SWITZERLAND

Travel Tips

Neuchatel is a lovely French village close to the French border and an hour train ride from Bern. The streets are all cobblestones and it's right on a lake.
Brad Tingley (Apr 99)

Jungfrau region (Bernese Oberland) - there is now a Jungfrau regional pass. Apparently it has been recently modified to give good discounts on Schilthorn and particularly on Jungfraujoch. For Sfr160, the seven day pass gives you three days of free travel on all of local transport, including some mountain trains (not fully covered by the Swiss pass) and some cable cars. The higher cable cars and mountain trains come at 50% off, as do the more remote rides (Montreaux and Lucerne). On the remaining four days, you get 50% off on all the above routes. The three free days, which you can choose, is what really makes the pass worth while. For example : Interlaaken-Jungfraujoch is normally Sfr 160-180 round trip, Sfr 105 with a Swiss pass and only Sfr45 on one of the free days of the local pass. Another neat feature is that it's valid retroactively - I purchased the pass after arriving in Interlaaken from Montreux and got back most of the cost of the Montreux-Interlaaken ticket.
Leonard Dvorson (Sept 98)

Camona da Cavardiras - There is a very good marked path from Disentis over the Brunnipass and the glacier to the hut. From Disentis you can take the cablecar to Caischavedra (every hour) and from there it's a three hour climb over the pass to the hut. First you come to the very nice Lag Serein (small lake) and then you follow the stream uphill. In the end the path is quite steep, but there is a chain to hold on to. From the pass at 2739m you have a beautiful view of Oberalpstock 3328m, SchSrhorn 3234m and Dnssi 3256m. The hut is always open and the caretaker is there from the beginning of July until the first weekend in September.

Walking the Oberalpstock is very famous and easy but you will need crampsons and a rope. There are many climbing possibilities around the hut, just ask the caretaker. The phone number of the hut is 081 9475747.
Juerg Buehler (Aug 98)

InterRail Pass is no longer valid (not even discounts) on all private railways in the Berner Oberland. If you hold an InterRail Pass and want to travel extensively in Berner Oberland, you should get a regional pass.

The SJH hostel (YHF) in Grindelwald is simply first class with unobstructed view of Eiger. Access to the rooms is by means of a bar coded card.
Thng Hui Hong, Singapore (Aug 98)

A great restaurant in Zurich is the Crazy Cow. When you order Chicken in a basket you get it in a little shopping trolley. Bread is served in slippers (I think this is a Swiss joke). The picnic is served on your own piece of lawn. The decor in the restaurant is mostly kitsch images of Switzerland (the pillars of the building are made to look like Toblerone).
Michel Body (May 98)

Having just passed my drivers test after five attempts, I was a bit puzzled by the looks my Swiss hosts were giving me. It turns out that if you fail the test three times in Switzerland, you have to see a psychologist. Presumably they charge more then the driving instructors, who average about SFr80 per hour for tuition.
James Saunders (June 98)

Nestled in the Swiss Alps in Grindalwald, 30 min by train from Interlaken, the YHA hostel has been fully renovated and is fantastic. It would rival many of the higher class hotels in the region. One word or warning though, do not plan to stay in the YHA hostel in Feb when it is full of families on school holidays and is very noisy. During this time you are better off staying in Interlaken and catching the train up each day.
Stewart Nicolson (Apr 98)

Its worth mentioning that although the address of the Lindt Chocolate factory is Seestrasse 204, this is not in Zurich but the next town down on the same road. The numbers hence start from 1 again. It might be nice to make this clear to save someone that extra three miles or so.
Gavin Mooney (Apr 98)