When you arrive in Switzerland, you are met at the airport and transferred to your hotel in Basel.

In the late afternoon, you'll be escorted on a walk in the vicinity around your hotel, followed by time to relax and explore a bit.

Relax early this evening after your flight, and join your Program Director for a Welcome Drink and a briefing on what to expect during your time in Basel. Then enjoy dinner on your own. Your Program Director will have suggestions for dining among the many fine restaurants in the city.

Explore Basel on your own today. Stroll across a bridge or ride a ferry across the Rhine, and explore the city’s two sides: historic Grossbasel, where many cultural attractions are clustered, and more modern Kleinbasel.

Join our optional tour to Bern, Switzerland’s capital. We’ll travel about an hour and a quarter by bus, then take a guided walking tour, beginning at the city’s bear pit. The bear is the symbol of Bern, and the live animals housed here are well-treated as some of the city’s most valued residents. Stroll through the historic center of this city on the Aare River, which was founded in 1191 by Duke Berchtold of Zahringen. The tour brings you to Bern’s 16th-century clock tower, after which you’ll have free time to get lunch on your own. Then continue on to Emmental to see how Swiss cheese is made before returning to Basel.

Your evening is free and you can seek out another of Basel’s many excellent restaurants for dinner on your own.

Brussels is known for two specialties—the production of delicious chocolate and the creation of beautiful and delicate lace. Set off this morning on an excursion to delve into these Belgian delights and to discover Brussels on an included city tour.

First, you'll visit the family-run Chocolaterie Duval to see fine Belgian chocolate being created. Chocolate arrived here in the 1870s, following Belgium's colonization of the Congo and its cocoa plantations. Traditional Belgian chocolates are filled with creams, liqueurs, nuts, or a special dark chocolate called ganache. Today the finest chocolates, characterized by a smooth, velvet quality and a rich flavor, are produced in Brussels. At the factory, you'll see a chocolate-making demonstration and learn about the painstaking process from cocoa bean to delicious chocolate confection.

Then set off on a tour of this lovely old city. See the buildings of the European Union and the Atomium, an enormous steel construction representing an iron atom with nine spheres connected by corridors. Pass by the impressive Cinquantenaire Arch, the Chinese Pavilion and Japanese Pagoda, and the Royal Park. Everywhere, you'll see the beautiful architecture of the city and the Art Nouveau style represented by the famous architect, Victor Horta. Your tour ends in Brussels's Grand Place, the famed market square and heart of medieval Brussels. The square is dominated by the magnificent 15th-century Town Hall, with its hundreds of little statues, and ringed with 17th-century buildings and guild houses with their golden inlays.

The next stop offers another classic Belgian discovery—lace—as you visit a local lace shop. Lace making has a long history but came into its own in the 15th century. Lace was intended to replace embroidery. Unlike embroidered clothing, lace pieces could be changed as fashion changed and attached decoratively to different articles of clothing. Belgium soon gained a peerless reputation for fine lacework. In the 17th century, Brussels lace was prized throughout Europe. As you'll find on today's included tour, lace making endures as a "cottage industry," employing about 1,000 workers, most between the ages of 50 and 90, and there are numerous family-run businesses throughout the city. You'll visit a lace store that showcases beautiful antique lacework as well as intricate tapestries.

You can remain here for lunch on your own, or return to the hotel with the motorcoach.

This afternoon, consider joining our optional excursion to the picturesque city of Lier, only 45 minutes from Brussels. Explore off the beaten tourist trails as we walk through this old city, inhabited as early as Roman times. On our guided walking tour, we'll see the city's Market Square where the 18th-century rococo town hall stands. You'll also visit Zimmer Tower. Built in the 14th century as part of the city wall, the tower now houses an elegant and complex clock, installed by a local clockmaker in 1930. Its 13 faces offer the lunar calendar, the solar calendar, the days of the week, and more. We'll enjoy a short respite with cake and coffee. Lier has its own delicacy, Lierse vlaaikes. These tiny, tasty cakes are so valued that bakers must agree to keep the recipe to themselves. You will have time on your own, so consider strolling through the cobbled lanes of the beguinage, a small, protected neighborhood created by women widowed during the Crusades. Before returning to Brussels, we'll savor dinner at a local restaurant. The cost of this optional tour includes dinner.

Or, the balance of the day is free to explore on your own. You may want to visit the Royal Museum of Ancient and Modern Art, which houses a special section on the well-known Belgian surrealist, Magritte. Or perhaps you'll visit the Bruparck, an amusement park featuring (among other things) "Mini-Europe," a permanent outdoor exhibit of small-scale, precision-made replicas of Europe's most famous architectural achievements.

You are on your own for dinner this evening.