What Should I Know About Visiting Switzerland?

Two threads in as many days isn’t like me but…here goes.

I have an unexpected opportunity to go to Switzerland next week. My friend has business and has invited me to join her to take advantage of already paid for accommodations.

I will be flying into Geneva and taking a train to Montreux and basing there for five days. I will have four consecutive days to basically do anything I want and much of it alone as she will have business obligations.

I was looking at tours but they seemed based out of Geneva which would be 90 minutes back on the train. Certainly doable if necessary.

I have never been to Paris and was wondering if a day trip can be done from Geneva or is it very far?

Any one out there been to this part of the world and know what I am in for? Greatly appreciate any and all advice.

The Swiss railway has an online timetable (that works across borders) in English.

Montreux - Paris is about 550 km (by road, rail should be similar.)

The best train connections seem to be 4:36 one way.

Thank you, I bookmarked that site. It is very helpful.

The main thing I remember about Switzerland was that it was the most expensive place I’ve ever been. That includes Japan (though not Tokyo). Even a cheap sandwich or something from a street vendor was something like $8, and the exchange rate is even worse now. Eating in restaurants was, of course, even more of a gouge. It was pretty, and clean, but I don’t think I’ll be going back there anytime soon.

The city of Bern is very pretty, but it is not a metropole.

I don’t know if there’s any Swiss skiiing this late in spring; you might try the higher regions.

On the other hand, the thing Switzerland is most known for is hiking; but that’s tough to do on your own. Perhaps you could hook up with a few other hikers?

Taking day trips out of Switzerland is not a good idea; make that at least a two or three day trip, and I would rather choose Venice , Milan or Florence as a destination above Paris, as they are much closer.

Venice? Wow. My geography stinks but I thought Geneva was closer to France. I don’t know how far Paris is within France, however. My friend mentioned something called the “bullet” I guess I need to google it to see what she was talking about. Venice would be a dream destination of mine and now I am wondering if spending a night there is an option.

The trains in Switzerland are freaking amazing. They work exactly like I thought all European trains would be. It’s easy to figure out the system from the little kiosk (unlike in France) and the trains are spotless (unlike in France)

Bern is neat to see during the day. Einstein’s house is open for tours, and the capitol (or whatever they call it) should be by now. They were fixing it up in 2007. Good luck finding a place to drink a beer after 8:30 though.

You can skip Interlaken unless you want to do some extreme sports, go to a Hooters, see 600 Army Knife shops, or pay a fortune to ride the train up to the top of the big mountain. (The rest of the trains are reasonable, this is a special route)

I road the train to Lichtenstein, to say I’d been there, and ended up meeting the Prince! You have to get on a shuttle for the last part, but this is also well organized through the train kiosks.

On edit: Save Paris for another trip. The train ain’t cheap and it ain’t fast.

I enjoyed Bern too.

Try Swiss wine. In many cases it is better than the French wine available in the same shops at the same price. (And the Swiss are very proud of that…)

With Swiss trains and buses you can easily get by and you won’t need a car. I would check with the hotel as soon as you get there and ask their advice about any possibilities for getting some kind of pass: for example is there a pass for unlimited train / bus rides for one week. If there is such a pass, it would very likely be cheaper than buying a train ticket every day.

From Montreux you have a beautiful view of Lake Leman and the hills on the opposite side. Remember that when you are looking across the lake, you are actually seeing France. If you want to say that you were in France while you were there, you could take the boat across the lake to one of the cities in France on the lake - but the French towns on the lake are nothing spectacular. To go from Montreux to Geneva you could take the train or the boat. I personally would take the boat one way (from Montreux to Geneva) and the train back, or, depending on the boat schedule, the boat part of the way (e.g. Montreux to Vevey or Lausanne) and the train from Lausanne to Geneva and back from Geneva to Montreux. There is also a nice pedestrian walkway that goes on the edge of the lake from Montreux to Vevey or maybe even all the way to Lausanne. Take a short walk on the lakefront (or a longer one if you are a good walker.)

