Planning your trip to Switzerland soon? Airticket and accommodations booked, so what's next?
Here are few things you need to do before flying over to Switzerland:
1) Purchase Swiss Travel Pass
Generally, there are two ways to travel around Switzerland; either self-drive or take the public transport. However, I personally think that the first option is more economical if you are travel in 3 or more cause you can share the other costs beside the car rental fee such as fuel, car park fee and so on. Like our case where just the two of us, we chosen to travel with their public transport. Swiss public transports are absolutely fantastic and excellent, that you don't have to worry from getting one point to another. If you are planning to stay in Switzerland for 3 days and more and planning to cover plenty of places and cities, why not consider of getting the Swiss Travel Pass?
It might be pricey but trust me, it actually helps you to save your time and money too. You can get an unlimited rides on the public transport in Swiss - trains, panorama trains, trams, buses, cable cars, funiculars and even boats. You can hop on and hop off at anytime and anywhere as you like, without the need of getting any tickets from the kiosk or counter. You can even get an exclusive deal to 500 museums for free. Some mountain excursions to Swiss peaks such as Mount Titlis, Pilatus and Gornergrat where you can get 50% off too.
You can get this Swiss Travel Pass from Klook, always our favourite travel platforms. You can opt between consecutive or flexible pass and the validity period of 3, 4, 6 8 or 15 days. As for the type of class, I think second class is not bad at all cause most of the times, it wasn't crowded inside the train and both of us tend to find plenty of seats. All you need to do after purchasing this pass is to make sure to print a hardcopy, though you can use your mobile but who knows, sometimes the train inspector can make your life difficult right? And also, always remember to bring your passport along with you cause the train inspector will do spot check at anytime.
2) Download SBB Mobile Apps
This is one of the most important apps you shouldn't miss out when travelling to Switzerland. Not just that this apps will inform you the next available public transport schedule, it will let you know which platform you should heading to. It's pretty convenient and easy to understand. Apart from the trains, you can use this apps to check the timetable for buses, boats, cable cars and more.
3) Exchange Some Swiss Francs
Switzerland might seems like part of Europe but in reality, it isn't. Hence, this nation has its own official currency which known as Swiss Francs (CHF). Although majority of the places in Swiss such as supermarkets and shops do accept credit cards, but still, I noticed there are few restaurants and eateries only take cash. Therefore, it's wise to exchange some CHF before travelling over to Switzerland.
No time to change in your own country? You can exchange CHF at the money changer nearby the train platform of Zurich Airport. But I do believe they only accept those common currencies such as Euro, British Pound and US dollar.
During our visit (end of April to early May 2022) CHF 1 = RM4.50 - RM4.60
4) Bring Along Your Card(s)
Whether credit or debit card, at least bring along one card with you. Not just for the sake of emergency purposes, but there are few places in Switzerland that only accept payment via card. Take for example, the accommodation we booked in Zermatt is a self-check in property and we will only receive our room key right after we have paid the city tax upon check-in. And they only accept payment via card, not cash. Luckily for us, we always bring along our favourite card - BigPay. Here's my post on "5 Reasons Why You Should Apply BigPay Card".
We used BigPay to pay for almost everything in Switzerland; city tax charged for the accommodations we stayed in, groceries at supermarkets, train tickets to Colmar and return, fast food restaurants, and even for the photos and video of our paragliding activities which we paid directly to the pilot. I even used BigPay card to pay for a single piece of stamp I bought in Colmar, France when it's only costs me €1.65 as they don't accept cash.
You can download BigPay - Asia's Money app from Goggle Play Store/App Store and it's completely free to get this card. Don't forget to use my referral code and you'll get RM10 when you sign up!
(FCOzeroWICSMzero)
5) Make Sure You Have Translate Apps On Your Phone
Regardless of any country you're heading to, this is another important apps you should have, before starting any of your journey. The menu we browsed through in the restaurant, the description of the item in supermarket, the signboard at the public place and more, are mostly in foreign language and this is where you need the "Translate" apps to make your travel journey and adventures smooth and hassle-free. You can even use the camera to scan through the text, and it will instantly translate to your preferred language.
For your information, Switzerland has not one or two, but they have four official languages; German, French, Italian and Romansh. And this is why it's so important for you to have this Translate apps.
6) Get SIM Card (Optional)
Not sure whether this should consider as optional or not, cause nowadays Internet plays important roles in our daily life. Even when comes to travelling, I can't live without Internet, especially to get info about the next available public transport timetable, translating the menu from Google, updating thousands of photos on the social media and also WhatsApping my family and friends while on the go. I don't really like getting a pocket WiFi cause I found it's quite bulky - it's too heavy when I need to carry 2 handphones, a camera, a laptop and a powerbank. So getting a sim card would be an ideal option for me.
7) Pack Some Food From Your Home Country
It might sounds insane but trust me, food in Switzerland is superbly insane. No doubt Switzerland is claimed to be one of the most expensive countries in the world. A decent meal in a restaurant can easily costs CHF20 (approx. to RM90) while a fast food such as the all-time favourite McDonald's costs approximately CHF15 (approx. to RM68) for a combo meal. For those who's following my Instagram, now you know why I purposely booked an accommodation that come with kitchenette. Not just instant noodles and cooking paste, I even brought along rice and mini rice cooker for this trip. It does save a lot than eating outside.
