Cheap holidays in Switzerland: save on food

Supermarkets

Swiss supermarkets can be quite expensive. But if you know what to look for, you can save a lot:

• Check whether cheap supermarktes such as Denner or ALDI are available in your resort. Use the store locator ("Standorten" or "Filialsuche" in German) at their websites to search for store locations.
  Denner
  ALDI
• The largest Swiss supermarket chains are COOP and MIGROS. Both have their own affordable brands. You can find products with the logos "Coop Qualité et Prix" and "Prix Garantie" in COOP supermarkets. MIGROS has its "M-Budget" brand, which can be recognized by the green-white packaging and the orange MIGROS logo.
  COOP
  MIGROS

Dining out

Cook your own meals as often as possible, using products from a supermarket. This way, you will save on dinners in restaurants. If you do want to go out for dinner, this can be affordable as well.

• Restaurants of COOP supermarkets offer inexpensive menus from CHF 10.
  COOP Restaurants
• pay attention to inexpensive daily or weekly menus offered by hotels and restaurants.
• You don’t have to tip in restaurants. By law, the service fee is included in the bill. Of course, an additional small tip will always be appreciated.

More tips

• Take along food and drinks on day trips. Supermarket products are cheaper than products in tourist towns and at mountain restaurants.
• Don’t buy bread rolls, but whole breads. Buy some Swiss cheese as well and you’ll have a cheap Swiss lunch along the way.
• Swiss tap water is clean and safe to drink, so you don’t need to buy bottled water.