Switzerland - what a country!
 

Thanks to the Swiss Fodors experts for their very helpful advice before our trip to Switzerland. We loved Switzerland - it is so beautiful. We stayed at the Hostellerie de Geneve in Vevey on the north central shore of Lake Geneva. This was a two-star hotel-very clean but small room and bathroom on the 4th floor overlooking the Place de Marche, a large parking lot market area right on the lake. Because of an unseasonably warm week the room was too warm with the window closed and noisy with the window open. A fan for the last half of the week helped. We purchased a Lake Geneva Regional Pass at the train station in Geneva which worked well. It was three days of free travel and four days of half-price travel on the trains, boats, funiculars and cog railways in the Lake Geneva area. We took the train to Gruyeres and Broc (chocolate factory), Gstaad, Chembrex (vineyards), Montreux and Lausanne. We enjoyed the lake trips on steamers or paddleboats to Chateau de Chillon, St. Gingolph, Lausanne and Montreux. The finiculars took us to Glion and Mt. Peladin (where we had a fabulous dinner at La Mirador)and we took the cog railway to Las Pleisades. We spent our free time along the Fleur de Promenade - great people watching, wonderful views and beautiful flowers. The food everywhere was good, but more expensive than we expected. The Vevey area and other areas we visited were not at all crowded, no bus loads of people and the tourists in the area seems to be mostly European. We're already talking about where to go and what to see on our next trip to Switzerland!

Hi Bevk and welcome home! Glad you enjoyed your trip and am especially happy to see that you are now hooked on Switzerland and will join the rest of us who return again and again. See you at the Support Group thread? and I for one would like to hear your impressions of St. Gingolph -- I've always loved the name. J.

Thanks for the great report!

How expensive is Switzerland these days in relation to their neighbors? It has been 20+ years since my last visit, and I remember it
being so expensive for a student's budget that we didn't spend as much time as we would have liked to.

Thanks!

Hi Klondike. I know you'll hear from Bevk, but may I add that I was one of those visiting Switzerland years and years ago, finding it a tight squeeze on my teacher's budget even then.

I cannot seem to stop returning however. I've had to compromise by making my trips shorter. In the 70's we used to show up at the local tourist office and they'd find us a room in a private home. I think it's still possible to do that, but I confess that these days I like to have reservations. I stay in 2-star hotels in the smallest towns I can find with train connections -- so I can use a pass. I stay in one place as many days as practical, because the longer you stay, the less expensive the room. (I see special packages on the net, so someone who is flexible can take advantage of those.) Whenever possible I get half-board, so breakfast and supper are locked in. Then, I usually skip lunch and eat icecream or something from the train station. Other than that, I just don't buy much. I spend all my time memorizing that beautiful country. By the way, if you travel by car, you might check out bnb.ch , which is the bed and breakfast association. You must return to Switzerland! J.

Hello Klondike, We've been to France, Italy and England/Scotland in the last 4 years and I found Switzerland considerably more expensive than they were, although at least part of that is due to the poor exchange rate now. Our two-star hotel in Vevey was about $130/day. Thank heavens that included breakfast. As I said it was clean but certainly not luxurious. Compared to the UK there are very few b&b and since we were not renting a car that was not an option for us. Meals were at least 20 swiss francs (or $15)per person, plus drinks, which were never less than $3, even for coffee or soda, although the wine is not much more than that! Our most expensive meal, at La Mirador Hotel high above Vevey, was around 70 CF each for three courses and wine. The view alone was worth that much. We happened to get a very inexpensive plane fare to Switzerland so it was still a reasonbly priced trip. I've already checked into home exchanges or rentals for our next trip.

Renting a vacation apartment (Ferienwohnung) has always been my best bet for economy. Most require a minimum 5 to 7 day rental, so I often mix it with a Pension/Gasthof (B&B) for another 3-4 days in a different canton of Sw. Add in a Swiss flexipass for train travel and you have it made! Almost every swiss town or district can be found on the net at www."whateverswisstown.ch". Look under Unterkunft for lodging, then Ferienwohnungen, for apartments, usually the second or third floor within a private home/separate entrance. For example wengen.ch or thunersee.ch or meiringen-hasliberg.ch...You enjoy the benefit of 1-2 bedrooms, your own kitchen for eat-in meals, a livingroom-diningroom combo and your own bathroom. Often a balcony or terrace sitting area is available.
Check out www.holiday-home.com
and vacationvillas.net for aditional listings all over the world.
Just got back from 11 days in Brienz using a Ferienwohnung, previously the same in Kandersteg. I'll never go back to hotels!

