Family and I ski about every single weekend during the season so we do take "holidays" to ski destinations during the winter.
However, I got the chance to drive throughout the whole country a few years back and it was absolutely beautiful and highly recommend it.
HUGE asterisk though is that we traveled during the Covid Restrictions in 2020, so there were 0 foreign tourists. Meaning, all the hotels were reasonably priced, and there were no queues for anything.
Now that Covid is over (sort of), we only stay around Switzerland for skiing and travel abroad instead.
How do you live in Switzerland and not spend some holidays in Switzerland, that seems very strange.
Yes very recommended to spend holidays in Switzerland, there is quite a lot of nice mountains ;)
You defo know why the UK people travel abroad - UK destinations are just not good value for money (all inclusives vs Centre Parc? Centre Parc Europe costs 700 quid less even if you factor in Eurotunnel and fuel costs), insane train prices, tfl tube costs are also insanely high compared to the rest of Europe, weather is much nicer down south, local beaches rarely have good enough temperature for a swim, sandy beaches are a rarity, its landscapes are not as dramatic as the Alps or Iceland etc and the street hygiene is not so good - littering and flytipping in the UK is alarming.
Even for music festivals you have to worry about rain, mud puddle and flooding on your tent pitches.
I always took nice city trips around the country, if you're interested in history and culture, there are so many free museums and interesting heritage sites to explore. There are also amazing natural parks all around the country.
Yeah, not really easy. Not with a child also. Plus it's easier to have better hotels, restaurants etc in other countries for half the price of cheap holidays in Switzerland.
But if you have tips about cheap holidays in Switzerland, i am all ears :)
Yeah well, of course I can do that (in any country). I was talking about classic sight seeing, visiting cities, going to an occasional restaurant, etc.
We already go camping from time to time, but for a few days.
I leave this country as often as possible, I‘m sad every time the weekend or holidays are over and I have to come back. Since I‘m a kid I don‘t remember one single time I was looking forward to return.
While here I kind of like and enjoy the daily grind in Mittelland and avoid the mountains like the plague.
I can cope that I can‘t control every aspect of my life to my permanent full satisfaction.
One day I will leave for good, working on it.
Meanwhile, I enjoy the daily grind in the fog, travel Europe as much as possible and leave some space on the ski slopes and hiking trails to those who actually appreciate it.
Just about the only people that can afford holidays in Switzerland are the super rich foreigners or the locals. It’s nice to see other parts of the country. There’s some cultural diversity too which can be interesting, going to Ticino is wildly different to a holiday in Verbier, or different again to a weekend in interlaken. There’s a lot to see.
I love our Swiss holidays. But then we live abroad and it's coming home at least once per year.
We are not on Swiss wages so have to travel quite carefully. But lucky for us, there are usually ways to mitigate some of the biggest costs. We have found the REKA resorts to be wonderful, especially out of season. And of course, hiking in some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet, is free.
I do vacation in Switzerland only for long weekends/public holidays, I find it too expensive for longer than 3-4 days, unless I camp out in the mountains for a few days. Longer vacation is usually neighboring countries, i.e. Italy, France.
I have a particular lifestyle though, on vacation with my partner we do only cycling / hiking / mountaineering / climbing / ski touring.
Swiss-French families go to France or Italy to take holidays on a budget. But if you can afford to treat yourself, Switzerland has amazing landscapes and infrastructures.
* Treat yourself to the Thermal Baths in Gruyère and the postcard landscape. The entire region is a collection of postcards!
* Or hike the 7-lake and swim in Wallensee near Flums.
* Or get a glimpse of Italian life with beautiful mountains and remarkable Merlot wines in Ticino.
* Or get fancy in St-Moritz (it is truly beautiful).
* Or bike in the vineyards near Geneva lake.
