Hot answers tagged switzerland
18
There's plenty of stuff you can do (references are to the German Wikipedia for more extensive descriptions, which I assume you read given your origins). I don't know whether you enjoy visiting castles, churches and museums as well, whether "outdoor activities" include things other than hiking, and what kind of nature interests you most. Anyway, here are a ...
16
You can certainly rent a car in Basel and drive around. I have driven with my European license in the States without any problem, so I asume you can drive in Europe as if you are in the US. There are certain differences in trafic rules, but if you drive carefully you'll be okay.
Having said that, I would recommend the public transport system in Basel. When ...
15
No!
Profitieren Sie als BahnCard-Inhaber von 25% Ermäßigung auf den
Normalpreis der Auslandsstrecke bei grenzüberschreitenden Reisen in
über 30 europäischen Länder.
Die Ermäßigung wird auch im Anschluss an Globalpreise (z.B. Thalys),
gewährt - nicht aber im reinen Binnenverkehr des fremden Landes.
The last sentence says 'not valid for travel ...
14
Short answer: no, you cannot take your bicycle into all German trains (but you can probably reach any destination in Germany).
Many trains in Germany carry bicycles. This is particularly true for local trains, but also most intercity (IC) trains. However, the most common train for long-distance travel is the high-speed InterCity Express or ICE. Usually, ...
13
Directly after the train station in Zurich there will be nothing to see. You will drive through a tunnel for a quarter of hour and when you will see the daylight again, you are already at the lake Zurich. The train line follows more or less directly the shoreline, and if the weather is nice it can be interesting to observe the people there sunbathing and the ...
11
30 Pounds are just 38 Swiss Franks. This isn't really a lot of money in Switzerland, so I don't think you will find anything that is really a lot of cheaper. Additionally, Geneva is one of the most expensive cities in Switzerland if not in the whole World.
To make it worse, Geneva is the domicile of a lot of big organizations like for example UNO, CERN, ...
11
I would recommend the following things (sorted by country):
Switzerland
Visit Top of Europe. You can take a train to the Jungfraujoch which is 3545 meters above sea level. There you can exit the train and walk around. For example to a restaurant or over a glacier.
Visit Luzern and its world famous Chapel Bridge
Visit the Italian part of Switzerland, named ...
11
Yes - CERN has an outreach program which does tours along with other activities. From their Visit CERN page:
CERN welcomes the general public to visit and tour its exhibitions,
experimental areas and other facilities. The admission is free. The
permanent exhibition “Universe of particles” and the Microcosm
exhibition can be visited from Monday to ...
10
The sign "dekoriert" in Germany and also in Switzerland means that there will be Fasnacht/Fasching/Karneval decoration in the venue, mostly in Restaurants and Bars. Only decoration - nothing else implied. You will find those signs on the most boring and conservative countryside family restaurants just as well as downtown bars that open at 23:00 and close at ...
9
Château de Chillon near Montreux on the shore of lake Geneva is a must see. You will find some graffiti made by Lord Byron in the dungeon. He wrote a poem about a protestant jailed there.
Linderhof Palace in Bavaria is a pretty small castle built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, that tries to mimic Versailles in a pocketsized handkerchief. Its Galerie des ...
9
First of all, Switzerland is very very expensive, especially accommodation. It will be difficult to even find hostels or similar things below 40-50 Swiss francs per night. As I already mentioned in the comments, you can find hotels in Geneva and Berne and all other Swiss cities on major booking sites, such as booking.com or hostelworld.com
However, if ...
9
First of all, if you want to take trains in Switzerland, the website of the national railway carrier is a very important source of information. There you can find the whole train and bus schedule and most tickets you can buy there online. It is also important to mention that in Switzerland you can almost reach every village and every small town by train or ...
9
The general answer is yes, you will have a train at this time. However, the exact answer depends a little bit on the concrete date.
During weekdays the last bus leaves the airport at 23:52. Then you have 7 minutes to change from the bus to the train at Basel's station. And your train will be at the main station in Zurich at 01:24.
On weekends the last bus ...
8
One of my favorite places in Switzerland is Interlaken. The are is beautiful and you can take a short train ride up to Kandersteg for some beautiful waterfalls and a great mountain hike. It is a 2 hour train ride. Interlaken is known as the extreme sports capital of Switzerland. You can skydive, canyoneer, or mountain climb.
Kandersteg:
Another option is ...
