kellyOh

Hi, Would love to have some advice from the experienced

We will be travelling to switzerland in early to mid march with a total of 9 days. Paid all our hotels. intended to buy a swiss saver pass for the 3 of us when we reach zurich. We are on a very tight budget after paying the hotels and the swiss saver pass!

Would love to know how much do we need for food for our next 9 days. We don't mind on eating sandwiches but will not be able to cook as our hotel will not provide us the 'luxury' to do so. We will be in Lucerne for 2 nights, interlaken for 5 nights and geneva for 1 night.
Only 3 mornings are provided for breakfast.

And how much do we need to allocate for other transportation for fees which are not included in our swiss saver pass. We intend to go:

1) Mt Rigi: by both steamer and train ( covered by swiss pass)?
2) walking around the old town of lucern
3) travel to interlaken from lucern ( covered by swiss pass)?
4) jungfraujoch ( with some discounts only)?
5) City of Bern, ride the cruise from interlaken, spiez ( anything that is not covered by swiss pass)?
6) From interlaken to geneva but plan to stop at montreux/ vevey to visit the Chillion castle.. Is the journey from interlaken to geneva with a stop in montreux fully covered by our swiss save pass?

With the places we intended to visit and our 9 days 8 nights meals, roughly how much will we need?

THank you in advance

p/s: cant wait to go!! BTW, search the weather forecast, it did mentioned that it may probably snow in early march.

sparkchaser

180-200CHF per day minimum.

dreamon

If you go to sbb.ch/en and attempt to buy tickets, selecting your pass as discount you can see how much most journeys will cost you.

As for food, it all depends on how many picnics you want, how often you want to stop for a drink, etc. We found food (both sitdown and takeaway) to be similar to prices in Australia (where are you from?). Caveat - we've only spent about a week there in recent times.

neckervd

With Swiss Saver Pass:

Rigi:
all Lake Lucerne boats are free
cog railways from Vitznau and Arth-Goldau to Rigi are free
gondola Weggis - Rigi Kaltbad: not included

Lucerne city bus: free
most Lucerne museums: free

Lucerne - train or boat - Alpnachstad - train - Brienz - train or boat - Interlaken: free

Jungfraujoch with Swiss Pass: 131 CHF/pax
I would never do that and go to Gornergrat (40 CHF with Swiss Pass) instead, but most (overseas) people in this forum have another opinion.

Lake Thun, Thun city buses, Bern city tramways and buses, most Bern museums: free with Swiss Pass
Cablecar Bern - Gurten: half fare

Interlaken - Gstaad - Montreux - Geneva: free

Meals (with drinks):
Migros/Coop/Manor self service restaurants: 10 - 20 CHF/pax
Pizza or pasta meal in Pizzerie: about 20 CHF/pax
dish of the day in city restaurants: 20 - 30 CHF/pax
local specialities: 20 - 50 CHF/pax
gourmet restaurants: 80 - 200 CHF/pax
1 bottle of table wine in a restaurant: 30 - 60 CHF
1 bottle of table wine in a supermarket: 5 - 15 CHF

nytraveler

So - when you will be in Swtiz is still winter/ski season in the mountains. You have to expect quite to very cod weather and snow. This is not green fields, Heidi and cowbells - that would be late May or June.

Switz is expensive for everything - food is typically twice what it would be in the US - not sure if that help you. And don;t think you will have the weather to do any picnics - although you can get prepared sandwiches and eat them in your room for dinner.

Do you have the necessary winter gear to visit Switz at that time? (Have a look at weather websites. Temps for the cities seem to be 5 to 10 degrees for highs with lows down around zero - C - but it will be well below freezing up in the mountains.)

isabel

I found Switzerland to be much more expensive than anywhere else in Europe except Scandinavia. I even ate at McDonalds a couple of times, it was just about double the cost in the US. The Migros/Coop stores do have quite decent sandwiches/salads, etc and that's actually where I got most of my meals. A sandwich (good size) was about equivalent to $10. That was this past summer. Back in 2005 we went and were based in Interlaken for 5 days but we stayed at a B&B that had a tiny kitchenette and it was just down the street from a grocery store and that was a real money saver as we made breakfast and dinner and packed picnic lunches. Both my trips were in the summer though.

I agree with the suggestion above to do Gornergrat (Zermatt/Matterhorn) if you want a 'top of the mountains' experience. I walked partway down and it was one of my best travel experiences ever (23 trips to Europe so that's saying something) but I'm not sure you can do that in March. The whole time we were in Interlaken we never got good enough weather to warrant the cost of going up to Jungfraujoch. Some of the other cable car rides in that area were less expensive if I remember correctly but they don't go to the 'top'.

This summer I had a Swiss Pass and it was great to just hop on a train without worrying about the expense (after of course the expense of buying the pass in the first place).

Christina

I was in Switzerland (Lucerne and Montreux) a few years ago, and didn't find things any more expensive than lots of places in Europe. I don't eat at McDonalds, but just modest restaurants, cafes, and if anything, I think I found things a little cheaper than in Paris or London, for example. And Montreux and Lucerne are not cheap places. I was expecting it to be a lot more expensive based on hearing that all the time on Fodors, but it wasn't, to me. I think drinks (water, coffee, etc), in particular, were cheaper in cafes than in Paris, which I noticed.

isabel

Well I guess that shows you that different people can have very different reactions to the same places. I have been to London and Paris many times and I think Switzerland is MUCH more expensive. In fact I was in both Paris and Montreux this past summer (same trip, a few weeks apart) and definitely thought Montreux was way more expensive.

travelgourmet

Switzerland is the most expensive place in Europe, save maybe Norway. Generally more expensive than Denmark or Sweden, which would be the next most expensive.

About the cheapest possible dining you could do would be eating out of the supermarkets and are probably still looking at CHF 30-40 per person, per day for 3 decently filling meals + drinks + any snacks. Personally, I find the food at the supermarkets to be pretty disgusting, but others disagree. You may also have some luck with decent food from the pretzel carts in the train stations, especially for breakfast and this would save some money. Doner kebab is also pretty "cheap" at around CHF 10.

Sparkchaser is pretty much spot on with the CHF 180-200 for the 3 of you, minimum, once you factor in incidentals.

kellyOh

THanks sparkchaser, dreamon, isabel, neckervd, nytraveler, christina and travel gourmet.

Understand that this is a pretty subjective question and all your answers does really give me a big picture of what to expect.