Assuming you are limited to day trips because you want to be back in Montreux every evening to sleep in the hotel, I would really recommend staying in Switzerland. Going by train outside of the country will take several hours. So unless you want to leave at 6 in the morning and be back at midnight, your day would be (for example) 4 hours to get to city X, 1 hour there, 4 hours to get back. Remember that aside from the trip time as shown by the train schedule, you then have to get from the train station to the sights in whatever city, and then get back to the station with some spare time so that you’re sure not to miss the train. I personally recommend shorter trips and staying in Switzerand. Assuming you don’t have a car, I would also recommend limiting your visits to cities.

What you should see:
You are close to Geneva so you should definitely go see the city and its famous water fountain in the lake, and the flower clock in the Jardin anglais. You will want to take the time to get to the Promenade des Bastions (walk or take the bus, but it’s not far) to see the famous Mur des Réformateurs. Also the Jarin des Alpes with the monument Brunswick is pretty. Remember that parcs in european cities will be small compared to the parks that you might be used to in American cities. Also that commonly people walk on the paths and don’t walk on the grass.

One day go to Lucerne. I know it’s cliché and every tour bus in the world goes there, but it is a very pretty city. Walk around the old town and its small quaint pedestrian streets. Another reason why Lucerne is a must-see is because, a short bus ride from the station, you can go to the base of Mt. Pilatus and take the cable car to the top. If I remember right, it is a three cable-car ride to the top of the mountain (meaning you take one, change to another, change to yet another.) You can’t go to Switzerland without climbing at least one mountain. The cable car rides are impressive (I don’t like heights and I’m always nervous about being suspended from a small cable so high up in the air.) And Mt. Pilatus is the place of legends: it is called Mt. Pilatus because Pontius Pilate, overcome with grief after having sentenced Jesus Christ to death, went to Switzerland and drowned himself in a lake on Mt. Pilatus and there are recorded cases of local farmers having seen dragons flying over the countryside from their perches on Mt. Pilatus. Regardless of what the skeptics would have you believe, these are the true facts behind Mt. Pilatus.

If you like shopping (and you have money to throw away, and you don’t mind that the dollar now is worthless, and that Switzerland is expensive), then take the train ride to Zurich (the New York of Switzerland) and stroll down Bahnhofstrasse to look at the shops.

Keep in mind that Switzerland is a multi-lingual country. In Montreux and Geneva everyone speaks French and signs will be in French. In Lucerne and Zurich everyone speaks German and the signs will be in German. If you need help, every big train station should have a Tourism desk (Office du Tourisme or look for a sign with a lowercase i in a blue circle) - go ask them.

If you decide to get a car for one day, I would have different recommendations. Let me know.

Starbucks is making its appearance in Switzerland. When I walked out of the train station in Lucerne, the first thing that greeted my eyes was a Starbucks. You can, with some due diligence, probably find American fast foods. But as other people have said, dining in Switzerland will be expensive. If you want to eat cheap, I would go inside a Migros (the biggest chain of Swiss grocery / department stores). Look for the MMM migros (M = small store, MM = medium store, MMM = large store) which usually have a cafeteria. In Europe people eat at certain times and restaurants expect to serve breakfast in the morning, lunch from 12 to 2, dinner in the evening from 6:30 or 7:00 on. Don’t be surprised if a small restaurant will actually be closed outside of those hours. I still remember the look on my wife’s face when we were at the Migros self-serve cafeteria at 2:00 and she asked the chef for the last roasted chicken plate. The man said “Non!” and took it away back to the kitchen. It was 2:00 and lunchtime was over. In restaurants, don’t look for the same variety in the menu as you would expect in an American restaurant. If they serve bread with the meal, it will likely be without butter. In some restaurants, if you order a glass of water, they might bring you a bottle of water and charge you for it. If you order a cup of coffee, it will not be a Starbucks-size venti; it will be a “normal” cup of coffee which will probably seem small to you. Don’t expect free refills on drinks!

