Having travelled across the country, I wanted to write about the biggest surprises and things I learned along the way that could be useful for anyone about to jet off to Switzerland.
The Tap Water Is Drinkable & Great Quality
We found fountains almost everywhere we went, ideal when carrying around our 2 litre refillable bottle. The tap water is drinkable and actually rated as one of the safest in the world, which is unsurprising when you think about the climate and mountainous region.
However, many restaurants charged for tap water, so be careful if you say yes to some or ask for water, just double check that it is free.
Boat Ticket Scam in Zurich
Do not book a boat ride in Zurich in advance. Raquel tried, even put in her bank details, but found out the companies ranking on Google were largely all scams! The reviews pointed to this, but she didn’t realise until a bit later.
However, we turned up on the day, it was very quick and easy to get a ticket and it was far from full, so you don’t need to book a ticket in advance. Plus, it was half the price when booking on the day to what was being shown online, so save yourself money and give yourself more freedom on time by turning up when it’s convenient for you.
Public Toilets Aren’t Free in Zurich
Make the most of any restaurant or cafe you visit, as they charge for public toilets in Zurich. We’re talking 1 CHF which is almost £1. Once you leave Zurich, many of the public toilets are free, but Zurich is a very expensive city and that stretches to public services.
Fortunately, they do accept card at many of these public toilets, so you don’t need a coin, something that was required in the past apparently.
Queue At The Airport
This was the worst queue I’ve ever experienced in any airport in my life! We’re talking a horrific experience. It was maybe a 3.5 hour queue to get through passport control in Zurich airport. This is for non-EU citizens, which we are in the UK due to Brexit.
So, here is the trick, on the left hand side they have the self-service machines to register your fingerprint and then a slightly shorter queue, I reckon it still took 2 to 2.5 hours, so you’ll shave off an hour by going on that route.
No Mobile Signal In Interlaken
The moment we got to Interlaken we lost all mobile signal and we didn’t gain it back until 2 days later when we left. Obviously, this is fine when you’re at your hotel as you can use the WiFi, but when walking about town, I couldn’t use Google Maps.
So, you can actually download an entire town on Google Maps in advance, so that it can be used offline, I’d recommend doing this if you’re visiting Interlaken so you’re not caught short.
Grindelwald to First
This is one of the most popular attractions in Switzerland, as people head up on the cable car and walk along the viewpoint looking out at Grindelwald. But then the journey back down is an interesting one, you can just take the cable car, or you could take a mountain cart part of the way, with trottibikes another part of the way.
So you get up to First, then you can either take the gondola back down one to Schreckfeld or walk it (or obviously the whole way down if you prefer). Then at Schreckfeld you can ride the mountain carts to Bort, this was arguably the best thing we did the entire holiday! However, be prepared for a 1 hour queue for the mountain carts, which we did in the 30 degrees heat, not ideal.
Then from Bort to Grindelwald, you can get the trottibikes all the way down. Ok, I heard bikes and was excited, this was more of a standing scooter, it was alright but no where near as fun as the mountain carts. If you enjoy walking, that would be just as good and would save you money.
So to summarise, you HAVE to do the mountain carts, the rest is completely up to you.
Coins For Parking
We didn’t take out any currency, I purely used card, however almost every single parking space required coins and didn’t accept card, which wasn’t ideal. Some had stickers for apps you can use, but two issues with that. Firstly, you have to download the app when out, which is a bit of a hassle. Secondly, I don’t really trust stickers attached to parking lots as I know many of these are scams.
You can of course just look up the apps in advance and download them, something that is worthwhile if you’re planning on driving around, but equally worth getting a few coins on you to save time and effort.
Orange Lines On The Road
If you’re renting a car then this is one for you. When we were driving along the motorways and main roads, we would occasionally see orange road markings, which people followed as their lanes instead of the set white lane markings.
This is because the orange road markings are temporary and mark the correct route to take, which isn’t 100% obvious when driving. They’re often put in place due to roadworks or temporary traffic lights. If you have a modern car, it will have lane assist and might try to battle the route you’re taking, which is another odd one.
Double Decker Trains & No Barriers
I’ve barely ever seen the double decker trains in my life, but as soon as you do, you wonder why they don’t have them back home, as they’re incredible!
But the main point here was that it was very simple to buy a ticket from a machine and there were no barriers anywhere, it’s a complete trust based system which I love. I can’t say this will be the same at every station, but I was surprised how much you don’t need to go through any ticket barriers. I’m assuming they may have a few conductors to make sure people have bought their ticket.
Rösti is Everywhere
I had read that I need to tick off Rosti when I visit Switzerland, however I didn’t need to do this in such a rush, as it was available in every restaurant we visited during the 10 days. It’s the most basic aspect of their menu, sneaked into most meals. It was even available in the hotel breakfast half of the time.
If you’re never heard of Rosti, think of it like a circular hash brown. It’s often served with egg, cheese, ham or bacon, while it’s made from grated potato.
Cheese Heaven
I love cheese, I have always loved cheese, but even I was a bit cheesed-out by the end of the holiday, with the menu being stuffed with cheese in almost every meal. From raclette to fondue and meals relentlessly containing emmental, this really is the perfect place for cheese fans.
Switzerland proudly produces over 450 different varieties of cheese, so they’re inevitably a staple of the menu in almost every restaurant. Many of the meals you have to ‘tick off’ are cheese-focused, but I don’t think I could eat fondue more than once on a holiday, or I’ll double my weight.
“Re-Routing”
If you hire a car, on the drive you’ll go through a number of tunnels and you’ll also lose GPS reception with all the surrounding mountains, which means maps gets confused and you’ll hear ‘re-routing’. In fact, on every 2 hour drive, we’d maybe hear ‘re-routing’ stated approximately 150 times. It was slowly driving us insane.
The important thing is to ignore maps, once you get out of the tunnel it will realise you’re still on the same road, it was very confusing the first few times as we thought we took a wrong turn, but eventually we learned just to ignore the satnav.
