Switzerland

My Switzerland travel summary:

Visited: July 1991, August 2004, July 2022

Duration of visit: 12 days

Capital city: Bern

Population: 7.4 million (2022)

Switzerland travel blog reading time: 10 minutes

• Hitchhiking and arriving in Geneva in a luxury BMW 7.
• Window shopping and chocolate in Zurich.
• People-less countryside and Swiss flags hanging on every house.
• Bern – fabulous capital surrounded by turquoise Aare.
• Bathing in exclusive Therme Vals.
• Fondue tasting high up on Prés-de-Cortébert mountain.

Switzerland has four official languages and is famous for luxury watches, cheese, cows, Nescafé, Nestlé and the Swiss Army knife. It is also home to the Red Cross, the world’s largest nuclear shelter and the spectacular Swiss Alps.

Switzerland is small, outside the EU and NATO, and famously neutral. Perhaps this helps explain its wealth, safety and security, but also its high travel costs.

My Switzerland travel adventures have taken me there on four separate occasions.

• As a backpacker, hitchhiking around Europe in 1991.
• By my own vehicle in 2004.
• Business trip in 2012.
• In 2022, extensively by car with my partner.

I first visited Switzerland at the end of my hitchhiking trip around Europe in 1991. With a friend, I was hitchhiking from Bad Bellingen in Germany towards Switzerland. I wasn’t picky about the destination, so when a black BMW 735 stopped, I enjoyed the comfortable ride all the way to Geneva.

When my travel companion and I arrived in downtown Geneva, we only cared about the lake and its famous water jet, unaware of the city’s many other attractions.

Switzerland has thousands of beautiful lakes, but Lake Geneva is the largest. The 145-metre water plume was visible from far away. We explored the lake, gardens and old town, then spent the night on a bench overlooking the lake.

Completely broke and reluctant to pitch a tent in the park, we took turns sleeping until morning, when we caught the train back to Slovenia.

In 2004, I explored Europe in my old Renault Mégane, reaching Switzerland after driving 4,000 km through Italy, France and Spain. Instead of sleeping under the sky, I was equipped for comfortable camping in harmony with nature.

European campsites generally offer excellent facilities, whether near big cities or in the middle of nowhere. Since most tourists headed for the beaches, I usually found enough space under trees, not too far from the toilets and protected from the midday sun. This was also the case during my Switzerland travel adventure.

Swiss are very correct, professional, organized and polite, as long as you respect the local rules. I didn’t pay much attention to speed limits, so automatic speed cameras photographed me, but they couldn’t issue me a ticket.

Switzerland is one of Europe’s most expensive countries, so luxury was out of the question.

I usually stopped at petrol stations to refuel, use the toilets or ask for information. In Switzerland, I could buy expensive petrol, but there were no toilets or people around. Most stations, especially in the countryside, were fully automatic and self-service.

Finding people along the road was harder than hearing cows or counting Swiss flags. I don’t know if a special celebration was taking place, but it seemed that every rural house displayed a Swiss flag.

In 2012, I visited Switzerland on a business trip. One highlight was discovering my new favorite chocolate, Ragusa. Classic or dark chocolate with smooth praline filling, whole hazelnuts and its original rectangular shape. Delicious!

With so many excellent chocolates, it’s no wonder the Swiss are the world’s biggest chocolate consumers, eating around 10 kg per person annually.

Businesswise, I found the Swiss very proud and focused on supporting domestic production and consumption. If they couldn’t find a local supplier, they would probably turn to German or French companies before looking elsewhere. When I mentioned Slovenian products, they explained that transport took too long, currency risks were too high and language barriers were a problem.

In 2022, my Switzerland travel adventure lasted five days, driving around Zurich, Bern, Luzern, Vals and the countryside north of Lac de Neuchâtel. Having my own car allowed me to discover remote places that would have been hard to reach by public transport.

Switzerland’s excellent road network combines well-maintained highways, local roads and tunnels for smooth traffic flow.

The annual highway sticker, vignette, is one of Switzerland’s few bargains, costing just 40CHF for the calendar year.

Switzerland’s mountainous terrain and high mobility have created an extensive tunnel network. The country combines good infrastructure with efforts to protect residential areas from traffic pollution and noise.

It has around 1,300 tunnels and galleries, stretching over 2,000 kilometers. And more are being built.

Switzerland’s capital, Bern, has fewer than 150,000 inhabitants and several exciting places to visit. On Sunday, I parked for free near the car-free UNESCO-listed Old Town. Crossing Kornhausbrücke, I enjoyed beautiful views of the historic center surrounded by the turquoise Aare River, perfect for swimming and relaxing.

The clean, well-shaped Aare River has a strong, steady current, allowing swimmers to enter at marked spots and exit kilometers downstream.

Due to my injured shoulder, I couldn’t join in, but many people enjoyed swimming, floating and even surfing along the river on SUPs, boats, canoes or inflatable pillows. Others jumped from bridges, carrying their clothes and valuables in waterproof dry bags.

The Old Town was quiet on Sunday, most shops and restaurants closed. Picturesque buildings, monuments, flags and pedestrian-friendly streets created a pleasant atmosphere. The Zytglogge clock tower, Cathedral, Münsterplattform and Bundesplatz with the Parliament building are highlights, but the bears in BärenPark remain Bern’s main symbol.

At Rosengarten, I wondered what was better: the perfect lawns and gardens or the views over the Old Town and Aare River.

Swiss cuisine is meat-heavy, with limited vegetarian options. Asian, especially Thai food, is widespread across Switzerland. In a simple Thai restaurant, I enjoyed one of the best pad Thai of my life: mild, perfectly sticky and served in the calm pedestrian zone of Bern.