Shoot! I forgot Bern (which someone has also mentioned above.) Bern is the capital of Switzerland and the federal building is there. The old town has covered arcades with nice statues on the walls of the buildings and beautiful fountains in the middle of the street. You can easily get from the old town to the famous bear pit (the canton of Bern takes its name from the animal, there is a bear on the state flag) but I believe that the bear pit is still under renovation and it’s a mess now. Speaking of Bern, don’t get mixed up between city names and canton names. Switzerland is divided into 26 cantons (politically like States in the USA). These cantons were originally formed by feudal lords acquiring territory next to their seat of power. Many cantons have the same name as the city. Example: canton of Lucerne, capital city is city of Lucerne. Canton of Zurich, capital city is Zurich. Canton of Berne, capital city is Berne. Canton of Geneva, capital city is Geneva. etc. (Montreux is in one of the “exceptions”: canton Vaud with capital Lausanne.) Also cities have different spellings in different languages. Geneva is Genève in French, Genf in German, Ginevra in Italian. If you are in Bern and want to take the train to Geneva, look for Genf. If you are in Montreux and want to take the train to Geneva, look for Genève.

Word of caution - suppose you are going from Montreux to Zurich. The train schedule will show Montreux 6:54 - Zurich 9:28 (they don’t use that silly AM/PM business - in the evening the times would be 18:54 and 21:28). What you have to pay attention to is that it might say in small print “correspondance Lausanne” meaning you have to change trains in Lausanne. Look at the times in Lausanne! You will arrive in Lausanne at 7:15 and take the train from Lausanne to Zurich at 7:20. You have five minutes to get from one train to another - perfectly feasible but you have to know what you’re doing. Walk fast and don’t stop for anything. While you’re walking look for the signs that tell you from what track the Zurich train is leaving. If you stop to buy a bottled water at one of the train kiosks, you will miss your connection.

Another example. You are going to Berne, so you take the Lausanne - Zurich train that stops in Berne, knowing you can get off in Berne. The train will stop in Berne, but only for two minutes! If you’re not ready to get off you will miss it. This is both a blessing and a curse - travelling by train in Switzerland is very efficient, but the trains are always on time and you have to be on time too.

P.S. There might be a train from Lausanne to Zurich that takes 2 hours and another that takes 3 hours. The 2 hour train will have the letters IC in the train schedule. IC = InterCity meaning train goes faster and only stops in major cities on the way (three or four stops). The 3 hour train stops in smaller cities along the way hence longer travel time.

From the excellent advice of Arnold Winkelried, I’ll echo a few things:

Swiss trains are punctual, clean and they often take you on railroads that offer spectacular views. Like riding on a miniature railtrack. That is, if you like spectacular views, and then some more, and then yet another spectacular mount view, and then another round the next bend, and…

I didn’t get you would stay in Geneva. Yes, that is another side of Switzerland then I had in mind. Still, I’d pass on Paris. Paris is worth another full trip and I bet there are lots and lots of cheap flights to Paris from the States anyway.

The “bullet” is probably the High Speed Train, or Train a Grande Vitesse, TGV. On flat country it can reach 300 km an hour. My experience with the TGV is that you need to reserve a seat quite in advance, it is cramped and very expensive. I’d recommend staying in Switzerland instead and taking lots of small trains and cable trains through mountain areas. That’s just far more fun and will show you so much more of how beautiful the country is. Many of these cable trains and cable seats allow you to see wildlife, flowers and brooks from your train seat of sniff the air standing on your balcony. I second riding a cable train, different types, up at least one big mountain. Then walk back one, downhill, or two cable stations, and take the cabletrain again to go back to the valley.

Swiss lakes, low in the valley are kinda boring, as they are the place where busy roads and major modern infrastructure are concentrated.

Switzerland isn’t the first place I would think of if it comes to shopping, except for Swiss Amy Knives. If you buy those as gifts, remember to have the name of the person you give it to engraved on it in the store.
The Swiss are very traditional and sober in their designs. In my eyes, most stuff was either kitchy (in the way a cuckoo clock is) or far too homely and robust. And expensive, expecially with the dollar being as low as it is. However, if you insist on shopping, Zurich and Geneve are your best bets.

