My husband and I just return from a nine-day trip to Switzerland from February 4, 2022 to February 13, 2022 and wanted to provide "on the ground reporting" on how it is to travel to Switzerland with the restriction. While we were there, they were talking about removing some of the restrictions on February 17th so it might not be relevant, but it maybe just a fun time capsule to look back on.
Swiss Covid Pass:
We applied for the Swiss Covid Pass about two weeks prior to our flight to Switzerland via the website. I provided both of our passports, vaccine cards, flight info and the hotel for the first night in the application, plus the $30 CF fee. The following morning, I received an email with a QR code that we were both approved. I downloaded the app on both of our phones and added both QR codes to both phones. We used the Swiss Covid Pass Daily, every time you went into a restaurant to eat, the owner or the manager would come by and scan the QR code with their cell phone or iPad. About 50% of the time, we were asked for an ID to verify names, we would switch off between our passports or our Driver’s license without any issues.
Swiss Entry Form:
We filled out the Swiss Entry Form the day before we flew to Switzerland. Passport Control never asked for them or inquired about them. We observed a lady in front of us trying to give it to the passport control at the airport and they refused to look at it. The passport check was like every other time we have traveled. We did fill out for British Airway the Verifly app and uploaded our vaccine card before we left home. The Verifly App was checked at the airport when we were checking in.
Covid Testing to Return to the US:
We brought the Abbott Anti-Gen Testing with Live proctoring from eMed.com with us and took them on the last night while in the hotel room. We had used them before but they are really easy and straight forward and the report is sent immediately to your email. We then upload the results into Verifly App to the airlines and within about two hours they were reviewed and clear to return. Once we checked in for a flight in Geneva and showed that we had the Verifly App, we never once had to show our results or information. Once we returned to the USA, custom and immigration were the same as before.
Masks:
Masks were required on all public transportation, some cable cars and lifts, and inside any stores/buildings while we were in Switzerland. We had purchased a box of KN95 prior to leaving, and I would estimate that about 90% of the Swiss were wearing KN95 or surgical masks on trains. (While skiing, a lot of people were wearing buffs and pulling up over the nose when on chairlifts and gondolas). One of the biggest observations was that everyone was wearing the mask over their nose and mouth and did not complain about it. We did take the Glacier Express and they check our Covid Pass prior to boarding the train and we were not required to wear mask while we were sitting.
Crowds:
Tourism is still down due to the pandemic. We found very little crowds in Murren, Zermatt or San Moritz. The only crowded train was on Saturday morning going from Zermatt to Visp (our educated guess is that Ski Cabins did Saturday Change over). On the Glacier Express we had a 4-top to ourselves and we each had a full row on our flight from San Diego to London.
Experience:
Overall, we had a great experience in Switzerland and felt completely safe, probably safer there than back in California. The Covid Pass was easy to get and use. The masking on public transit did not concern us and since everyone else was complying it did not bother us. We love going to Switzerland to ski and spending some time in winter wonderland.