Hi Silvera.
Been living in Switzerland for the past 8 years and returned to Ireland this year to live. That's been a shock.
Switzerland is not as expensive as once perceived, Ireland is well up there comparison wise across the board with the cost of living.
Getting there, Aer Lingus and Swiss have direct flights to Zurich. Aer Lingus is normally the cheaper. You have plenty of options to go travelling from there. Look at getting a discounted rail travel pass before you go.
You can get to Basel with Easyjet for good prices depending when you book. But sometimes the combined cost of flight and taxes from Ireland to Luton plus the Swiss leg means you don't save that much. Another option is Ryanair to London Stanstead and Ryanair again to Friedrichshafen which is just over the border from Switzerland in Germany. A ferry trip across lake Bodensee then and you are into Switzerland and about a 30-40 minute train journey from Zurich. This is a nice trip if you are travelling by yourself and have no real time constraints.
This coming Saturday is the famous Street Parade. If techno music is your thing you can join 1 million people by lake Zurich in dancing the day and night away. Accomodation will be impossible to get though at this stage.
Here is a link with a lot of useful info on the Zurich and Switzerland.
http://www.xpatxchange.ch/
With a bit of searching you can get hotels for €60-70 a night in Zurich and a lot less out in smaller towns. There are also hostels such as the ZicZac Rock hotel bang in the middle of the old town and nightlife area, which is great value.
http://www.zurich-switzerland-hotels.net/
The last few years October has been very pleasant with the warm summer weather lasting well into October. Towards the end of October there can often be a sudden change to cold weather with temperatures dropping from 20's down to 10 degs in a day or two.
Taxis are a bit more expensive then Dublin, but you hardly need them with the public transport system. €5 euro gets you a 24hr public transport ticket in Zurich covering trams, buses, trains and even boats within the extended city zone.
The price of a pint (imported beer) is Chf8.50 about €5.50. Local beer is Chf6 (€4). And the price doesn't increase as the night gets later unlike in Ireland. The price of a beer is still the same in Zurich now as it was in 1996. How much has a pint increased in Ireland in that time !!!
On the McD's index a BigM meal is Chf11 (€7.50)
Enjoy !!
