1st River Cruise--HELP PLEASE!!!

My wife & I are taking the Viking Sun from Amsterdam to Basel(April 21 to 28, 2013).

I also booked the 2 night extension in Lucerne at the end of the sailing. The cost of this extension is $599 PP. It will also cost $120 PP for transfers from Lucerne to the airport in Zurich! They are charging for the airport transfer since I will be getting my own AIR with FF miles we have accumulated over the years. This 40th anniversary trip will be our 1st & probably last to this region so I want to make it all that it can be within our limited budget!

We would really LOVE to see the Alps but it just seems that $1500 is a lot of money for what would essentially be just one full day in Lucerne.

We have very little experience with travel internationally so the EASY factor is somewhat important to us!

Any suggestions as to the cost & difficulty of trying to do the following without Viking's help?

---Transportation from Basel to Lucerne

---Getting to hotel after arriving in Lucerne

---3 or 4 night hotel(suggestions?) stay

---Transportation to Zurich airport

Thanx to ALL

Switzerland has excellent trainconnections, check this website:

http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

You will find various direct trains between Basel SBB and Luzern.

The same again from Luzern to Zurich Flughafen (airport).

April 2013 is still not on that website, but by checking it you will get a good idea about connections.

For hotels you can check tripadvisor, a board where locals also give much information.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g188064-Lucerne-Vacations.html

This apart from the website of the tourist office:

http://www.luzern.com/en/index.cfm

I am sure you will find plenty of option lower then the prices you mentioned.

If you are adventurous enough you should be able to plan your own excursion for much less. In fact you may be able to stay for 3 or more days. It's just a matter of doing some research for accomodations and transportation.

The Alps are awesome and one of the reasons we love to go back to Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland.

Use the tripadvisor website and also the Fodors website. You should be able to get plenty of information to help plan your adventure. Just lay out the questions and you'll get plenty of help.

So just a side-question, if you wanted to spend a couple of days just driving around "seeing" the alps in Switzerland, where should you go? I was there years ago, but have forgotten most of what I knew. I remember Lucerne as being very beautiful, and Interlaken. I've heard Basel is a very nice city to visit as well, although not alpine.

The train from Basel to Lucerne takes one hour. It is a very easy journey. While in Lucerne, you should plan on going up to Mt. Pilatus. Swiss Rail can arrange the whole thing for you at a lower cost. We went from Basel to Lucerne by train, walked across the street to the boat, went up on the cog rail train and returned by gondola. What an adventure. The travel office at the Basel station planned the whole trip for us. Basel is a small city and a great place to spend a day. Good Luck!