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WTandBeyond—my friends and I wholeheartedly agree. Switzerland’s way of handling this isn’t worth the hassle, confusion and unpredictability. Greece isn’t the same, but it’s better than no trip.
Yes, better than no trip and I can fly to Athens through Zurich, thereby using the $$$$ flight credit I have on Swiss Air.
Hi Mark,
I perfectly understand your confusion. The rules are very complex at the moment. We’re currently trying to get confirmed what the status is and we’ll update our initial post in this thread as soon as we know more. The way we understand things now, is that
- the SEM list determines from which countries (tourist) traveling is possible. If a country is on this SEM high risk list, traveling is not allowed
- the FOPH list determines which conditions apply when entering. This is interesting only for those whose country is not on the SEM list.
So since the US are on the SEM list, tourist traveling isn’t possible yet, even though they’re no longer listed on the FOPH list.
We hope that there will soon be one clear overview, indicating per country if and how tourists can visit Switzerland. We certainly expect things to get less complicated in the next few months (hopefully even weeks).
Hi WTandBeyond and SteelyD,
I understand your hesitance and confusion. The two lists currently used by the Swiss government are quite hard to interpret, and we too would love a clear overview per country indicating the options. We certainly expect Switzerland to open its borders and to simplify travel measures as soon as they can. But there’s no fixed date for this yet, and of course this is difficult for anyone who’s trying to plan their holidays. We’re doing our best to provide a correct overview of all measures and we’ll keep updating this thread with each relevant development – hopefully soon with promising news :-).
Thank you for the extremely clear indication that the US are not allowed just yet. That is where we are coming from and I do hope that it clears up for all. We have reservations on hold and are just waiting. Again thank you for being upfront and making things explicitly clear.
Hi,
I am travelling next week by car from the Netherlands to Switzerland through Germany. So I Will need PCR and 10 data quarantaine.
but What about travelling back from switzerland through germany. What do I need?
Can someone give advice? Because I can’t find the info.
much appreciated
Hi Kako,
Welcome to MySwissAlps!
As you will be travelling through Germany, the following links may be useful. But I recommend to always check with the German authorities for clarification, before you travel, because these rules may change at short notice.
- Travel restriction for incoming travellers to Germany: http://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/fileadmin/Dateien/3_Downloads/C/Coronavirus/Infoblatt/2021/EN-MB.pdf
- Information for travellers: http://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/en/coronavirus/current-information-for-travellers.html
Hope that helps!
Regards,
Anna
Hi Kako! In addition to Anna’s tips: you can find information about Dutch travel regulations and restrictions at http://www.myswissalps.com/nl/forum/t/het-coronavirus-en-uw-reis-naar-zwitserland. I hope that helps.
My wife and I attended a webinar hosted by Railbookers on trips into Switzerland. During the session, the host announces, as of yesterday, the Swiss government is allowing US citizens entry into the country. He did not go into details regarding restrictions or qualifications, but as per the presentation, access is allowed. Hope this helps.
Hi Tmburd and welcome to MySwissAlps,
thank you for your post.
The rules are very complex and there are 2 lists – the FOPH and the SEM lists.
From our understanding, although the USA is not on the FOPH list, according to the SEM list it is still not allowed to travel from the USA to Switzerland. We’ll update our initial post in this thread as soon as anything.
We hope that the rules will be clearer soon.
Take care,
Ildiko
Still no words/hints/rumors of when Switzerland might allow US tourists, or vaccinated tourists, in? Other European countries are making public announcements (for example France is opening June 9th) but Switzerland is remaining very silent. It’s frustrating. Do I just go ahead and cancel my trip to Switzerland and go to Greece or Italy or France instead?
Hi WTandBeyond,
The Federal Health Office is expected to make the next announcement on 26 May regarding further easing of restrictions. With the vaccination roll-out picking up pace and the introduction of a Covid Digital Certificate (for those vaccinated) by June, there is hope that international travel may be allowed again by summer.
We’ll update this thread as soon as we get some news. Let’s hope you don’t have to cancel your trip. Thanks for sticking with us.
Best regards,
Anna
A little history. I am from the US. Planned Switzerland driving tour for last June 2020, delayed dates several times and then moved everything to May of this year of this year and now have changed plans to late June into July.
I monitor the websites. There doesn’t seem to be any authoritative information on tourism from the US. I received the email from news.admin.ch concerning the “Federal Council adopts strategy for the coming months”. What that doesn’t reveal is what plans are for opening Switzerland for tourism and specifically from the US.
I know its a complex issue and when people are dying from Covid, decisions are difficult.
Am I the only person struggling to understand whet Switzerland is doing?
I read about other European countries with opening dates…
Thanks and have a great day
I just use this website. I find it the easiest to understand – just read the first post. It’s updated regularly. When I read the official sites I just get confused by all the different lists.
I, too, cancelled last year’s trip and am hoping conditions will be such that I can spend September in Switzerland once again.
Hi Richard123,
I totally understand your concern. We expect the US to be removed from the “high-risk” lists soon, but that is no guarantee. It has already been announced that travelers from the US may travel to the European Union in the coming summer.
The best you can do is check the first post in this thread regularly, you’ll find all the updates there. Also you can check the recommended sites in that post, you’ll find the list of the official pages there.
I am sorry I couldn’t tell you anything more at the moment.
Take care,
Ildiko
Always appreciate your reply.
You don’t need to feel bad, sorry etc for the situation. After years of planning, here we are in mid May and when you hear other countries are planning for tourism this “summer”…. For me, “summer” doesn’t put dates for planning…
Once again, I am not blaming or upset with anyone.
As I said in my first post….”Federal Council adopts strategy for the coming months”. never a mention of non-essential travel?
The following is also a useful site for the US Travelers – travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages.html
You can input the country you want to visit and it will list current restrictions
I pretty much check it daily because I too have been rescheduling a trip since last June.
Hoping that the May 26 update from Switzerland will be good news
It doesn’t look like the SEM list has been updated since February 2021. The FOPH list seems to update every two weeks but no changes to the SEM list in months. Seems pointless to make changes to one without the other. 🤷♀️
In reality, there is a lot of information..However, when you find the web page dated in April and March, you kind of have to discount it. I know that the top of this forum is updated. Once again, ( I am so simple minded ) give me a page that tells me as a vaccinated US citizen when I can travel to Switzerland, what approved documentation etc.
Hi Richard123! I get your problem. There’s lots of information out there, but it’s quite hard to interpret. We do our best to translate it into understandable travel advice for tourists in our initial post in this thread. The Switzerland Tourism country list, to be downloaded from this first post, is pretty straightforward; it just can’t predict future options.
We too hope that there will soon be more clarity on tourism and travel possibilities. Unfortunately, there’s no clear plan yet and we can’t give you an (estimated) date for when traveling as a vaccinated US citizen is possible. As of last Wednesday, we do know that further relaxation of measures might follow on May 31. This would include the lifting of quarantine requirements for vaccinated travelers. I can’t tell yet whether this goes for travelers from all countries, or only from countries from which travelers are allowed in anyway according to the SEM list. Of course we’ll keep an eye on the news and update our information.
I do expect Switzerland to allow tourists back in as soon as they think this is safe, and announce this as soon as they have a planning. They certainly aren’t forgetting about tourism from abroad or ignoring this branch, and I have good hopes that the US will be one of the first countries to be allowed back in.
Let us know if there’s anything else we can help you out with!
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