Hello Everyone,

This is my first post! I am moving to Lausanne from the United States next week and I am wondering what is the least expense and most efficient way to get 4 people and 8 suitcases to our apartment in Lausanne? The train doesn't seem like the best option due to the amount of baggage that we have and I don't know how expense a taxi would be or if they have Taxi Vans?

Any advice would be appreciated!


thanks!

The best way is to hire a large van or car at Geneva airport and drop it when you are done.

or

You could take the train to Lausanne and then take two taxis to
your new hotel/apartment.

I've never used any of them but this group has a list of taxi/mini bus service. They seem to cater to tourist going to ski resorts. But I'm sure they can take you to Lausanne. And since you are 4 people, it could turn out cheaper than (or around the same as) 4 train tix.

http://geneva.angloinfo.com/af/312/g...d-minibus.html

Take the train, it will be much much easier than you think.

Specifically if you are worried about space for the luggage you should take an Intercity train which leaves the airport at 36 minutes after the hour every hour. The last car on the train has a very large space for luggage and bicycles.

When you get to Lausanne you'll be on track 1 which is at ground level. The cab stand is just in front of the station, and there are plenty of van cabs.

Note that the railway station is inside the airport, and that you can take the luggage cart down to the train platform. It behaves unexpectedly well on the escalator (I was rather worried the first time I went down with it ).

Will the OP find luggage carts on the platform as I seem to remember

And if so, are coins required to access them?

The luggage carts are free, and are found in the luggage claim area of arrivals.

The other reason that I'm recommending an IC train is that the floors are flush with the platform, so there is no lifting. If your luggage has wheels you can just drag it across the gap of 2in or so. The luggage room on the train is the downstairs part of the family car, which is the last car on the train in the Geneva->Lausanne direction, and thus furthest along the platform.

The IC arrives at Geneva Airport station at about 29-30 minutes after the hour, giving you six full minutes to drag your bags on and sit down. That's actually a lot of time.

If there are children in your group you should sit upstairs because there is a slide and either a dinosaur jungle-gym to play on or a moon rover.

You don't need to wait/register/check in or anything, you just get on. In short: this is not Amtrak.

When you get to Lausanne you have a shorter time, about 2 minutes to de-train, but there will be lots of warning, way more than you need. Admittedly the taxi stand is a little ways from the family car, but it is on the same level, so again there is no lifting involved: you just drag your bags off the train and walk around to the taxis, which are just outside, on the other side of the main entrance.

__________________
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Thanks for the advice everyone!!!

This will probably be the first of a multitude of questions that I will post.

Thanks again!

Happy New Year!

Well I must say that Newbies get quite a few Brownie Points when they introduce themselves in the Introduction Forum, but coming back to say thanks when folk have given them assistance comes a pretty good second.

Hope all the planning goes well.

I forgot to add that you can buy your tickets from rail.ch and print them out. The standard ticket is good for any train on the route and date that it's valid, so you don't have to worry about making a particular train.

If you're going to travel much it might make sense to get half-fare cards. A single trip to Zurich makes them worthwhile.

The luggage carts are not free at Geneva Airport and havent been for sometime. You will need either a 2 Swiss Franc coin or 1 Euro.

a 50p coin works too.

Bizzare. I hadn't realized that they had started doing this. Hopefully the OP is transferring in Europe somewhere and not in Newark. I don't think there's a US coin that matches.

Still, it's not very far to the trains, so long as their luggage has wheels.