Money in Switzerland

My experience with Switzerland: At least $150 per day for the 1st person incl. the services you mentioned above. The second person can be up to 50% off if you really stick to the plan.

Our last trip (2007) came in around $100 per person per day. We try to keep it moderate; eat well and sleep cheap. Most of our time is spent hiking and we do not spend anything on tours, souvenirs, or expensive Jungfrau trips.

A lot depends on what the exchange rate is a year from now. For this year, two people can stay in Gimmelwald or Mürren for 75 CHF (double room at Chalet Fontanta) to 130 CHF (apartment at Ollie & Maria's in Gimmelwald, or Chalet Fontanta). The others---Hotel Mittaghorn and Esther's Guesthouse are in between. Your choice depends on whether you want to do shared bath accommodation, or maybe an apartment where you can save money on restaurant meals.

In 2007, a nice Rösti plate at most mountain restaurants ran around 12-15 CHF, depending on what you had with it (egg, sausage, etc. or "natur"). Nice mixed salads around 8-12 CHF; soup 7-10 CHF. Pizza and pasta are also moderately priced. If you want a main course plate, chicken and fish dishes are around 22 CHF and up depending on where you are I think beer is around 6-7 CHF a glass but I've never ordered one; we drink wine Swiss wine is very good!) Most groceries are close to what we pay in the US if you are shopping to cook in an apartment.

Prices in Luzern will be considerably higher for both food and lodging.

To these prices you need to add the cost of train travel. Two 3-day Saver passes cost 212 CHF each (or $196 of bought in the US). These would cover 3 days of train and boat travel, up as far as your village. Lifts above that are generally covered only 50%. With this pass you also get free admission to many museums, and 50% off travel on the "non-covered" days between the first and last day you use the pass.

When in May are you going? You may want to check the webcams to see what the weather is like in May before you commit. Today it looked dismal in Mürren---cloudy and misty/foggy. But tomorrow the sun may shine. May is unpredictable.

June would be better than May, especially if you want to hike. Some of the lifts and many of the higher trails would not be open in mid-May. June is still early season, not high season (which begins in July). As for tourists, Wengen and Mürren have never felt full of tourists to me, even at the height of summer. The bus tours and groups go to Grindelwald.

Our most recent visit was in late June, and that was lovely---the wildflowers were at their peak. We still had some rainy weather, but that can happen anytime.

thank you so much for the helpful information you both provided, it has given me a good idea of what I need money wise while in Switzerland and its better than I thought I was planning $200-$250 per person per day but I feel even with the current exchange rate $150-$175per person per day would be good because we are planning to eat & sleep cheap and go hiking. As for wanting to go in May we are planning to go in the middle of the month, I figured it would not be as busy with tourists like my wife and I, but I want to have nice weather as well. Would a different month be better? Also we are planning to make stops in Berchtesgaden Germany and Munich and we might stop in Hallstatt Austria do you feel $150-$175per person per day would be good for those places too?

It is all going to depend upon your accommodations. When my wife and I went, we stayed at Backpackers Villa in Interlaken. It is a hostel, but we booked 2 beds in a 2-bed room, so we essentially had a private room - with the exception of toilet and bath (there was a sink in the room). It was perfect - and cheap.

My thoughts on this question are always, look through the books and get an idea of the hotels you want. Once you estimate that cost, it gives you a better idea. It is hard to say $150 per day because you may stay in a hostel in once place for $25/night per person and then choose a hotel somewhere else that is $140 (for $70/night per person). I find it hard to average that way.

So once you have an idea of your hotel costs, the rest is easy. Rick gives a good estimate for food costs. Attraction costs are somewhat like hotels - get an idea of what you want to see and add it up. it will give you a much better sense.

My son and I just returned from three weeks in europe. Switzerland was almost twice as expensive as France, Italy and Germany. If you can stay in smaller towns it helps. (Murren is great) But eating in restaurants ran us easily 100 swiss francs for dinners, and not much less for lunches. Hotels were 160-200 sw francs which included breakfast. Unfortunately this year we had a very cold, wet May. Cloud cover,fog, rain all of our days in Switzerland. In spite of that the area around berner Oberland is breathtaking.