Switzerland on a Budget Tips: How to Save on Transportation, Food, Accommodation and Experiences

If you’ve already started planning your Swiss vacation you’ve no doubt realised that it’s an expensive country to visit. But just how expensive is Switzerland?

You’ll probably find that goods and services cost more in Switzerland than they do in your home country but don’t despair - in this episode you’ll discover plenty of ways to travel in Switzerland on a budget.

I’m joined by Fabian Bryner who shares some easy ways to get the best bang for your vacation dollar so you can travel Switzerland on the cheap. Tips include booking early to get the best Switzerland travel deals, and Fabian has some great ideas to help you save on transport and accommodation, too. 

Plus you’ll hear how to eat and drink in Switzerland for less and learn about a fantastic coupon pass which offers over 100 buy 1, get 1 free deals for admission fees, excursions, activities, dining and more. 

If you want to learn how to travel in Switzerland cheap - or as cheap as possible - tune in for lots of helpful tips to help stretch your travel budget further.

Safe travels,

Carolyn

👉 Show notes - Episode 127

📖 Free guide 21 useful things to know before you visit Switzerland - Get your copy here

🎟️ Buy your Digital Swiss Coupon Pass here

Where to get more Swiss travel tips and inspiration:

•On our website

•Subscribe to our newsletter

•Join our private Facebook group

🇨🇭 Take advantage of our exclusive Switzerland travel discounts.

Transcript

Announcer

Are you dreaming of visiting Switzerland? Planning a trip to Switzerland is very exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. How do you choose which are the many scenic cities, towns, and villages to visit? Which mountaintop excursions should you take? And what’s the best way to get around Switzerland? And of course, how much of the country can you realistically see within your time frame? If you’ve asked yourself off any of these questions, this is the podcast for you. This is the Holidays to Switzerland Travel podcast. And in each episode, your host, Carolyn Schönafinger, chats with Swiss travel experts to answer your most commonly asked questions provide practical tips and take you on a virtual visit to the most popular destinations, and of course, some hidden gems to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. And you’ll hear plenty of conversations about Swiss cheese and chocolate, too. Are you ready to plan your trip to Switzerland? Well, let’s get started.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Hello, Grüezi, friends. Welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. If you’ve already started planning your Swiss vacation, you’ve no doubt realised that Switzerland is an expensive country to visit. But don’t despair, there are ways to save money and get great value for your hard-earned travel budget while still experiencing the popular attractions and visiting those popular destinations, because no one wants to miss out, do they? Back in episode 35, I discussed 15 ways to make your Swiss vacation budget go further. These tips include things like buying a rail pass, booking accommodation directly with the hotel or apartment owner instead of through a booking platform, and buying your souvenir is at the supermarket. In today’s episode, my guest, Fabian Bryner, has even more handy tips for making your Swiss travel budget go further. He’s got some really good suggestions for making savings in the planning and booking stage of your trip, but also for sightseeing and dining once you arrive in Switzerland. Now, how does having access to over 100 buy one, get one free coupon sound? It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well, Fabian is going to share how you can get your hands on this amazing offer.So let’s hear from him now. Welcome back to the podcast, Fabian. It’s great to have you here. For anyone listening who perhaps hasn’t heard you on your previous appearances on the podcast, which was episode 66 and episode 85, if people want to go back and listen to those, could you tell us a bit about role and also your background in the Swiss travel industry?

Fabian Bryner

Well, yeah. First of all, thank you to take me back on your show, Caroline. Yeah, my name is Fabian Green. I’m with Switzerland Travel Centre. I’m the Chief Commercial Officer there. I’ve been working for this company for 12 years now. I’ve been in the travel industry pretty much since after my studies in different roles. Switzerland Travel Centre, maybe Just to mention, this is the largest tour operator for Switzerland. We only do Switzerland. That’s why we have been on your show a couple of times already, and we have a good collaboration, and we definitely value your customers coming to Switzerland.

Carolyn Schönafinger

You definitely offer a great service. All your staff, I know your reservation staff, they are the Swiss specialists. If anyone is planning to book a Switzerland Travel Centre is the place to do it. It’s a well-known fact, I think, for most of our listeners that Switzerland is an expensive country to visit. As someone who’s been working in the travel and tourism industry for many, many years, what would you say to someone who’s thinking about visiting Switzerland, but they’re concerned about the cost?

