Switzerland in Five Cities — A Conference, a Cancelled Skydive, a Wooden Bridge and a Lake

Switzerland in Five Cities

A country we covered across two trips — August 2022 through Zurich, Bern, Interlaken and Montreux, then July 2024 back for Lucerne — and one we still feel we've only seen from a train window.

Switzerland gave us our first proper cultural shock in Europe — the moment we realised people around us were quietly enjoying life on a level we hadn't seen growing up. It also gave us the moment three cards in three machines all declined in a Grindelwald souvenir shop. The same country humbled us at a Marriott lobby in Zurich and lifted us up on a Panoramic carriage sliding through valleys to Montreux. Zurich is the working city; Bern is the quiet capital that "feels like Prague with fewer people"; Interlaken is paragliders drifting over a meadow and skydives cancelled by rain; Lucerne is a wooden bridge, a weeping stone lion and a cog rail up a 2,128 m mountain; Montreux is an accidental two-hour stop by Lake Geneva that became the last meal of a trip. Five cities, two trips, and one running observation we wrote on a train: no matter how costly Switzerland is, their train transport is impeccable.

📍 Tip: Every city heading below — Zurich, Bern, Interlaken, Lucerne, Montreux — is clickable. Tap any to dive into the day-by-day city story.

Zurich — A Conference, a Cultural Shock & Dinner in the Clouds

Zurich wasn't a leisurely city break. Harshit had a conference at the Marriott, and Zurich was our base for two days — except we weren't really in Zurich. We were in Dietikon, a quieter suburb a short train ride out, sharing an apartment with our friends Kapil and Sam, who'd come up from Germany to meet us. We rolled in on the FlixBus from Bercy Seine after a hard goodbye to Paris, took the train down to Kilchberg for the Lindt factory (we ate lots of chocolates; the discovery that Lindt is not cheaper in Switzerland than in India was less sweet), and dropped our planned Rhinefalls and Limmat cruise when the Zurich travel ticket turned out useless for those routes. The next day, with Harshit's presentation done by mid-morning, I claimed a corner of the Marriott's first-floor lobby and wrote my Europe diary from 12 to 6 pm — and that lobby is where the trip's defining line landed: "European people know how to celebrate life. They are not earning to enjoy life with family. They are enjoying life and earning to survive. Completely opposite to the mindset I have been raised in." The evening rescued the day — a tram up to CLOUDS, Zurich's only skyscraper, with a 360-degree city light below and a 75-euro dinner that stopped feeling like a number.

Bern — Einstein's Overpriced Flat & a Capital That Feels Like Prague

Bern wasn't really planned. We were on the train from Zurich to Interlaken, eating our last box of chole chawal on board, when we decided to get down for the Einstein Apartment on Kramgasse — the room above a café where he lived during his miracle years. Honest verdict: okay, and highly overpriced. The view from the window was nice; the ticket was not. What rescued Bern was the walk back: police patrolling on horseback, painted fountains at every other corner, the long sandstone arcades that let you walk the medieval centre without looking up, and a stop at Läderach to stock up on chocolates. The shopkeeper told us they were planning to open in India — a 2022 note that, by the time you're reading this, has actually happened. We didn't climb the Zytglogge or queue for the Bear Park; we just walked, ate, photographed, and made our train. The line that went into the diary on the way out — "Bern, capital of Switzerland, gives you complete feel of Prague with less people" — still holds. A capital city the Swiss way: quiet, well-organised, expensive, and not particularly interested in showing off.

Interlaken — A Cancelled Skydive & the Day the Cards Stopped Working

We arrived in Interlaken on the evening of 18 August, looked up and saw paragliders drifting in slow spirals over the meadow. The skydive was booked for the next morning. This, we thought, was going to be the highlight of two weeks in Europe. What we got instead was a Thun lake cruise in a drizzle, a cable car and small train climbing to Mürren (the village that genuinely gives you the impression that you are lost in mountains), a host couple who'd turned their study into our guest room, and a 7 a.m. phone buzz on 19 August telling us all slots got cancelled. We pivoted to Grindelwald, where the day delivered its worst feeling we have ever had as travellers: a souvenir shop, our cash almost gone, and three cards in three machines all declined. The cafe owner saved us with patience and free wifi; only our SBI debit card finally pulled cash from an ATM, while the other bank's system was down for hours. The line for any Indian reading this is simple — SBI saved our reputation. We caught the connecting trains to the Panoramic View train heading toward Gstaad with seconds to spare. And then, finally, the sky cracked open. The carriage with its huge curved windows framed valleys, lakes and tiny chalets sliding by like a film reel. The ride was so good we did not even get down at Gstaad. We rode straight through to Montreux.

