Our trip was excellent. Air from MIA thru BOS to AMS on Delta. Comfort Select seats. 2 days @ Hilton Amsterdan with visits to Anne Frank Museum, Rijks Museum, and a canal cruise. A dinner at the Amstel Hotel for our traveling companions 35th anniversary. Capped off by a concert given by the Concertgebow Orchestra. This was a 2 day extension of our 8 day Rhine River cruise on Uniworld. Stops in Cologne, Koblenz, Boppard, Rudescheim, Germerscheim, Kehl, Breisach, ending near Basel, Switzerland. Cathedrals, museums, villages, etc. Just beautiful. We ended short of Basel due to high water conditions. They bussed us to the BSL airport and we caught a shuttle to the hotel.
The Basel Airport Hotel was great. Excellent shuttle service to & from the airport. Fantastic bar and excellent front desk staff. Restaurant was OK. Not great but acceptable. Our room came with a BaselCard which entitled us to discount attractions and free local busses/trams. We did not take advantage of the transport feature as we wanted to move quicker and used UBER. We visited the Basel Zoo!! Reminded us of Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. As Tom suggested, we should have planned more days in Basel but it was just not possible at this time. Now we have an excuse to go back for the summer Basel Tattoo in 2025!
Our return was on Lufthansa. BSL thru FRA to MIA. Business class seats!! The FRA airport is large and was quite confusing since we were given inaccurate info by the airport guide. They sent us to the wrong gate level for our international flight. Had to go back to square one and start over. Thru passport control who checked us at 4 locations!! Finally got to the correct gate just as the door was closing.
MIA Immigration took all of 10 minutes followed by 40 minutes of waiting for luugage. We breezed through customs as we had nothing to declare. Our Park, Sleep, Fly hotel was EB Hotel. We waited for about 10 minutes for the shuttle followed by a 10 minute ride to the hotel and our car. This was our 2nd stay there and although it is $$$, I think the expense was worth it. Room, Bar bill, dinner, breakfast, and 13 days of parking on the 2nd floor of their parking facility.