8
At least a partial answer:
Raileurope and Wiki has told me that EC (EuroCity, formerly called Cisalpino, not all EC, just the former Cisalpino) and so called ICN (Intercity-Neigezug, German for Intercity Tilting Train) trains are tilt-enabled.
Using the Deutche Bahn Travel Service one can exclude EC and IC (InterCity) trains from the search by using the ...
8
Either will work. A Swiss tourist visa is for the following activities:
Tourism trip
Visits to relatives and/or friends
Scientists, professors or researchers attending cultural, technological or scientific conferences, seminars or meetings (services provided must not be paid by organizations/corporations in Switzerland, except reimbursement for expenses or ...
8
Official punctuality statistics can be found via the website of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS):
http://www.sbb.ch/en/corporation/the-company/facts-and-figures/punctuality-and-safety.html
The interpreration is left to you.
Punctuality statistics are often meaningless. Rail companies can too easily fine tune them. Moreover they are often ...
7
I take it you have seen the pictures of Mt Jungfrau (4,158 m / 13,642 ft) and Titlis (3,238 m / 10,623 ft) on Wikipedia?
Mountains in Switzerland will not be closed, but most will require specialized gear (and matching experience) in winter.
for Titlis (the lower of the two peaks), the temperatures in February are:
Average high °C (°F) -10.7 (12.7)
...
7
A Swiss online resource I know is this one. It lists a lot of Spas in Switzerland that are worth a visit. I quickly checked it, and all I know of are on the list. Unfortunately the list is in German, but at least some of the further links are also available in English.
If you're looking for an English resource I would recommend this site. It also lists a ...
7
When I was traveling in Switzerland and wanted to see Geneva, I would actually stay at a small hotel in Lausanne, some 45 minutes away, but along the main railroad line. At a much lower rate than Geneva itself.
Geneva is a "destination," city, hence expensive. Anything "outside" of it would be far cheaper. But Switzerland is a small country, so "outside" of ...
7
This page list all the big Christmas markets in Switzerland. I can really recommend those two that are in the main stations of Lucerne and Zurich. It sounds weird but they are really nice. As a plus next to the Christmas market in Zurich's main station, there are a lot of open air bars in the courtyard of the Landesmuseum where you can get Glühwein and ...
7
There are a lot of different questions in here. I tried to answer at least some of them:
1) Apart from a fully functioning car I would recommend to take a GPS navigation device with you. Check if the maps are up-to-date. Additionally, you should inform yourself, if you need any additional gear if you want to travel through foreign countries. If I remember ...
7
I guess it depends on jurisdiction, but in some (all?) European countries you can present a stitched banknote and have it accepted as a legal tender by a merchant. One requirement is that the Frankenstein banknote is almost whole, i.e. only small parts of it are missing (otherwise one could try to use two halves of the same banknote in different places!). I ...
7
In case of the Swiss Franc, this is regulated in the Federal Curreny and Means of Payment Code (Bundesgesetz über die Währung und die Zahlungsmittel / Loi fédérale
sur l’unité monétaire et les moyens de paiement).
Article 8 states that a damaged bank note is replaced by the Swiss National Bank if the serial number is recognisable and at least half of the ...
7
Short answer: you cannot take your bicycle into ALL German trains!
when you are using long-haul trains (IC, EC, City Night Line, EN, D,
CNL) you have to make a reservation. It costs 9 EUR (6 EUR if you
have DB-card).
when you're using regional trains it depends on the federal states. On DB Bahn Website (German) you can find information about the ...
7
There is a cable-car going up to Niesen Mountain. As the Wikipedia article says, it is one of the longest cable-cars in Europe.
An overview about the prices is available on the official homepage. You should look for the station at the top of the mountain which is called Nielsen Kulm. The price is around 53 CHF for a return ticket if you don't have any ...
7
No. The option you mention is by far the fastest. Fly directly from Zurich to Amsterdam. Swiss has four flights per day. This takes 1h30. Then take a train from the Schiphol airport to Eindhoven. That's another 1h30. There are plenty of (direct) trains between Schiphol and Eindhoven. Add the time in between to get luggage, go to the train etc. And you are ...
6
I'm not sure about spas, but if you're interested in hot baths, there are quite a few in the lake Geneva area (the area I'm familiar with):
(Note: I've only ever been to the first two)
Ovronnaz
Up in the mountains, astounding view, surrounded by mountains. In the winter, you can be outside, up to your neck in steaming water, with snow falling on your ...
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