Swiss Trip Planning Guide | Switzerland Itinerary on a Budget | Know Before You Visit Switzerland

ready to have the best Swiss vacation ever we're gonna guide you on a quest to plan the Swiss vacation of your dreams by the end of this video you're going to learn where to go what to do how long to stay and how to do all that on a budget basically here's what you need to know before you go if we haven't met where Jana and Brett and we love Switzerland I mean we've spent more than six months traveling here we first came on our two-week honeymoon then we came back for 10 days then one month two months three months I think you catch my drift but we quickly realized there's a lack of high quality travel content about Switzerland not just like a list of what to do but how to actually do it so that's why all our content is passionately created to help you travel Switzerland with confidence by maximizing your experience minimizing your planning time and stretching your budget and that's what this video is all about here's an outline of where we're heading kind of like a treasure map leading you to the Swiss vacation of your dreams obviously these little icons don't mean anything yet but they'll make total sense as we work our way through three key objectives for your trip three tough decisions you'll need to make even if you'd rather not and three Insider secrets you won't want to miss plus five pieces of evidence that prove that what we're about to share actually works so if you're ready to get started let's Jump Right In the first objective is to maximize your experience on your trip to Switzerland and the big idea here that we really hope will sink in is that you need to intentionally shrink the map and limit your options yes in order to maximize you actually have to limit yourself I mean think about it when you're planning your trip you're going to be tempted to visit more places and to do more stuff and to cram more activities into that little carry-on size bag that you call your vacation more more more sure you can see more this way but we don't believe that more is always better especially when it comes to your Swiss vacation there's a lot of info coming your way but we've spent loads of time in Switzerland and this is how we would plan our very first trip knowing all that we know now and this is exactly what we shared with six groups of family and friends who came to visit us this past year in Switzerland so you can maximize your experiences by making these three tough but very important decisions the first decision is to stay longer if you're you're flying over to Europe from the US you'll want 10 days minimum here's why it takes two days just to travel there and back you'll need some time to recover from jet lag and although Switzerland is a compact country you'll want to visit more than one region after all if this is your first trip to Switzerland you're going to want to get a true Taste of the country now you might be wondering can I afford more than one week in Switzerland or do I have enough vacation time if not wait until you have at least 10 days available because by the time you fly over there and back adding a few extra days doesn't have to significantly increase your budget which we'll talk about later when we discuss objective number three if you only have one measly week a vacation try to use a U.S holiday like Memorial Day the Fourth of July or Labor Day strategically doing this and taking advantage of two weekends should give you the 10 days that you need however ever if you're coming from within Europe and not just popping in for a quick weekend plan at least one week if you're flying to Switzerland the number one destination we recommend visiting is two to three hours by train from the Zurich Geneva or Basel airports which means you'll still spend a full travel day on either side of your trip plus a short trip to Switzerland is the best way to find out how fabulously expensive it can be overall we think this sweet spot for your first trip to Switzerland is 10 to 15 days this gives you enough time to experience a variety of Swiss destinations without totally exhausting yourself plus it provides some budget stretching benefits that we'll discuss later in objective number three so at least a week but ideally 10 to 10 different days for your Swiss vacation but how and where should you spend your time everything we've suggested so far is for the benefit of slowing down which is decision number two don't ruin your itinerary by cramming it full like an overflowing suitcase I see you sitting on your bag parade and it closes we brainstormed a huge list of the benefits of slowing down on your Swiss vacation so here are 10 of them in no particular order you won't feel as worn out or frazzled on your trip it's better for your budget you'll spend less time traveling between places and more time actually enjoying them it's better for the environment you'll have extra minutes or hours to relax and decompress it's a way to savor your experiences and see more than just the highlights you'll have the opportunity to meet locals and other Travelers it's an ideal balance between adventures and rest you'll get to prioritize the things you actually want to do and it means you won't need a vacation from your vacation we know that it's tough to build a sightseeing itinerary that takes all of this into account especially when you've never been to the destination before well keep watching because this is exactly what we're going to help you accomplish with objective number two most people take the amount of days they have available and try to maximize the number of places they can visit during that time like going to 10 countries in 10 days no lie we've had multiple friends who have attempted this Whirlwind european vacation and we don't recommend that that is not the best way to maximize your experience in our opinion instead we think you'll have a better experience traveling Switzerland if you visit fewer places which is decision number three look we get it you're here because you want to have your dream Swiss vacation but with every video you watch and every hour you spend researching