Switzerland Travel Tips
I wanted to write about my trip to Switzerland, but before that, I want to first write few tips based on my experience. This will be helpful for others planning to visit. This is based on my experience and taste. It may need to be customised for your travel. I am not going to tell what all to see in detail because that information is available in the Swiss Tourism website (http://www.myswitzerland.com).
DURATIONI went to Switzerland for three days but four days (and 3 nights) is recommended duration. In this duration you will be able to see most delightful places and give enough time to them all. Longer the stay, the better, based on your cost and holiday duration. STAY
Switzerland has traditional hotels as well as modern hotels. I prefer the chalet hotels in Switzerland because of their personalised touch and because it is the thing famous in Switzerland. It also gives the Swiss experience. But if you are not willing to compromise on comfort, go for modern hotels. I found Ibis Hotels http://www.ibishotel.com to be good and affordable. Be informed that the hotels in Switzerland are quite expensive In personal experience, I stayed at Hotel Seeburg http://www.hotel-seeburg.com which was nice and affordable. It is about 4 KM away from the Interlaken City Centre. It was a lakeside hotel adjacent to Lake Brienz. So the view from the hotel was quite good. Usually you start the day early and the day ends early too. 8 pm is dinner time, so if you have had dinner and reached hotel at 9 pm, it is nice if the view from hotel is good because the sun goes down after 10 pm in summers. You can have a lakeside coffee or something. This hotel is recommended for its nice location and price. Hotels can be booked with the hotel directly or using the Swiss railway travel website (http://travel.sbb.ch) or the Swiss Tourism website (http://www.myswitzerland.com) Do not be worried even if you reach Switzerland without prior reservation. There are ample number of hotels and many of them are not listed on the online reservation sites. You can go to any town or village (during office hours, of course) and it will have a small tourist information center near the bus station/stop or the train station, clearly marked. There you can inquire there and they will be able to arrange suitable accommodation. Many families have extra floors in their houses which are available for tourists and they are good. TRANSPORT
Though the best way to go around would be by a rental car, if you cannot or do not want to go by car, use public transport which is excellent. Switzerland is now part of Schengen area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area), so you can visit it using the same visa by which you visit any other European country. Going around is easy, you just need to know the route. Do check for the toll requirements for Swiss Autobahns. If I know correctly, there is a toll sticker required which costs about 40 euros. But it is valid for a year and includes toll for all the bridges, tunnels and roads in the country. By public transport you can reach any part of the country. The network is excellent. Also, there is a transport (train/bus) every one hour, so you need not worry about staying in city center, you can stay in a village and every morning reach from hotel to city by trains. Changing trains is very common and usually there are good connections. Train run on time. You can take fast trains from one major city to other and then go around the place via the regional or local transport. If you enter the source and destination in the railways website, it will tell you even the local transport connections. This web application is also available on mobile and on terminals at ticket center of major stations. If you are going for few days ( 4 or 8) and planning to depend on public transport, you can take the Swiss Pass. This allows you unlimited travel in all public transport, including inter city trains and allows entry into all the museums. If you are going for longer duration and will use trains only to visit other city once in a while, then Swiss Flexi Pass is better. It can be purchased at most major railway ticket offices, including the one at the Zurich airport. Most times, you will have to change trains, so the map of Swiss railway network is useful. If you plan to visit a place with no direct connections, go to a mojor city on the train route and find connections from there. Major train stations are Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne, Lausanne and Bern. Whenever you are going to visit a place, check the return time of the train bus at the stop when you reach. Usually the frequency will be once every hour so you can plan your return. The yellow chart is for departures. Keep paper and pen handy to note the details. WHAT TO SEE
I have seen many museums and cities, I liked Switzerland for its scenic places which are mostly outside cities. For example I would go to a city and then take a local train to nearby sight seeing / scenic places. I would get down at any station which I like beautiful and spend some time there. Lake Geneva region near Lausanne are very beautiful. The regional trains circle the lake and the view is wonderful. We travelled in the direction of Lausanne to Montreux and we got down from the train at several places. Most lakes and rivers will have a path to walk on its banks which will be nice to walk along. Also, you can visit the mountains using trains (the cogwheel trains are expensive). Jungfrau is the highest point in Europe and definitely worth visiting.
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