Bev, do you remember how much you paid for the Regional Pass? We're thinking of doing that in the Berner Oberland area. Joyce

Hagen, we paid 129 CHF (about $96)for a 1st class pass. The 2nd class pass was 99CHF. On our free days we did several boat trips, funiculars, longer trips, and on the half price days stayed closer to Vevey. One of the suggestions from the Fodors board was to print out the page from the Internet that described the pass and show it when we bought the pass. This was invaluable because the clerk did not understand which pass we were talking about until I showed him the page I had printed out.

When you have finished with your oooohing and aaaaahing about Switzerland, I remind you that this is the nation that held Hitler's coat while he raped most of the rest of Europe. And charged him interest for that privilege.

Switzerland's railways were used to carry boxcars filled with Jews on their way to the death camps. It was a short cut up from Italy, saved Germany a few pfennigs per passenger.

Switzerland held Nazi gold for decades before even the sketchiest of accounting was permitted by their oh-so-secret banks.

Switzerland held the insurance proceeds of murdered Jews until pressure was brought more than 50 years after the fact to pay off their beneficiaries.

Yodel, yodel, yodel. Such lovely scenery. There is a dark side to Switzerland.

USNR, you sound like a very sad, pathetic person.

While I think that Switzerland is a very beautiful country, I am not a fan of its people. I have been to Switzerland twice and I find its citizens to be rather aloof and chilly. Maybe it is just their ethos. It is sad that people who live in such a beautiful place are so miserable.

ThinGorjus, I have been to Lucerne at least a half dozen times as well as other parts of Switzerland. I find the opposite to be true. Most of the people were very helpful and polite. Europeans in general are usually more reserved and formal than Americans. When we lived in Austria, you were never suppose to use "familiar" German unless you were addressing children or had been given permission by the person. That's the way it's always been.

We found the Swiss people to be friendly and helpful. I think their attitude may be a reflection of your own attitude or expectations.

I'm sure all countries have a "dark side." If that was a concern I'd never leave my house!

bettyk - what was sad and pathetic? I think as we travel it's good to keep in mind the atrocities that countries commit on their path to prosperity, and Switzerland is no exception. Thank you for the sobering and truthful post, USNR.

As BevK said, all countries have a "dark side". Switzerland was not the only country involved in WWII. Would you not travel to Germany, Austria or Italy because of what some of their people did to the Jews over 50 years ago? No one is saying that we should forget what happened during the Holocaust, but it seems a little sad and pathetic to act like it just happened yesterday.

I would like to lend my support to USNR, I understand where he is coming from with his comments. Let us NEVER forget what happened during WWII, and what has 'how long ago' got to do with it?! Even if WWII had happened centuries ago, it doesnt make what happened less atrocious. Maybe being English, this has been 'drummed' into us (not to forget what with all that happened on English soil, too). Even though it was during my Grandparents time (grandad was in the Navy during the war), I still hold respect and sympathy. There! I've said me bit :)

Excuse me please, but can someone tell me which countries have never at any point in their history committed an atrocity against someone? Shall we never travel there again, or enjoy our time there?

Yikes! I'd better get out of the USA quick! Look what we did to those poor old American Indians!

Bev, so glad you enjoyed your trip. Hope you'll join us now on the SGFTWLS thread!

It is unfortunate that some posters will use this site for their slanderous propaganda.

Switzerland during WWII although entirely surrounded by Axis forces, refused to join the Third Reich's 'New Europe.' Despite a German food blockade which reduced the Swiss to growing potatoes on their lawns and public squares, and several planned German invasions, the Swiss never capitulated. Every Swiss man had a rifle and ammunition, and the instructions to use it against any invader, and fight to the death. Virtually every German-speaking population in any country of Europe sided with Hitler--except the Swiss. Indeed, the Swiss German-speaking press was so anti-Nazi that Goebbels labelled the Swiss, contemptuously, 'Berg-Semiten,' or 'Mountain-Jews.' While the Swiss kept up their tradition of political neutrality, they were never morally neutral. They clearly sympathized with the Allies, even smuggling the RAF bomber guidance devices through German territory disguised as Swiss watches. They also harbored far more refugees per capita than the U.S.A. During the war, The NY Times called Switzerland "an island of democracy in a sea of tyranny." Winston Churchill recalled, "of all the neutrals Switzerland has the greatest right distinction... She has been a Democratic State, standing for freedom in self-defense among her mountains, and in thought, in spite of race, largely on our side."

We love to visit Switzerland and feel very comfortable about its past.

While I disagree with your post lostinland, I don't feel at all obligated to continue marring this thread with a political discussion. Differences of opinion are not well-respected on this site, whether it be politics, dress code, or travel itself.