Switzerland Travel Guide - Switzerland(German: Schweiz, French: Suisse, Italian: Svizzera, Romansch: Svizra) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It has borders with France to the west, Italy to the south, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east and Germany to the north.
The climate is temperate, but varies with altitude. Switzerland has cold, cloudy, rainy/snowy winters and cool to warm, cloudy, humid summers with occasional showers.
Switzerland is known for its mountains (Alps in south, Jura in northwest) but it also has a central plateau of rolling hills, plains, and large lakes. The highest point is Dufourspitze at 4,634 m while Lake Maggiore is only 195 m above sea level.
Regions
Lake Geneva - A tourist region surrounding Lac Léman
Jura Mountains and Fribourg - Hiking, lakes, watch-making
Bernese Lowlands - The core region of Traditional Bernese influence
Bernese Highlands - The Bern alps
Central Switzerland - The Swiss homeland, William Tell, etc.
Basel - Industrial city, with countryside
Zurich - A tourist region in its own right
Northeastern Switzerland - Extending east from Aarau in Aargau canton. Generally not mountainous.
Valais - A skiing/hiking oriented tourist region
Graubunden - region which is the same as canton Graubunden, very mountainous, lightly populated and home to many of the greatest tourist cities
Ticino - region which is the same as canton Ticino
Cities
Zurich - Switzerland's biggest city and a major center of banking also has a thriving nightlife.
Geneva - This center of arts and culture, the second-largest city in Switzerland, is by far the international capital-- home to around 200 governmental and non-governmental organisations. Geneva was the home of John Calvin during the Reformation, elevating the city to the rank of "Protestant Rome," the effects of which drive Geneva today.
Berne - The Swiss capital features an amazingly well preserved old-town with arcades along almost every street. Great restaurants abound, as do bars and clubs. Check out the Einstein sites as well.
Basel - Slightly smaller than Geneva, Switzerland's third city is the traveller's gateway to the Rhineland and Alsace.
Lausanne - While Geneva is busy being the international capital, Lausanne fills the role in most of the rest of French-speaking Switzerland. Scenery, dining, dancing, boating and the Swiss wine-country are the draws.
Lugano - Italian-speaking Switzerland's top destination, with a gorgeous old-town and a pretty lake. The food is simply amazing.
Lucerne - Central Switzerland's main city with direct water links to all of the early Swiss historic sights. It's pretty too, and though it is heavily touristed the views and museums make putting up with the crowds well worthwhile.
Zermatt - There are a lot of mountain resorts in Switzerland, but only one of them has the Matterhorn.
Solothurn - Solothurn, situated on the river Aare and ont he foot of the Jura mountain range is referred to as 'Switzerland's Finest Baroque town'.
Interlaken - The outdoor and action sports capital of Switzerland. Anything from skydiving, bungee jumping, hiking, white-water rafting, to canyoning.
Get in
Major international airports are in Zurich, Geneva and Basel, with smaller airports in Lugano and Berne. Flying into nearby Milan (Italy), Lyon or even Paris (France) or Frankfurt (Germany) are other options though rather expensive and time-consuming (3h Frankfurt-Basel, 4h Milan-Zurich, 5h Paris-Berne) by train. Some discount airlines fly to Friedrichshafen, Germany which is just across Lake Constance (the Bodensee) from Romanshorn, not too far from Zurich. The Flagcarrier of Switzerland is SWISS which is a member of Star Alliance and successor of the famous Swissair.
Trains arrive from all parts of Europe. Switzerland is together with Germany one of the most central-lying countries in Europe, making it a center of railways and highways to the rest of Europe. Some major routes include:
The TGV, with several trains daily from Paris, Avignon, Dijon, and Nice.
Hourly trains to/from Milan with connections to all parts of Italy (also night-trains to Rome and Venice).
Hourly ICE (German high-speed trains) from Zurich to Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Frankfurt in Germany, many continuing toward Amsterdam, Hamburg or Berlin.
Regular ICE trains from Zurich to Stuttgart and Munich
Every night trains from Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Vienna, Belgrade, Rome and Venice to Basel, Geneva, Zurich and some also to Lausanne and Geneva.
Get around By plane
The following carriers offer domestic flights within Switzerland:
SWISS (Basel/Mulhouse (EuroAirport Swiss), Geneva (Geneve-Cointrin Airport), Lugano Airport, Zurich Airport)
Darwin Airlines (Berne (Belp Airport), Geneva (Geneve-Cointrin Airport), Lugano Airport)
But in almost every case you will be better off taking the train.
Public Transport
The Swiss will spoil you with fantastic transportation - swift, disturbingly punctual trains, clean buses, and a half dozen different kinds of mountain transport systems, integrated into a coherent system. The discount options and variety of tickets can be bewildering, from half fare cards to multi-day, multi-use tickets good for buses, boats, trains, and even bike rentals. In general there's at least one train or bus per hour on every route, on many routes trains and buses are running every 30 min, but as with everything in Switzerland the transit runs less often, or at least for a shorter period of the day, on Sundays. Authoritative information, routes, and schedules can be found at http://www.rail.ch, or from a ticket window in any train station.
