10 Most Important Things to Know for Travelers before you Attend Switzerland are bellow.
1. Switzerland has four different languages:
They speak German, French, Italian, and Romansh. And in several parts of the country, they speak different languages. So, in Zurich and Lucerne, you will find people speak German. In Geneva, they speak French. The south speaks Italian, but almost everybody speaks English too, so if you’re an English-speaker, chances are you’ll be able to get along just fine in Switzerland. And the other thing to know about languages is there’s really no need for small talk in Switzerland. In a lot of places, you have to chat up the store clerks, the waiters, and waitresses. Here they’re pretty good about being efficient; they just want to finish the transaction and so you’ll find you don’t need to make that small talk that maybe you do back home. If your house is the States or places where chitchat is popular.
2. Switzerland is an early Country:
Cafes open early, stores close early, so when you’re here you’ll want to start out, and certain end, your days early. Most stores open between eight and 10 within the morning and that they close between six and eight p.m. within the evening. On Saturday all the shops close around four or 5 p.m., and on Sunday almost everything is closed. Switzerland has pretty strict laws to have a good quality life so things aren’t too noisy or too busy, but that means that, when it becomes night time, there’s not much to do. So just kinda plan your days that way. There are some cities that have a thing called evening shopping and they’ll have one day a week where the shops will be open ’til later. In Zurich, this happens on Thursdays, and on Thursdays, the shops are often open until 9 p.m.
3. Transportation:
Switzerland has a really good public transportation. It’s pretty similar to Japan in that context. Public transportation here is always on time. If your train leaves at 12:02, by gosh, it’s gonna leave at 12:02. If you see another one that’s leaving at 11:58, that is a different train. Something to know if you’re coming to Switzerland and you’ll be traveling a lot on the train, there’s this thing called the Swiss Travel Pass and you can get unlimited transportation on trains, buses, trams, everything like that. And so that’s a pretty good deal if you’re gonna be doing a lot of train travel. make sure on your mobile device that you download the SBB app. SBB is the Swiss Railways and their app tells you lots of great stuff about where you’re coming, where you’re going, platforms it goes on, so that’s a handy thing to have with you. And also there are two main classes of train travel in Switzerland. First-class and second class. Now the second class is actually pretty good. I think the second class in Switzerland is almost as good as the first class in a lot of other countries, so don’t feel bad if you’re taking a second class train.
4. Know is Money:
In Switzerland, they do not use the euro and they are not a part of the ECU Union either. they’re a part of the Schengen Agreement that permits visa-free entry, therefore, the money they use here is that the Swiss franc, abbreviated CHF, but you’ll exchange Euros at any bank, many hotels, tons of stores will accept euro, but then you’ll get change back in francs. And if you’re looking for an ATM you will see those called Bancomats. Bancomats is the term.
5. Switzerland is expensive:
You’ve heard Switzerland is expensive and it is. Pizza probably cost you about 20 Swiss francs at Vapiano’s, which is a pizza chain that I like quite a bit, but that was a bit of sticker shock when it was 20 francs for a pizza. A Big Mac meal at McDonald’s will cost 12 francs. Starbucks coffee, five Swiss francs. Nothing here is cheap. By the way, I don’t know that if I said this of where I’m doing this.
6. Food:
When you are in Switzerland, the items to eat are chocolate and cheese. you’ll find chocolate shops almost on every block in major cities in Switzerland. The cheese, there’s over 400 varieties of cheese in Switzerland, and those are two of the things they’re most famous for. They have a lot of cows so drink the milk too, dairy is a big thing here. Something to also know about food, and I just talked about things being expensive, food is expensive. If you’re trying to get some cheaper eats, go to restaurants that have lunch specials, you might find those to be about 20 francs, go to some of the cafeteria restaurants that are in department shops, or, if you would like the most cost-effective eats, inspect the ethnic restaurants. Kabobs are always cheap so you can find a kabob maybe for 10 francs. The last thing to know about food is if you have a reservation, don’t be late. If your reservation is at 7 p.m. and you get there at 7:15, well you might as well forget you had that reservation. Things here are much like Germany or Japan where they’re very strict on time, so make sure you don’t get too late and still expect them to seat you.
7. To know about Switzerland is it is Small:
Switzerland has a total population of eight million. It is one-tenth of the size of the state of California or about three times the size of Los Angeles County, but Switzerland has many mountains which makes travel fairly slow throughout the country. But if you’re driving on the freeways where it’s been developed pretty good, you can go from Zurich to Geneva in three hours, and that’s pretty much the length of the country.
8. The Weather:
The weather in Switzerland can be quite varied because of the Alps, the mountain range that runs through the middle of Switzerland. On the west side it can be windy, in the south it’s significantly warmer, but the thing to know is that in the summertime, here in Zurich, it can be quite warm.
When we were here the daytime highs in Fahrenheit were about 80, 85 degrees. They can get up to 95 degrees and 35 degrees Celsius for the highs, so Switzerland can be quite warm.
9. About Water:
So skip the bottled water. Bottled water is really expensive. They have a tax on these plastic bottles which makes these plastic bottles 2, 3 francs to purchase them. Purchase one with you from maybe the airport you’re flying from and refill it. Switzerland cities are full of public fountains that the water is cold, delicious, and good for you, too. Zero calories in the Marriott. Zero calories, no sugar, no fat, so check out the water. Fill it up from the tap or from those public fountains, that’ll save you some money.
10. Switzerland is Recycling:
The Swiss are really big on recycling. So when you see trash cans in supermarkets there will often be four or five different trash cans for plastic bottles, for metal, for glass, so make sure you’re putting your trash in the right areas otherwise you might get a nasty sneer.
Tags: Switzerland, Thing, Know, Francs, Pretty good, Different languages, Small talk
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