Switzerland | What to buy (plus what NOT to buy) on your trip

hey guys welcome back to how to Switzerland it is Sarah here today and in today's video I'm gonna be sharing with you the top things that you should buy and the top things that you should not buy on your next trip to Switzerland [Music] so I'm so excited to be back with another video for you guys and you guys actually voted for this one on my Instagram story so I'm super excited to share my list with you but before we get into the list I want to tell you about today's video sponsor which is nord pass make sure this you're traveling around switzerland having a great time and taking loads of amazing pictures but when you go to post them on instagram you realize you aren't logged in you swear you wrote your password down or you saved it somewhere but you definitely don't have it with you on top of the Matterhorn well wait scratch that because this would never happen to you you were smart enough to download nord pass and all of your passwords are saved safely in the app this means you can 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supports all the work that I do here at how to Switzerland so I definitely hope that you consider testing them out get this all set up before your trip to Switzerland then you're not gonna have to worry about your passwords and security and your online safety while you're traveling so a big thanks to them and now let's get into the list [Music] so the first thing you should definitely buy sounds obvious but it is Swiss chocolate Switzerland is obviously extremely famous for its high-quality and delicious chocolate and this is not just like a stereotype or something it's not something just tourists buy Swiss people are very proud of their chocolate they love their chocolate and it's definitely not like a touristy thing you know to go buy nice chocolate and enjoy it so when it comes to buying Swiss chocolate in Switzerland you kind of have two options you could either go to a fancy chocolate boutique type of store there's a lot of really nice local ones in each city you know Lucerne is gonna have its famous places Basel you know Geneva they're all gonna have their kind of famous spots you can definitely look for later OCH springle and twice sure toi surveen like i think the most high-end very high-end chocolate but they do have some really delicious stuff so at those types of stores you'll get the real experience where you can see a lot more and they have all the nice packaging and and the beautiful items but you definitely pay more for it so if you are looking to get Swiss chocolate on a budget you definitely want to head to a local grocery store so in Switzerland you'll notice two grocery stores mainly the first one being coke and the second one being Negro so these are where most Swiss people that I know that's where they tend to shop and that is where you can find a lot of chocolate at very very good prices so I would definitely recommend that you go to cope because they have a wider selection and they have all of the name brands whereas me grow has a smaller selection and has a more focus on their house brands and I guess non name-brand items so definitely check out hope if you can so in the grocery stores you're definitely going to want to look for the brands called calle lint or today that's the main ones that I can think of you will see store brands or budget brands I had a chocolate bar around here like you'll see this here this is from cope and it's the pre guarantee I buy the cheap chocolate I think it is delicious this is my favorite chocolate really and I've had a lot the name-brand stuff it's so delicious so this is called the claimant which is a dark chocolate from coke and this cost sixty cents and I love these bars they're just so so good I snack on them all the time I look dark chocolate because you just need like one little corner and you're good but anyways I'll show you guys more chocolate options in the store second thing you're gonna want to buy in Switzerland is hot chocolate okay nobody really talks about this it's always about the chocolate bars but I would recommend buying something like this every time I was back in the states I would always bring myself like chocolate mix because to me this is so so much better than any hot chocolate you can get anywhere else because it is extremely high-quality and it doesn't really have like any junk in it you just go to the ingredients it's just chocolate powder aroma same cinnamon you know there's 32 percent cacao in here cocoa in here and anyways this is the one that I like from Calle it's called Lucia Cola and it's awesome to make hot chocolate you just take some oat milk heat it up a few spoonfuls of this and it's perfect in the winter time and I also think it's really really smart to consider buying yourself like a hot chocolate powder like this because you cannot if you live in Florida I don't know how you're gonna get chocolate bars like this home without them being totally melted or if you're traveling Switzerland in the summer a lot of the times you know hotels and stuff they might not have air conditioning definitely if you're in like an air B&B they're probably not gonna have air conditioning so might be a little bit risky to get you know regular chocolate depending on the weather so something like this is a great alternative and yeah third thing to buy in Switzerland is a Swiss Army knife I know this list is sounding so cliche you guys but it is true Swiss Army knives are just so so handy to have you should be buying them from the brand called Victorinox and they make the official Swiss Army knives for the swiss army they have a flagship store here in Zurich but you can pretty much find it a lot of stores like ma noir and globos even in like cope and me grow I think you can find official Swiss Army knives they make great gifts make sure that you're careful with while you pack them depending on the sides of the blade they may need to go into your checked luggage I would just just put it in your check luggage just to be safe now although you can find these knives in a lot of places I would recommend getting them from an official Victoria Knox store or a place