you just add items to the growing list of everything you think you must see or do it's overwhelming and tempts you to go at a Non-Stop Pace that will require you to have a vacation to recover from your vacation so our recommendation is to visit no more than the three destinations on your 10 to 15 day trip to Switzerland aim for at least three nights per place and eliminate any one or two night stays The Only Exception is if you been one night near the airport at the very end of your trip this allows you to have home bases which translates to less time hauling your luggage less time dealing with check-in and checkout windows and less time packing and unpacking your bag plus lots of other benefits okay so where are the three destinations we'd pick on our first trip to Switzerland in our opinion you'll get to enjoy a great variety of what Switzerland has to offer by just visiting these three spots first is Lucerne it's a smaller but typical and Charming Swiss City it has something for everyone with historical sites incredible architecture a lovely River covered bridges plus tons of nearby excursions to lakes and mountains second is Lake Geneva it's a beautiful and expansive Lake in the French part of the country boasting quaint Swiss Villages some of the best wine in Switzerland and an unforgettable Castle plus gruyere with its famous Swiss cheese is not far from here and last but certainly not least is the Yum Frau region near Interlaken this is the quintessential heart of the Swiss Alps overflowing with alpine culture and it definitely delivers that wow factor Eve without a doubt been drawn to during your Swiss vacation research with these three destinations you'll experience French and Germanic cultures Lakes cities castles mountains hiking shopping food what else do you need you'll notice that we left a lot of places off of this list and you might be yelling at us through your phone or computer right now you're crazy we didn't choose these destinations because they're the only ones worth visiting in Switzerland in fact we think everywhere in Switzerland is worth visiting at some point we're just trying to help you focus your plans so you can maximize your experience on this trip instead of spreading yourself to thin look if you follow our tips and love your time in Switzerland then you can always come back another time to visit other destinations in fact we totally encourage this then you can visit Zermatt a lot of our subscribers have shared how much they love their experience in Zermatt but if they had to choose they'd pick the um for our region near Interlaken because there's just more to do in the general area plus trying to visit both zermot and the Jungfrau region gives you less time in each Place making your experience way more dependent on the weather conditions you only have time to visit one of the iconic Alpine regions in Switzerland make it the jungfraut region you could also visit appenzel which is a very traditional Canton in Switzerland however appenzel just feels a bit far from everything else in our opinion you could visit it using public transportation but we just think it's way easier to do it well if you have a car then there's Zurich Geneva and Basel these Swiss cities are great but unless you just really enjoy big cities Luzerne is more Charming but you could visit one of these at the end of your trip before flying home and of course there are lots more but these were the ones most likely to generate comments so how much time would we spend in each place we'd stay two to four days in Lucerne four to seven days in the unifra region and two to three days on Lake Geneva plus one night near the airport if necessary go for an even 50 split of your time half in the mountains and half in other places even if you're not an outdoor Enthusiast you have to consider the possibility of poor weather in the mountains which can greatly affect your plans and the views so staying longer just gives you more flexibility as you can see maximizing your experiences basically comes down to having more concentrated experiences it's kind of like swiss cheese young fresh cheese is delicious and has its place but often the aged cheese is more flavorful and valuable now your trip could be like a young fresh cheese where you pop all over the country and you visit 10 places in 10 days or it could be more like an aged cheese paired with a fine wine where you slow down and more fully Savor the experiences kind of like just visiting three places in 10 days at this point no matter which cheese you choose you now know where we would go in Switzerland and how long to spend in each area but what do you do once you get there and a minute we're going to share the details with you about our done for you Swiss Alps itineraries which are totally going to help you maximize your experiences but for now let's keep going we asked our YouTube subscribers what takes up most of their time when planning a vacation and 43 percent of you said creating a high level itinerary of what to do and where to stay so objective number two is minimizing your planning time we get it assembling all of these details takes a lot of time but the big idea here is that you don't need to spend dozens of hours researching every single destination activity X experience in order to have a great trip here's the thing if you made the three tough decisions we just mentioned then objective number one is accomplished and you've already cut your planning Time by at least 50 percent you don't need to know where to go because we've already told you where to go and since you'll be staying in just three locations instead of five or seven or fourteen that's less time of researching and booking airbnbs or hotels and less time figuring out how to get there from the train station but we've got three Insider secrets to minimize your planning time even further now we know there's still planning to do like what will you do once you're actually there most of you will probably use YouTubes or blogs to help plan your trip but maybe you prefer flipping real pages instead of swiping the endless Scroll of the internet so you go out and buy a guidebook