OT: A week in Switzerland

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I spent this past week on a hiking trip to Switzerland with my sister-in-law, who had a week of vacation between two European work trips. When she pitched this idea to me, my reaction, probably common to most if not all freelancers, was, “I shouldn’t take the time off work, and I shouldn’t spend the money.” But once in a while, I take the advice that I give to other freelancers all the time: I am a non-renewable resource, and in order to keep loving what I do for work, I need to recharge myself physically and mentally. I have a business savings account for a reason; so that the money I’m earning now is paying the bills that are due in three or four months, not the bills that are due next week. Armed with that reassurance, off I went!

An inauspicious beginning

I usually have pretty good travel juju, but May 7, 2024 was an exception. I was booked on United, Denver-Chicago-Zurich, which seemed pretty straightforward. After a couple of days of crazy winds in Denver (and I’m talking “scary to be outside,” not just “it’s a little breezy”), I was thrilled when the Denver-Chicago flight took off on time. And then.

I started to get the feeling that we were circling above Chicago. Sure enough, “Well, folks, we’ve got unfortunate news from the flight deck.” Upshot: we couldn’t land in Chicago due to thunderstorms, so we had to reroute to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to refuel and wait out the storms. The pilots assured us that the weather was “already moving out of the area,” and that we’d surely be on the ground less than an hour, then be on our way back to Chicago. I even had hopes that I would make the Chicago-Zurich flight. And then.

We sat, and sat, and sat, on the tarmac in Cedar Rapids (a very small airport), long after the plane had been refueled. First, there was a ground hold at the Chicago airport due to yet more bad weather (a tornado warning, according to people on the flight). Then, I would assume that the crew timed out, because we were told, “This flight is now cancelled, everyone has to deplane.” No kidding: the flight is cancelled, get off, have a nice day. That was it. A lot of people on the flight were pretty distraught: on their way to weddings, graduations, Mother’s Day celebrations, etc. and hundreds of people immediately lined up to talk to the United customer service agents. I made a strategic decision: Cedar Rapids can’t have that many hotels, so I’m going to secure a hotel room and deal with this mess from there. That proved to be a good choice. After a scenic walk to the convenience store (Cedar Rapids is actually a very pretty place, but a little low on sidewalks, and my grand plan to walk to downtown Cedar Rapids quickly proved unrealistic), United automatically rebooked me on a Cedar Rapids-Chicago flight for the next morning, then the same Chicago-Zurich flight that I was supposed to take the day before, and everything worked out. I arrived in Zurich a day late but otherwise fine, and then hopped on a train to Bern to meet my sister-in-law. And hey, as an optimist who loves to travel, I’ll add that I had never been to Iowa, and now I have.

Credit cards, Swiss public transport, and associated apps

Upon deplaning in Zurich, I met with a hassle, in that my Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier card (which I generally love; it has no foreign transaction fees and I’ve used it all over the world: I’ll do a future “miles and points” post to talk about that) was declined multiple times at the SBB (Swiss train system) ticket machine. After spending almost 30 minutes on the phone with Chase (card issuer) customer service, and first being told that the issue couldn’t be fixed (not true), then told that the issue was permanently fixed (also not true), I managed to get a ticket to Bern.

Little did I realize that this is some weird issue specific only to the SBB physical ticket machines. I spent so much time on the phone with Chase because (particularly when addled after the long overnight flight), I assumed that the “declined, declined, declined” mess meant that this card wasn’t going to work at all in Switzerland, which would have been a major problem. However, after successfully buying some water and snacks, then having the card declined again at the SBB machine, I switched to the SBB app, where I was able to buy tickets with no problem.

At the end of the trip, I had the opposite experience with TPG, the Geneva public transport system. The only way to buy tickets using your phone is by SMS, and my phone appeared to send the ticket request text, but then nothing else happened (no return text, no link to purchase). So I just ended up using my credit card at the physical ticket machines, which worked fine. Go figure.

