Switzerland Travel Guides ~ The Historian Traveller

I left the view of Jungfrau with deep regret: eternal snow, etched as it seemed against eternal sunshine, and the Silberhorn sharp against dark blue: the Silvertine (Celebdil) of my dreams

______J. R.R. Tolkien

For many years I deliberately ignored Switzerland. Yes deliberately. I saw the country there, the only one left from Europe that didn’t have a pin and I never bothered visiting. Not because I had something particular against it, but it just didn’t appealed me. Moreover there was never the right opportunity to pick up Switzerland as destination. However, a few years ago, when I was working as travel agent, I had the opportunity to work with several Swiss ski resorts. It was in that moment that something changed. I suddenly started to be more interested in this small beautiful country and I became very curious about its destinations. Switzerland is like a small and expensive box full of treasures, the more you dig, the more beautiful things you discover. Once you open that box, you can’t never go back! In this page you will find all the Switzerland travel guides that will help you planning your own fantastic trip.

Switzerland, a place of beauty

Regretful of having ignored my dear Switzerland for all these years, at the first available occasion I decided to organise a grand tour of the country. Of course, exclusively by train. Swiss trains are clean and organised and probably delivering the best landscapes you can find in Europe. Snowy mountain peaks alternate with colourful towns and idyllic panoramas. Everything seems out of a postcard and with a side of delicious cheese fondue.

Prepare for Switzerland

Despite being an “easy” destination, also a Switzerland trip require some preparation. Particularly if you want to get around by train. Here are some of my tips after my 10 days visit.

Plan your budget

Switzerland IS EXPENSIVE. And when I say expensive I don’t mean a $7 coffee at Starbucks. I mean that everything one can think about cost double or triple price of what you have in your own country (maybe five time more if you come from Asian countries). Just to give you a silly example, we paid a Mc Donald lunch for 2 adults, 2 small kids about £45 ($59) when we roughly spend £20/23 in the UK. I was quite stunned about the prices and more surprised about the Swiss nonchalance about it.

With this information in mind, make sure you have enough budget to afford a trip to Switzerland because it’s not just a flight and a hotel, it the rest that will make the difference in you final expense.

Look at the seasons

Switzerland is strongly seasonal and it has two main peak seasons: winter for the ski and summer for the wonderful weather and landscapes. If you happen to travel in these two seasons, keep in mind that also prices will increase. Off season travelling offers still some beautiful places and I honestly loved to see the autumn foliage!!

Travel information about Switzerland

Despite Zurich and Geneva being two of the largest cities in Switzerland, its capital is Bern. Indeed, here is seat of the national government. Bern has a population of 146,000. Switzerland is made by 26 cantons and encompasses four principal linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian, and Romansh.

Since the 16th century, Switzerland has a political of “neutrality” and it wasn’t directly involved in a war at least since 1815. Birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is now famous for a longstanding watchmaking tradition, ski resorts, cheese and chocolate.

Local currency

Switzerland local currency is the Swiss Frank (CHF). 1 Swiss Frank equal to 1.26 USD/0.96 £. The cost of living in Swizerland is very high compared to any other European country.

Cards are accepted widely but there is still a wide amount of cash based shops and business. Therefore, it’s always good to have a small amount of cash with you “just in case”.

Language in Switzerland

Switzerland is a very peculiar country. Indeed, there are four different national languages German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Nevertheless more than 60% of the population speaks German. English is widely spoken and many people speaks it very well.

We actually found that even if German is basically the main language, Italian is often understood and spoken alongside (it is spoken as first language only by 8% of the population).

Plugs type in Switzerland

Plug type in Switzerland really surprised me. Indeed, for all this time I (wrongly) assumed that Switzerland had an European plug. MISTAKE. In fact, Switzerland has a very rare plug Type J (three round pins in a shallow triangle). This meant that we were caught by surprise on arrival and had to buy a (very expensive) plug adaptor! Some hotels might have also the European pin, but don’t count too much on this.

As prices in Switzerland are crazy expensive (we paid like $40 for two adaptors), I warmly recommend to buy these before your trip in your own country. They’ll probably cost a half of what you would pay in Switzerland (don’t make my same mistake!).

Booking Hotels

Booking your hotel in advance is essential to avoid higher fares and stay at your preferred accommodation. I always get the best rates on Booking.com and I booked here most of my stays in Switzerland.

Safety in Switzerland

I always heard that Switzerland was a very safe country. However, it didn’t give me 100% this impression. Indeed, I believe there are two different Switzerland. One is the mountains and the countryside and this felt very safe. The other is the cities. We used several big cities as base to explore such as Bern and Basel and we encountered several drunkhards on the streets, baby gangs and and a great number of harassing people both on the trains and trams (with one we even had a fight).

I have to say that this aspect of Switzerland really caught me by surprise. Is not that we felt terribly unsafe at any point or complaining about it. We live in London so we have hard shells, but we’ve been influenced by all these marvellous things we heard about the country. Including from Alessio’s grandma who lived in Zurich for a very long time and claims this was the safest and most amazing place to live. So, finding out that Switzerland cities are pretty much like normal as the rest of the world was quite a big shock.

I was expecting a sort of Japan/South Korea safety type of country but it is much more similar to Italy and France. So I won’t leave my stuff on a table.

Where I have been to Switzerland