Switzerland for budget and non-budget travelers

In this article I will try to give you some tips about sample itinerary in Switzerland and also how to travel in one of the most expensive countries in Europe. 

Me and my partner Tsvetan decided to visit Switzerland and Liechtenstein within 6 days.We didn’t have a strict plan and our trip was quite spontaneous so of course we made some mistakes, which I would like to share with you so that you don’t repeat them ;)

Things to now before you go

I’m sure you have already heard about it but I have to start with the fact that Switzerland it’s VERY expensive country. It’s so expensive to the point that for the first time I felt that Dubai (the city I’m currently living) it’s somehow a cheap place to live :D

We all know that when you travel most of the money you spend are for transportation, accommodation and food so let’s have a detailed look on these 3 factors.

Transportation: 

There’s no doubt that the best way to enjoy Switzerland is to travel by train. I strongly suggest that you buy a money-saving travel pass for your train journeys. I regret we didn’t do this at the beginning of our trip and after that it was already pointless. 

It’s good to think if popular tourist attractions like The Glacier express are worth it considering the fact that you can visit amazing mountains with the regular trains. A very helpful website is the official website of Swiss Rail.

You can book your tickets in advance here or from one of the many ticket machines or ticket office at the train stations. 

If you decide to rent a car you should now that as everything else renting a car in Switzerland is also expensive so it might be better to start your trip somewhere in Germany and to rent a car there. In that way you can even increase the number of the countries you’ve hit up to 3 :)

Accommodation:

The average price we paid per night in decent hotels is between 80-100 CHF for a double room. 

If you decide to use hostels you can save more money even though when I looked at the prices they seemed to be ridiculous, sometimes even more expensive than a basic hotel room. 

Here are the hotels that we chose in different places that we’ve stayed:

Zurich: The Guest’s House ***

Liechtenstein: Berggasthaus Sücka - this place was really worth it!

Interlaken: Budget Waldhotel

Food:

There’s a very popular supermarket chain called “Coop” that basically saved our life during that trip. If you are staying at the place that have the facilities you can try to cook your meals. 

The trick that we were using a lot was that after 05:00-06:00pm a lot of the prices in the supermarket were dropping by 50% so try to get there around that time but don’t also forget that most of the shops close around 07:00pm

You’re in the Swiss Alps so you don’t really need to buy mineral water. Even in Zurich you can find plenty of  water fountains with potable water. So just bring a water bottle that you can refill anytime. 

We all know that Switzerland is the place where you should eat chocolate so don’t try to save money on this. It would be a crime ;)

How much it cost to travel in Switzerland?

For the whole trip (Switzerland and Liechtenstein) of 6 days in total we spent around 600 EUR per person. This includes the above mentioned 3 factors and doesn’t include the plane tickets. 

Of course we could have spent less but we didn’t want to give up on some of the small life pleasures that I will discuss later. 

Getting out of the airport

We’ve arrived with a flight from Dubai at the afternoon. Getting out of the airport is easy. 

You can take train or tram to Zurich main train station - Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zürich HB).

Since we had just 1 day in Zurich we bought tickets valid for 24h from a ticket machine at the airport. Price is 13.60 CHF per person. 

If you’re not sure about anything before you buy your ticket go to the ticket office, located on the right hand side, straight after you go through the main entrance (Bahnhofstrasse) with the huge arc. 

From the airport we took tram # 10 to Zürich HB. From the main train station we took train S10 to Triemli. The hotel that we chose (The Guest’s House) is located just 5 min walk from the Triemli station and even though the place is not very central it’s pretty convenient.  

Price per one night: 95 CHF (including tax).

                                                                  Triemli train station

Itinerary

Our itinerary for those 6 days was Zurich-Liechtenstein-Zurich-Luzern-Interlaken- some small villages around Interlaken and back to Zurich. 

So let’s start with…

Zürich

Zürich it’s a nice city even though it’s more business than tourist oriented. I think if you have a limited time or limited finances in just one day you can see the main landmarks which include:

Start your walk from the main train station through Bahnhofstrasse which is famous for being one of the most expensive streets in the world: fashion stores, chocolate shops, jewelry boutiques and of course watches. 

2) After that we walked to the bridge Uraniastrasse and continued to the famous hill Lindenhof. It’s a popular place for locals and tourists. There’s a great view over the city. There’s also a park where you can chill or even try your chess skills and challenge some local pros!

3) Take a stroll in the Zurich’s Old Town (Altstadt). The small medieval streets are full of  splendid restaurants and boutique stores. 

Tip: A helpful guide for you might be the “Zurich in your pocket” mostly free guide which you can take from most tourist offices or even from the airport. 

Find the peaceful square  with the church tower of St. Peter. 

Continue to Münsterhof square. 