well beware a guidebook will likely increase your planning time and that's my secret number one to minimizing your planning time is to actually skip the guidebooks we're talking about those giant photos and Lonely Planet guides and others like them now we bought a rick Steve Switzerland book before our honeymoon in 2012 and it was fantastic however we still spent dozens of hours researching and planning and choosing activities and knowing where to stay and trying to organize that all together into an itinerary and then we showed up and still didn't know how to get from one place to another or how long it would even take to do all the activities that we wanted to do that's because these guide books and really most forms of social media and blogs give you endless ideas and options but very little advice about how to narrow them down or actually pick the ones you want to do if you love researching and maximizing your options then guidebooks can be great but decision fatigue is for real and you're going to find yourself making loads of decisions both before and during your trip so you can minimize that by just skipping the guidebooks since 50 of your trip is going to be spent in the mountains our second secret is to put most of your energy into planning your visit to the unifra region the Alps are the reason to visit Switzerland in our opinion the Landscapes food outdoor experiences and Alpine culture are just unlike anything else you will have experienced unless you're from Austria so to help you further minimize your planning time here's our top 10 list of places to visit and things to do in the jungfra region put in no particular order and set to ridiculously dramatic background music thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] gorgeous right but even a top 10 or top 11 list leaves more questions to be answered you're probably wondering where should I stay how do I use public transportation to get to these places which train pass should I choose how long should I spend at each spot are they open year round and how do I build this into an itinerary after skipping the guidebooks and focusing your experiences to our top 10 list our biggest tip to minimize your planning time is to invest in a done-for-you itinerary because in case you can't tell there are a lot of details that go into planning a vacation which is supposed to be stress-free and fun so we've done the stressful work for you by creating an ultimate one week itinerary to the unifra region after spending multiple Summers immersed here and leading six groups of friends on this exact itinerary our brains are like overflowing with Insider advice about how to help you plan a one week trip to the unfair region in fact Leanne told us that you took the guesswork out of picking the best activities for each day and helped us make sure we didn't miss the most significant things about Switzerland each guide helps you know where to go every day so you don't have to piecemeal your own itinerary where to stay so you can maximize your adventures without spending unnecessary time on trains exactly which train pass will give you the most coverage flexibility and bang for your buck how to reach each destination using public transportation and Beverly said that without that we would have probably wasted a lot of time waiting not to mention stress a recommended timeline so you know when to visit and how long to stay at each spot where to eat in order to enjoy the famous local food that is worth the money and Steve mentioned how much he loved the recommendations for quaint spots with fabulous food and drinks that fit into our daily activities along the way and a whole lot more I think it's obvious by now that we love Switzerland and know that you will too if you don't already so we've staffed this tried and true guide full of helpful bonuses like a custom map for each day's itinerary a bonus rainy day guide how to budget for this trip because in Toby's words you can enjoy a Swiss experience on a limited budget it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg our favorite cafes bakeries and farm fridges bathrooms because I know I'm not the only one with a tiny bladder and so much more if you want to see more details or purchase this guide you can find it at apples in the alps.com slash guides but what if you're spending less than seven days in the unifra region we didn't forget about you our shop also includes a one-day guide to our favorite destination and a three-day guide to Grindelwald and who knows by the time you watch this maybe the digital shelves of our shop will have even more resources there for you so whether or not you purchased one of our Swiss travel guides we love AJ's advice she said just watch out videos for practical travel advice and ideas of things to do yes she really does say y'all but we love that she found both our free videos and our paid travel guides to be ultra helpful so yes you could piecemeal your itinerary together from massive guidebooks or hodgepodge YouTube videos and still have a great trip but we promise that our done for you guides will help you maximize your stress-free experiences minimize your decision fatiguing cleaning time and stretch your hard-earned dollars or Franks or Euros or whatever currency you use you're on vacation so it's time to start acting like it less stress and more fun here's how to make that happen on your next trip to Switzerland first purchase this digital bundle at apples in the alps.com slash guides second download it to your phone and pair it with our complimentary Maps third go on your Swiss vacation and have some fun but hang on there's one more objective in planning your dream Swiss vacation first was to maximize your experience second was to minimize your planning time and the third is to stretch your budget and the big idea here is that Switzerland can be expensive but it doesn't have to be traveling isn't getting any cheaper but that doesn't mean that you can't be strategic let's recap everything we've discussed so far and show you five pieces of evidence that prove these strategies really will work by Saving you lots of dough by staying longer you