First stop: Bern and Mürren

Because I had already missed the first day of the trip, we hit the ground running in Bern (such a cool city), walking through the old town (a UNESCO World Heritage site), visiting the bear park (the bears, who are mostly rescued from circuses and roadside attractions, were out and looking pleased, eating lettuce!), and checking out the stained glass windows in the cathedral. As a bonus, the organist was practicing! After grabbing lunch at a lovely outdoor cafe by the bear park, we took the train to the truly charming mountain town of Mürren. I’ve been to the Berner Oberland (home to the Eiger and the Jungfrau, the iconic peaks on many tourist images of Switzerland) many times, but only to the Grindelwald (“front”) side of the valley, which is gorgeous but really crowded and expensive. My sister-in-law picked Mürren (on the “back” side of the peaks) for this trip, and it was a winner!

Mürren is accessible only by public transport, unless you live there. We took a regular train from Bern to Interlaken, then Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, where we switched to a cable car, then a cog train to get to Mürren. This was already cool, and Mürren itself was so incredibly beautiful and peaceful. We stayed at the Hotel Alpenruh, which is at the very end of the main pedestrian street. We really liked this hotel (great breakfast buffet!) and would definitely stay there again. Our room had a private terrace with a mind-blowing view of the mountains, and the weather was incredible. Totally clear, not hot, and not cold. I had brought tons of rain gear and warm clothes from home, and they never even came out of my suitcase.

The nice desk guy at hour hotel recommended a fabulous hike for us, from the village, to the Bryndli (a nearby peak with a fantastic view, steep but worth it), then back via the Sprutz waterfall (very cool, the trail goes behind the waterfall) and the village of Gimmelwald (a nice, peaceful climb through the forest to end the day). I’m not sure how far this was…maybe 10 miles?? It took us pretty much all day, probably 10 AM to 5 PM, so we were excited to get back to the hotel, clean up, and eat a very good local meal in the hotel restaurant. The next day, we did a more mellow walk down to Winteregg on a paved path and a dirt road (also beautiful; everything in that area is just beautiful), then headed to our next stop!

Mürren is tiny and easy to get around, and there are lots of signs for hiking trails if you just want to wing it. There’s also a small but well-stocked Coop grocery story that’s open seven days a week (somewhat unusual for Switzerland).

Leysin and Geneva

Way back in 2012, my husband and daughter and I spent the summer in Leysin while my husband did a consulting job there. We’ve been back several times since, and have always really enjoyed it. After another multi-step but very efficient train ride (plus cable car to get down from Mürren), we took yet another cog train to get from Aigle to Leysin, where we stayed at our favorite hotel, the Central Résidence, which we lovingly refer to as, “the poor man’s Club Med,” due to its huge indoor swimming pool with a window-wall looking out at Mont Blanc. We grabbed dinner at the crepe place in the center of the village (tasty!). The next morning, we hit La Farandole for croissants and coffee, then set off on a loop hike to Prafandaz and La Berneuse, a hike we’ve done several times before, taking the forest route over Riondaz on the way up. There were still a few snow fields at the top, but we had the place to ourselves (it’s a zoo in the summer!) since the cable car was not yet running. A storm was moving in, so we hoofed it down the shorter (mostly dirt road) way through Temeley (a dairy and snack bar in the summer, but the cows were still down in the valley when we were there) and made it back to the hotel without getting rained on.

That night, we had a truly special dinner at the Leysin Fromagerie restaurant, a place where we’ve enjoyed many family meals. They make their own cheese (right there!) and the fondue is to die for. I’m not even a huge fondue person, and I love going there. By that time it was cool and rainy (the only significant rain we had on the trip!) and the perfect weather for fondue.

The next day, we headed down-valley to Geneva, always a beautiful place to spend some time, where we took a long walk by the lake and then I got together with a friend who lives in the area, and that was that! A short and perfect trip!

Overall impressions and costs

I’ve never been to Switzerland in May before. Crazily enough, my main concern was the weather: I packed full rain gear and tons of warm clothes, and in reality the weather was perfect. When we were in the Berner Oberland, it was (no kidding) so sunny that it was almost hard to take good pictures of the mountains because of the glare off the snow. There was definitely still some snow coverage higher up in the mountains, but things were melted out enough that we could still do all-day hikes in both of the locations we visited.