The Swiss are incredible polite, well organized, punctual, cheerful, hardworking, early rising, clean and clean-minded people. Decadency, intellectualism, individualism, angst, multiculturalism, late night drinking bars, and dancings are very, very hard to find.
Expect to be cheerfully greeted with " Gruss Gott" (greet God!) by everyone, starting at an unholy early time AM. Just “Gruss Gott” back and try to outcheer the Swiss.

And clocks. If you visit Geneva, I swear every other store there sold clocks (the in-between ones sold food). It is a lovely city though, and much different from Bern. Bern still has cobblestone streets and streetcars (regular automobiles aren’t allowed in that area of the city). Quite lovely as well, but in a different way.

And chocolate. Don’t forget the chocolate!

I love you all, I love the dope and knew I could count on you folks. I am printing this all out as I type. I feel like Arnold will be my official tour guide. I will stay in Switzerland as recommended. Seems like the best thing to do. That boat to Geneva and train back is brilliant and will definitely be happening.

You have no idea how happy I am with these bits of advice. Thank you and if anyone has anything else, it is also appreciated.

A few more random thoughts (ask questions if you can think of any)

In case you have electronic devices with you (and who doesn’t nowadays? - cell phone, camera, laptop) buy a plug adapter for Switzerland. It might be easier to buy a plug adapter that works anywhere in the world so you’re sure it works. But if you know what you’re doing, for the same price you could get two or three plug adapters that work only in Switzerland, and charge several things at once. A Swiss electric plug has two round prongs (type J: Prise électrique — Wikipédia ) with maybe a third hole for the ground. Since I mentioned cell phones, check with your cell phone company. I have T-mobile and the phone I have worked in Switzerland. The only thing I had to do was tell T-mobile to turn on worlwide roaming or whatever they call it and I could use my phone over there. Of course I hardly ever did since they will charge you accordingly, but if you like texting you can text your friends from over there.

In Switzerland, there is no tipping in restaurants (and indeed anywhere else). You can tip staff in the hotel if you really want to but they will not be offended if you don’t.

If you are walking besides a church, take the time to step in and look inside. Switzerland was (is) a very religious country and the people wanted to make their churches beautiful. Especially worth seeing are the cathedrals in the major cities.

You can pay with a credit card almost anywhere, but I would definitely check with your bank to see if your ATM works over there and get some cash. For small amounts, your life will be easier if you pay in cash. Or take some dollars and change in a bank - that’s one thing not hard to find!. Swiss bills are easy to tell apart, they have large numbers on them and are different sizes and different colours (10 fr. bill is smaller than the 20fr. bill which is smaller than the 100 fr. bill and so forth.)
Swiss bank bills: Swiss franc - Wikipedia
Swiss coins: Franc suisse — Wikipédia (the picture at wikipedia shows all the coins nearly the same size, but in fact they are all different sizes.)

Have a wallet / purse ready to handle your bills and all the coins you will be carrying around. As you see the largest coin is 5 Swiss Francs (almost exactly $5.00! nowadays since the dollar is worthless). Don’t let your coins accumulate because you will easily end up with $100 worth of coins in your pocket. Pay with the coins too.
If you are lucky :stuck_out_tongue: the dollar will still be on parity with the Swiss franc when you go there and it will be easy to compare prices - CHFr 20 = $20. (CH is the abbreviation for Switzerland: cite http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhelvetians.html )

You say that you are arriving in Geneva and then taking the train to Montreux. ( You can take the train without even leaving the airport.) Are you paying yourself for the train ticket on the first day? Then remember what I said above - before buying your first train ticket, find out about any weekly unlimited pass, if you intend on taking the train often. For example: Montreux-Lucerne (round trip) by train is CHFr 130 approx. Montreux-Zurich (round trip) is CHFr 140 approx. If you take 4 round-trip train rides while you are there (Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Geneva) you can see that the numbers quickly add up - maybe close to CHFr 450 = $450! You might be spending a lot of money on train tickets.
For example, right now, I see at the website that they have a one-day pass for unlimited train / bus travel anywhere in Switzerland for CHFr 45 if you buy a booklet of 6
http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/billette/tageskarten/9-uhr-tageskarte.htm
Sounds like a great deal! And it is except that you can’t take a train before 9 AM which will put a crimp in your schedule if you’re taking a trip to some place like Zurich which takes 2.5 hours to get there. Why are they offering this? Because the early morning trains are full of commuters going to work and I guess they want to encourage the tourists to take the later trains.
If you can leave after 9 AM every day, it would be cheaper to buy a booklet of 6 and only use 4 or 5 than it would be to buy individual tickets.

