How it started
We created this website to help people prepare for their holidays in Switzerland. It was a natural thing for us to do because we had both fallen in love with the country. Annika had spent many summers in Switzerland since 1985. Arno has always been a train enthusiast and couldn’t stop visiting Switzerland after his first Swiss train trip in 1997.
Since 1999, we spent many holidays in Switzerland together. It felt like a waste not to share what we had learned during our visits.
Arno’s technical skills allowed him to build the website. Annika was a teacher of Classics and enjoyed writing the articles.
MySwissAlps timeline
- 10 May 2002: launched MySwissAlps.com.
- 3 April 2010: introduced the forum and started growing the community.
- 28 January 2014: launched the second significant rebuild of the website.
- February 2020 to February 2022: challenging times during the Covid-19 pandemic. We continued supporting travelers planning future trips, and we started working on a new version of our website.
- 28 November 2023: launched the third significant rebuild of the website.
- 18 January 2024: proud to have 10.000 community members.
Our goal
Our goal is to assist with your trip planning by sharing what we know. Our Switzerland experience hopefully allows you to plan quicker and better. All you need for your trip is right here. Our friendly forum community allows you to ask for help and share tips.
We love train traveling
Switzerland prides itself on its excellent rail network. Traveling by train is very pleasant, spectacular even. It’s safe, and it helps to protect the Alps from climate change. We travel by Swiss rail a lot and we’ve covered about 90% of the Swiss railway network during our holidays.
We provide all info to help you prepare for your train journeys: we explain how Swiss public transport works, how to travel by train, how to plan your trips with the Swiss timetable, if you need seat reservations, which passes or tickets to use, where to buy them, and so on.
We’re rail pass experts
We have used many rail passes ourselves. The many rail pass options may seem overwhelming at first glance, but we’re here to help you choose:
- We list all rail passes that matter, and not just the few well-known ones such as the Swiss Travel Pass.
- We carefully explain how each rail pass works, with up-to-date information.
- For each pass, we list relevant and trustworthy points of sale.
- We pay a lot of attention to discounts and promotions.
- We provide free tools, downloads, and a step-by-step plan to help you to choose the right pass.
- The forum is where we provide help if any questions remain.
We love hiking
Switzerland’s natural beauty can best be explored on foot. Numerous well-marked trails across the Alps are just waiting to be discovered. We enjoy it a lot, so we’ve walked quite some kilometers by now.
We care for the planet
It’s important for us to work and travel in an eco-friendly manner, and help travelers to do so too. Climate change is our main concern. It already affects many regions in the world, and the Swiss Alps are no exception. This is what we do to minimize our carbon footprint:
- Office space: electricity is generated by our solar panels. If that’s insufficient, we get the rest from local wind energy through Vandebron. We have a hybrid heat pump and use very little gas. Gas carbon emission is compensated through Vandebron by purchasing Gold Standard certificates.
- Internet: we use various web services and a web server. Calculating energy consumption and knowing how power is generated for all those services is close to impossible. We made an educated guess for power consumption, assumed fossil energy, and compensate annually for the carbon emission.
- Bank: we are a client of Triodos Bank, ensuring that funds will have a positive impact on the planet.
- Transportation: we use the excellent Swiss public transport for 95% of our day trips. Our car has a low fuel consumption, and we compensate for the remaining carbon emission. The next car will be an electric one. We do not fly.
- Miscellaneous: 2.5% of our profit is reserved for further green donations or investments.
We’re tourists and locals
Arno and Annika are tourists. Our knowledgeable team members are locals. Together, we aim to offer all the help you need to prepare for your trip to Switzerland.
Community & partners
Our small team can’t do it all alone. The community helps by answering questions. Our partners provide the things you need for your holidays: accommodation, rail passes, and more. We carefully selected our partners: they need to be trustworthy, knowledgeable, and customer-friendly. If you see us refer to them on our website, you can be sure they’re the right party to turn to. We do not sell anything ourselves.