It seems that things in Switzerland mostly open up around May 25 for the summer. Personally, I would much prefer to go a little earlier, have the weather be a little cooler and less predictable than in the summer, but not have to deal with huge crowds. Switzerland is, in general, a pretty tightly packed place, and even at this time of year, we had trouble finding seats on the longer train rides, i.e. Aigle-Geneva. I’m now a fan of going there in May!

No shocker here, Switzerland is an expensive place, and it’s a place where pretty much everything (food, transportation, entertainment) is expensive, but where quality standards are also very high.

All in all, we did pretty well, cost-wise. I paid around $1,200 for my plane ticket on United (Denver-Chicago-Zurich on the way out, Geneva-DC-Denver on the way back). The Mürren hotel was $516 for two nights including tax, the Leysin hotel was $393 for two nights including tax, and the two “nice” meals we had were about $100 for two people including drinks and dessert. There are also ways to eat well and cheaply in Switzerland. We had a couple of excellent picnic meals from Coop (the main grocery store chain in the mountains), plus great pastries, great coffee, great cheese that we got from small stores. Sit-down meals tend to be expensive, but it’s totally possible to put together decent meals without going to fancy restaurants.

Swiss trains are what I would consider quite expensive: for example, the multi-stage ticket from Mürren to Leysin was $117 (!!), but the trains are super-efficient and get you literally anywhere you want to go, without having to rent a car. It’s also possible to buy a half-fare card, where you pay $137 up front and then your tickets are half price; there are also tons of Swiss rail passes that cover everything. We figured that we would just barely break even on this so we just purchased full-fare tickets, but it’s definitely something to look into if you’re going to be moving around a lot.

Our main/only activity was hiking, which is obviously free, and we loved it. Mountain sightseeing in Switzerland (if you’re not under your own power) can quickly eat into your budget. We talked to some people who paid over $200 per person for a “top of Europe” cable car experience on the Jungfrau, but we were totally happy to hike and enjoy the views.

Gear and clothing

I am in general a light packer, even for international trips, and even more so since I converted to the Underseat Pro backpack. I love this thing so much that I wrote a blog post about it, which you can read here. A few additions since I wrote that post:

• I’ve talked to a couple of people who said that the Underseat Pro did not fit under the seat of an airline that they traveled on. I fly almost exclusively on United and Southwest and that’s never happened to me (even on a small regional jet), but your mileage (haha!) may vary.
• I would not recommend the Underseat Pro as an additional backpack to go along with another suitcase; if you’re looking for a light, comfortable backpack, there are definitely better options. Its real value is when you want to go on a trip with one bag, end of story. Like when I walk out of my house for this kind of trip, I’m carrying one and only one thing: the Underseat Pro, not even a separate purse or day pack. As another side note, I take along the Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Day Pack, which, true to their marketing, compresses into a stuff sack that’s the size of an egg (no kidding).

Two pieces of clothing that are hugely helpful to me in packing light (not affiliate deals, I just love them):

• RBX Active’s everyday ribbed ankle pants. I have the black ones, and I find that they’re great for hiking, they dry quickly enough to wash them in the hotel sink if needed, they’re stretchy enough for yoga, and because they’re solid black, they can pass as “dress pants” in a pinch. On this trip, I paired them with a solid-colored long-sleeve t-shirt and mooched a scarf off my sister-in-law, and it was a decent look for going out to dinner!
• Danner hiking shoes. The ones I have (the Trailcomber in dusty rose) are sadly no longer made and I ordered mine on Ebay. But: if you’re trying to pack light, one key is to bring only one pair of shoes (the ones you’re wearing on the plane!) plus a pair of flip-flops or similar, for walking around the hotel, going to the pool, etc. Personally I like to have something that I can wear for an all-day hike, but that doesn’t look completely like sneakers, and that can also work if I want to wear something a little dressier than activewear.

There we go! A perfect week in Switzerland! Hopefully this provides some details and information if you’re interested in doing a similar trip.