Lucerne — Chapel Bridge, a Weeping Stone Lion & the Cog Up Pilatus

If Zurich is the city that works and Interlaken is the launch pad, Lucerne is the postcard — a real city that has the temerity to actually look like the postcards. We came back to Switzerland in July 2024 just for it. The Kapellbrücke — Chapel Bridge — crosses the river Reuss at an odd diagonal, ducks past the octagonal stone Wasserturm at its midpoint, and is the oldest surviving wooden covered bridge in Europe, originally built in 1333 (a chunk burned in 1993 and was carefully rebuilt; you can spot the slight colour difference if you look). We crossed it probably six times in two days. The slightly less famous Spreuerbrücke downstream, darker and quieter, has a medieval Dance of Death painted along its beams. Mark Twain called the Lion Monument "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world," and he was, annoyingly, exactly right — a wounded ten-metre lion carved into a cliff face that we sat opposite for fifteen minutes when we'd expected a quick photo. The headline day was the Golden Round Trip up Mount Pilatus (2,128 m): a lake steamer to Alpnachstad, the world's steepest cogwheel railway (gradients up to 48% — your stomach notices), an hour on top above a sea of cloud, then cable cars and a gondola back. We rounded the trip out on a Lake Lucerne paddle steamer, eating apple strudel on the top deck while the red paddle wheel turned, and walked the Musegg Wall's nine medieval towers at sunset. Two nights felt about right.

Montreux — Two Hours by Lake Geneva & Our Last Meal in Europe

Montreux was never on the plan. It was the accidental last stop of a fifteen-day Europe trip — a town we landed in because the Panoramic View train from Interlaken was so beautiful that we just kept going. We were meant to get down at Gstaad, the village made famous to every Indian by DDLJ. We didn't. We rode it an hour further to Montreux, one stop short of Geneva, sat by the lake for two hours, ate a pizza by the water, and turned around. We skipped everything the city is famous for — Château de Chillon, Geneva, the Freddie Mercury statue, the Lavaux vineyards — and treated this purely as a stop before the long train back to Dietikon, the 5 a.m. taxi, and the flight home. The palm trees, the lake, the French Alps on the far side, all of it borrowed for two hours. The diary line was honest: "We were literally roaming like European citizens but deep down in the evening we knew we have to leave tomorrow & we are temporary here. Two weeks flew just like that."

Final Reflection

Switzerland, Decoded — A First-Timer's Field Guide for Indians

First trip to Switzerland from India? Below is everything we wish someone had told us — Schengen paperwork, why your card combo matters more here than anywhere else, which trains and passes are actually worth the math, and how to survive a country where a 7-Eleven sandwich can cost CHF 12. Read it end-to-end before you book flights.

Prices in INR/CHF are 2022–2024-era estimates. Schengen rules change — verify at vfsglobal.com/in/en/visa/switzerland before applying.

⚠️ Things to Take Care Of

Switzerland is one of the safest countries you can visit — and one of the most expensive. The single biggest practical lesson we earned the hard way: carry a two-bank card combo. Our SBI debit card was the only one that finally worked when SBM's system went down for hours in Grindelwald; for three cards in three machines all declining, the SBI card pulled us out. Cash isn't a luxury here, it's an exit strategy. Also: Switzerland uses Swiss Francs (CHF), not euros — most tourist places will take euros but give you change in francs at a poor rate. Withdraw CHF from a bank ATM (UBS, PostFinance, Raiffeisen) and decline dynamic currency conversion. Don't buy a city travel ticket assuming it covers nearby day trips — we lost Rhinefalls in Zurich exactly that way. Tap water is excellent and free everywhere; carry a bottle. And budget honestly: think 1.5–2x the cost of comparable Western Europe.

🛂 Visa Process (Indian Passport)

Switzerland is part of the Schengen area — apply through VFS Global if Switzerland is your primary destination (longest stay). If you're combining with Germany or France and spending more nights there, apply through the right country's consulate. Tourist visa fee is €80 (~₹7,300) + VFS service fee ~₹2,200. Processing officially takes 15 working days but Swiss consulates can stretch in summer — apply at least 6–8 weeks out. You'll need: passport with at least 3 months validity beyond return + 2 blank pages, two recent biometric photos (35×45mm, white background, no smile), bank statements for the last 3 months (rule of thumb ~₹1.5 lakh per traveler per week for Switzerland specifically — they want to see you can afford it), ITR for the last 2 years, confirmed flight reservation (NOT a paid ticket — use a hold service), all hotel bookings, day-by-day itinerary, travel insurance covering at least €30,000 medical, leave letter from your employer, and a cover letter. Don't pay for flights until your visa is in hand.

