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I’m wondering how much money I would need for a day in Geneva. I’m talking transportation and 3 meals.
will 100 CHF be enough?
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Hi Haniakomi,
If you are staying in a hotel in Geneva you will normally be given a Geneva Transport Card that entitles you to free public transport for the duration of your stay.
I am assuming you are talking about taking 100 Chf cash to cover your meals.
This amount is unlikely to cover your meals in Geneva unless you have small appetites. However, credit and debit cards are widely accepted in the city so you will not have to rely on cash for meals.
Jane
I will be staying at a hostel not a hotel, do they give those public transportation cards in hostels too?
and if 100 CHF isn’t enough, would you kindly recommend me a budget, I have a big appetite, but I can skip on breakfast some days.
Hi Haniakomi –
There are some good suggestions here:
http://www.myswissalps.com/pl antrip/doityourself/sa vemoney
You can make all meals on 100 CHF per day if you follow those tips in that link, look for low cost meals at Migros and Coop, and watch for a Swiss custom common at many restaurants. That is the daily special bargain meal, often called “the Menu.” There is serious and wide spread effort to keep one bargain meal below 25 CHF, and I still see that number on signboards in my travels.
The cost goes up fast if you add any alcoholic beverages.
In fact, this whole page of links is useful:
http://www.myswissalps.com/ab outswitzerland/practic al
If you plan to use public transport more than once or twice per day in Geneva, find the office of the Geneva public transport service, and get either a 24 hour card, or some other bargain card. I don’t know exactly what Geneva has in this kind of thing, but, in Zürich a “24 hour card” with unlimited travel in the central zone which covers the city, costs the same amount as about 2 1/2 or 3 single fares. There are fare zones to be aware of around the outskirts of the city or the region which can be included at extra cost. That’s why I suggest finding the office to ask about options.
Slowpoke
Hi Haniakomi,
You can find out more about the Geneva Transport Card by googling it. It states that anyone staying in a hotel, Youth Hostel or on a campsite is entitled to receive this free card.
Jane
<<“You can find out more about the Geneva Transport Card by googling it. It
states that anyone staying in a hotel, Youth Hostel or on a campsite is
entitled to receive this free card.”>>
Good deal! Glad you looked it up.
Slowpoke
You don’t really need to take out cash. Credit card is accepted in most places. Some small grocery store may require you to spend a minimum before they allow you to use your cc.
if you’re staying in a hostel with a kitchen, you can prepare some meals yourself..
Restaurants are ridiculously expensive , starting at 25 CHF for basic dishes, like a burger, and it goes up from there. And the food is not gourmet or even that tasty. Just expensive because of high labor cost or something? Like rosti, a classic Swiss dish, is 26 CHF and it’s basically hashed brown. . Fondue starts at 25 pp and requires 2 pp minimum. Seems a lot of money ($50) for a pot of melted cheese and they only give you bread to dip in. No veggies or meat. And the quality of the bread is not that good either. So not worth it to eat in restaurants if you’re on a tight budget.
But supermarket food is about the same price or even cheaper than in the US or other European countries and the quality is even higher. Lots of organic options for very cheap. Yogurt and milk and berries and salad and cheeses and sausages, etc. at higher quality and cheaper price than Whole Foods in the US. Often breads and pastries don’t taste too good even though they may look good. You can also buy Swiss wines in the supermarket for dirt cheap, 3 to 6 CHF a bottle!
Or you can try ethnic eateries for cheap eats. Like Turkish eateries with a huge shawarma sandwich for $9. Maybe too much too for one person even. Some small Thai restaurants.
If we were to do Switzerland over, would stay in places with a kitchen at least some nights of the trip.
So you don’t need to pay for transportation within the city and to and from the airport. Actually, no one ever checked anybody on the bus on our trip.
Food can be very cheap if you mostly buy from the Coops or Migros. Coops’s quality is usually better, I find.
Lots of free sights . Take a free walking tour offered by the city and tip the guide at the end. Our guide was very animated and good.