like Monde or where they can do engraving for you because it's really nice to get your name engraved and that's really nice especially for a gift the fourth thing to buy wall in Switzerland is a Swiss watch so of course Switzerland is also very very famous for its timepieces and I heard that actually it is cheaper to buy a Swiss watch while you are in Switzerland because you don't have to worry about you know when they export things and they have to pay taxes and duties and all of that it's gonna make the cost a little bit cheaper if you buy it directly in Switzerland there are so many watch stores you guys in every city you're gonna see watch stores I'm here in Zurich most stores have their own storefront so you can either go to the store directly or you can once again go to a department store like mom or and they're gonna sell all sorts of brands another great place to buy watches is at a place called feast also bucura those are like the main places where you can get a wide selection of quality Swiss watches and there are so so many Swiss watch brands out there but I'll list a few right here [Music] the fifth thing you might want to buy while you're in Switzerland are some high-quality writing utensils now if you are into pens pencils fountain pens all this kind of stuff you're gonna find a lot of it in Switzerland and most of it is very very high quality I have a fountain pen here from the brand cotton Taj it is a Swiss brand and all of their utensils are made in Geneva so it's from the french-speaking part of Switzerland so I think something like this a nice fountain pen or just a beautiful rollerball pen or ballpoint pen is a really great gift for somebody who doesn't want a Swiss Army knife or there D have one or it's just not their thing I was never into stuff like this until I got a fountain pen and now I am I'm absolutely in love this one actually has my initials engraved on it and it's just nice to buy a high-quality writing utensil like this that will last really a lifetime if you take care of it and it's a lot more sustainable than buying cheap pens and throwing them away every single time they run out of ink it's nice to have something that is refillable high-quality and I really enjoy writing with this so even if you think it's not for you I would definitely recommend that you go into a cotton Tosh store or check out the pen section at a department store just see what you think but I think it's kind of an underrated thing that you can buy everywhere in Switzerland the sixth thing you might want to consider buying in Switzerland is Swiss wine so Switzerland is definitely not as famous for its wine as places like France and Italy but there is a good amount of wine that is produced right here in Switzerland and some of it is really really delicious I would definitely recommend that you check out some lines from the olavo region you guys know I have been there many times and it is just a beautiful region if you have the chance definitely go down there and check it out but if you don't have the chance you know you pick up a bottle of wine from the Lavo region and try out might be a little bit harder to bring home or to get somebody but it's definitely something you can buy and enjoy in your hotel room the next thing to buy in Switzerland and you guys are gonna think I'm weird for this but it is kitchen and towels I don't know why but I love love love the kitchen towels that you get here in Switzerland this is what you'll typically find they are these 100% cotton very durable very very high quality kitchen towels and they really dry your dishes properly I've found in the US that everybody uses these thick microfiber towels that I find don't really dry the plates they just kind of schmear the water all over the place and they don't dry very quickly and they get smelly and I just don't like them so this is one of the things when I was back in the states I would pick myself up a few of these every single time I was visiting Switzerland and this is what I used even when I was in the States because I just think they are a very superior towel because of the quality and they're so durable you guys if you buy some nice kitchen towels like these they will last you 20-30 years I know some Swiss people that have had the same kitchen towels for decades they are extremely extremely durable you can get them in any grocery store any department store I know it might be kind of a weird thing to buy but if you have like a foodie in your life or somebody if you like to cook yourself and you want to try out something new definitely try out the kitchen towels that they sell here in Switzerland I believe you can get these maybe somewhere in the US on Amazon or something like that but in stores I haven't really been able to find these so I love to pick these up when I'm in Switzerland plus you can get some that have Swiss things on them like the Adel vice flower or different patterns that are really traditional and nice okay and point number eight is actually something you can't buy in Switzerland but this is my recommendation you may have noticed that I didn't mention anything about clothing on this list and that's because I would definitely recommend if you are into fashion and you are into clothes to take a day trip to Milan so point number eight is go to Milan for clothes shopping if you're in Switzerland like it's your first time visiting you might not realize how close you are to Italy and to Milan so you might want to consider taking a day trip down there you could literally go down and come back in the same day or go down and spend one night and come back up but if you are into Italian clothing that's definitely the place to do it and I would really recommend that so those are eight things I would recommend that you do buy on your trip to Switzerland now I have five things that I would recommend that you don't buy the first thing is medication any over-the-counter painkillers like just aspirin and ibuprofen paracetamol it's very very expensive here and so it's looking for some reason and as an example here I have a small pack of paracetamol this is 20 capsules and the price tag on the back says that I paid six francs seventy for