Half board offers

Half board includes breakfast and dinner. The dinner is a set menu, you do not order off the regular menu. Usually it is a 4-course menu---appetizer, soup or salad, main course, and dessert. Beverages are extra. The food is usually very good. If you are staying in Mürren and don't take half board at your hotel, your dinner choices are to eat at another hotel, or the Stagerstübli, or Pham's, the Asian restaurant.

Lola~ Thank you. Is it a better deal to go with the half board? If you choose to not eat there one night, are you still charged for it anyway, or are you locked into eating at your hotel? And if you choose NOT to go with the half board, are you still welcome to eat there?! A particular place we are looking to stay at, is offering a 30 chf per person half board. That seems steep, but then again, we have to eat somewhere...but will it be that much pp elsewhere, just ordering off the regular menu? I am not sure I want to eat at teh same place each night...part of the fun is trying new places!! ????????

It is a good deal if you like the food. ;) Basically you are getting the four courses for what you would pay for the main course. But if you are more inclined to eat salads and light fare you would spend less. And speaking of salad, some places have a " salad buffet" for one of the courses. They will have lettuce, arugula, tomatoes, grated carrots, etc. It is expected that you will take moderate salad-size portion, and not go back for seconds. Our teen boys once loaded up their plates and we were scolded! Most places we have stayed in Switzerland would let us opt for the dinner each day or not. They would post that night's menu in the morning and we could tell them if we wanted to dine there or not. If we ate elsewhere, we were not charged for half-board that day. You could ask when you check in if it works that way. Or do they want you to elect half board or not now, with your reservation?

Yes, they need to know when we make the reseration, which I must do today!

Maybe post the name of the hotel and people who have stayed there can advise if it is worth it. If you are still unsure, I'd say don't take it and keep your option to eat at other places.

Yes, "half board" means breakfast and dinner (evening meal). In staying at a German hotel for 10 days (XC ski race venue), I found out that we could take dinners on a day by day basis at the same price as the difference between breakfast only and half-board. By pre-paying for bed and breakfast only, then adding dinners on a day by day basis, we had the option of trying non-hotel local resturants. As it turned out, our hotel had on average, the best dinners and we ate at the hotel 7 of the 10 nights. Bottom line is to check if dinners can be added and at what price, then decide.