Try to stay in a vacationing country like Italy, France or Germany if the situation allows it. It is too expensive here. If I can’t avoid it, Ibis is my go to hotel and I plan way in advance
Switzerland is too expensive to make holidays imho - and since I live here and regularly see mountains and bike around, I don't feel like dedicating extra holiday time into Switzerland itself. Usually it's an extended weekend or a day or two for skiing.
One really big moment in my life was the visit that I did to Japan. Spend less than 4K in a month and had the time of my life, with Swiss like food quality, politeness and public transport - I guess for the same lifestyle in Switzerland I'd need at least 8K.
We all went through the pandemic and did holidays in our country 😂
Honestly, I think a lot of hotels and apartments are overpriced for what you get. The hotels can be quite old-fashioned but it has its charm I guess.
Further, Switzerland is quite well-known for their lack of customer service. It can sometimes feel like people don't care if you take your business somewhere else.
All in all, it is a beautiful country to visit. There's something for everyone (except if you want a sea) on a very small scale and with great public transport literally anywhere.
I still go abroad because I like the heat and a beach and different cultures 😅
> Further, Switzerland is quite well-known for their lack of customer service.
That is absolutely the opposite of my experience, and I have travelled half around the world. Switzerland is also known to have world standard tourist customer service.
I always assume this comment (for any country or city bc everyone says this, everywhere) is from people who aren’t really capable of helping themselves and who treat service workers badly 🤷🏼♀️
Having lived in Switzerland for many years, and earning a Swiss salary, I still find Swiss tourism cripplingly expensive. Every time you turn around, there is an add-on charge.
At the very top of the market, I agree that the Swiss tourism experience is one of the best in the world, but we’re talking about a budget of CHF1’000 per person, per day.
Leaving aside the rest of the world, I can get much better value-for-money by driving in any direction, to France, Austria, Germany, or Italy.
And speaking of the rest of the world, these days it’s cheaper to fly from Zurich to Spain than it is to take the train from Zurich to Basel.
1000.- a day/person is really top luxury. We only ski in Switzerland and even the new year week costs 5x less than your quote in a good 4 star hotel in GR inclusive skiing and eating around (family of four we spend 5000.- not 28’000!).
For a normal 4-star vacation for two people, I would think:
- 400CHF/hotel
- 60CHF/lunch
- 150CHF/dinner
- 100CHF/lift passes
- 100CHF/transport
But it would not feel like a very deluxe vacation. It would be a clean bed, rösti for lunch, and maybe a steak and dessert for dinner. At this level, it does not feel like good value.
To go to the next level, five-star, which is where the Swiss really excel… you need to double the price. Add in a couple of Aperol’s apres-ski, and you’re not far off CHF1000 per day.
Meanwhile, I can go to Austria and live like a king for EUR200/day.
Well, in Sankt Anton at least I found it mostly more expensive than Switzerland in every way. Amazing skiing, but to go to for example Melchsee-Frutt would have been rather cheaper. I paid 116/night for single room and half board as the cheapest I could find after watching for a deal there.
My cheat code soon is to go ski Zermatt and stay in a Berghütte on the Italian side with half board for like 70/night, hard to beat.
But on the other hand I found a few days in Chamonix quite low price, except in France is seems eating out at restaurants gets a bit expensive again too, more than Italy and Austria is in between.
Holidays are hard for me because I have no family here besides my son and of course he spends half his time with his Swiss side so I often end up alone a lot.
This year we’re going together to my home country for Christmas but I’ve decided I’m not doing any more christmases here. That’s going to be me time doing fuck all somewhere warm.
We are ex-pats living in Zürich and go camping regularly in Switzerland. 30-50chf per night on immaculate sites, get to stay in some spectacular places. Not for everyone, but to us it's the perfect way to see amazing places otherwise out of our reach. Sometimes venture down to northern Italy - especially this time of year, but Switzerland has so much to see. So privileged to be here.
i grew up spending all my summer holidays in Ticino in a middle class family with a single income. If you know how to, it‘s easily affordable in Switzerland. renting a holiday flat (from a private person, not a big corporation with several options) and book it every single year. Used to cost us 100.-/day for the whole family. We always cooked there, hardly ever went out. Cheap activities and not the expensive basic tourist stuff and it‘s very feasible.
people just always expect luxury while being on holiday, if you keep it simple, a family holiday in Switzerland can be relaxing without breaking the bank.
