Late October Switzerland ideas & car or train?

Hi Emie,

I moved your thread out of the trip report forum (it is for people who are sharing their holiday experiences in Switzerland, and please do once you have finished your holiday!).

You may find trains are the way to go in Switzerland – I certainly think so! 🙂

You can read about traveling in Switzerland by car vs train to get some more ideas here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ca rversustrain

You can use our link here for the Swiss railways timetable to check out train timings between cities, villages and mountains: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable. Play around with it and read the instructions we have there. I think you’ll see how quick train travel can be here. It really is the simpler option most of the time especially for someone not familiar with driving in Europe and you can sit back and enjoy the scenery while someone else drives.

As Snowman notes, everything should be open in late October. Hiking at higher altitudes may/will not be possible though. I’m not sure about wine opportunities at that time of year, but Montreux is a good place to look into for that: http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux

For hiking options look here: http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king (keep in mind elevation)

Cars can be useful if you know where you are going and that it is a remote hotel in a remote village and you need to travel in and out regularly.

We ended up having to find a hotel on the fly after the landslide, and since we were traveling with our 2 children, we had to get two rooms. We were incredibly blessed to find a hotel in the middle of the night, and got the last two rooms available in the entire hotel. We were prepared to spend the night in the car if needed, but we were miserable—we rented a luxury sedan, but it was much smaller inside than our car in the US, and with the kids in back, we couldn’t recline the seats. All of the local hotels were booked, which is why we had to travel to Martigny to find a hotel.

I like Arno’s comment, that even if he got a car, he would park it and take the trains. That’s what I will do, if we are ever in similar circumstances. I don’t regret our experiences—we had a great trip—but I would prefer train travel in Switzerland in the future.

The benefit of our car travel in Europe was the ability to “stop and smell the roses,” and have flexibility with our travel. However, there are few places to stop in the Alps (at least, on the routes we took). The scenery was stunning, absolutely gorgeous, in Interlaken along the water. However, the trade-off of missing one type of vista would be more than offset by the lack of stress provided by train travel. We could have taken the train to Interlaken, gotten off the train, and experienced the area and seen those same vistas, just perhaps from a different vantage point.

A major factor regarding convenience (or the lack therof) is regarding food and bathrooms. I didn’t think of this in my earlier post, but this is a major consideration in my opinion. During our drive from Zurich to Interlaken, I needed to use the bathroom. I had difficulty even finding a place to stop; it reminded me of driving through one of our national parks. When I finally did find a bathroom, it was at a small train station which had no attendant, and the doorknob required a Swiss franc coin to turn the knob and enter the bathroom. Unfortunately, I had plenty of bills, but not coins, and this train station was so small that there were no attendants, so I could not get change for my bill(s). We had to drive further down the road, where we found another similar train station (no attendant, just an outpost) which happened to have an unlocked, free bathroom. The added stress of finding a bathroom while trying to make a specific train time was not worth all the beautiful scenery we saw on our drive.

If we had been on a train making that journey from Zurich to Interlaken, we would have had a strict timetable, and would have known exactly what time we would arrive in Interlaken. The trains are incredibly punctual. We would have had a bathroom available on board, or a bathroom available at whatever train station where we stopped/changed trains. Also, food would have been available at the station. As it was, we had gone to a Migrolino (a smaller version of Migros, one of the main grocery store chains in Switzerland) in Zurich, and ate off that food in the car. There was simply no place to get food on the road.

The joys of car travel in a country which is “made for” car travel are tremendous…but in Switzerland, all of those conveniences (of readily available bathrooms and food) are centered around the train stations, and not the roads. Trying to make it somewhere by a defined time, when driving on unfamiliar roads (therefore making accurate estimates of travel time almost impossible) caused an undue amount of stress for me, my husband, and by extension, our two children. Yes, we had an adventure, which makes for great stories now, but if I were going back to Switzerland, I would take trains. Since were traveling for several weeks through multiple countries (the others of which were more accommodating to car travel), I don’t regret the decision we made to rent a car. However, had I realized the stress we would have, I would have stayed at one hotel location in Switzerland, parked the car there, and traveled by train from that location, or packed very lightly (a carry-on and small backpack) and traveled between two “base” locations, staying a minimum of two nights per hotel to save the hassle and time waste of daily check-in and check-out.

Since we were traveling for several weeks, I booked an AirBnB in Zurich so we would have laundry capabilities. We went to Spain for the running of the bulls, and I booked an AirBnB there also, for the same reason. Those were my two laundry stops during the trip, plus we did laundry in Germany at the beginning and end of the trip. (We flew from the US into Germany to spend the first night with friends there, and then spent the last two nights there, before flying home.). I did the little bit of laundry we had before we left Germany at the beginning of the trip, because I wanted to be prepared for whatever might come in the next several days. I understand obsessing re. bathrooms and food; my main obsession/concern was re. laundry! Also, I was unprepared for how exhausted I would be from jet lag and the overnight flight. I probably should have obsessed about that too.