Fabian Bryner

It’s always a topic, and It’s not only for the tourist, obviously, cost of living in Switzerland is high as well. It’s at the higher end of the scale comparable to other countries in Europe, definitely. The strong Swiss franc doesn’t make it cheaper currently. But again, it’s a once in a lifetime experience for many people, so it’s worthwhile. When the quality is also high, yes, we sometimes need to call us a premium destination, but I think there are ways how to keep your costs low when travelling in Switzerland as well. But if you compare it to other countries nowadays, we had a very low inflation rate. So comparable to some of your listeners, home market, Switzerland has become cheaper in that sense.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, well, that’s good to know. I know that both yourself and myself, we want to encourage everyone who’s listening to enjoy a trip to Switzerland. So let’s try and make their visit as budget friendly as possible. What are some of your best money saving tips for someone who’s planning a trip to Switzerland?

Fabian Bryner

Well, as you said, that starts with planning. Picking the right travel season, for example, is definitely one key element to cost saving or one of the cost drivers. We recommend people to travel in spring and autumn and not in the very high season of June, July, August. That also has to do with where the Swiss have school holidays. So everything is a bit more packed and prices have been going up in that season. Then the same goes in wintertime. It’s like January and March or the preferable months to go because February is school holidays, and school holidays are all lined up from Kenton to Kenton in Switzerland. So you have pretty much Well, February is school holidays. Then I guess the travel season, booking early is obviously one of the best tips to save costs because all the prices nowadays have become a little dynamic. The hotel The sales will fill up, the price will go up. But also sometimes you get early bird specials. It’s definitely not worthwhile waiting, not only for the cost, but also in In some areas, you really don’t find hotel rooms anymore at some point in time. The trains are getting full as well, the panoramic trains.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Excellent. What about for when people are looking for a location to stay in? Does that have any bearing on the cost?

Fabian Bryner

Yeah, definitely. I mean, as everywhere, basically, if you want to be in the very hotspot, prices are higher. If you can to stay in the suburbs or in the outskirts of a city or even in Zurich, you can stay at the airport. I mean, the public transport is so good and so quick. So sometimes you’re quicker from the airport to city than from somewhere within Zurich, for example, to the main station. That’s definitely something to consider. But then it’s also not sometimes go for the well-known towns, but the ones next to it. I mean, Let’s say Interlaken is very famous, but there are also Spiez and Meiringen close by, which also have their charm and are differently priced in the high season.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Another place that springs to mind, too, is Tasch, instead of saying in Zermatt. Obviously, if you’re in Zermatt, you think you’re right in the heart of it. But Tasch is just a short train ride, 10 minutes to to Zermatt, and you might save a considerable amount of money.

Fabian Bryner

Yeah. Another tip maybe is also if you stay longer in a certain spot, then also consider apartments. Another alternative that we have in Switzerland are the Youth Hostels, which are at a very high standard. You can compare them with three to sometimes even four-star hotels. It’s not like the bunk beds anymore. It’s like they have double rooms, which are in the room and so on. They’re a good option, too.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. Yeah, that’s a great tip.

Fabian Bryner

Another thing definitely is how to get around in Switzerland. That’s also where you can save costs. We always have talked about the Swiss Travel Pass, which is a perfect and convenient way to get around. There is also the flex option of this pass. If you’re not travelling by train every day, you could also opt for this one. It’s cheaper. Maybe in this case, you would have seven travel days in a month, and you don’t have a consecutive pass instead. Then the Half Fare Card obviously gives you, as the name says, half the price to many, not only public transport, generally on the trains, but also on mountain excursions, the local public transport. That’s definitely… Normally, we say to customers, if you include two mountains, a half a car is already an option that is worthwhile.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, that’s great. They’re all good ways to save money when you’re planning and booking the trip. But what about when our listeners actually get to Switzerland? What are some of the ways that they can keep their sightseeing and even their meal costs down?

Fabian Bryner

Well, one thing that we sometimes forget about is all the local tourist cards that each destination have. Sometimes they’re attached, some benefits are attached to a longer stay. Let’s take an example of Saint Moritz, for example. If you stay two nights, you have public transport for free. You have even mountain excursions included. That’s basically with all the destinations, you have somewhat of a tourist card that gives you access to local attractions, but mostly also public transport. That’s definitely one way. Speaking of getting access to museums, for example, the Swiss Travel Pass also includes the Museums Pass, which gives you access to more than 100 museums in Switzerland. Then when it comes to… Yeah, I mean, food is definitely one of the costs that’s high on everyone’s budget in Switzerland. But there’s also ways that you can save some cost I guess one thing that also the Swiss do when they travel, they buy their picnic. They go to the supermarket and buy a sandwich, maybe a salad, and then sit down by the river or the lake and enjoy the outdoors while having a quite affordable lunch, for example. Or there are lunch boxes they sell in the supermarket at the train station.You can take on a train. They’re quite fair priced. Then the good thing about Switzerland is you don’t need to spend much on drinking in terms of water, because you can fill up your bottle on pretty much every fountain in Switzerland. It’s all drinking water that comes at fountains.

