Switzerland Wrap Up $97 Per Day

We spent 12 days in Switzerland. Here is a collection of our impressions, travel tips, and the cost break down.

Schedule

• Zurich 2 days
• • We thought that Zurich would be just an industrial, working town but it’s actually quite nice. It has a river running through it and the streets are really charming in a mountainy, Swiss sort of way.

• Rhine Falls 1 day
  
• This was just a day trip outside of Zurich and are the largest waterfalls in Europe. The falls truly are spectacular and you can take a mini boat ride to get closer to them. There are also some hikes in the area.

• Lucern  1 day
  
  • We spent 1 full day in Lucerne splitting up our time between the Golden Round Trip and a general tour through the old city.

• Interlaken 2 days
  
  • Interlaken is the place to go to do extreme activities ie. sky-diving, canyoning, hiking. The nature is gorgeous.

• Lauterbrunnen 1 days
  
  • As a day trip from Interlaken we went to Lauterbrunnen and rented bikes to see the nearby waterfalls and then took a chairlift up to Murren – a village up in the mountains. Highly recommend checking out this area. Very beautiful.

• Berne 1 day 
  • Berne is the capital of Switzerland and has a very nice old town. We spent the day exploring the various narrow streets and alleyways and stopped by the famous (infamous?) bear pits to take a look at the bears living by the river.

• Lausanne 1 day
• On our way to Geneva we stopped in Lausanne for a few hours to explore the town. A nice side stop on our route.

• Geneva 3 days 
  • Geneva was actually pretty disappointing and if there was one place worth skipping I’d say it’s this. It’s OK but it lacks, in my opinion, both the Swiss flare and the French charm. It’s also the most expensive city we went to.

Our Route

Our Impressions

The best part of Switzerland has got to be the nature. The train rides are less of a boring chore to get from A to B as much as they are an opportunity to marvel at the beautiful mountains and lakes that cover the Swiss landscape. It’s pretty much unlike anything we’ve seen to date, with probably the biggest rival being Austria. There’s also a ton of outdoor activities to do, particularly in Interlaken where it seems like just about everyone is going skydiving, canyoning, or kayaking.

We really liked all the cities we visited – Bern, Lucern, even Zurich for which we had relatively low expectations (we had been told it was mostly a working town).

Really, the main drawback in Switzerland is just the exorbitant prices. The way I usually explain it to people is imagine the most you’d ever want to pay for something and then double it (or better yet, triple it). On top of that I thought the accommodation options were relatively poor, again overpriced, and almost petty. We had multiple places charge us for wifi, bag storage, etc. I really feel like this is just poor form on their part because they know just about everyone who comes to the hostel is going to need these things, so it’s a way to lower the advertised price of the hostel while then hitting you with all the extras. Oh, and often check in isn’t until 4pm (while checkout is usually an early 10am)!

Bests And Worsts

Best food:

We had very few meals out in Switzerland due to the absurd price of dining out. My friend and I went to two restaurants the whole time we were there – one play to try the rosti (like hash browns) and one place to try the fondue and racelette. We also had a few sausages that we just purchased from food stands on the street that were pretty good and relatively cheap. So for best food there is a tie between the rosti and the sausages, though we can’t exactly rave about the Swiss food and don’t think you’re missing out on much if you don’t try all the dishes.

Best experience:

In Switzerland one of my closest friends from home joined us for 10 days so this was the best part for me. It was great to travel as a group of 3 for a change and to switch up the travel dynamic for a bit. It was great to have a friend join us on the trip for an extended period and though this has nothing to do with Switzerland in particular it was the best part of my time in Switzerland.

Biggest Rip Off:

Frankly the whole country, however, the thing that irked me the most was the accommodations and all the extras they charge you for (which just about everywhere else are included in the normal price of a hostel).

Bucket List Activities: NONE

Tips For Traveling

Transportation

Local Buses

We took a few local buses around town. Like most things in Switzerland there is an honor system as to whether or not you buy a ticket. Of course, if you get caught without a ticket there is a hefty fine, which varies but it’s enough to make you want to buy the ticket. I will say we very rarely got asked to show our ticket, mostly just on the very long train rides from city to city but not really intra-city. If you’re there for only a short time well…you make your own choices.