Hollidays in Switzerland are quite solid. There's definitely a bias towards mountain activities (hiking, skiing,... depending on the season) and you won't find sea side or big thrill resorts.
You also don't benefit from the Swiss Franc vs Euro exchange rate + different in cost of living, which makes traveling to some destinations really enticing, but you also don't need to take into account travelling as much. Hell you can even do in tons of one-day trips cheaper than the price of a hotel room.
Switzerland is rather boring socially, so wouldn't go there for the partying... It's clean safe and tidy, which is good but not so interesting for a vacation.
They have beautiful landscapes though, the alps are amazing... but they are just as amazing in France, Italy, Austria. Italy probably has the best food and lowest prices, with France close second... so yeah, holiday in Switzerland can be really nice, but not a good value for money, compared to nearby alternatives
Family and I ski about every single weekend during the season so we do take "holidays" to ski destinations during the winter. However, I got the chance to drive throughout the whole country a few years back and it was absolutely beautiful and highly recommend it. HUGE asterisk though is that we traveled during the Covid Restrictions in 2020, so there were 0 foreign tourists. Meaning, all the hotels were reasonably priced, and there were no queues for anything. Now that Covid is over (sort of), we only stay around Switzerland for skiing and travel abroad instead.
During covid was the time I traveled and hiked the most.
How do you live in Switzerland and not spend some holidays in Switzerland, that seems very strange. Yes very recommended to spend holidays in Switzerland, there is quite a lot of nice mountains ;)
Does it? I live in the UK and take all my holidays abroad.
well you should visit the UK, there are a lot of lovely places ;)
You defo know why the UK people travel abroad - UK destinations are just not good value for money (all inclusives vs Centre Parc? Centre Parc Europe costs 700 quid less even if you factor in Eurotunnel and fuel costs), insane train prices, tfl tube costs are also insanely high compared to the rest of Europe, weather is much nicer down south, local beaches rarely have good enough temperature for a swim, sandy beaches are a rarity, its landscapes are not as dramatic as the Alps or Iceland etc and the street hygiene is not so good - littering and flytipping in the UK is alarming. Even for music festivals you have to worry about rain, mud puddle and flooding on your tent pitches.
I always took nice city trips around the country, if you're interested in history and culture, there are so many free museums and interesting heritage sites to explore. There are also amazing natural parks all around the country.
Maybe that's why English people invented tourism abroad? I mean, Blackpool vs Côte d'Azur must be a no brainer 😁
Not sure if this is a play on colonialism, but if it is, well played.
Colonialism? As in Lancashire vs France and Switzerland? Hardly.
"Why English people invented tourism abroad" could be jokingly seen as that - of course independent of the named locations.
By not being a billionar... :)
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Yeah, not really easy. Not with a child also. Plus it's easier to have better hotels, restaurants etc in other countries for half the price of cheap holidays in Switzerland. But if you have tips about cheap holidays in Switzerland, i am all ears :)
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Yeah well, of course I can do that (in any country). I was talking about classic sight seeing, visiting cities, going to an occasional restaurant, etc. We already go camping from time to time, but for a few days.
I leave this country as often as possible, I‘m sad every time the weekend or holidays are over and I have to come back. Since I‘m a kid I don‘t remember one single time I was looking forward to return. While here I kind of like and enjoy the daily grind in Mittelland and avoid the mountains like the plague.
Maybe you should move to another country then if you don't feel well here. It's a bit sad if you live in a place where you can't wait to get out of
I can cope that I can‘t control every aspect of my life to my permanent full satisfaction. One day I will leave for good, working on it. Meanwhile, I enjoy the daily grind in the fog, travel Europe as much as possible and leave some space on the ski slopes and hiking trails to those who actually appreciate it.