Regarding lodging, I read reviews on TripAdvisor and Hotels.com and Booking.com regarding the places we were considering. The AirBnB in Zurich was a last minute find, but it was very nice—also, very pricey. If you are late-to-the-game regarding reservations, expect to pay more, and only have premium options open (as opposed to budget options). Of the places we stayed in Switzerland, the hotel in Martigny was the most “budget” location, and it was still very nice (and frankly, I would have been willing to pay just about anything at that point, post-landslide). Even though it was the most “budget,” it was still quite expensive comparatively (when I put “hotels in Martigny Switzerland” in my search bar, it was one of the more expensive options). Given our unique circumstances, I figured a more upscale hotel would be more likely to have a desk clerk who spoke English (since we had this crazy situation which I needed to explain, in order to get rooms in the middle of the night). I was correct.

In Zermatt, the big hotels all seemed to be very nice from what I read online. Again, didn’t get to stay there, so can’t say first-hand. I chose a nice hotel, for the amenities and on-site restaurant. I have found that for us, an on-site restaurant works well in case we are exhausted and/or can’t find a restaurant off-site. This is a rule of thumb for my family, but that being said, we only ate dinner one night at any of the hotels where we stayed. We tend to “fly by the seat of our pants” regarding restaurants. I made sure we always had some food (fruit, crackers, cheese) with us. A nice sit-down dinner where we need to dress up did not fit into our family trip, so I didn’t plan for that. However, if I were on a trip with just my husband, I would have planned a day around a special venue for dinner (a restaurant with Michelin stars, e.g.).

I did read several options on AirBnB for Zermatt, but none of them seemed great. It is very important to me to get a good night’s sleep, which includes quiet and a good mattress. The mattresses at basically all the places we stayed were on platform beds (kind of like a futon—no box springs—but with a nicer, thicker mattress than a futon). These aren’t quite as comfortable as our US beds, in my humble opinion. Re. quiet/noise in a hotel, I would read all of the reviews VERY closely. Sometimes it takes reading several to find a bit of information really pertinent to your personal needs/desires. I have a friend who stayed off the historic town square of a place they were visiting in Spain, and there was a party/festival that night. They got no sleep! I would try to check regarding street festivals, etc. during the time you are there which might create exterior noise.

I don’t know if my timing is right on this, but I believe that in September or October, there are multiple regional festivals of the cows coming down from the alpine pastures, bedecked in flowers and with big cowbells. I would have loved to see that! Also, at Schinge Platte (where we tried to go, see earlier post!) they have Alphorn players daily from 11-2. Those are two of the things I really wish I could have seen/experienced. You might be there at the right time for those; just a thought.

Good luck with your planning!

Hi Snowman –

And, once I am established in a village in, I also use the public transport system to get to some trail heads and to explore some of the surrounding countryside. And, if I plan to indulge in any alcohol at all, I take a train or bus from one village to another, or from one city to another, and return.

Even though the USA has begun to tighten its laws on permitted blood alcohol content, it is no where near as strict as Switzerland.special restaurant.

Another reason that I use a car is that my trips tend to be two weeks or longer. There are very few publicly available laundromats in Switzerland, and the ones in tourist targets ( such as Interlaken) tend to be mobbed, and the machines are slow.

So, I carry a lot of clean clothes, including some nice ones for the occasional special restaurant. Plus my oversized hiking boots and a significant amount of photographic gear.

If I drive into a city, I do it at the beginning and end of a trip to pick up and turn in a rental car, or, to go to the Bahnhof parking lot in Luzern to leave my car when I stay in the old town. Very expensive. Easy to spend 50+ USD to park overnight in a big city.

Using both types of transportation adds cost, but give real convenience.

Slowpoke

Hi Emie-

<<“I laughed out loud when I started reading about the restrooms and food. Google has grown weary of my obsession with searching for the locations of every available public bathroom. My husband has had quite a fun time teasing me about it too. Knowing a bathroom is handy ranks high on my priority list!”>>

A Google search came up with this:

pee.place/en/l/Switzer land

and tis:

http://www.freepee.org/Europe /Switzerland/

I know there is an “app” but don’t know what it’s called.

Major train stations have added pay toilets which are super clean, in contrast to the older free ones which were merely clean.

For example:

“McClean” in Züri. Luzern, elsewhere.

The city of Zürich has a web page in German:

http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/gud/de/inde x/gesundheitsschutz/zu eriwc.html

By the way, you are looking for “toilets” not “restrooms” or “bathrooms.”

Slowpoke

You can obsess on having a bunch of coins in your purse or pockets.

I always have a rasidue from my last trip, but replenish by buying some small items that need change.

Also, the large train stations, especially those with a McClean have coin changers near them. The frequently are in working condition.

You’ll have a treat when you see your first Swiss paper money (although it is now printed on plastic “paper”).

At many train stations and all large ones, there are luggage carts. Many are designed to go up and down escalators (a look at te bottom of the cart lets you see the “grips” …which works great unless you pile on luggage that falls off when the cart tips to go up or down an escalator. They are free at Zürich Airport, but elsewhere, you put a 2 CHF coin in a slot to free the cart from the line of availables. Then, when you are done, you plug it back into a line…they are all over the station in Zürich main station, for example, and the coin pops back out for you.

Slowpoke