commute to Zurich and Basel.

Hi D,
Another option school wise to consider is the Four Forest Bilingual International School in Luzern. That would give you the option of going into the Swiss system for secondary school.
Our kids go there and we are very happy with it. Really depends on how long you are considering living in Switzerland.
Can't help you with the commute questions - sorry.

Listen to Doc when he is talking:

You could live in Canton Zürich but not the
city of Zürich. For example, the towns of
Thalwil and Horgen are just a hop to Zürich
train station.

Luzern, IMHO, is not very international
compared to Zürich. It is a beautiful town
with lots of tourists, but the residents are
a bit different. I used to work in Luzern.

Zug is a great place to live, but it is a hike
to Basel. There are several on EF that commute
Zug to Basel or the opposite every day.
An added bonus are the low taxes in Canton Zug.

Coop - addresses. Just put in where you think you might be living into the text box on this link.
http://standorte.coop.ch/vstinfo/showMap.do?language=de

Alternatively go to the Swiss google google.ch and type in Coop. Then the map will come up with the nearest locations (did on my version, presume it will for you). Presume it will work for Migros too.


I love living in Luzern, I have also lived in Zurich and was also happy there. I wouldn't say that Zurich was anything like NYC from my visits to there, but I guess that is all personal opinion. You can always live just a little further out along the lake, this has another feel to it as well, maybe less like NYC for your wife.

My girlfriend commutes towards Basel from Luzern everyday and I agree the commute via car isn't the nicest. If you were in Horw, I guess the commute by public transport would be at least over an hour door to door to Zurich and Basel (more like 1.5 hours) which I wouldn't be interested in doing.

Like others I would be suggesting another place to live than Luzern from the information you have provided (such as Baden, Zurich or Basel which I know said you were against). Happy parents will help to have happy children (and if you are spending less time commuting that has got to help surely). But I can understand you wanting to base your move around your children, just not sure I could see it all working out.

Good luck with the move.

From a commute point of view Baden would be pretty good with 2 fast trains an hour (on top of commuter trains) in to Zürich an hour and one fast train an hour to Basel. The Zürich International School has a campus in Baden with an excellent reputation.

To be honest, I think you will regret commuting from Luzern to Basel and Zürich respectively.