Hello,
I have heard from many people that Switzerland is very expensive. But if we are staying in France and driving to Geneva/Lausanne for a day trip, and just plan to picnic while we are there, is there anything else like parking or anything that might be really expensive that we wouldn't expect? I'm just wondering if there are unexpected expenses there.
Thanks so much.
Lodging and restaurants are the main source of Switerland-is-expensive comments. If you're not going to buy either, then you should be able to avoid the worst.
You will need to buy a Vignette for your car to be able to drive legally in Switzerland.
Not enough to worry about. Enjoy Switzerland.
The vignette will cost you CHF40, about €37, for the day. If you don't get one you can try to stick to back roads but that's difficult. If you don't get one and get caught the fine is very high. The roads are patrolled with both fixed cameras and vehicles. Swiss are generally strict.
The vignette is the same price for a whole year (14 months) as for one day.
The vignette is only required on the motorways (basically the equivalent of French A roads or American Interstates). We spent 4 days in Switzerland last year, driving from France, and before leaving I found a map of the Swiss motorway system and determined that it didn't make sense to try and avoid motorways, so we got one just before getting on our first motorway.
As for costs, as someone already said, the major high-cost items are lodging and restaurants. I'd add wine to that, whether you get it in a restaurant, a shop, or at a winery.
So about $42.USD unless you stay away from highways. And yes, Switzerland is expensive. A walk through a grocery store will show you how high prices are there. But it has such stunning mountain and lake scenery so you’ll have to decide whether it is worth it to you.
the problem with trying to avoid the Swiss vignette is that not all autoroutes (in the French section, Autobahns in the German) in Switzerland look like motorways and you can have a nasty and expensive surprise. There are plenty of roads requiring the vignette which are only one lane each way.
Shopping for souvenirs will be expensive. Simple things like magnets were 2-3 times what they might be in Germany or France. Have been told though to buy Swiss made chocolate at grocery stores (Coop or migros) as even the store brands were good value. Just check where they are actually made and avoid the tourist packaged versions.
Nothing for you to worry about since you are already going frugally i.e. on a daytrip and bringing a picnic and not doing any mountain top excursions
Thanks all!
Taking the train to these destinations would be much more preferable to driving, and I’ve not heard of anybody planning to drive to Geneva or Lausanne for a picnic. To me that implies eady parking and open areas for picnicing which I’ve not seen in the busy and congested area of Geneva and Lausanne.
