irynacanada

Hello, Would appreciate any suggestions.
Plan: 2 siblings more less intelligent and active arriving April 4th leaving April 11th. Booked Air bnb in Montreux as a home base. Swiss full 8 days Pass for both.
Intentions:
- day trip to Geneva via boat - ideas for what to see and any good places for the city view
- cheese train/chocolate train ( assume it is included - at least partially- in the train pass)
-day trip to Bern
-day trip to Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge
-day trip in Montreux with all Nabokov, Chaplin, Freddy Mercury, Castle,etc
-day trip to Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe and surrounding areas
- day trip to Zurich and may be Lichenstein?
Questions -
- supermarket food or cafe/restaurant?
- generally acceptable dress code? Yes, i can get away with running shoes but this is Europe
- would i be needing a winter coat for Jungfraujoch?
- $$$ cash or credit card? where is the best place to exchange and how is the situation with AMEX over there?
- Easter celebration- orthodox or Catholic? ( Orthodox is on April 8th) and what to expect ( special hours/events/closing)
- WIFI . Free on trains? Hotspots in the cities?
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

kja

I’ll take a stab at a few of your questions:

I wouldn’t worry too much about any dress code beyond the “normal” (e.g., if you go to a very high end restaurant in a city like Zürich, don’t go in shorts and flip-flops). You are a tourist, you will look like a tourist, and people appreciate the business that comes their way through tourism. JMO.

I charge when I can, using CCs that don’t charge an exchange rate – but check on your CC, as many cards do charge an exchange rate. I get currency using ATMs, which are widely available. Again, check with your banks to determine what fees, if any, they charge, and ask them what to look for to identify the ATMs that you can use for the lowest rates. And make sure your banks know that you will be traveling.

If you don’t already have a good guidebook, I strongly recommend that you get one – it will cover these issues, as well as many things you won’t even think to ask.

For ideas and options, you might want to consult my trip report. Be sure to scroll down to post 28 (and following) to a section where I described, in detail, what I did and did not do while in some of the parts of Switzerland you will be visiting:
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...thanks-983126/

Switzerland is delightful – enjoy!

thursdaysd

Switzerland is very expensive, for both lodging and food. Even fast food places can run you 20 USD a person without wine.

Europeans wear sneakers (trainers in the UK) too. I wear lightweight hiking boots because I need the ankle support and it has never bothered me.

Forget AMEX. Often not accepted in Europe. Take Mastercard and/or Visa. Check the fees. If you need a card that does not charge foreign conversion fees try Capital One. Be very wary of the DCC scam (look it up). I found it quite prevalent in Switzerland.

I don't remember whether there was wifi on the trains but hotels and cafes certainly have it.

Not sure why you expect to find many adherents of Orthodox Christianity in Switzerland. Roman Catholic, Protestant and unaffiliated predominate. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Switzerland

swandav2000

Hi irynacanada,

I visit Montreux often and usually stay for 2 weeks, so I hope I can help.

First of all, I'd like to dissuade you from going all the way to the Jungfraujoch as a day-trip; it's simply too long. I limit my day-trips to 2h in each direction by train, or else (from personal experience) my memories are just from the inside of the moving carriage. This trip will be 4h30 in each direction, so 9h total inside a train. There are very nice things to see and do right near Montreux, so you don't have to go that far. For instance, you can travel to Gstaad and ascend the Wispile or go to Zweisimmen and ascend the Rinderberg.

To help get you started, here are links to my favorite things to do around Montreux: Montreux old town http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g188108-d546444-r4080258-Montreux_Old_town-Montreux_Vaud.html Lavauxhttp://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g188108-d548013-r4089520-Corniche_Lavaux-Montreux_Vaud.html Walks through the Lavaux vineyardshttp://static.montreuxriviera.com/ra...679.1466572907 Promenade Fleurihttp://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g188108-d546443-r4085751-Lakeside_Promenade_Fleuri-Montreux_Vaud.html Morgeshttp://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g198828-r4080228-Morges_Vaud.html Gruyereshttp://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g198820-r4082503-Gruyeres_Fribourg.html Saanen http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...wiss_Alps.html Gstaad http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...wiss_Alps.htmlGstaad to Saanen https://swandav.shutterfly.com/434 Wispile Walk https://swandav.shutterfly.com/333Lutry photos https://swandav.shutterfly.com/632 There are a few supermarkets in town -- let me know where your apartment is located, and I can direct you to the nearest one. The two major supermarkets are the Coop and the Migros. Coop has better chocolate....

My favorite restaurants in Montreux (some outside of town):

Jaman in Glion, above Montreux
Caveau des Vignerons on rue Industrielle in the old town
La Rouvenaz, right across from the tourist information booth at the lake
Hostellerie de Geneve in Vevey
Le Mazot on Rue de Conseil in Vevey Oh, I also wouldn’t take the ferry from Montreux all the way to Geneva – that will be about 5h. Just take the train to and from Geneva, and spend your time on your feet, exploring the city. If you want to take a ferry ride, consider going to or from Lutry (for the vineyards) or Morges.

Well, that should get you started -- have fun as you plan!

s

swandav2000

Well, I do apologize for that mess of urls. I tried very, very hard to clean them up by putting in miles of white space around each one. The only way to add them cleanly, I guess, is to go to EACH web page and post it as a url from its site. Which is time-consuming and difficult. Going to go to the Help forums for this one.