Trains

The train system in Switzerland is world reknown for being extremely fast and prompt. If you miss your train by even a few seconds well, that’s that, time to wait for the next one (but luckily, that one shouldn’t be late). Trains are very expensive and though side by side comparisons we opted not to get the rail pass (which was the right decision for us). To be honest, the rail pass isn’t exactly cheap either, and really only saves you money if you travel to a lot of places all over the country and, additionally, are under 26. Make sure to calculate the cost of paying for the journeys as you go versus getting the rail pass — it won’t always be cheaper with the rail pass.

Cabs

We did not take any cabs in Switzerland as I imagine they are going to be fairly expensive.

Long Distance Buses

We didn’t take any long distances buses in Switzerland, all trains.

Student IDs

We were able to get a few student discounts at museums so make sure to carry the student id with you!

Public Facilities

Often toilets in Switzerland were not free so it’s good to carry a bit of change with you.

Safety

Switzerland is very safe.

Food and Restaurants

Unfortunately because Switzerland is so expensive we economized a lot on food and ate mostly at the grocery store. I didn’t go to a restaurant once.

Credit Cards And Money

We were able to use our credit cards sometimes, though we have cards without the chip so this gave us trouble sometimes.

Internet

Internet is widely available.

Accommodations ( 1 Franc= ~1.1 USD)

Because we were with Vicky’s friend we decided to do mostly hostels, often dorm rooms and a few times private rooms. Apartments were too expensive and we didn’t want to couchsurf with three people. The hostels were nice albeit it expensive and often times charged us for things like wifi, bag storage, and wouldn’t let us check in until 4pm.

1. Zurich– we stayed with a friend of a friend in his apartment.
2. Luzern – we stayed at Backpackers Lucerne in 3 bed private for 105 CHF (shared bathroom, wifi in room). It was a decent place and fairly central.
3. Interlaken – for one night we stayed in a 10 bed dorm at Balmer’s Herberage for 90CHF (for the 3 of us) which has a great vibe but wifi doesn’t work well in dorms, and they make you pay for lockers and then we spent one night in a 3 bed private at Funny Farm for 115 CHF (for all 3 of us) (with a private bathroom and tv, though you had to pay for wifi). Both places were fine, though Funny Farm seemed to have nicer accommodation.
4. Berne – we stayed at Berne Backpackers in a double room for my friend and I and with Dave in a dorm room. The price was 135 CHF for the 3 of us. Rooms had shared bathrooms but wifi in the rooms. Fine place to stay – centrally located.
5. Geneva – we rented a room in an apartment on airbnb. Our room was $130 for the three of us but we generally had an unpleasant experience with the host and would not recommend the apartment we stayed in.

Finding Couchsurfers

We did not couchsurf in Switzerland.

Cost Break Down

We kept track of every cost we had down to the purchase level and categorized it into 5 groupings:

• Entertainment – Mostly sightseeing.
• Food and Water – Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as snacks (little things we bought in the middle of the day, chips, ice cream, etc).
• Gifts – For couchsurfers, usually a bottle of wine or some chocolates, sometimes treated to dinner.
• Transportation – all forms but not including any flights in and out of the country.
• Utilities – Things like lockers for bags, pay phones, small purchases like detergent.
• Accommodation – All hotel/hostel/guesthouse stays
• Car – gas, tolls, 

So where did we end up?

$97 per person, per day. 

Would we go back to Switzerland? Maybe.

The problem with Switzerland is that it’s too damn expensive and doesn’t necessarily offer anything you can’t get elsewhere. Yes the nature is spectacular but the nature is also spectacular in Austria, China, and many other countries we’ve been to, which are much more reasonably priced. Unfortunately on our budget we weren’t able to fully enjoy all that Switzerland had to offer (we largely ate at the grocery store) and therefore for at least the short term Switzerland is at the bottom of the list for where we want to return to.