Walking around the lake is free of course. Take the small boat across the lake which is also free with the City Card. Lots of free museums. The botanical garden near the UN is free. Highly recommended. Very beautiful and peaceful there.
Hi Virgingorda,
You wrote: ‘And the food is not gourmet or even that tasty. Just expensive because of high labor cost or something? Like rosti, a classic Swiss dish, is 26 CHF and it’s basically hashed brown. . Fondue starts at 25 pp and requires 2 pp minimum. Seems a lot of money ($50) for a pot of melted cheese and they only give you bread to dip in. No veggies or meat. And the quality of the bread is not that good either’.
I am sorry, but I think that is rather a rude, flippant statement to make about Swiss cuisine on a Swiss website. We go to Switzerland and other neighbouring European countries and look forward to eating the traditional food of that country. We knew the food would be dearer than at home before making a decision to holiday in Switzerland. We accepted the fact and enjoyed the experience. You do not know what you are missing if you did not order a meat fondue, Rosti or apple strudel. I was able to order a cheese fondue for one in a restaurant in Luzern and it was extremely tasty.
Perhaps the food available to you in the US has tainted your taste buds?
I think the Swiss restaurateurs deserve an apology.
Jane
Hello Haniakomi,
I live in Geneva. Yes, CHF 100 is enough.
For transportation ask your hostel if they give you the Geneva Transport Card mentioned previously by JaneEB. Or ride the public transport system after 9 am, buying a reduced day pass. Or borrow a bicycle from Geneveroule (from April to October; you have to leave a deposit that will be refunded when you return the bike). Geneva is not a big city, you may as well walk, that’s also a good possibility.
For your meals. Many restaurants have affordable lunches (plat du jour) for less than CHF 20. As mentioned by Slowpoke, Coop and Migros (supermarkets) have cafeterias at several locations. You could have breakfast and lunch in one of them. You can also buy buns, sandwiches and other items at bakeries. And there are foodtrucks, some of which are excellent: in my opinion the best hamburgers outside New York City are those of The Hamburger Foundation (caution, location of the two trucks changes every day). If your trip is in the summer before sep. 15, you could also go to the iconic city lake bath, Bains des Pâquis, where the Buvette has excellent meals quite within your budget (the link in English does not work), including for dinner until 10:30 pm. Finally, there are the University cafeterias; local students get a discount, and foreign student ID might be accepted (I’m not sure). At least the one at the Cité Universitaire opens in the evening until 10 pm. All these suggestions propose healthy meals within your budget.
Drink tap water, it is safe and healthy. Ask for une carafe d’eau. Usually free, but not always (the margin restaurants make on drinks helps them to make profit, or, looking at it the other way, to offer competitive prices for meals). But if free water is available, they will bring it to you without any problem.
In Swiss restaurants, tips and taxes are included in the price. If you are happy with the service, you may round up by one or two francs.
Entrance to the city museums is free on the first sunday of every month, and all the time if you are under 18.
Enjoy your stay!
JaneEB, sorry , didn’t mean to be offensive at all. I was just advising the OP if they’re on a tight budget , it’s not worth it to spend that kind of money on usually very basic restaurant food since it’s very expensive. Of course not all restaurants are the same, but from what I’d experienced. A $25 burger elsewhere would have Wagu or Kobe beef or at least organic grass fed beef and maybe topped with some truffle to justify that kind of price. In Switzerland it’s a just a basic burger. (BTW, we never ordered the burger! I was checking other people’s orders to see if it’s worth eating there. 🙂 That’s why i was wondering the labor cost must be very high, but I was pleasantly surprised by the good quality and reasonable prices of unprepared food in supermarkets.
We were in Switzerland for 11 days and no place would let you order a single person fondue except for one restaurant in Lausanne In the Ouchy area that’s a bit off the tourist path. The owner was super nice and friendly. It happened that he just went to my hometown in the US 2 months ago and a few times before because his Swiss friends (an architect and a fashion designer couple– how cool is that! ) are working and living there. Hilariously, he said he loved The Cheese Cake Factory in the US! He said his friends in US laughed at him for liking it. We offered to show him our favorite local haunts in town when he next comes.