Carolyn Schönafinger

It’s so tasty, too. And yes, the range of meals that are available at the supermarket is quite amazing. I know, yes, we’ve had picnics as well, but we’ve also actually bought pre-packed meals from the supermarket and had them in our hotel room, if we haven’t felt like going out for dinner to a restaurant at night, you can easily take them back to your hotel room. Their supermarket will give you the cutlery to go with the meal. So it’s a great way to save money.

Fabian Bryner

Another thing that comes to my mind is there’s a quite cool app called Too Good To Go. This is actually a way to reduce food waste. That’s the purpose of the app. The benefit of it is that you can actually get very cheap meals or what’s leftover off the buffets of some hotels, restaurants, slightly after the main lunch or dinner time. So this app is for free to download, can also be downloaded by tourist. You pay by credit card, and you pick up your meal package at a certain time at that restaurant. And it’s easy because it’s geo-coded that wherever you are, it shows you what’s around you, what’s available, at what time and at what cost. Pretty cool.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah. Okay. So you can save a considerable amount and still have a restaurant meal.

Fabian Bryner

Yeah. Sometimes it fits very well with the schedules because most of our travellers, they have a breakfast included in the morning. They may have the breakfast between 9: 00 and 10: 00, and they then obviously create for a lunch then somewhat around One, two, later, that the Swiss go for lunch while working.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Excellent. Any other ways that people could save money on their sightseeing and dining?

Fabian Bryner

Well, I guess we definitely have a good option for that. It’s called our Swiss Coupon Pass. This is something we have been running for 12 years now. It’s actually an app nowadays, a web app with more than 100 coupons or two-for-one offers. It’s a wide range of activities, culinary, so restaurants, mountain railways. We even have discounts for rental cars, entries into museums or thermal bots. It’s a lot of and it’s all two for one. It’s quite simple to understand. You buy one, get one free. That’s That’s a perfect travel companion. It’s not only the saving, the cost saving, but it’s also inspirational that if you don’t know which restaurant to go to in a city, you obviously have tips and you can save at the same time.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah. Okay. Sounds great. What are some of the attractions or admission fees that people can get two for one entry to?

Fabian Bryner

Well, in most of the destinations, we have a city tour. To start with, for people, either it’s a walking tour or it’s one by coach, or it’s a very specific theme tour. Then we have for the panoramic trains as well, we have first-class upgrades where you can actually on-spot and get for a small fee an upgrade to first-class if there is availability. Then the classical entries like Swiss Miniature, Chocolate and Cheese Factories, Thermal Bath, we have in different regions. But then also there are shopping vouchers, so you can get buy a Swiss or I can get a second one for free, for example, in Lucerne. Yeah, lots of different. It’s spread out pretty much along the main tourist routes. You always find something close by, be it a restaurant, be it an activity where you travel along.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. You mentioned earlier mountain excursions, and they’re always very popular for people visiting Switzerland. Which mountain railways are included in the Swiss coupon pass?

Fabian Bryner

We have Stanserhorn, the one with the Cabrio, quite famous by now. Gornergrat is included, Rocher-du-Naye, the house mountain of Montreux, Monte Tamaro in the Ticino. Then some of the less known, but still very worthwhile to go to mountains like Santis in the Eastern part of Switzerland, Niesen, which has this pyramid formed shape, which is unique. All in all, we have many of them. Sometimes we also have, again, the matching culinary coupon for the mountaintop restaurants.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. Maybe you could tell us about some of those culinary offers and restaurants.

Fabian Bryner

Yeah. I mean, as I said, they’re either in the cities where our travellers do stay, their sightseeing spots, or on the mountaintops. We were making sure that we have a broad variety of food as well. We have the typical Swiss food, so you can try Raclette or fondue, or the sausage, the Bratwurst with Rösti, but then also Italian food, Asian food. We tried to have something for everyone. All in all, I think it’s about one-third of the coupons of these more than 100 coupons are food coupons. I think we did once a calculation and simulated a 10-day trip along the Grand Tour of Switzerland, and we’re calculating the savings of if you use one food voucher and one activity voucher every day. I think we came up to somewhat around 1,000 franc. It really can make a difference if you’re open to be guided by these coupons.