Zentrum Paul Klee was my last stop, but the museum was already closed. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the building opened in 2005 and quickly became a landmark of Bern.

Its three undulating forms perfectly merge with the landscape. Besides housing the world’s largest collection of Klee’s works, the center offers recreational activities, events and a lively cultural scene.

Bern turned out to be one of my favorite small cities in Europe.

My favorite Swiss chocolate is Ragusa, a simple, high-quality chocolate. Its three flavors have changed little since 1942, and it still comes in colorful rectangular packaging. Its name comes from Ragusa, now Dubrovnik in Croatia, which delighted the original owner during his summer holidays.

During my Switzerland travel adventure, I visited the Camille Bloch factory in Courtelary. Today, Ragusa retains its original recipe, traditional manufacturing methods, confectionery quality and, of course, its rectangular shape.

The exhibition covers chocolate-making history, production, tasting and a souvenir shop. I tasted so much of my favorite chocolate that I almost felt sick. I left the shop with bags full of chocolate gifts.

If chocolate is a famous Swiss desert, Swiss melted cheese dish fondue is one of the most recognized Swiss dishes. There are many places offering it, but the most authentic ones are in the mountains where cows are raised, fresh milk produced and cheese manufactured by the local farmers.

This is where I tried my first fondue, dipping bread into melted cheese with long-stemmed forks. I enjoyed the countryside views and the tinkling bells of cows grazing in nearby meadows.

Fondue is melted cheese served in a communal pot over a portable stove, sometimes with meat. Its key ingredients are wine, garlic and seasoning.

A cheese fondue mixture should be preserved warm enough to keep the *fondue* smooth and liquid, but not so hot that it burns.

The most important instructions we got from the waiter was to avoid cheese being burnt. The easiest way to prevent burning is to dig the bread deep to the bottom of the caquelon – fondue pot, made of stoneware, ceramic, cast iron, or porcelain.

Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city and a global banking and transport hub, offers exciting places to visit and things to do. From historic streets to green parks. Rain didn’t promise a pleasant afternoon, so I stopped at a café with free Wi-Fi, slowly drank tea and checked the news until it cleared.

I was ready to explore Zurich’s breathtaking views and discover its true character. The city offers numerous churches, museums, a well-preserved medieval and Renaissance Old Town, and beautiful Lake Zurich.

Niederdorf is a lively medieval area with narrow streets, squares, boutiques, restaurants and cafés. The busy pedestrian Bahnhofstrasse, stretching from the main station to Bürkliplatz by the lake, is lined with department stores, luxury shops and early 20^th-century buildings.

Shopping in Zurich and Switzerland was easy to resist, as even discounted prices were much higher than elsewhere in Europe. A 5.00USD magnet and Ragusa chocolates satisfied my consumerism throughout the trip.

Lindenhof is a quiet, tree-shaded hill above the Old Town, between Bahnhofstrasse and the left bank of the Limmat River. Once a Roman fortified settlement, it now offers some of the best views over the Old Town.

The most prominent landmarks are the twin-towered Romanesque Grossmünster and Fraumünster, famous for its stained-glass windows. Paradeplatz, one of Switzerland’s most expensive locations, hosts the headquarters of UBS and Credit Suisse. Once a livestock market, it was also the scene of clashes during the 1839 Züriputsch.

I enjoyed visiting Confiserie Sprüngli, famous for its luxury Swiss chocolates and Luxemburgerli macarons.

Visiting Vals, was an idea of my partner – an architect by profession. This remote, peaceful ski village also offers summer hikes and 30°C thermal springs. Its village square is surrounded by traditional stone-roofed houses made from Vals quartzite, which defines the valley’s architecture.

The 7132 Therme in Vals is described as a monument to bathing culture.

Award-winning architect Peter Zumthor designed a temple to bathing in Vals, turning the thermal baths into a deeply spiritual experience.

The idea was to create a cave- or quarry-like structure. The baths sit below a grass roof, partly buried in the hillside and integrated into the natural surroundings. Visiting 7132 Therme was a serious event for my eyes, body and wallet. It offers a unique experience combining nature, architecture, local materials, bathing and relaxation.

Photography and filming are prohibited to protect visitors’ privacy. Security guards ensure quiet surroundings and discourage unnecessary equipment and belongings. The water is cooler than in many thermal spas. Nevertheless, the highly mineralized water from St. Peter spring, at a pleasant 30°C, made my visit deeply relaxing.

The last stop on my Switzerland travel adventure before crossing to Italy, was Luzern, squeezed amid snowcapped mountains on Lake Lucerne. Famous for rowing competitions, the town is recognized for its well-preserved medieval core, elegant historic buildings and a big range of cultural events including annual summer music festival.

The most outstanding place to visit is Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), a covered wooden bridge running diagonally across the Reuss River. Built in 1333, the bridge is Europe’s oldest covered wooden bridge. A discarded cigarette caused a fire in 1993, destroying much of the bridge and 78 of its 111 famous paintings.

The original cycle contained 158 picture panels, created during the Counter-Reformation to promote Catholic loyalty in Protestant-Reformed Lucerne.

The bridge marks the beginning of the Old Town on the right bank of the Reuss River, which still preserves many old burghers’ houses and little squares with fountains.

Switzerland is a unique country with one of the world’s highest standards of living — if you can afford it. Thanks to business trips and exploring the country in my own vehicles at different stages of my life, I experienced more than just its main attractions.

From Bern’s relaxed atmosphere and Zurich’s prestigious Old Town to fondue in remote mountains and sunsets over Swiss Grand Canyon, I thoroughly enjoyed my Switzerland travels.

Delicious chocolate, excellent roads and countless tunnels come with strict speed limits and prohibitive supermarket prices.

Switzerland offers exciting places to visit and things to do, but sadly, not everyone can afford them.