We were just asking him about a couple of dishes on the menu, and he offered to do a single person fondue for us so we could try the other dishes too. Wow! First time in Switzerland. And he steered us to another dish that would not be redundant with the fondue since the one we wanted also had cheese. A specialty of the house instead with their homemade granular mustard. He was honest and told us not to order fish since it wasn’t local and not that fresh. And he split our dishes nicely into individual plates and I think he gave us more than the usual. The portions elsewhere were much smaller.
We had a great meal with Lavaux wine he recommended , sitting outdoors in the evening in a quiet neighborhood with candlelight. And at the end he brought out 2 shot glasses of limoncellos for us, on the house! To cheer with him.
And he introduced us to his son, some famous rock singer in Europe. He proudly displayed a giant poster of his son’s upcoming concert in Paris on the wall . He and his whole band were sitting next to our table .
We took photos together at the end, and it was the most memorial meal we had in Switzerland. Lots of fun and talks and drinking. And the whole meal was very reasonable and worth it.
I cherish experiences like this. And would avoid generic restaurants in touristy areas that are often low in value for the money. Anywhere in the world, not just Switzerland.
Hi Virgingorda –
It is quite possible to find good quality, inexpensive food at restaurants in touristy areas, with a little looking. The Niederdorf in Zürich is loaded with tourists, for one example.
Here is he list of “menus” (basic low price meals) at the Hotel Adler, in the heart of the Niederdorf, where I stay routinely:
http://www.hotel-adler.ch/index.php/en/ restaurant/restaurant-offer
Note prices around 20 CHF.
I tried to find the prices for their excellent variety of fondues and raclettes, which I recall to be in the mid 20’s to low 30’s. Couldn’t. When I am there in a week or so, I’ll try to remember to post some here, and whether fondue for one is available. I think it is.
There food is good quality, tasty, but nothing special.
I am not trying to write an advertisement for the Adler ( which is, by the way, on the MySwissAlps recommended list). I am simply pointing out that you do not have to pay astronomical prices for adequate food in a restaurant in major ( expensive) city in tourist district.
Burgers –
As Jane points out, it is worthwhile to try to find local foods. The corollary, implied by her comments, is –
Why on earth wold you go to Switzerland to get a hamburger?
If you are desperate for a bit of “American” food, go to McDonalds. They have really really high prices for their burgers in Switzerland.
Check the Big Mac Index:
http://www.statista.com/stati stics/274326/big-mac-index-global-prices-for-a-big-mac/
USD price is 6.62!!! for a Big Mac.
<<“And would avoid generic restaurants in touristy areas that are often low in value for the money.”>>
What exactly does that advice have to do specifically with Switzerland? You can learn that without leaving the USA. Once you have learned it, you can look at the menus in Switzerland( in German, die Karten) posted outside the restaurants.
<<“I cherish experiences like this”>>
The experience that you have described is not rare, although yours was an especially nice one. You were lucky to find that restaurant. They are even less rare if you have the good luck to return to a place year after year. I am treated very well at inns that I return to regularly. However, so are the other guests…because I find inns that treat their customers well, and and I remember them.
Slowpoke
Slowpoke, I was using the burger as a convenient price index since most people know roughly how much it costs. Of course,, I didn’t order a burger or recommend anyone to do so in Switzerland. Agreed, go to McDonald’s if you miss it. LOL!
Yes, agreed Zürich is much better for restaurants and I loved it the best among big cities in Switzerland. Not touristy at all and more sophisticated. Its art museum was much better than the national one in Bern. Restaurants were more catered to locals and more reasonably priced. I thought its consistently ranked as one of the most expensive city but it wasn’t bad at all.
I was surprised that most itineraries tell you to land in Zurich and straight away get out to Lucerne or elsewhere. Lucerne was my least favorite.