Carolyn Schönafinger

You mentioned earlier about it gives you inspiration, too. I noticed that one of the inclusions is a Sunday brunch at Uetliberg, Zurich’s house Mountain. That’s something that I’ve been meaning to do for years and years. Maybe next time I go to Switzerland, that will encourage me to actually do that.

Fabian Bryner

Very good. It’s a quite worthy voucher, the one you mentioned. I think it’s about 75 Swiss francs that you save on this brunch. It’s really a brunch. It’s like a breakfast and the lunch together, the The offer is huge. This is one of the new ones. The good thing about the digital Swiss Coupon post that we launched now, we are adding coupons as we go. In the past, we had a booklet, and they’re mainly they’re used for the Swiss people now. Then it was done for a year. Now the coupons are valid for also a year, pretty much. But for the tourists, for the travellers coming to Switzerland, it doesn’t It doesn’t matter whether they come in January or they come in October. The reality is whilst they’re travelling in Switzerland.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Another thing I noticed that was included is some activities. For instance, the the Rope Park at Mount Pilatus and the zip line at Trubsee on Mount Titlis. Are there any other outdoor activities that are included?

Fabian Bryner

You mentioned the ones the Ropes parks, then the thermal baths, you have entries into thermal baths. Alpamare, for example, is one that is very probably with the families because it’s these aqua parks. But But then I think we also have quite exclusive things or it’s a Jacuzzi on top of Diavolezza, Mount Diavolezza. We have a gin tasting in one of the hotels in the Engadine. It’s a bit mainstream, but you find some very unique experiences where, again, there’s the inspiration.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, very good. We better mention what the price is for all this fantastic value.

Fabian Bryner

Well, in comparison, what you can say, if it’s cheap, it’s like 39 Swiss francs for these 100 coupons, 100 plus coupons, I must say. The price is set at… We always wanted to have people have the return on investment with two coupons used, at least. Some people just buy it for one coupon because they know that’s the one they want to… They make already They save already money if they only pay the digital Swiss coupon pass for the one.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, with Stanserhorn. I know that’s normally 82 franc per adults. If you’re spending 39 for the coupon pass, then you only have to pay 82 for one of you. You are in front already. I did use it a couple of years ago when it was still in the booklet form. We had entry to the Abbey Library in St. Gallen and the Appenzeller Cheese Dairy that includes the traditional macaroni cheese type meal. So yeah, just with those two, using those two coupons, we were well in front.

Fabian Bryner

Yeah, you can actually spend a very nice and exciting day in one of the regions. So as you said now, it’s the Eastern part of Switzerland. If you have time, you can add Santis, and then you have a really great experience for a day.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Now, a question that I’ve heard asked about the Swiss Coupon Pass is, is it necessary to have that if you already have a Swiss Travel Pass or another rail pass? How would you respond to that?

Fabian Bryner

Yeah, definitely. It’s adding to that because the Swiss Travel Pass gets you around. Let’s say the only overlap is with the few museums that we have included, too, which are part of the Museums Cass and therefore included in the Swiss Travel Pass. But all of the rest, all the food, all the excursions and the activities you don’t have in the Swiss Travel Pass. But it’s a perfect combination because Travel Pass gets you there and the Swiss Coupon Pass gets you in, basically.

Carolyn Schönafinger

That’s a great way to sum it up. Now, you’ve been very kind and let me actually sell the Digital Swiss Coupon Pass on Holidays to Switzerland because like you, I want everyone out there to know about it because it is really such great value. Can you just tell the listeners what happens if they purchase the Digital Swiss Coupon Pass? How does it all work?

Fabian Bryner

Well, first of all, they go on your website. I think for people to really see the value, it’s always good to see the coupons. That’s easily done on the web app. You can actually, without even buying it, even on your desktop at home, you can look at the different coupons. They’re all lined up in certain categories or by regions. Then there’s a great map. You can find everything that’s where you are going or what’s around you when you’re in Switzerland. But then once you buy it, you get sent an activation code. The web app is to be downloaded temporarily on your mobile, so that makes it the easiest way. It’s free, obviously. Then you buy the coupon pass, get an activation code, and then you activate the coupons, either already at home or in the hotel or whenever you land in Switzerland.

Carolyn Schönafinger

So you’ve got it on your phone and then you decide, okay, we want to go to this restaurant and redeem this voucher. So you just hit the redeem coupon button, I think from memory.

Fabian Bryner

Yes, exactly. So first of all, the thing is it’s easy to navigate because it’s geo-located. So whenever you open it up, it shows you what’s next to you. So that makes it easy also to find a good restaurant that gives you the discounts close by. Then once you’re there, as you said, you activate the coupon, and it’s valid for 15 minutes. Basically, you show it to the waiter, show it at the cash desk within these 15 minutes, and they will give you the discount.

