Key Post: Switzerland....

S

sueellen

Guest
Just wondering if anyone has been to any of the following and if so which would they recommend?

- Zurich
- Lausanne
- Bern

Looking at this from a perspective of family (2 adults & 2 teens) for 2-3 nights in August.

Thanks
MAC
 
Re: Switzerland....

Mac

Spent a lot of time in Switzerland and in particular in Zurich.

Lovely town, especially down by the lake in the summer. The old quarter has many nice shops and pubs/restaurants.

City is very clean and very safe. I never had a problem when I was there. The Swiss are as the saying goes "a nation of policemen" and stick to the rules.

Transport is very easy around the city, their Tram service is very efficient and on time. Though you could walk to most places.

A trip up the mountains on the outskirts of the city can be fun. Either hire bikes to climd up, or as a bunch of us lazy Irish did, hire the bikes, get the tram to the top of the mountain and cycle downhill all the way home<g>

Take a trip aroung the lake as well. There are many boats and you can stop of at some of the smaller towns on the shores of the lake.

Was there as a single person working for clients there so my perspective may not be similar to a family trip. The pubs can be quite "boring" compared to Irish bars.

C
 
Berne

Hi
I spent 10 days in Berne in November 2002. Obviosuly at that time of the year you expect horrible weather conditions and that proved to be the case. It used get dark by half three and was constantly raining and cold.

There is not a lot to do in Berne and is very much an old relaxed town. PLenty of interesting streets with strange statues of bears and of course there's the Barengraben on the edge of town which is a deep pit with a number of bears in it - the town emblem is the bear.

There are a number of nice architectural stops and some beautiful churches especially a huge cathedral if you're into that. The river is absolutley beautiful to walk along and is way below the level of the town. The house of parliament are situated there and a lot of commercial banks.

Apart from that, not much else to do. Drink is very expensive as is food, although the street shops are quite inexpensive.

I travelled to Basle and found it much more easy going and more to my liking. Plenty of pubs there and a good social scene. still a nice looking town.
 
Bern / Zurich

Thanks Capaill / Gongey,

Sounds like Zurich might have the edge given family interests. Capaill, any suggestions on where to stay?

MAC
 
Re: Switzerland....

The Swiss are as the saying goes "a nation of policemen" and stick to the rules.
Click to expand...
They have a saying along the lines of;

That which is not forbidden is compulsory.
 
Re: Switzerland....

Sorry Mac, not much help with regards to places to stay as the company I worked for had an apartment that I used.

Also, I agree with Rainyday re Basel. Used to do a lot of work there too and found it to be a more "relaxed" town, nicer pubs etc. The river Rhine flows through Basel and is quite impressive having a meal in a restaurant along the banks.

Also as Rainyday said drink and food are expensive but then again so is Dublin

C
 
rainyday!

hoping you meant gongey there horse!

don't mind being known as rainyday.

Any objections rainyday?

The drink prices compared to what you actually received were far above Dublin prices in Berne. a glass of beer was almost 5 euros
 
Re: rainyday!

Opps sorry Gongey/Rainyday. reading and replying too fast to posts.

last time I was in Switzerland the price of a beer was about twice that as here, that was over 4 years ago.

My old tried and trusted guide for seeing how much more expensive a town was compared to Ireland was the McDonalds index, i.e. how much you have to earn in another country to buy a Big Mac. At that time I think it was roughly double than here

C
 
A grand spot

I spent half a year workin in Zurich.
Its a very nice place to visit.
It CAN be expensive tho... don't go sitting down for a coffee anywhere along Bahnoffstrasse (sic) cos the cafe's are well expensive.

One very nice cheap way to eat during the day (like, lunch or whatever) is to find the Jelmoli department store and go to their restaraunt on the top floor. There's an outside terrace so you get to look down on the city and the food is very reasonable (relatively).
There's another dept store nearby, the name of which I can't think of, which has the same...

As regards places to go... I dunno.. eh.. the lake is worth seeing, take a ferry, there's varying length trips.
I took a train up onto the ridge that runs along the range above the city and on by the lake.. its a lovely little hike on paths....
The old town is nice for a wander as well... gawd can't remember the name of it...

