10 days Switzerland Winter Travel+Ski Guide Part I: Train or Car Rental

Travel Dates: Mid Jan, 2020 for 10 days

This is one of the tougher trips to plan! It was our first time properly (I have visited Switzerland when Motorola is still a thing, I couldn't really remember much) visiting Switzerland, would be honest that we didn't have enough time. 2.5 weeks to departure, nothing booked or even looked at, we finally dug our heads in to commence our research - Googled "Switzerland 10 days Itinerary" - BAM! Off we go.

There actually are a lot of useful itineraries for reference, but due to the super wide range of activities to do in Switzerland (as seen above for a general concept), AND AMAZING MOUNTAIN RANGES AND EPIC VIEWS, IN NEAR SO MANY CITIES, it is NOT THAT EASY! We do not intend to be comprehensive by introducing all of the varies, we are SKI LOVERS, MOUNTAIN HUGGERS, this guide will cover how we got by cities to cities, mountains to mountains, if you are looking for places to buy your ROLEX, turn away!

GETTING AROUND IN SWITZERLAND

There are 2 main ways to travel between cities for tourists, you either take the trains, or you rent a car. We have rented a car through www.RentalCars.com - which cost us around $450 USD (inclusive of full insurance and a 4WD Black JEEP, that beauty - great for snow mountains) for 10 days. 95% of the guides would suggest you to take the train - buy a Swiss Travel Pass (https://www.swiss-pass.ch/) and travel between cities by train. It costs around $400 USD each person covering similar period - an all inclusive train ticket for travelling across cities, and would be given discount as pass holder when riding cable cars to mountains. We are the 5%, and below are the reasons why we think you should drive (if you travel like us):

1. Allows you to travel on tight schedule, and door-to-door

Our trip consisted of 7 cites/areas in 10 days, you would not need to be checking on train schedules if you drive. The travel between hotels and train stations can be hectic as well if you think about it, without a car, you have to do that 7 times from check out to station, and 7 times from station to check in, you would definitely not always live close to the station. If you ski, with your gears and all, it is quite a lot of work.

2. Storage

To travel that many cities within 10 days, we most often would check-out and spend the day in a city/area, and drive to another town at night - we basically store our luggages on the car and we can drive them around, not needing to worry about storage and retrieval of our belongings.

3. Ski Passes

Point 1 kind of deterred us from travelling by train already, but we thought, as mountain huggers, if the discounts on cable cars and mountain trains are steep enough, we should probably consider getting a Swiss Travel Pass instead. Heres the catch: Cable cars and mountain train tickets do not cover ski lifts, and if you have to ski, you need a ski pass. Swiss Travel Pass do not give you discount on ski passes, and ski passes (the all inclusive type - will introduce in later chapters) give you almost all access to ALL cable car and trains for unlimited times.

Sneak peek on cities that we have visited:

#Switzerland #Winter #Switzerlanditinerary