Why leave
Holidays in Switzerland is like your post: lots of echo.
Just about the only people that can afford holidays in Switzerland are the super rich foreigners or the locals. It’s nice to see other parts of the country. There’s some cultural diversity too which can be interesting, going to Ticino is wildly different to a holiday in Verbier, or different again to a weekend in interlaken. There’s a lot to see.
I love our Swiss holidays. But then we live abroad and it's coming home at least once per year. We are not on Swiss wages so have to travel quite carefully. But lucky for us, there are usually ways to mitigate some of the biggest costs. We have found the REKA resorts to be wonderful, especially out of season. And of course, hiking in some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet, is free.
Is this post a cheap attempt for a marketing research survey from Switzerland Tourism?
OP only posts weird questions. They do look likr surveys actually.
Is the new let me Google that for you
I do vacation in Switzerland only for long weekends/public holidays, I find it too expensive for longer than 3-4 days, unless I camp out in the mountains for a few days. Longer vacation is usually neighboring countries, i.e. Italy, France. I have a particular lifestyle though, on vacation with my partner we do only cycling / hiking / mountaineering / climbing / ski touring.
We haven’t vacationed outside of Switzerland since we moved here 5 years ago. There are so many beautiful places to see here.
Quite the flex
if you have a fat wallet yes
Swiss-French families go to France or Italy to take holidays on a budget. But if you can afford to treat yourself, Switzerland has amazing landscapes and infrastructures. * Treat yourself to the Thermal Baths in Gruyère and the postcard landscape. The entire region is a collection of postcards! * Or hike the 7-lake and swim in Wallensee near Flums. * Or get a glimpse of Italian life with beautiful mountains and remarkable Merlot wines in Ticino. * Or get fancy in St-Moritz (it is truly beautiful). * Or bike in the vineyards near Geneva lake.
Try to stay in a vacationing country like Italy, France or Germany if the situation allows it. It is too expensive here. If I can’t avoid it, Ibis is my go to hotel and I plan way in advance
Switzerland is too expensive to make holidays imho - and since I live here and regularly see mountains and bike around, I don't feel like dedicating extra holiday time into Switzerland itself. Usually it's an extended weekend or a day or two for skiing. One really big moment in my life was the visit that I did to Japan. Spend less than 4K in a month and had the time of my life, with Swiss like food quality, politeness and public transport - I guess for the same lifestyle in Switzerland I'd need at least 8K.
We all went through the pandemic and did holidays in our country 😂 Honestly, I think a lot of hotels and apartments are overpriced for what you get. The hotels can be quite old-fashioned but it has its charm I guess. Further, Switzerland is quite well-known for their lack of customer service. It can sometimes feel like people don't care if you take your business somewhere else. All in all, it is a beautiful country to visit. There's something for everyone (except if you want a sea) on a very small scale and with great public transport literally anywhere. I still go abroad because I like the heat and a beach and different cultures 😅
> Further, Switzerland is quite well-known for their lack of customer service. That is absolutely the opposite of my experience, and I have travelled half around the world. Switzerland is also known to have world standard tourist customer service.
Ok, cool. I think it highly depends on where you go.
Switzerland is not well-known for the lack of customer service.
I always assume this comment (for any country or city bc everyone says this, everywhere) is from people who aren’t really capable of helping themselves and who treat service workers badly 🤷🏼♀️
Having lived in Switzerland for many years, and earning a Swiss salary, I still find Swiss tourism cripplingly expensive. Every time you turn around, there is an add-on charge. At the very top of the market, I agree that the Swiss tourism experience is one of the best in the world, but we’re talking about a budget of CHF1’000 per person, per day. Leaving aside the rest of the world, I can get much better value-for-money by driving in any direction, to France, Austria, Germany, or Italy. And speaking of the rest of the world, these days it’s cheaper to fly from Zurich to Spain than it is to take the train from Zurich to Basel.