Personally I think one of the best things about der Schwiez is the public transport... the trains are brilliant... it would be no hassle at all to head off down to Lucerne for the day... if there is still skiing going on you can get from the main station down to a place called Flumserberg very easily, like 40 mins to the bottom of the funicular that lifts you up to the ski resort. Its a small resort but you can still have the craic..

The day trips up to Mt Pilatus and places like that running from the bahnoff are well worth doing... Pilatus is very high up and views from the cafe at the top are unbelievable...

In summary Zurich is a great base for exploring from...
 
Lausanne

I spent 5 days in Lausanne just before Christmas a couple of years ago. Lausanne is twinned with San Francisco and when you get there you'll see why! It seems to be built on the side of a mountain and many of the streets are unbelieveably steep......after a week trudging up and down you'll have some seriously toned calf muscles! There is a tram, however, that takes you up down so you don't have to walk everywhere.

Lausanne is also on the shores of Lake Geneva, which is really beautiful. Not much to do on the lake in Winter (I think there is a ferry service that runs trips) but I've heard in Summer there's loads of activities on the lake.....boating, water skiing etc....

Swiss bars are generally much tamer than their Irish equivalent but there was one bar in Lausanne where most of the non Swiss used to go to (I think it was called Captain Cooks) and it was a pretty wild spot!

Nearby amenities included Montreaux (famous for it's jazz festival). As I was there just before Christmas, I thought Montreauz was absolutely beautiful....lot's of little stalls serving crepes and hot chocolate. Very pretty and festive.

I really enjoyed my brief stay in Lausanne. Didn't find it prohibitively expensive and would definitely go back
 
Switzerland is cheap for...

One thing to remember about switzerland is that its outside the EU... so you get REAL duty free deals.

So, coming home you can do really well on ciggies and booze.

Also a lot of the shops give you duty free purchasing facilites.

It may sound like a cliche but you can get great deals on watches!
Yeah, I bought a Rotary watch (got two faces, you can spin the face around to reveal the other face, nice if you like that kinda thing) for 250 punt. And priced it in Weirs on Grafton St for 500 punt a few months later!

Also electronics can be cheap. Pretty much every DVD player you buy there is region free which is wicked handy. If you get away from the main drag of bahnoffstrasse and get a taxi to take you to one of the outlying shopping malls you can pick stuff of at good prices. Some will give you duty free prices out there, some won't. Bring the passport and the plane ticket with you and ask.
 
for Mac

Hoi du

Ive been living in Zurich now for 2 years, from Dublin originally, I would completely agree with Vidapura comments and Zurich itself is a lovely place.
One of hte advantages of Switzerland is that its small like Ireland so in 2 or 3 days you can get to see and do lot. You mention Luasanne, Basel and Zurich? Any reason why these cities in particular? One of the few disadvantages of CH is that the flight routes to Dublin are not great. Currently aer lingus shares the zurich route with swiss (what was swiss air and cross air) so there is little or no competition...(I believe there is talk of more routes). Aer Lingus fly direct to Geneva too and those routes are cheaper than to Zurich (aerlingus to zurich roughly 250 to 300 euro to geneva under 200). Alternatively you could also look at ryan air/easy jet combinations but youll have to change in the UK and that could be awkward with kids in tow and only coming on a short visit. I would recommend you look into flying in and out of Geneva (cheapest direct route) and then maybe travelling down to the beautiful beautiful ticino, Zermatt and if you have time Zurich. Geneva is also situated on a lake....

...enjoy....

IrishHeidi
 
Re: for Mac

I was in Basle for the match last October and the drink was roughly the same price as here. One advantage is that you can hop over the border to either France or Germany for the day/few days and the guest houses/hotels are cheap with the beer actually half the price. Oh and food was also reasonable.
Its been ten years since I was in Zurich and nineteen since I was in Bern and it was twice the price of Dublin then. But all three places were good, although Basle (imho)is not as nice/picturesque as the other two.
 
Some light reading....

Thanks folks for the feedback. Looks like I'm the only one who hasn't been to Switzerland - have to correct that now. Thanks for all the info.

MAC
 
Re: Some light reading....

MAC said:
Thanks folks for the feedback. Looks like I'm the only one who hasn't been to Switzerland - have to correct that now. Thanks for all the info.

MAC
Click to expand...

Could someone tell me the name of the main railway station in Basle please? I know its slightly off topic but I am planning on spending a day in Basle in June thanks in advance, C
 
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