Trip of a lifetime!

Switzerland | Jun 4 - Jun 15, 2022

Once booking with Tomaz and KimKim, my friend and I were given to a local company with Zala helping us. Overall, the trip and recommendations were amazing. Day by day feedback to follow.

We had great directions from Zala regarding transportation and luckily the train was easy to get the hang of. Our first hotel was Hotel Josef. Very cute hotel and close to the train as promised. What we didn't know however, was that there was no front desk at this hotel. Check in was a bit difficult, especially after a full day of travel. Written on the locked hotel's door was a note to walk to a nearby hotel after 9pm. We arrived around 7:30pm on a Saturday. We called the number on the door as well as the number provided in our paperwork. Neither number worked. We took it upon ourselves to walk to the nearby hotel and ask for some assistance. Turns out check in was via a kiosk inside the restaurant and we needed a code to get in the main door. This would have been helpful information to know before arrival.

The Limmat River cruise ticket was covered with the Swiss pass. Suggestions on where to get off and walk around would have been helpful. The Zurich Small Group Tour is not something I would recommend. There was no explanation of what was on the tour (i.e. number of stops, type of food or type of drink) prior to booking it. The first stop was for beer, meat, and cheese. There was no alternative to the beer, which neither of us drink so that was a huge waste of beer and our money. I expected information from the tour guide about the types of cheeses and meats available. There was only information about the beer from the waiter at the restaurant. The tour guide, unfortunately, didn't know any information. Next, the weather didn't cooperate and there was a big downpour preventing us from getting to our next stop. We improvised and stopped for a drink at a nearby bar to wait out the rain. Because we stopped here and because supposedly the third (and final) stop was closed, our guide provided 5 CHF toward the wine, and we covered the rest. She seemed unsure of her budget and considering there was no backup plan for rain or for a closed final stop, I don't think we should have had to cover our own glass of wine. The final stop was for fondue. This was a cute place, but again, not much information. The other people on the tour booked the tour on their own and cost about 150 CAD, about $115. This tour was NOT worth anywhere close to that. Quite a disappointment.

Mt. Pilatus was amazing. Absolutely worth every penny and all the time! It was very cloudy, so we did not get the panoramic views, but a risk you must take. What we were not told about was that there is a stop on the descent with fantastic activities including a ropes course, zip line, glider, and toboggan. Because we didn’t know these existed, by the time we got down to this part, we could not do the ropes course, which is something that we would have loved to do. We were able to do the zip line and toboggan, which were very fun! I highly recommend them.

Lucerne was adorable. There was a lot to see and do. Hotel Central Luzern was such a cute hotel. The front desk staff was fantastic. In fact, everyone was. The room was teeny tiny though. Barely room to walk around and the bathroom door was a frosted glass door with the toilet right in front of it, so there was no privacy. The space was not so much the issue because we were only there to sleep, but the lack of privacy would have been an issue if we needed to stay more than 1 night. Hotel Château Gütsch was not recommended to us, but we saw it in the skyline and is worth the time.

We stayed in Interlaken for quite a while. I’m guessing because it was central to a lot of the big activities we had planned. The downside, the area was small with not much to do. Even with suggestions from the hotel, everything was closed after the activities we had planned for the day, so the evenings were very boring. The higher altitude activities required a heavier jacket, which we were warned about before the trip. I had arranged with Zala to rent a jacket by asking the hotel staff as there was supposed to be somewhere to rent nearby our hotel. Unfortunately, after asking multiple people, they were all unaware of places to rent during the summer. This induced a bit of a panic. We called the number provided and were able to speak to Tomaz. He was not aware of anywhere either. Within about an hour, Zala had emailed with alternative locations. Some of which I had already explored, but ultimately, the rental location on the way to Jungfrau worked out. Having specific details already planned into the itinerary about the rental location would have eased some unnecessary stress. With all that said, Zala was very attentive through email with all my questions while we were local. The Funky Chocolate Club was amazing. The experience was fun and there was a lot of information, and everything was hands-on plus goodies to take away. A friend suggested the Staubbach falls, which were beautiful. There is also panoramic hotel nearby that we discovered while walking around and that is also something I would recommend.

It could have been mentioned, but there was a ton of rainy days everywhere we went except for Lausanne. I did bring a light rain jacket, but it was a lot of rain and ended up with soaking wet shoes because we did not want to miss out on exploring. Luckily the rain was intermittent. St. Beatus Caves and Oberhofen Castle is worth the visit. The caves were spectacular. Hotel Interlaken was great. Spacious and good breakfast.

The trip to Grindelwald was easy to navigate. The mountain carts were a blast! To get to the carts was a trek though. When booking our trip, we did pick the mountain carts, however, we were not told that we could bundle and do more than one activity for a discounted price. The trek was long to get to the activities and the carts lasted only a few minutes of fun, so we instantly wanted to do more. To do that though, we would have had to buy the activity and the gondola. We were incredibly disappointed to learn it would have cost a tremendous amount to do that instead of pre-bundling.

Zermatt was a bit of a disappointment. We did not realize that going to the Matterhorn would cost anything let alone 71 CHF with the Swiss Pass. We did not end up doing that. The town was cute, but we did not stay long.

Lausanne was so cute! There was so much to do. Beau-Rivage Palace in Ouchy was absolutely worth the visit as well as the Cathedral. Hotel de l'Angleterre was right next door to the Palace, but I was not able to go in and walk around. And of course, the Olympic Museum. Vevey and especially Montreux are also worth the visit. Chillon Castle was a gorgeous true castle. So much history and beauty. We chose to go paddle boarding in Vevey instead of doing museums. We had intended to do the winery but did not get to it.

Geneva city tour with a bus and boat cruise was also not something I would recommend. The bus tour did allow us to see quite a few attractions but even while driving slowly, it was a different experience than seeing it walking. I did like the couple times we got off the bus. After the bus we took a tramway. They did a good job trying to allow you to see everything, but you could not fully appreciate the beauty of the structures while still moving. The boat cruise was in no way a tour. We just sat on a very hot boat for an hour. The Fondue cooking class was a great experience. I do recommend that. As much as I liked Lausanne, it would have been nice to stay in Geneva at least for the last night.

In general, suggestions for what to do and see during our downtime would have been helpful. In addition, knowing that stores and every day activities are closed on Sundays was important information we did not have. The Olympic Museum was closed on Mondays, and the Monday after we arrived was a holiday and therefore a lot of stores were also closed. More information regarding the guided tours is also necessary as I don’t think these were worth the money. Overall, the trip was great and I would recommend Switzerland to anyone.