In the meantime... hope you can get some benefit from this.

s

irynacanada

thank you so much! i have read your report , very informative

Edward2005

The intitial itinerary is much too ambitious because you will be spending far too much time on trains. Scratch Zurich/Liechtenstein and the Jungfraujoch because they are too far. For example, Montreux-Lauterbrunnen is 3 hours, then another 1.5 hours (half of that in a tunnel) to the Jungfraujoch. Spend an hour at the peak then head straight back to Montreux. That's 9 hours of rail travel for 1 hour of activity.

Why not spend a few nights in Lauterbrunnen? The Jungfraujoch would be an easy trip from there and you would get to see a lot more of the most spectacular area in Switzerland. Bern and Zurich would also be shorter trips starting from Lauterbrunnen.

irynacanada

great tip on Credit cards! thank you

Nonconformist

I'm not sure I'd recommend taking the boat to Geneva if you want to do sightseeing when you get there - it takes a really long time. I'd do that trip by train which is only about an hour each way. You could get the boat to Yvoire across on the French side - an enchantingly pretty village.

irynacanada

this is perfect! thank you, sorry i can only post 2 replies in 24 hours so took me awhile to say thank you!

isabel

I spent a week in Lausanne a couple years ago. I did a day trip to Geneva by train, on the way back got off in Nyon and took the boat across to Yvoire, France and then the boat back to Lausanne (in your case you'd obviously continue on to Montreux. I also did day trips to Gruyeres and Sion, both of which were very interesting. My main purpose for basing for a week in the area was to find a good weather day to go to Zermatt/Matterhorn. On my fifth day I finally got a good forecast and it was great. The Matterhorn is covered in clouds much of the time so if you just go to Zermatt for a couple days you could miss out, by basing on Lake Geneva I could pick the day (and on the other days do things slightly less weather dependent). On another day I did the Golden Pass Train to Interlaken, Speiz, boat to Thun, and Bern. I had been to those places on a previous trip but they actually made for a great day trip from Lake Geneva.

Here's my trip report (but the first part is France and Italy so scroll all the way to the end to get to the Switzerland part) - Photo Safari to the south of France, the Italian Rivera and the Swiss Alps

Photos are here:Zenfolio | Isabel's_View | Switzerland

PalenQ

For lots on Swiss trains and transports check www.sbb.ch; www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.co - www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com.

I'd highly suggest you do two bases one in Monreux and one in Interlaken/Jungfrau Region as a day trip there just cannot do justice to that multi-faceted area. Stay in a Wengen. As now you will be on trains much of the time.

neckervd

The next Geneva bound boat will leave Lausanne on April 15th.
The Montreux - Lausanne boat runs on Sundays only (until April 14th).
The upper part of the path to the Kuonen bridge will still be under snow and ice in mid April. You would need a full mountaineer equipment, may be you wouldn't find the snow covered path anyway.
What do you plan to do in Liechtenstein? There is almost nothing to see or to do. Th e(rather boring) train ride from Montreux up to there lasts 4 1/2 hrs OW.

PalenQ

Supermarket food? Or cafes?

Restaurants even McDonalds are very expensive in Switzerland but stores like Migros and Coop have relatively inexpensive cafeterias and supermarkets also have deli take out and of course bread, cheese and wine - those three are not so expensive. Hotels often have demi-pension where you can get buffet-type dinners and of course breakfast buffets often included in the price - eat enough to last you several hours. I have usually bought supermarket fare and at in my room or if nice picnicking. Saves a ton of money,

doug_stallings

You have some good advice here as well as some dodgy advice.

[QUOTE]"Forget AMEX. Often not accepted in Europe."[QUOTE] I simply don't understand why people say this. It's not true. Amex is widely accepted, especially in Switzerland. It should probably not be your only card, but it's not at all rare.

[QUOTE]"Be very wary of the DCC scam (look it up). I found it quite prevalent in Switzerland."[QUOTE] It's not a scam, it's a service ... albeit one that doesn't give you much for the cost. You are charged in your home currency instead of local currency. You do NOT avoid foreign transaction fees (should your credit card charge them), but you do pay about a 6% surcharge on every transaction. If anyone asks, always tell them you wish to be charged in Swiss francs. DCC is easily avoided.

PalenQ

There are few scams in honest Switzerland IMO. For dread DCC scam do as Doug above says -easily done but do at check-in or they may do it automatically DCC.

thursdaysd

Of course DCC is scam. If you are knowledgeable you know to avoid it - although sometimes that is difficult. If you are not knowledgeable you pay more than you need to.

PalenQ

How does a hotel owner profit from DCC? by setting their own low conversion rates I guess? Is it always a poor rate? Who determines the rate?

thursdaysd

According to wikipedia:

" DCC allows the merchant, merchant's bank or ATM operator to charge a markup on the exchange rate used, sometimes by as much as 18% "

" DCC services are generally provided by third party operators in association with the merchant, and not by a card issuer. "

I have not seen rates as high as 18%, but since all the cards I travel with have zero foreign conversion fees, by design, ANY markup is a scam. I have also been distressed to see this scam showing up at ATM machines.

PalenQ

I assume that there are no places that demand payment with DCC and you always have the right to pay in local currency with a charge card or of course cash. Should be drilled into every foreign traveler's head.

Thanks thursdayds for taking time to answer!