this and I actually picked up this paracetamol which is the exact same 500 milligrams but I got this in the Netherlands and this has 50 tablets and this was around 1 euro 30 so you get almost 3 times as much at a much smaller price we're talking about 7 euros versus around 1 euro so definitely pack your headache medicine or whatever kind of medicine that you normally take and bring it with you because if you do go to a pharmacy here you will probably be shocked by their prices every time I get a cold if I need to buy something from a pharmacy here the prices are just ridiculous and I really don't understand it second thing that you shouldn't buy in Switzerland is German chocolate or tourist chocolate so in the chocolate section of a grocery store you'll definitely see a lot of German brands so things like kinder I'm not sure the other ones but I can include them you'll see a lot of brands that are not Swiss and this is fine you know Swiss people eat them all the time friends like kinder are very popular but this chocolate is now made in Switzerland so if you are looking for Swiss made chocolate just make sure that you double check if you're unsure of the brand you can check on the back it will say made in Switzerland or made in Germany so Switzerland it will say fights fights fights these fights and if it's from Germany it will say Deutschland so just check that if you are unsure if you really want to make sure you're getting Swiss chocolate but then on the other hand the tourist chocolate tends to be wrapped in like Swiss flags and Swiss pictures so it's very obvious that this is Swiss chocolate but this is usually not as high-quality chocolate as just your standard brands that I mentioned earlier in this video so if you see anything wrapped in Swiss flags it's definitely Swiss chocolate but it's probably not of the highest quality and it might even be more expensive because that type of chocolate is targeted for tourists I'm not saying it's bad or awful or anything like that just you don't have to buy the stuff wrapped in Swiss Play third thing that you should have buy in Switzerland is toothpaste now I know this will probably sound really really weird and if you are an American living in Switzerland you'll definitely be able to relate to me on this point but the first time I used Swiss toothpaste I was in shock and because it tasted like nothing it was like mint flavor I know I use it now I'm adjusting but I find that the toothpaste here has no flavour it's not powerful it doesn't feel strong I'm not sure if American toothpaste has something in it that is not allowed here that could be the case but for years I would bring toothpaste from America and use it over here because I just couldn't get used to brushing my teeth with toothpaste that didn't give me that like you know burning your mouth refreshing minty feeling so if you are picky about your toothpaste definitely bring your toothpaste with you because the toothpaste here I find even if I buy like the Colgate Maxx fresh max mint it has almost no flavor compared to the American counterparts and I have no idea why that is but once again if your American living here let me know your thoughts on the toothpaste and the four thing not to buy in Switzerland is a cuckoo clock so you will see a lot of tourist shops selling cuckoo clocks and a lot of people tend to think that they come from Switzerland but actually they are a German invention they come from Bavaria and there have been a lot of Swiss kind of remakes where they put Swiss chalets and Swiss things onto the cuckoo clocks but it is not a Swiss invented product it is from Germany so if you want to buy one go ahead I mean I have no problem with that but just be aware that you're not necessarily buying a Swiss thing this is a German thing the fifth thing that I would recommend that you do not buy in Switzerland is here at Colette grill so Rach collect is a very famous Swiss dish you've probably seen it before where you have the potatoes you have the melted cheese and then you scrape the cheese off very famous Swiss dish and you might be tempted to buy a rocket grill while you are here and yes you can buy rock like grills everywhere but you know you might have some issues with the power conversion it's not always just a plug issue sometimes there is a problem with you for example if you would take a rock-like grill from here to the United States it would not work because the electricity here is about double what you have in the United States in terms of voltage so even if you get the right plug adapter you would need like a power converter and all of this and it is just not worth it it's really not worth it even if you live in England or something like that where you have the same power I don't think it is worth it to lug a big rock like grill and get a plug adapter and all of that because let's be real most people only use their rock like grill a few times per year and you can buy you know pretty cheap ones on Amazon that already are set up for your country's power supply and plugs so probably recommend that you do it that way as opposed to buying a really fancy Swiss rock like grill here and then trying to make it work in your own country all right you guys that is it for my list I would love to hear your feedback down below what is you buy when you were on your trip to Switzerland or if you're a Swiss if you live here what do you recommend that people buy or don't buy I know when you guys leave detailed comments really helps people out that are planning their trip here so leave your two cents down below and don't forget to check out nord pass while you are down there when you guys support the channel sponsors it help support my work here at how to switzerland so thank you so much for watching and i'll talk to you in the next video guys bye ciao ciao [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: How To Switzerland

Views: 82,940

Rating: 4.7160368 out of 5

Keywords: switzerland, swiss, how to, life in switzerland, move to switzerland, moving to switzerland, sarah nourse, sarah nurse, sara nourse, swiss life

Id: hrAqOQ145Tw

Length: 20min 5sec (1205 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 23 2020