Oeschinensee Panorama Hike (Kandersteg) With a little planning and a car, you can cut costs and discover some of Switzerland’s most beautiful spots. Photo / Agnes Groonwald
Oeschinensee Panorama Hike (Kandersteg) With a little planning and a car, you can cut costs and discover some of Switzerland’s most beautiful spots. Photo / Agnes Groonwald
Switzerland is one of the most atmospheric and expensive countries you’ll visit in Europe, but there are ways to cut costs, writes Agnes Groonwald.
If you visit in the summer months, a peak time for adventure-seekers and road-trippers, it can be a challenge to find destinations that won’t blow your budget.
My husband and I spent two weeks crisscrossing Switzerland with our dog on a summertime road trip. In the planning phase, we had every intention of spending time at resort towns like Lucerne and Zermatt, framed by alpine lakes and mountain landscapes. Looking for accommodations in those places would have forced us to cut our time in the country short, though. Switzerland can be prohibitively expensive.
We decided to expand our thinking and get a little creative. After some digging online, we found that choosing towns an hour or so outside the big-name destinations was cheaper. Once we got to our chosen alternatives, we learned that it also meant fewer people and views that are just as good (or better) than destinations on our original plan. Switzerland rewards travellers who go the distance, quite literally.
This was easily our favourite spot. Adelboden is a town of just under 3400 people that looks as if it was plucked out of a fairytale, with wooden chalets, wildflower meadows, and mountain views everywhere you look. This is the Bernese Oberland, a subregion of the Swiss Alps ideal for travellers seeking fresh mountain air, outdoor excursions, and more authenticity than some of the more tourist-heavy destinations.
In the summer, one of the most impressive sights is Engstligenalp, a high plateau accessible by cable car from just outside the village. The plateau is surrounded by jagged peaks and gentle trails, so it doesn’t require extensive hiking skills to access. As you explore, you may well see herds of cows grazing freely and booths set up with offerings from traditional alpine cheesemakers.
The Engstligen falls, accessed by a scenic hike or from viewpoints a short gondola ride away, sit just below the plateau. This two-tier waterfall is among the highest in Switzerland, cascading nearly 600m to the valley floor.
Beyond Engstligenalp, Adelboden is the best base for the Choleren Gorge, a canyon with narrow walkways winding its way through dramatic rock formations below. We were able to walk there from our accommodations.
Engstligenfälle (Adelboden) Adelboden, a village of under 3400, boasts one of the highest waterfalls in Switzerland. Photo / Agnes Groonwald
Drive to nearby Kandersteg to experience Oeschinen Lake, or Oeschinensee. This is one of Switzerland’s best alpine lakes and a Unesco World Heritage site. For the best views, ride a gondola to avoid the steep climb up to the base of the lake. From there, you can enjoy the view from accessible platforms or hit the panorama hike. It’s a nearly 9km loop trail to turquoise waters fed by glacial streams, towering cliffs, and snow-capped peaks. While spectacular, it is an intermediate hike with some steep drop-offs along the way.
You’ll want a car to visit Adelboden. While there are scenic trains that will connect you to the local buses, access to a vehicle will make it easier to reach other cities nearby. The trip takes about 2.5 hours from Zurich or 3.5 hours from Geneva.
Don’t ignore stays over the border
Summertime road trips in Switzerland just aren’t the same without some time spent near Lake Geneva, but as with the popular mountain escapes, it can be cost-prohibitive. That’s how we found Evian-les-Bains, a French city on the southern shores of Lake Geneva with much more affordable prices on everything from accommodation to happy hours.
You’re not sacrificing anything here, either. You can drink as much of its famous mineral water as you like from a public fountain in the town centre. The town has similar lakefront views to those on the Swiss side.
As we were there to see more of Switzerland, though, we made use of the frequent, affordable ferries that crossed the lake to destinations like Lausanne and Montreux. In Lausanne, visit the Olympic Museum, explore the medieval Old Town, or walk Ouchy’s lakeside promenade. Montreux is close to Chillon Castle, one of Switzerland’s most iconic fortresses, in nearby Veytaux. Both towns are compact enough to explore for the day.
Geneva and Gruyères, with its famous cheese factory, are also accessible from Evian-les-Bains by car in just over an hour. Visiting these places for the day, rather than staying overnight, left us with enough cash for some take-home Gruyère and Swiss chocolates.
Évian-les-Bains Evian-les-Bains offers free mineral water from public fountains in its town centre. Photo / Agnes Groonwald
Finish up with a relaxing spa break
Bad Ragaz in the Sarganserland region is known for its therapeutic waters from the nearby Tamina Gorge‘s healing springs, but the spa town remains budget-friendly by Swiss standards. Beyond wellness and relaxation, a stay in the town itself is big on culture, thanks to an open-air sculpture gallery against the backdrop of the Alps. It’s also big on views if you climb to the ruins of Freudenberg Castle.
A short drive out of Bad Ragaz gets you to Chur, which calls itself Switzerland’s oldest city, where you can wander through a historic old town and access the Glacier Express to Zermatt. You’re also just a 15-minute drive from Liechtenstein. We spent a day exploring the capital, Vaduz, and its imposing castle, sipping wine, and posing on Alte Rheinbrücke, the covered wooden bridge between the two countries.
As with most of these alternative spots, Bad Ragaz is best reached by car. It makes travel much more efficient when you’re off the beaten path. If you’re arriving via Zurich, though, you can get here by train in about an hour and 20 minutes. Driving from Zurich will take you just over an hour.
Embrace the outskirt towns
If you don’t mind staying a short drive outside the most popular spots, you can save quite a bit on a summertime trip to Switzerland. Renting a car makes trips more accessible, as you can plan easy day trips along the way.
You can find so much charm in destinations that don’t always show up on classic tourist itineraries, and Switzerland is spoiled for choice when it comes to fairytale views.
