Let's go and discover Switzerland!
It was April 2016 and I was already thinking to myself about celebrating my 30th birthday in October (not very excited, I know). I thought of several destinations for this important turning point, but it was the website Google Flights who decided for me by displaying return tickets Dublin – Zurich with Swiss Airways for 79 euros per person for the dates in mind. Ryanair price, but with a comfort that I will tell you about later… I thought it was a sign. 🙂
We bought tickets to go on Thursday (October 27th) and return early Tuesday (my birthday was on Saturday – October 29th), taking only two business days off and taking advantage of the Monday holiday. With 5 days available, we talked to some friends who already knew the country and decided on the following itinerary:
- Day 1 – Lucerne
- Day 2 – Interlaken
- Day 3 – Interlaken
- Day 4 – Bern
- Day 5 – Zurich
Map of the trip
Car rental
How we wanted to take a trip relax, we thought it would be better to rent a car than to take trains around the country. To confirm our decision, I looked at the prices of train tickets and found them all quite expensive, even after buying the Swiss Pass (ticket which allows unlimited travel). So we end up renting the cheapest car that Rentalcars showed us with the Dollar company for 222.26 euros with full insurance and to my delight, they gave us the Fiat 500 (cinquecento) car!!! I always wanted to drive it because I think it's cute, so I was even happy with Celo's expired license... lol.
A very important piece of information: Switzerland has no tolls on its roads, but you need to have a sticker on the front window of your car called autoroutière vignette. Dollar already gave us the car with it, but it's always good to confirm that your rental car will have it too.
Oh, and of course, if you rent a car in another country and decide to drive around Switzerland, you'll need to buy this sticker at a convenience store. It seems to cost about 40 francs. Take a look in this blog if you want more information. It's very complete!
Don't forget: the headlight has to be on 100% of the time!
Fuel expenses
For the above route, we drove about 300km and spent less than 40 francs on fuel. Gasoline is more expensive here than in Dublin and in most European countries, but since the roads are great and the distances are relatively short, I found the fuel cost to be quite reasonable.
Coin
The currency used in Switzerland is the swiss franc and the quote we got for our trip was 1 euro = 0.95 francs. We exchanged euros in Dublin and when we ran out of money, we used our bank's debit card. I don't know if they accept euros at a lower exchange rate in restaurants and shops.
Hosting
As I said above, we bought our tickets 6 months in advance, but we started looking at hotels about 4 months before our trip. Even with so much time in advance, I was put off by the prices, because I couldn't find anything good within our usual budget (maximum of 80 euros). We ended up paying a average of 120 euros per day, that is, 50% more than we are used to paying on our trips around Europe. I thought our hotels were great and would recommend them all, so here is a list of them (on the map above they are marked with pins green):
- Day 1 – Hotel Kaiserstuhl (daily rate of 124 euros, rating 8.7)
- Day 2 – Brienzersee (daily rate of 140 euros, rating 8.9)
- Day 3 – Brienzersee (daily rate of 140 euros, rating 8.9)
- Day 4 – Mövenpick Hotel Egerkingen (daily rate of 118 euros, rating 8.4)
- Day 5 – Ibis Budget Zurich Airport (cost of 85 euros, grade 7.7)
I talked more about them in this post, but here are some photos of the corners we chose:
Food and Drink
We already knew that Switzerland was an expensive country because we had seen the hotel prices, but we were certain of it when we sat down at the first restaurant on our trip in Lucerne. We chose a restaurant with a good rating and immediately saw main courses starting at 30 francs, draft beers at 9 francs, soft drinks at 6 francs, and so on. I think that if we had been traveling at a less hectic pace, we would have paid without any problems, but since we chose to travel a lot on a tight budget, we had to stick to snacks…
From then on, as we wanted to taste the typical dishes (fondue, raclette, bratwursts and rostie potatoes) and also the country's wines and beers, we decided to indulge in the hotel breakfasts, eat snacks around lunchtime and only spend money on the meal at dinner. It was the way we found to try everything and not leave the trip completely broke. It worked! 😉
Summary of attractions
- LUCERNE – we spent about 4 hours in the city and we were able to visit its center well. We walked around Chapel Bridge, the main tourist spot, we went into some churches and walked through the streets with historic houses. So cute! Nearby is the Mount Pilatus, that many people go up to see the view, but as time was short, we couldn't go there.
- INTERLAKEN – As the name suggests, this city is located between two lakes, with mountains on all sides. The landscape is impressive and the main attraction is the Jungfrau Mountain, but we decided to drive around other mountains so as not to pay so much for it (it costs 200 francs per person to go by train to the top!). We took a cable car to the Niederhorn one day and the next day another for the Schilthorn and the two TOGETHER came out to half the price of the Jungfrau. Awesome landscapes and few tourists around.
- BERN – The capital of Switzerland is so beautiful! I loved walking through the covered streets, going into the Cathedral, looking at the clock. Zytglogge, cross the bridge Nydegg Bridge and drink local beers looking at the Aare river with its emerald water. We spent a day there and I think it was enough to see the main things.
- ZURICH – We also spent a day in the city and loved the Protestant churches, the avenue Bahnhofstrasse with its chic shops and taste the delicious sausages in the most famous place in the city, Star Grill.
Detailed itinerary
Want to know all the details about our itinerary? See in this post. 😉
The trip in photos