I only had half a day and would love to come back to Zurich to explore more. I frequently connect in Zurich for business so would love to have a layover.
Again, just my personal opinion!! 😁
Zürich is my favorite city in all of Switzerland. For the reasons that you mention, also its excellent tram network, several good museums ( although the Rosengart in Luzern stands out ), and it is just nice to be in.
<<“Its art museum was much better than the national one in Bern.”>> Which one in Zürich? Did you ever run over to Winterthur for Römerholz?
However, the reason that we send people to Luzern is because they are usually looking for scenery and variety. Lake, mountains, old town…
No Alps near Züri.
Luzern is overcrowded with tourists. Go in off-season. There are restaurants in Luzern of the type you like in Züri, too.
Hard to beat the attached image from Luzern with anything from Zürich….
Slowpoke
Attachments:< no place would let you order a single person fondue >
Fondue is a social meal. If they prevent you from ordering a single person fondue, it’s mainly so that you don’t look ridiculous.
< starting at 25 CHF for basic dishes >
Wrong, see my previous post. At lunch time you can easily find a main dish for less than 20 F if you don’t take a starter. It is not so easy in the evening. Just avoid the tourist trap and starred restaurants.
Oh boy, I’m getting a beating left and right today for sharing some personal experiences on my trip! 😬🤪
Of course my experience was limited compared to all the locals who live there, who know where the good restaurants and good deals are.
Snowman, yes, I was mainly talking about dinner since we were mostly running around in the day time and often just grabbed something quick for lunch. We were trying to max out our sightseeing hours.
Museums hours were usually very short (10 am to 5 pm) and up in the mountain we’d usually eat some packed food while hiking. I dont think we even had a sit-down meal during lunch time! I did see several special lunch menus posted outside restaurants. Saw mainly pasta dishes with cheese. I hear meat is more expensive.In any case, would love to have more time in Switzerland and discover secret eating spots!
Oh, in Geneva we did have a sit down lunch at that popular roasted chicken place. What it’s called? Half a chicken with fries and a salad for 16 CHF or something. It’s among the cheapest places around. The chicken was ok, a bit dry when I had it. And was hoping to get small potatoes roasted in the runoff juice, but it was just fries. Not like in Paris.
We went to the 2nd location, not the one near the Cathedral. We took the free small boat over to the group of classic 5* hotels along the lake and walked around and found this. Near this place was a big food market inside a department store that had a lot of ready-to-eat hot and cold food. It’s kinda trying to be like Le Bon Marche in Paris, but not quite. Not as fancy and the food was quite inexpensive.
<<“You don’t really need to take out cash. Credit card is accepted in most places.”>>
Some travelers don’t use or don’t like to use credit cards. People seeking really budget travel may not even have one.
<<“Just expensive because of high labor cost or something?”>>
We’re having fun at your expense today, aren’t we?
Not sure what business you are in, but, unless your business strategy is “low cost producer”and you get market share by lowering your price below what your competitors can sell at profitably, , in general, the purpose of pricing is not to cover costs. It is to make the maximum profit and return on your investment by selling at the highest price that your market segment will pay. “Specialty pricing” is the euphemism for “gouge the tourists if they’ll pay.”
So, my thesis is that there is some number of people who will pay they those prices.
You are at liberty to not pay them. 😉
Slowpoke
<<“What it’s called? “>>
Maybe Mövenpick?
Slowpoke
Virgingorda I didn’t mean to offend you. The main thing is that Haniakoni should know that a budget trip is possible in Switzerland (which is indeed, generally speaking, an expensive country).
<<“I only had half a day and would love to come back to Zurich to explore
more. I frequently connect in Zurich for business so would love to have a
layover.”>>
When I used to travel from the ‘States for business iall around Europe, working from our offices in Geneva, I found that I could arrange a weekend or more in Switzerland at the beginning ,or better, at the end of the trip.
Contrary to the pattern of my colleagues who felt that they had to hurry home in case they might miss something important, I found that no one really cared back home. I set up my organization to run pretty well with out me.
😉
Slowpoke
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