Carolyn Schönafinger

As simple as that. How easy is that? Yeah, very good. I know not everyone is going to use every single coupon. Well, certainly not visitors to Switzerland. But if they did use every single coupon in the booklet, what savings could they make?

Fabian Bryner

What we once calculated, it’s more than 5,500 altogether. So, yeah, it is a huge saving you can make. And the good thing is if you have it on your mobile, you always have it with you because the most difficult part is that, that was with the booklet, you didn’t have it along when you actually need Having it on your phone is always handy and easy.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, absolutely. Because plans could change, or you might decide to stay in a city a little longer than you originally planned, and suddenly you’re hungry and you decide to use one of the vouchers at a nearby restaurant. That’s excellent. Now, I don’t know of anyone who wouldn’t want the chance to save all that money on their Swiss vacation. So buying the Swiss Coupon Pass certainly makes sense.

Fabian Bryner

Definitely.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Well, thank you for that. Have you got any other money saving tips or tips for people who are thinking of visiting Switzerland that you’d like to share with us?

Fabian Bryner

I think we mentioned the most important ones. Book early, travel outside of peak season, maybe stay outside of the hotspots. Yeah, but I guess if you treat yourself to Switzerland, then enjoy it. I think that’s the most important thing. If it’s a bit more costly, then make sure you really have the time of your life here.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Absolutely. It’s money well spent, isn’t it?

Fabian Bryner

Definitely. The memories are unpayable.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Exactly. Thanks very much, Fabian.

Fabian Bryner

Thank you. I hope to see many of your listeners in the future. Hopefully, you too.

Carolyn Schönafinger

I’m sure you will. Thank you.

Fabian Bryner

Okay. Thank you, Carolyn.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Can you believe that you can get over 100 buy one, get one free offers for just 39 Swiss franc? The Digital Swiss Coupon Pass is such good value. And like we mentioned, in many cases, you only need to use one coupon, and you’ve already saved more than the cost of the pass. Pass. Now, Fabian touched on a few of the coupon offers available in our interview, but I just wanted to mention a few more so you can really understand what great value this pass is. In Zurich, for instance, you can do a Zurich Old Town walking tour and save 25 franc, or you can do a coach and walking city tour and save 34 franc. You could also visit the FIFA Museum and save 26 and enjoy a Saturday brunch at the Carlton restaurant and save 29 franc. All those four things added up would save you 114 franc. Amazing value. In Lucerne, you could enjoy a walking tour and save 25 franc, visit the Swiss Chocolate Adventure and save 18 franc, buy one pocket knife and save… Sorry, buy one pocket knife and get another for free, saving you 23 franc, and then enjoy a beautiful relaxing cruise on the Saphir yacht and save 32 franc.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Those four things would save you 98 franc. And on the other side of the country, if you were in Montreux, you could enjoy a two-hour cruise and save 53 franc. Take part in one of the Freddie tours, where you learn all about Freddie Mercury’s time in Montreux, and that would save you 29 franc. If you wanted to visit Chaplin’s World, you can save 10 franc. You could enjoy a ride on the Express train in the Lavaux Vineyards and save 17 franc, and finish your day at Sinatra’s Bar with a cocktail and a charcuterie board to share, and you’d save 30 franc, all up saving 139 franc. So the Digital Swiss Coupon Pass really is excellent value, and there are savings to be made all across the country. Now, because this year’s coupon pass is valid until 30th of November, you can buy it now and activate it on your mobile phone, so it’s ready to go as soon as you arrive in Switzerland. I’ll include a link to the online brochure, which shows all those two for one offers in the show notes, and also a link to where you can buy the pass through the Holidays to Switzerland shop.

Carolyn Schönafinger

I’ll also include links to Fabian’s other podcast appearances, episodes 66 and 85, so you can listen to those and learn more about the fantastic range of packages and tours offered by his company, Switzerland Travel Centre, and the fantastic discount that they offer to Holidays to Switzerland podcast listeners. I really hope you’ve enjoyed hearing these money-saving tips for Switzerland. If you found this episode helpful, I’d be super grateful if you could leave a five-star rating or a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Ratings and reviews help us to reach even more travellers, just like you, who are planning their own dream trip to Switzerland. Thanks so much in advance. In next week’s episode, we’re taking a virtual ride on of Switzerland’s most popular panoramic trains, so I hope you’ll join me then. Until then. Tschüss.