Travel

Peak Switzerland

Doreen Delva-Gonzalez

29 Jul 2025 — 5 min read

Harder Kulm Mountain

One pandemic and four years later, we finally made it to Switzerland. This trip has been brewing in the background since my husband and I ventured on our 12 country European backpacking adventure back in 2019. So as you can imagine, for years I’ve pictured myself walking through quaint towns with a chocolate something in hand, paragliding over mountains of lush greenery, and taking train rides so picturesque I’d convince myself that I was on-site shooting as the lead in the next blockbuster movie. I blame social media for my high expectations. I also blame it for omitting the numerous truths that travelers often face when traveling to Switzerland. So let’s talk about the reality of vacationing here!

Expectation, Meet Reality Rating: 8.31/10

Getting Around

Traveling within Europe tends to be pretty convenient. But I wasn’t prepared for how convenient it would be to travel within Switzerland. Not once did we need to take a ride-share to get from Point A to Point B. Instead, we splurged (and when I say splurged, I mean splurged because this bad boy was EXPENSIVE) on a 15-Day Swiss Travel Pass for two adults. Generally in under an hour, we were transported from the airport to our hotel, to the next excursion, to the next city, to the next hotel, and so forth and so forth. The plus side is that our Swiss Pass not only included transportation via train, bus, and boat but it also included free/discounted entry to a long list of attractions.

Anywho, back to getting around the country. Hubby and I, him especially, are good at mapping our way around, so it didn’t take long for us to figure out how to navigate the transportation system. Expectation met. However, maximizing our comfort during said transportation did not go as smoothly as I hoped. Honestly, for what we paid for, I thought we’d simply get on the train, find a nice open space to store our luggage, sit down side-by-side in a cozy seat, and enjoy a smooth ride. In reality, there was more to it than that. Here’s what I learned.

First things first, pay attention to the platform signs to pick the right train car. Otherwise, expect to accidentally board a food cart, family cart, or a cart that already has way too many people onboard and nowhere to store your luggage. Next, just know that finding seats with a second-class train ticket means you may have to fight for said seats. The battle begins once everyone politely lines up for the train as it arrives on the platform. I recommend getting first class tickets if you want to avoid the uncertainty of it all but if not, may the odds be ever in your favor. Now, you’ve finally made it on the train. Hooray! After a few trips you might start to feel really good about navigating around (as you should). An air of confidence surrounds you as you look down on other people who are obviously lost and confused tourist (please try not to). Then it hits you, not once have you been asked to validate your ticket purchase before getting aboard. You then question if buying a ticket was a waste to begin with (don’t). Honestly is the best policy and you’re better off not trying your luck. Attendants would literally randomly pop up to verify that passengers did in fact purchase a ticket for their journeys. In fact, I witnessed someone getting caught doing this very thing. Embarrassing to watch? Yes, but I just had to watch as they tried to be slick and present a past train ticket and feign confusion but we all knew the game they were playing at. My advise, don’t get caught up.

Communication

I’m not going to lie, I put in zero effort to prepare to communicate with the locals for this trip. Duo (Duolingo) has even expressed its disappointment in my lack of language leaning initiative. But the truth of it all was that it wasn’t a make or break moment. While it is a sign of respect to know at least a few words of the local language, that feat seemed almost impossible to do as there are four national languages in Switzerland; Romansh, German, French, and Italian.

So I’ll give myself a pass here. However, given that there are multiple national languages, I thought that this meant that throughout the country, we’d hear people speaking a mixture of these languages; which would serve to our benefit as my husband speaks French. But no, I was wrong. Dead wrong. The dominant national language actually varied depending on what part of the country we were in. So while the northwest spoke almost only German (with a sprinkle of English thank goodness) the southwest portion of the country spoke almost exclusively French (with a dash of English). This does make me wonder how Swiss born natives experience traveling within the country knowing that they may run into another Swiss born native who speaks an entirely different language. Hmmm, I guess I’ll have to ask when I visit again in the future.

Food

Now let’s get it the good part, foooooooood! To keep it brief I expected to have chocolate with every dish, gain 10 pounds from all of the fondue I’d be consuming, and dine at an endless list of local restaurants. The reality of it all made me re-consider how we allocated our spending budget for the trip. Why? Eating out, like everything else in Switzerland, is EXPENSIVE.

Needless to say the idea of eating out multiple times a day was just out of the question. Like we literally spent $135.00 USD at a tapas restaurant where between the two of us, our order included 4 small plates, water (not free), and 2 alcoholic beverages.…So it was only natural that we did as everyone else did and purchased our meals from the local supermarkets (Migros and Coop); both of which I grew to love less and less by all of the frequent visits. Luckily, they always had chocolate for sale at a reasonable price so at least I could indulge in my one desire to each chocolate with every dish.

But Wait, There’s More

Honestly, I don’t expect you to read anymore that you already have so see below for a quick snapshot of how my expectations for this trip stacked up to reality!