lower your cost per day because flights are one of your biggest expenses for example if your overseas flights cost fourteen hundred dollars and you stay for one week that equals two hundred dollars a day but if you stay for two weeks those same flights now cost you just one hundred dollars per day I know that might seem like a mental trick you're playing on yourself but it's one of the best ways to save money on your travel experiences by slowing down you can buy a train pass for one country instead of who knows how many flights and buses and trains for a whirlwind vacation and by choosing the best Swiss train pass for your itinerary you could save hundreds of Swiss Francs per person by visiting fewer places you're more likely to find affordable lodging we've enjoyed discounts of up to 10 percent by staying for a week and even 40 percent by staying in one Airbnb for a whole month by planning to buy one meal per day from the grocery store you'll save at least 25 Swiss Francs per person per day if not more we know you're on vacation and we do think it's worth eating out some but by staying somewhere with a kitchen you can save money and still have plenty of great foodie experiences and by buying one of our done for you itineraries you'll have an invaluable guide that will save you hard earned money not to mention countless hours of planning time for example we estimate you'll save a minimum of five hundred dollars by following our one week Guide to the Yoon for out region if you look at the math a guide more than pays for itself so whether you've already booked your flights and know you'll be spending a glorious vacation in Switzerland or whether this trip is still a dream in your head our done for you comprehensive guides are exactly what you need you can buy one today at applins in the alps.com slash guides however I always ask a million questions before I buy something maybe not a million but I usually have one or two questions so here are a few FAQs what's the best time of year to visit this is such a tricky question because it depends on what activities you want to do on your vacation however all of our guides specify which season they're best for usually mid-may to mid-october is kind of that sweet spot but some of the activities can be done outside of that time too so just check the dates for each guide before you purchase each guide recommends which train pass is best if you follow that exact itinerary and it also tells you where to buy it and how to use it but one thing is certain not buying a Swiss real pass is usually like throwing your Swiss Francs in the garbage so don't skip that section of the guide and if it helps we took our friend Bud on his first European Vacation and he mentioned that the Swiss train pass system is easy Once you know how to use it will these itineraries work for family with children yes although we don't have any children we are an aunt and uncle to nine nieces and nephews so we get what it's like to be around kids of all ages from babies to teenagers we always mention in our guides when a destination has a playground which is pretty common and sometimes we'll offer alternative suggestions for families with young kids if that activity isn't ideal in fact our friends Toby and Stacy came to visit us last year with their Elementary age daughters and they made countless family memories that they will never forget how much should I budget University students on a backpacking trip are gonna spend differently than a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary so the budget question is sticky but we provide cost estimates and budget tips in each guide and for comparison we usually nerd out and show you just how much this would cost if you don't follow our guide what if I'm older or have limited Mobility Switzerland is not just for the young or the fit or the Physically Active my mom had both of her knees replaced years ago and she still spent a whole week on this bus Alps just doing mild activities in our each of our guides when we describe our hikes and walks we include how long they are if they're flat if they're paved or how steep they are and a lot of times two will give alternate suggestions of how to bypass the hike using public transportation so you can just meet us at the next stop on the itinerary in almost all public transportation is handicap accessible as well that means limited Mobility should not hold you back what if this itinerary doesn't exactly fit my trip while our guides are carefully crafted with each day fitting together like pieces in a masterful puzzle you'll gain lots of benefits even if you have something different in mind each day is basically its own itinerary meaning you can follow some days but not the others follow some of each day while choosing to do something different with the rest of your time or simply use the guides as a red reference while you plan your own personalized itinerary and don't forget we have guides for one day three days and seven days in the um for our region with more options and destinations in Switzerland coming soon if you have another question that we didn't answer here drop it in the comments below and we'll reply to you there after clicking the buy button your brain will thank you for the Oodles of energy you just saved your calendar will appreciate the extra margin you just delivered and your bank account won't mind spending a few bucks in order to save hundreds so hop on over to applinsinthealps.com guides to buy yours today and we'll see you in Switzerland

Channel: Aplins in the Alps

Views: 117,173

Keywords: alpins in the alps, switzerland planning guide, swiss planning guide, travel switzerland, traveling swiss, travelling swiss, switzerland travel, visiting switzerland, visit switzerland, switzerland vacation, swiss vacation, trip to switzerland, what do i need to know switzerland, swiss, suisse, how to switzerland, planning a trip to switzerland, switzerland tricks, switzerland tips, swiss itinerary, switzerland itinerary, switzerland travel guide, swiss travel guide

Id: naUgLJ-u970

Length: 25min 31sec (1531 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 25 2023