Switzerland

The Swiss Travel System is one integrated ticket across trains, most buses, lake boats and town transit, run on the back of SBB/CFF/FFS — and in 2025 it ran 94.1% of trains on time, the most punctual year in its history. The Swiss Travel Pass (consecutive-day: CHF 254 for 3 days, 309 for 4, 399 for 6, 439 for 8, 499 for 15 in 2026, 2nd class) adds 500-plus museums free, free city transit and 25–50% off the big cable cars; the Half Fare Card at CHF 150 halves everything for a month. As a rule the pass wins if you move daily and ride boats and museums; if you’re based in one valley doing a couple of big excursions, the Half Fare Card plus point-to-point tickets usually beats it.

The trap that catches pass-holders: the panoramic scenic trains need a paid seat reservation on top, and you cannot board without it. The Glacier Express (Zermatt–St Moritz, about 8 hours) charges CHF 44 in winter and CHF 54 in summer to reserve; the Bernina Express (Chur–Tirano, over the UNESCO Rhaetian Railway) CHF 40–44. The pass covers the fare — never the seat. The same scenery rides for the price of a reservation if you take the ordinary regional trains instead.

A car earns almost nothing here and complicates the car-free villages. If you do drive, the motorway vignette is a flat CHF 40 for the year (now available digitally) — skip it on a motorway and it’s a CHF 200 fine plus the sticker. Trains reach the valley stations (Täsch for Zermatt, Lauterbrunnen for Wengen and Mürren) where you park and ride up.

The headline rides run roughly CHF 60–235 return before any discount. Jungfraujoch, the “Top of Europe,” is the dearest at around CHF 235 from Interlaken — less from Grindelwald, where the Eiger Express gondola cuts the journey to 45 minutes — 25% off with the Swiss Travel Pass, with a CHF 10 seat reservation compulsory in summer. Zermatt, a car-free village reached by train, has the Gornergrat cog railway to its classic Matterhorn viewpoint and the Glacier Paradise cable car to 3,883 m, Europe’s highest station, both half-price with a pass. Rigi from Lucerne is the value pick — one of the few mountains a Swiss Travel Pass rides free.

• You hold a Swiss Travel Pass and want a summit for freeSkippaying full fare for JungfraujochGoRigi from Lucerne, which the pass rides free
• The Matterhorn, without climbing itSkipassuming you need gearGothe Gornergrat cog railway from car-free Zermatt
• A “roof of the Alps” thrill for lessSkipthe ~CHF 235 JungfraujochGoSchilthorn (~CHF 85) or Pilatus (~CHF 72)

The single most common regret here is paying CHF 200-plus for a summit and getting fog — the ticket buys the ride, not the view, and the high peaks make their own weather. Check the summit webcams the morning of, favour the discounted early “Good Morning” departures, and keep the big-ticket day flexible rather than booking it weeks ahead.

Plan the money before the itinerary. Two things cut the other way: tap water is excellent and free — Zurich alone has over a thousand public fountains, so carry a bottle — and tipping is minimal, service is included by law and the Swiss round up a franc or two at most, never a percentage. But the mountain excursions above are where a budget disappears, so pick a couple rather than treating them as a checklist, and run the pass maths before you buy.

Summer (June–September) opens every lift and railway and is the safe window for the big excursions; winter is the ski season, and the scenic trains still run. The trap is the Zwischensaison — late April–May and November, the "between seasons", when many mountain railways and cable cars close for annual maintenance and whole resort villages shut for staff breaks. These are exactly the cheap, quiet weeks bargain-hunters pick, and they find half the mountain closed — verify each operator’s dates before booking a shoulder-season trip.

The compensations: late September into October brings autumn colour — the Lavaux and Valais vineyards and the larches of the Engadine — with the summer lifts still largely running, and the cities (Zurich, Geneva, Bern, Lucerne) work year-round whatever the mountains are doing.

Most first trips pair the Bernese Oberland — Interlaken as a base for Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald and the Jungfrau — with Zermatt for the Matterhorn, linked by the Glacier Express. Add Lucerne for the gentlest central-Switzerland lakes and peaks, and Ticino or the Engadine if you have a second week. The country is small and rail-rich, so switching bases is painless — the mistake is trying to do the whole thing in one loop.

In summer the draw is the 65,000 km of marked trails, protected by federal law and signed by the unmistakable yellow signposts — each gives the walking time, not the distance, to every destination (yellow = easy valley paths; white-red-white = mountain trails; white-blue-white = high alpine). For multi-day routes the Swiss Alpine Club runs about 150 huts, which serve meals and dorms and must be booked ahead in high summer. In winter the marquee resorts — Zermatt, Verbier, St Moritz, Davos and the Jungfrau region — are world-class but priced to match, with dynamic day passes above the Austrian equivalent.

Switzerland is in the Schengen Area but not the EU, and uses the Swiss franc, not the euro — euros are sometimes taken in tourist spots, but at a deliberately poor rate with change given in francs, so pay in CHF (cards are accepted virtually everywhere, and contactless is universal). Most non-EU visitors — US, UK, Canadian, Australian — get 90 days visa-free within any 180, counted across the whole Schengen area, not Switzerland alone.

The border tech is changing. The EU’s biometric Entry/Exit System (EES) — fingerprints and a photo, replacing the passport stamp — is now live at the larger Swiss airports. The ETIAS pre-authorisation (a €20 online registration, not a visa) is expected to phase in from late 2026 into 2027, with a transition period before it becomes compulsory — worth a check at booking time rather than an assumption.

The edible and buyable icons live up to the cliché: chocolate (Lindt, the invention of conching and milk chocolate), cheese (Gruyère, Emmental, and raclette and fondue as winter meals) and watches (the Jura valleys, Geneva, the Rolex–Patek–Omega heartland). And the country is exceptionally safe — consistently near the top of global safety and quality-of-life rankings, with low crime even in the cities; the usual advice is simply to mind your wallet at Zurich and Geneva stations and nothing more.

Two habits to plan around. Shops close on Sundays by law — station and airport shops and petrol kiosks are the exceptions — so buy groceries on Saturday. And the stereotype about punctuality is real and load-bearing: connections are built to the minute, so a train that lists a 4-minute change genuinely gives you 4 minutes, and missing it by seconds is on you, not the railway.