In a good weather you can simply grab one of those cute small chairs and relax. 

Then we crossed the bridge - Münsterbrücke. Just across the river you’ll see Grossmünster - a graceful church in Romanesque style. 

When you cross Münsterbrücke you will be on the other side of the river Limmat. Take a stroll along Limmatquai all the way from that bridge to Rudolf-Brun Bridge. 

Limmatquai is a wide street and I personally loved it. There’s a lot of restaurants and cafeterias and also a lot of beautiful buildings. With this you’ll basically see the Altstadt. 

Don’t miss the chance to have a glimpse on Zürich Opera House. 

If you want to chill you can grab a beer and sit nearby the lake (they call this area Quaianlagen) like many other young people do. 

4) The boat tours along Limmat River are pretty popular amongst tourist. You can catch a boat form Rudolf-Brun Bridge. 

If you have a valid ticket for the public transport you only have to pay 5 CHF surcharge per person so that’s actually one of the few things you can do which is not going to cost you a fortune. 

Probably it’s nice to take the boat but have in mind that it’s not an open space so I’m not sure if you can fully enjoy the view and often they’re quite full. 

Instead of this, we actually did another boat tour. 

5) You can actually take a boat along Lake Zürich (Zürichsee). Early in the morning go to Bürkliplatz. The small beautiful square offers great views to the lake.

From here you can catch a numerous boats who offer short or long rides. The boats are quite big and comfortable. You have open area and you can have your morning coffee and some light breakfast here. 

The same rules for the ticket applies, so you only have to pay the surcharge of 5 CHF per person. 

We chose a random boat that took us on a 2 hour cruise through the following places: Bürkliplatz - Tiefenbrunnen - Zollikon - Küsnacht - Küsnacht Heslibach - Erlenbach - Thalwil and then back to Burkliplatz but through the other shore of the lake. I highly recommend you to do this. 

It was a great coincidence that the very same day when we were leaving Zurich the Tram museum was celebrating 50 years anniversary with a unique parade, old trams and epoch-fairy-dressed passengers. They looked absolutely stunning!

6) Finish the day with one of the most delicious traditional dish in Switzerland - cheese fondue. We chose a small restaurant called Fribourger Fonduestübli. It's pricey but definitely worth it!

So these are the highlights from Zurich. We’ve managed to see all of this in 24hours, so imagine what you can do if you have 2-3 days. 

Our next stop was Liechtenstein. If you want to learn more about it you can read my other post about this tiny but amazingly beautiful country. 

So after we came back from Liechtenstein (hitchhiking!) we ended up again at Zürich HB. From there we bought our tickets to Interlaken. The train journey took us from Zürich HB - Luzern - Brünig - Interlaken OST. 

Price: 51 CHF per person

I highly recommend you to stop at Luzern and explore a bit of this beautiful city. 

Luzern

It takes only 45 min by train from Zurich to reach Luzern so wherever you’re heading you have no excuse to skip that beautiful city.

You can find lockers at the train station and leave your luggage against a fee of 6-7 CHF.

Tip: You can grab a map of the city center from the tourist center at the station. It’s convenient and it gives you idea of what’s important in the city.

Once when you leave the train station you will find a huge arc and after that the amazing view of the Luzern lake.

Take a walk on the beautiful old Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke). It’s an amazing covered wooden bridge with paintings, dating back to the 17th century.

From the bridge you’ll have an amazing view towards the numerous hotels and restaurants along the lake. It feels a bit overcrowded here because there’s a lot of tourists but still we loved it.

The architecture here it’s amazing. The buildings have this fairy-tale look that I simply love. Every street looks like a piece of art.

Follow your map and get lost between the beautiful buildings in Hirschenplatz.

Continue to Weinmarkt.

If you want to avoid the crowds choose the small streets. We ended up in a really small square with a view over the lake.

If you’re looking for a nice place to rest without spending a lot of money, simply grab a beer and sit somewhere on Muhlenplatz. 

We didn’t have enough time to explore but I’m happy we had a glimpse of this town. I highly recommend you staying there at least half a day.

We jumped back on the train which took us to our next destination:

Interlaken

Once the train has arrived in Interlaken Ost we realized that the hotel that we chose is actually closer to the other train station - Interlaken West. We switched the train and after 5 min we were at the other train station.

The place that we chose to stay for 2 nights is called “Waldhotel Unspunnen”.

Price per night: 78 CHF

The hotels is located in a remote area, around 2 km from Interlaken West train station. Some people didn’t like the location but I personally loved it. It’s really peaceful place, there’s nothing nearby but just a few other guesthouses. I don’t remember when was the last time I had such a good night sleep before I came here.
We didn’t have any problem finding the place thanks to the many signs they put on the road.