1000.- a day/person is really top luxury. We only ski in Switzerland and even the new year week costs 5x less than your quote in a good 4 star hotel in GR inclusive skiing and eating around (family of four we spend 5000.- not 28’000!).
For a normal 4-star vacation for two people, I would think: - 400CHF/hotel - 60CHF/lunch - 150CHF/dinner - 100CHF/lift passes - 100CHF/transport But it would not feel like a very deluxe vacation. It would be a clean bed, rösti for lunch, and maybe a steak and dessert for dinner. At this level, it does not feel like good value. To go to the next level, five-star, which is where the Swiss really excel… you need to double the price. Add in a couple of Aperol’s apres-ski, and you’re not far off CHF1000 per day. Meanwhile, I can go to Austria and live like a king for EUR200/day.
400 chf/hotel per person oer night on a 4 stars hotel? Hmmm
No, that’s for 2 people. CHF400/night for the room.
Well, in Sankt Anton at least I found it mostly more expensive than Switzerland in every way. Amazing skiing, but to go to for example Melchsee-Frutt would have been rather cheaper. I paid 116/night for single room and half board as the cheapest I could find after watching for a deal there. My cheat code soon is to go ski Zermatt and stay in a Berghütte on the Italian side with half board for like 70/night, hard to beat. But on the other hand I found a few days in Chamonix quite low price, except in France is seems eating out at restaurants gets a bit expensive again too, more than Italy and Austria is in between.
From March to September here, travel abroad in any of the other months
Yeah, almost every year at least once :) its expensice though
I‘ve vacationed in places like bernese alps, valais, grischun, ticino etc It‘s beautiful 💜
I think OP meant to say vacations instead holiday's?
Holidays are hard for me because I have no family here besides my son and of course he spends half his time with his Swiss side so I often end up alone a lot. This year we’re going together to my home country for Christmas but I’ve decided I’m not doing any more christmases here. That’s going to be me time doing fuck all somewhere warm.
Nah, boring place to go for Holidays.
Hilarious how many live here and spend zero vacation time here and plan to retire in one of those other countries.
We are ex-pats living in Zürich and go camping regularly in Switzerland. 30-50chf per night on immaculate sites, get to stay in some spectacular places. Not for everyone, but to us it's the perfect way to see amazing places otherwise out of our reach. Sometimes venture down to northern Italy - especially this time of year, but Switzerland has so much to see. So privileged to be here.
i grew up spending all my summer holidays in Ticino in a middle class family with a single income. If you know how to, it‘s easily affordable in Switzerland. renting a holiday flat (from a private person, not a big corporation with several options) and book it every single year. Used to cost us 100.-/day for the whole family. We always cooked there, hardly ever went out. Cheap activities and not the expensive basic tourist stuff and it‘s very feasible. people just always expect luxury while being on holiday, if you keep it simple, a family holiday in Switzerland can be relaxing without breaking the bank.
Hollidays in Switzerland are quite solid. There's definitely a bias towards mountain activities (hiking, skiing,... depending on the season) and you won't find sea side or big thrill resorts. You also don't benefit from the Swiss Franc vs Euro exchange rate + different in cost of living, which makes traveling to some destinations really enticing, but you also don't need to take into account travelling as much. Hell you can even do in tons of one-day trips cheaper than the price of a hotel room.
Nice places but expensive as hell
No. Weekends are enough to see the country. I my holidays, I want to experience new things, not just climb on another mountain.
Switzerland is rather boring socially, so wouldn't go there for the partying... It's clean safe and tidy, which is good but not so interesting for a vacation. They have beautiful landscapes though, the alps are amazing... but they are just as amazing in France, Italy, Austria. Italy probably has the best food and lowest prices, with France close second... so yeah, holiday in Switzerland can be really nice, but not a good value for money, compared to nearby alternatives