I’m quoting you second class train prices. I see no reason to buy first class unless you (unlike me) are financially independent and don’t care about saving a buck. When you get on the train, there will be four train cars to choose from: 1st class smoking, 1st class non-smoking, 2nd class smoking, 2nd class non-smoking. After the first day you will easily be able to tell the difference - for one thing the 1st class cars are half empty. The 2nd class cars will be more populated but it would be extremely rare for you not to be able to find a seat. If you’re late at the station, just jump into any car and then move to the one you want to sit in by walking between cars. You can walk up and down the whole length of the train going through the sliding doors that separate the cars. On the longer train rides a guy will be coming through with a tray selling coffee/tea/drinks and another guy will be coming through with a cart selling sandwiches/food.
BTW, in the train station, you will be looking for, let’s say, track 4 because the train to Lausanne is leaving from track 4. The french word for track is Voie and the german word is Gleis.
When you are in a major city train station, look for the display with the little paper-back books (about the size of two credit cards) that have the full train schedule for that city. Collect those, it helps immensely when planning your travels. In Geneva get the Geneva book, in Montreux get the Montreux book if they have one, in Bern get the Bern book. Even if you think you might not be going through that city again, the books are free and easy to carry and will help you plan if you change your mind.

Finally, my last word of advice: don’t think you have to do too much. I am of the school of thought that it’s more fun to visit one area well than always be chasing off to the next place. If you don’t want to stress out, you can spend a pleasant four days just staying on the edge of the lake between Montreux and Geneva. People will be asking you when you got back “did you see the Matterhorn? did you go to Paris? did you go skiing?” etc. etc. And you might start thinking “boy my trip sucked, I didn’t do anything.” This is not a contest. This is your vacation. If you like reading and are feeling stressed out, take a book, go read on the side of the lake for a day, stop in a little cafe, talk a walk through the streets. You don’t have to run around and see everything so that you have a checklist to impress your friends back home.

Keep these words in mind. You won’t to shopping in Switzerland to tell your friends “look at the great deal I got on this!” Nothing will be cheap. You would be looking for stuff that is simple, unadorned, but elegant and that is supposed to last a long time.

I can’t stop thinking of little things. When you arrive in the Geneva airport, you go talk to the passport guy, then you go to pick up your luggage. After you pick up your luggage, there are two exits. One with a green sign saying “nothing to declare”, another with two guys sitting there and a red sign saying “need to declare items.” Only an idiot, of course, would choose the exit with the red sign. The green sign exit goes straight through to the public airport area. The Swiss are very trusting and they expect that if you have something that you need to pay taxes on, obviously your conscience will compel you to choose the red exit.

BTW make sure you have enough to tide you over for the first day in your carry-on. It really pains me to have to admit it, but between me and my brother it has been more than once that the luggage wasn’t ready at the Geneva airport and they had to deliver it the next day. I don’t know what they’re doing in Geneva but if you told me that your luggage was late I wouldn’t be surprised. Of course Geneva is right on the French border and the people there are smart alecks - they even got me going. Last November when I was there I went to get the baby stroller at the “special luggage” desk in the Geneva airport. The man says “what are you looking for” and I said “I came to get a suitcase full of money that was supposed to be waiting for me here.” He says “oh yeah, the red one, we have it in the back for you” and starts heading towards the door behind him. I said “no no no! I was just kidding” and then realized that HE had fooled ME! Bastard.

My first international trip was to Switzerland, and nothing stunned me more than seeing the difference between Italian and Swiss border agents. Going into Italy (via train)–no fewer than five guys, at least one if not more dogs, and apparently the Asian family in our car had their bags opened by every single guy who passed through. (I didn’t notice this, my parents did)

Going back–Two border agents, and we were moving again so fast I have doubts about whether they covered the entire train.