Alpine life, for less: Switzerland on a budget

17.05.2024 - 14:29 / lonelyplanet.com

It’s no secret that Switzerland doesn’t top the list of “cheap getaways.”

Indeed, this small and famously prosperous Alpine nation is known for being one of the priciest countries in Europe, with several of its cities regularly cited as among the world’s most expensive places to live.

Yet traveling within Switzerland on a modest budget is in fact possible. If you plan carefully, make the most of the country’s many transport deals and prioritize the countryside over cities, even the most frugal of travelers can savor this beautiful country.

Here’s how to get the most out of Switzerland on a budget.

Switzerland’s famously efficient public transport system has a huge reach, with SBB trains and distinctive yellow PostBus coaches supplying access to even the tiniest hamlet up the remotest mountain road. Tickets are relatively expensive – but if you plan ahead, there are ways to cut costs. Plus, compared to price of car rental, fuel and parking, public transport is an economical and hassle-free way to travel.

Designed for tourists, the Swiss Travel Pass offers unlimited travel across Switzerland from three to 15 days. Similar regional passes, such as the Tell-Pass in Central Switzerland, offer value for money if you plan on traveling a lot within a certain area.

For longer stays, your best bet is a Half Fare Travelcard, which allows you to buy tickets across the transport network at 50 percent discount; the yearly option is popular with Swiss residents, but there’s also a cheaper version just for tourists, valid for a month.

For more sporadic journeys, download the SBB app and search for Supersaver tickets, bookable in advance for specific services, or Saver Day Passes, which are good value if you want to travel a long way in a single day. The further ahead you book, the cheaper these tickets are. Kids under 6 travel free.

A small tourist tax is added to overnight stays in Switzerland – but in return you’re given a guest card, which offers free local public transport and sometimes extra benefits, such as cut-price admission to museums and attractions. The Ticino Ticket is the best example, offering free train and bus travel, plus discounts on mountain railways, cable cars, museums and activities within the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino.

It costs nothing to stroll through Bern’s UNESCO-listed medieval center, cross Lucerne’s 14th-century Kapellbrücke or ogle the jet d’eau fountain in Geneva.

And if you plan carefully, it’s possible to visit many museums on the cheap, too – the Kunsthaus in Zürich offers free admission on Wednesdays, the Kunstmuseum Basel is free in the early evenings and the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva has “pay what you can” entry. Children get in gratis to most museums.

In Switzerland,