🛫 Before You Land

Buy an Airalo or Holafly Europe eSIM (5GB ~₹1,400, works across all Schengen including Switzerland) before you fly. Install these apps before takeoff: Google Maps with the Switzerland offline pack downloaded, Google Translate with German & French offline, SBB Mobile for trains (the single most useful app in the country — book Saver Day Pass and Supersaver fares in advance), MeteoSwiss for hourly mountain weather (our cancelled skydive would have been less of a surprise with this), FlixBus for cheap intercity coaches, and Uber in Zurich, Geneva and Basel. Carry around ₹20,000 worth of CHF in cash from your home bank or at a bank ATM on arrival — Switzerland is more card-friendly than Germany, but card outages happen (see: Grindelwald). And the headline rule again: two cards from two different banks.

🛬 After You Land

From Zurich (ZRH): the airport has its own SBB train station downstairs — you can be in Zurich HB in 10 minutes for CHF 7, or onward to Lucerne (1h), Bern (1h), Interlaken (2h) without ever leaving the rail network. From Geneva (GVA): the airport station similarly puts you in central Geneva in 7 minutes (CHF 3) and on the lakeshore train to Montreux in ~70 minutes. From Basel (BSL/EAP): bus 50 to Basel SBB in 20 minutes for CHF 4.40. SBB hands out a free 1-hour train ticket to your hotel city with most return flights from Swiss airports — check at the desk before you queue for the machine. Withdraw your first CHF from a bank-branded ATM (UBS, PostFinance, Raiffeisen) and always pay in CHF, not your home currency.

🚄 Transport

This is the part Switzerland actually gets right — and the line we kept repeating on the trip was simple: no matter how costly Switzerland is, their train transport is impeccable. SBB intercity trains run almost to the minute; the rolling stock is clean, the platforms are calm, and connections are designed to work. Zurich → Lucerne ~50 min (CHF 26), Zurich → Bern ~1h (CHF 51), Bern → Interlaken Ost ~55 min (CHF 30), Interlaken → Montreux via the GoldenPass Panoramic ~3h (CHF 75, and worth every franc — the cheapest experience in Switzerland that feels priceless). For passes, do the math honestly: the Swiss Travel Pass (CHF 244 for 3 days / CHF 295 for 4 / CHF 359 for 6) covers all trains, boats, most cable cars and 500+ museums and is usually worth it if you're moving cities. If you're staying put, the Half Fare Card (CHF 120 for one month) halves every ticket and is better value for slower itineraries. The Saver Day Pass on SBB Mobile is the secret cheap option — sometimes CHF 29–52 for unlimited day travel if you book early.

🏨 Accommodation

Switzerland is the most expensive accommodation country on the European map — accept it, plan around it. City-centre 3-star hotels in Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne and Interlaken run CHF 180–280 in summer; even hostels charge CHF 50–80 for a dorm bed and CHF 130–180 for a private room. Stay in suburbs: we based ourselves in Dietikon for Zurich (a short S-Bahn ride out, far cheaper, much nicer apartments through Airbnb) and would do it again. Interlaken Ost village stays beat Interlaken West town for both price and charm — and finding a host couple Airbnb like ours (the one who'd turned their study into a guest room) is a genuinely lovely way to stay. Swiss Youth Hostels are a step above most European YHA — try Lucerne and Interlaken branches if dorms are okay. Best months are May–Jun and Sep–early Oct: summer light, fewer tourist coaches, manageable prices. Avoid late July/August unless that's the only window you have.

🍽️ Food in a Nutshell

Switzerland is not as restaurant-friendly as France or Italy and definitely not as vegetarian-friendly as Germany's vegan-strong cities — but the supermarket game is unusually good. COOP and Migros are the two big supermarket chains, and they sell hot meals, fresh sandwiches, vegetarian wraps, fruit, and the same Lindt and Toblerone chocolates the souvenir shops mark up by 40%. Our small petty victory in Grindelwald — finding the exact salt box from a rude tourist shop for two euros less on a COOP shelf — is a useful preview. For sit-down: fondue (cheese-melt with bread, vegetarian-safe), raclette (melted cheese over potatoes), rösti (a fried potato cake, vegetarian-safe), and Birchermüesli (the original cold oat-yoghurt-fruit breakfast). The doner near major train stations is reliably cheap, filling and vegetarian-friendly. The Lindt factory at Kilchberg is fun to visit but won't beat Indian retail prices. Tap water is excellent — always say "Hahnenwasser, bitte" in German cantons, "l'eau du robinet" in French ones. And bring Maggi — every Indian traveler we met had a packet.