Tickets
No one in Switzerland pays full fare for the transit system. At the very least they all have a Half-Fare Card (Demi-tariff/Halbfahr) which saves you 50% on all national buses and trains and gives a discount on local and private transit systems. Press the '1/2' button on the ticket machines to indicate you have this card, and be prepared to hand it to the conductor along with your ticket on the train. Annual half fare cards cost CHF150; foreigners can buy monthly cards for CHF99. You save CHF 57 on a round-trip ticket from Zurich to Lugano, so if you are planning on travelling a lot, it will quickly pay for itself.
The next step up from a half-fare card is a Swisspass, which grants you access to all national bus and rail, all city transit systems, and hefty discount on privately operated boats, cable cars, and ski lifts. These range from CHF 260 for a 4-day, 2nd class pass to CHF 578 for a month pass, 2nd class. Like the half-fare, you can buy this from any train station ticket office.
Only two trains in Switzerland require reservations: Bernina Express, running daily between Chur and Tirano and the Glacier Express running from St. Moritz to Zermatt.
Travel
Using the trains is easy, although the number of different kinds of trains can be a bit confusing unless you know that the schedules at a Swiss train station are color coded. The yellow sheet is for departures and the white sheet is for arrivals. Faster trains appear on both of these sheets in red, while the trains in black stop at more stations. For long trips it is often easier to use the website, as it will pick transfers for you. You need not fear transfers of five minutes or less. You will make them, provided you know exactly which platform you arrive on and which one you depart from. Many Swiss commute with a one or two minute transfer!
At the track, the signs indicate the destination and departure time. The small numbers and letters along the bottom show you where you can board the train. The letters indicate the zone you should stand in, and the numbers indicate the class. The class (1st or 2nd) is indicated by a "1" or "2" on the side of the car, these correspond with the numbers on the sign.
Luggage can be stowed above your seat or in between seats, or on a rack at the end of the car. During busy periods, people often stow large luggage (or skis) in the entrance area in between cars. This is usually fairly safe, but use common sense.
The variety of trains is bewildering at first, but is actually quite simple. The routes the SBB website suggests will make much more sense if you understand them. All trains have a one or two letter prefix, followed by a number, for example S3, IR2781. Only the prefix, the destination, and the time of departure are important.
S trains are local trains. They stop everywhere or almost everywhere, and generally reach into the hinterlands of a major station like Lausanne, but not to the next major station (in this case Geneva). If you are going to a small town, you may transfer at a large station to an S train for the last leg. Often you can use tickets from city public transit on the S system, but ask before trying.
RE trains (RegioExpress) generally reach from one major station to the next, touching every town of any importance on the way, but don't stop at every wooden platform beside the tracks.
IR trains (InterRegio) are the workhorses of Swiss transit. They reach across two or three cantons, for instance from Geneva, along Lake Geneva through Vaud, and all the way to Brig at the far end of the Valais. They only stop at fairly large towns, usually those that boast three or four rail platforms.
IC trains (InterCity) are two decker express trains with restaurant cars. They are sumptuous and comfortable, often putting vaunted services like the TGV to shame, and make runs between major stations, with occasionally stops at a more minor one where tracks diverge.
ICN trains (InterCity) are the express tilt-trains, as luxurious as the IC trains. They run between major cities like Geneva, Lausanne, Zürich, Biel, and Basel.
There are also a number of small gauge railways that don't fit this classification that supplement the busses in the hinterlands, such as the line from [Nyon] to [La Cure].
You can bring your bicycle on every train in Switzerland, with two provisos: you must have a ticket for it (available from the ticket machines, CHF 10 for a day pass), and you must get on at a door marked with a bicycle. On ICN trains and some IR trains this is at the very front of the train.
Information for railway fans
In Switzerland nearly all railways run electrically but it is possible to find many steam railways such as the Brienzer Rothornbahn or the Furka Railway for instance. There are many interesting mountain railways of all types. In Switzerland most electric trains get their power from a single phase AC network at 15 000V 16 2/3Hz. This network uses its own powerlines run with 66 kV and 132 kV, which have, unlike normal power lines, a number of conductors not divisible by 3. (Most powerlines for the single phase AC grid of the traction power grid have four conductors.)
Here is short list of remarkable railway lines:
The Glacier Express from St. Moritz to Zermatt, a 8 hours travel in the swiss Alps.
The Bernina Express from Davos to Tirano, the highest transversal in the Alps, high mountain scenery.
The Jungfraujoch railway, from Interlaken (560 meters) to the Jungfraujoch station (3450 meters) in two hours. Definitely the most impressive journey in the Alps.
The Gornergrat railway, departure from Zermatt to the 3090 meters high Gornergrat.
The Lötschberg is a line connecting Berne and Brig, not considered as a mountain train but still impressive scenery.
Car
For using the motorways you need to buy a "Vignette", a sticker which costs 40 CHF that allows you to use the motorways as much as you like for the entire year. Avoiding the motorways in order to save the toll price is generally futile; the amount is well worth it, even if you are only transiting. Other roads may have additional tolls levied, such as the Gottard base tunnel.
Speed limits: 120 km/h on motorways, 80 km/h on normal roads and 50 km/h inside villages. Whilst driving "a wee bit too fast" is common on motorways people tend to stick pretty closely to the other two limits. Fines are hefty and traffic rules are strictly enforced.
