Switzerland Travel Tips: 10 Things to Know Before You Go to Switzerland

yellow Productions presents 10 things to know before you go to Switzerland I'm Chris this is my traveling panda helper we do travel guides that are fun informative and entertaining in this video will tell you some things you'll want to know before you come to Switzerland and we'll start with number 1 which is Switzerland has 4 different languages yes in Switzerland they speak German French Italian and Romansh and in different parts of the country they speak different languages so in Zurich in Lucerne you'll find people speak German in Geneva they speak French the South speaks Italian but almost everybody speaks English too so if you're an English speaker chances are you'll be able to get along just fine in Switzerland and the other thing to know about languages is there's really no need for small talk in Switzerland in a lot of places you have to chat up the store clerks the waiters waitresses here they're pretty good about being efficient they just want to finish the transaction and so you'll find you don't need to make that small talk that maybe you do back home if your home is the stage there plays the real small talk is popular all right they need to know number 2 hours Switzerland is an early country cafes open early stores close early so when you're here you will want to start and likely end your days early most stores open between 8:00 and 10:00 in the morning and they closed between 6:00 and 8:00 p.

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in the evening on Saturday most shops closed around 4:00 or 5:00 p.

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and on Sunday almost everything is closed Switzerland has pretty strict logs to have a good quality of life so things aren't too noisy or too busy but that means that when it becomes nighttime it's not much to do so just kind of plan your days that way there are some cities that have a thing called evening shopping and they'll have one day a week where the shops will be open until later in Zurich this happens on Thursdays and on Thursdays the shops are often open till 9:00 p.

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all right number three transportation Switzerland had really good public transportation it's pretty similar to Japan in that context public transportation here is always on time if your train leaves at 12:02 by gosh it's going to leave at 12:02 if you see another one that's leaving in 1158 that is a different train something to know if you're coming to Switzerland and you'll be traveling a lot on the train there's a thing called the Swiss Travel Pass and you can get unlimited transportation on trains buses trams everything like that and so that's a pretty good deal if you're going to be doing a lot of train travel all right also if you are doing a lot of train travel make sure on your mobile device that you download the SBB app SBB is the Swiss railways and their app tells you lots of great stuff about where you're coming where you're going platforms it goes on so that's a handy thing to have with you and also there's two main classes of train travel in Switzerland first class and second class the second class is actually pretty good I think second class in the in Switzerland is almost as good as first class in a lot of other countries so don't feel bad if you're taking a second-class train okay the fourth thing to know is new money in Switzerland they don't use the euro and they're not part of the European Union either they are part of the Schengen Agreement that allows visa-free entry so the money they use here is the Swiss franc abbreviated CHF but you can exchange euros at the any bank many hotel a lot of stores will accept euro but then you'll get changed back in francs and if you're looking for an ATM you will see those called Banco map Banco Maps is the term all right thing to know number five Switzerland is expensive you heard Switzerland is expensive and it is pizza probably cost you about 20 Swiss francs at vah pianos which is a pizza chain I like quite a bit but that was a bit of sticker shock when it was 20 francs for a pizza a Big Mac meal at McDonald's will cost 12 francs Starbucks coffee five Swiss francs nothing here is cheap I do I don't know that if I send us of where I'm doing this time doing this video in Zurich right over the river there's a river boat going underneath right now so if you haven't checked out my switzerland travel guide you can find the link to that in the description below all right the thing to know number six food when you are in switzerland the things to eat are chocolate and cheese you will find chocolate shops almost on every block in major cities in switzerland the cheese there's over 400 varieties of cheese in switzerland and those are two of the things they're most famous for they have a lot of cows to drink the milk to dairy is a big thing here something also know about food I just talked about things being expensive food is expensive if you're trying to get some cheaper eats go to restaurants that have lunch specials you might find those to be about 20 francs go to some of the cafeteria restaurants that are in department stores or if you want the cheapest eat check out the ethnic restaurants kebabs are always cheap and so you can find a kebab maybe for 10 francs last thing to know about food is if you have a reservation don't be late if your reservations at 7 p.

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and you get there at 7:15 well you might sell forget you had that reservation thing here much like Germany or Japan where they're very strict on time so make sure you don't get too late and still expect them to beat you ok number 7 thing to know about Switzerland is it is small Switzerland has a total population of 8 million it is one-tenth the size of the state of or Nia or about three times the size of Los Angeles County but Switzerland has many mountains which makes travel fairly slow throughout the country but if you're driving on the freeway is where it's been developed pretty good you can go from Zurich to Geneva in three hours and that's pretty much the length of the country okay the eighth thing to know the weather the weather in Switzerland can be quite varied because of the Alps the mountain range that runs through the middle of Switzerland on the west side it can be windy on the south it's significantly warmer but the thing to know is that in the summer time here in Zurich it can be quite warm when we were here the daytime highs and Fahrenheit were about 80 85 degrees they can get up to 95 degrees and 35 degrees Celsius for the highs so it certainly can be quite warm which is something that we didn't really take into account when we came here so make sure you bring if you're coming in the summer definitely short sleeves and shorts you will want it it's also humid here because there's so much water out and about and around another thing to know if you are going up to the mountains the mountains are cold each Mountain will typically have its own website so check the weather on the mountain even though it's 85 Fahrenheit here up on top of the Jungfrau it's nearly freezing today so do pay attention to the weather and when you're up on the mountains at a high elevation make sure to wear sunscreen because the elevation is high and so the Sun is stronger up there okay number nine we're getting to the end and Topher I need to set you down so I can do a visual aid number 9 is about water and so keep the bottled water bottled water is really expensive they have a tax on these plastic bottles which make these plastic bottles to three francs to purchase them pick up one or bring one with you from maybe the airport you're flying from and refill it as you get here Switzerland cities are full of public fountain that the water is cold delicious and good or you to zero calories in the maryadas at zero calories no sugar no fat so check out the water fill it up from the tap or from those public fountains that'll save you some money okay the last thing to know in when you come to Switzerland is recycling the Swiss are really big on recycling so when you see trash cans in the supermarket there will often be four or five different trash cans for plastic bottles for metal or glass so make sure you're putting your trash in the right areas otherwise you might get a nasty smear a few more bonus tips I want to add related to things to know and this is after I just finished dinner at zeughaus Keller in Zurich if you want to know more about what foods in there check out my Zurich travel guide but here are three things to know about eating at restaurants one if you want air-conditioning make sure they have air-conditioning this is one restaurant that doesn't and Zurich and Switzerland can be warmer than you might expect in the summer and eating there eight o'clock at night I felt like I was inside a sauna – a lot of restaurants add a service charge they had a 8 percent service charge here so you don't need to add a tip to the extra service charge and Switzerland in general is probably warmer than you thought I know that I had a section about weather and I know that I said it was warm but in the summer however warm you think it is if you're in Fahrenheit at about ten more degrees if you're in Celsius add five more degrees because it can be hot and humid did I mention that like Asia is usually hot and humid but Switzerland you have this perspective of snow and cold but in the summer throw that all away hot and sticky that brings us to the end of this video and so Topher and I we hope you enjoyed it if you got something useful out of it please hit the thumbs up below or maybe considered subscribing for new videos every weekend or you can follow us on Facebook Twitter Google+ links in description below or you might enjoy watching some more of our Switzerland series click either of these to watch or if you haven't subscribed yet click on this yellow ball over here to subscribe alright bye bye [Music].