The building is old but it has an amazing huge balcony and also we had small private balcony in our room.
The only bad thing is that the toilet and showers are separate but at least we had a sink in our room.

                                                               Waldhotel Unspunnen

                                                the balcony in Waldhotel Unspunnen

                                                            the area around our hotel

The local policy in Interlaken involves the hotels giving their guest a visitor’s card that gives you the right to travel for free with the public transportation. 
We decided to take full advantage of this and made a plan to visit everything that is possible in Interlaken with the public transportation.

The next day we basically saw most of the Interlaken and even though we couldn’t get far away from the city I can give you some pretty good ideas for a day trips around Interlaken if you have the time and the money.

In the morning we took bus # 104 from “Heimwehfluh" (10 min walk from our hotel) to Interlaken Ost.

10 min walk from here and you’ll reach the lift that takes you to Harder Kulm also known as Top of Interlaken. 

The viewpoint located at 1,321 gives you a great opportunities to see the city and surrounding mountains from above. In a clear weather (that we were actually lucky to have) the views are stunning! 

Price for a return ticket: 21 CHF

After that we took bus # 21 to Beatenbucht. From there you can take a lift to Niederhorn or to the middle station - Beatenberg. 

After we saw that the return ticket Beatenbucht-Niederhorn is 53 CHF per person our plans has changed. That’s why I highly recommend you the travel card. 

We went back to the previous stop - Beatus-Höhlen (St. Beatus Caves).

We climb all the way to the top. There is a nice restaurant there where you can sit and enjoy the beautiful view towards Lake Thun (Thunersee).

There is an entry fee for the caves: 18 CHF

If you are looking for some 1 day hiking in the mountain and enjoying steam trips with old locomotives, I suggest you to do the Wilderswil-Schynige Platte trip.

How to do that?

Just take bus# 105 to Wilderswil Bahnof. 

Once we arrived at the train station we realized how unlucky we were because the train starts running from 27th of May. It was supposed to be open just a few days after we left. 

From the train station at Wilderswil you can take the train to Schynige Platte. There’s a couple of  options for hiking in the mountain. 

The return ticket will cost you 64 CHF.  You can find more info here: 

Tip: there is many other options for a day trip from Wilderswil. You can take the train to Lauterbrunnen, then bus to Stechelberg and then you can take cable car (gondolas) all the way to Schilthorn. 

We stayed in Interlaken, but we couldn’t finish that long day without seeing the other lake named Brienz (Brienzersee). We finished our day enjoying a beer with this view: 

The are is called Ringgenberg and it’s one of the last stops of bus#102.There is very nice camping there called Au Lac. 

Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe)

Definitely that must be the highlight of every visit in Interlaken. 

Unfortunately we couldn’t go to Jungfraujoch  because one of us wasn’t feeling well, but if you want to go, here it is what you should know:

The train journey follows this route: Interlaken OST - Lauterbrunnen - Wengen - Kleine Scheidegg - Jungfraujoch

Price: full fare 180 CHF, 135 CHF (Swiss Travel Pass)

Tip:  If you dont’t have the Swiss Travel Pass, you can take advantage of the special good morning ticket discount and get your ticket for 145 CHF. In orderer to do that you have to take the train that departs from Interlaken OST at 06.35 or 07.05am and come back no later than 02:00 pm. 

What to see around Interlaken?

Surprisingly we found plenty of small and beautiful villages around Interlaken. Our last day we were heading to Zurich to catch an evening flight back to Dubai so we had plenty of time to explore. 

We bought our ticket to Zurich and we decided we will stop randomly at all the places we like on the way. 

So that’s what we saw:

Brienz:

This small village on the northern shore of Lake Brienz (Brienzersee) is just 15 min by train from Interlaken. It’s really beautiful and peaceful. From here you can take the Brienz - Rothorn railway. A small, cute and old locomotive can take you to an unforgettable journey all the way to the summit of the Brienzer Rothorn mountain.

The same day we’ve arrived there was some celebrations and a small orchestra was playing music just next to the lake. Somehow this reminded me so much of Bulgarian villages :)

Meiringen:

Not much to see here, but you can stop by and have a look at the Sherlock Holmes Museum which is located 5 min walk from the train station. Wonder what Sherlock Holmes has to do with Switzerland? Go there and you’ll find out :)

Views throughout the train windows are getting more and more beautiful. We pass by Lungern. 

Sachseln

We decided to stop for a small picnic at Sachseln. We saw from the train there is a lot of parks and areas nearby the lake with benches and a lot of people. So we just jump off at that stop and had lunch with that view:

I think traveling with train is the best way to explore those small places that otherwise you might miss. Just make sure you get a travel pass before that :) 

Do you wander where my next adventure would take me? Stay tuned!