10 best tips for your Switzerland vacation
Know your trip better. Choose wisely, travel wisely. Things you choose and plan are gonna make a huge difference on your vacation. Are you planning on escaping reality for a while and spending your days in the most magical country on earth? Here’s a list of 10 things to keep in mind during your Switzerland travel package.
10 best travel tips for your Switzerland vacation
- A well planned itinerary
- Check the weather conditions
- What to pack/wear?
- Where to stay?
- Local transportation
- Food and water
- Currency/expenses
- Carry the important documents
- Do a quick research on the activities
- Try and avoid any tourist scams
Focus on these 10 travel tips for a safe and fun vacation irrespective of the place you travel to.
- A well planned itinerary
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Planning ahead gives you peace of mind and lets you consider all the choices and wishes. To avoid last minute chaos, start planning for your trip at least 3 months in advance. For an expensive country like Switzerland, booking your flight tickets well advanced can very much lower the overall expenses. Plan for at least 5 nights because Switzerland is too beautiful to be real and you can never get enough of it. Customize your package and make it more memorable.
Do check out the Switzerland vacay guide to know more!
- Check the weather conditions
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For a mountainous country like Switzerland, altitude sickness is one of the common discomforts faced by many of the tourists. Though the weather remains stable throughout the year, it does get warm in the month of June/July. Before you start planning for the trip, make sure the weather forecast gives you a green signal and does not mess with your plans.
The day starts early and gets over early in Switzerland. So you need to plan accordingly to make the most out of the trip.
Switzerland’s peak season- June to August and December to April
You can book your stay at a great deal in most of the resorts/hotels during these months.
- What to pack/wear?
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Travelling in comfortable clothes makes your trip much more pleasant and easy. As the world knows, Switzerland is a cold country and it rains there occasionally.
Pack winter clothes to keep you warm and cozy. And always carry an umbrella or a raincoat wherever you travel to. You can carry some paracetamols in case you need them.
Clothes – Warm jackets/coats/sweaters
Beanies or woollen mufflers
Thermal clothes
Mittens
2-3 pair of socks
Thick pair of jeans/pants
Shoes – winter boots/ rain boots
Flip Flops to avoid walking barefoot on tiles in the hotel/resort rooms
Hiking or running shoes (if you’re planning on hiking in the Alps)
- Where to stay?
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Are you in for a very unique stay in the campervans? If you are going to travel alone, try staying in camper vans for a change. This not only reduces the cost of travel, but also gives you a bunch of different experiences. You can rent a camper van for the whole trip and travel alone everywhere. The facilities inside a campervan are a foldable bed, mini kitchen, storage space, cooking utensils, local GPS, first aid kit and electricity. If you are travelling with your spouse or with your family, try staying in budget resorts/hotels if you wish to. On the contrary, there are of course a number of luxury resorts, hotels and cruises to spend your days in Switzerland.
- Local transportation
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In Switzerland, the public transport services stop working after 11 o’clock in the night. You can rent bicycles for CHF 20 (INR 1640) per day which might cut down other expenses like midnight ice creams or sudden cravings. In some cities like Bern, Geneva, Zurich and Lucerne you can rent bikes for free. Yes! You heard me right. You can rent bicycles for free by using your passport, visa and some national ID cards as proof.
And cycling is also one of the favourite hobbies of tourists and the natives of Switzerland.
- Food and water
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Food– Trying out local food is always exciting. But if you want to try authentic Greek, Italian or German food, run through some of the best reviewed hotels online before you go there. Don’t tip the waiters/waitresses more than CHF 2
(INR 170) no matter how famous the restaurant is.
Water- And do not buy water bottles unnecessarily. You can drink directly from the water fountains that are found everywhere. Water bottles are costly and can shoot up your bills upto CHF 4 (INR 340) per day. You don’t have to worry about the purity of the water because Switzerland follows strict drinking water treatment just to benefit the natives and tourists.
- Currency exchange and expenses
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Remember! Switzerland is not a part of the European Union and has its own currency – Swiss Franc (CHF) which is why living in Switzerland is so expensive.
1 CHF = 81.57 INR (average conversion)
Exchange your Indian currency either in India or at Switzerland airports. Because there are high chances that you might get cheated at a local money exchange place with less Swiss money. And when you buy something, make sure you give the exact amount and try not to use the international credit cards often because, the taxes may sum up to CHF 10-15 (INR 800-1000) which is a huge amount. Ensure you have enough cash for the rest of the days to enjoy a panic-free vacation in Swiss.
- Carry the important documents
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As a tourist, you should never forget to carry your most important documents like passport, visa and a national ID card no matter where you are. Because they can be life saving at times. Make sure you carry at least the passport wherever you travel to. Tourists losing their passports is a very common problem all over the world. So keep an eye on your passport bag all the time and be extremely aware of pickpockets in rural areas. Keep a track of the visa period and over staying in any country is legally punishable.
- Do a quick research on the tourist activities
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Doing your own research and customizing your outdoor activities is always fun. If you love playing in snow, plan a lot of snow activities like skiing, sledging, paragliding from the Alps and skydiving. If you want to escape the bustling city and relax for a few days, you can just roam around, eat good food and gaze endlessly at the beauty of the Alps.
- Try and avoid tourist scams
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Beware of the tourist scams where people get affected the most. Avoid scams like free hugs, bitcoins for cash, fake police, fake donation campaigns and pickpockets. Avoiding free hugs might sound rude but, this might also be a scam that targets the tourists. So next time when you plan to vacation to Switzerland, don’t forget to keep in mind all these tips.
What’s stopping you from packing your bags to Swiss? Do not forget to plan and customise your Switzerland package for your next vacation!
