Travel Guide: The Alps | Zurich, Chamonix, Geneva

Switzerland (One Week) 2017

Notes

• Note that everything in Switzerland is CRAZY EXPENSIVE.

• Public Transportation info, connections and times: www.sbb.ch

• Very easy to navigate! Super convenient

• Kosher Restaurants:

• Kosher Bagel (Milchig)

• Olive Garden (Fleischig)

• Koscher City (Supermarket & Take-Out)

• LeShuk (Supermarket)

• Ma'adan Bakery

• Fein & Schein (Milchig)

• Friday- Shabbos food for sale 9:00 AM-12:00 PM

• Kosher food list online: http://www.irgz.ch/koscherliste/

• Switzerland has two main supermarket chains: Migros and Coop. At least one of them is present in almost every village. Most of the products mentioned on the kosher list are available in one of those two shops.

• We came here for a wedding so not sure how much helpful info we have

• This is for travel w 3 people

Complete Schedule

Day 1 Tues, Aug 22 ◆ AirBnB

• Land in the morning

• Airbnb Lena

• Check out Zurich Center and Lake Zurich

• Zurich City Things to Do

• Bahnhofstrasse: main downtown street, most expensive shopping avenue in the world. Leads down to Lake Zurich.

• Zurich lake

• Free city bikes. Can bike around lake

• Can rent boat and go swimming in lake

• Food Shopping

Day 2 Weds, Aug 23 ◆ AirBnB

• Pilatus + Lucerne

• Pilatus: alpine sliding, hiking, cable cars, etc. Beautiful! Loved it.

• Lucerne: Boat ride, oldest wooden bridge.

• Take train from Zurich to Lucerne, then bus to pilatus

• Night: Aldstadt

• Night scene, drinks, nice place.

Day 3 Thu, Aug 24 ◆ AirBnB

• Swimming in Lake Zurich, rented a motor boat. Chilled on the dock

Day 4 Fri, Aug 25 ◆ AirBnB

• Buy food + supplies for shabbat

• Travel to Shabbat Destination

• Prep for Shabbat

Shabbat Flumserberg mountain

• Resort composed of a few different villages in the alps

• Less than 1.5 hours from Zurich by train

• Train info here

• Loads of hiking here--they specialize in it.

• Lots of activities here-- a really nice sunday

• Or, as the Flumserberg website says, “many events to combat boredom”

• AirBnB booked: Matthias’ Chalet

• Gorgeous, lovely host, amazing location. Real vacation weekend :)

• Winter: excellent skiing place

Day 5 Sat, Aug 26 ◆ AirBnB

Shabbat

• Hiking

• Explore the area

• Grapplang Castle Ruins

• Hike to Lake Wallensee, go swimming. Unreal! So cold though

Day 6 Sun, Aug 27 ◆ AirBnB

• Spend time in Flumserberg

• Flums mountain

• Cable car

• Rope course

• Extreme dirt biking

• Views

• Winter: these things are closed, but incredible skiing here.

• Travel back to Zurich: Airport

Chamonix, France (one week) 2018

General:

• The French Alps. Most famous for its excellent skiing and other snowsports in the winter, but also beautiful scenery and hiking/mountain biking etc in the summer.

• Fly into Geneva and book a bus (I used Alpybus) to Chamonix (about 90 minutes).

• Buy a multipass to access the lifts/ gondolas etc. The more time you add to it at once, the better value you will get--i.e., buy 6 days at once to save.

• In general its crazy expensive--if you can buy ‘groceries, mementos etc elsewhere (other neighboring towns) and not in downtown Chamonix, do so.

• Visit https://chamonet.com for info on CHamonix, it’s super helpful.

• I went to Chamonix with a tour group and then kind of did my own thing, so I can’t rlly help with accomodation info or research/itinerary as I joined a group and then improvised my own itinerary. So I’ll write about a few things I did, and if you have any questions I’m happy to answer!

• I stayed in La Vert Hotel which was decent, nothing special but perfectly fine.

• Les Gorges de Diosaz: a nice forest/waterfall walk if you have time, but nothing crazy.

  • It is in Servoz, which is a beautiful, quaint town, itself worth visiting!

  • There’s also a museum of Alpine life in Servoz.

• HIke to Croix de Fer

• Cable car up to Aiguille Du Midi. Amazing!

• Visit Mer de Glace and the Ice cave. ALso amazing, totally worth visiting! There’s also a small glacier museum here which is cute. The express train to get here is really nice, amazing views and an experience of its own.

• Explore Downtown CHamonix, its lovely :)

Geneva (1 day) 2018

• The geneva airport has great luggage lockers as well as a storage room where you can leave your things.

• I spent a day in Geneva because my flight out left at night. There’s not much to do here--one day is more than enough :)

• Took a bus from the airport to the center of town.

• Visit the United Nations, you can do a tour there

• Flegere Chocolate Factory is supposed to be good, was closed when I came

• Same for the Red cross museum :( I was there on a Monday, everything is closed on Mondays.

• Visit the famous St. Pierre cathedral--you can climb up to the top and get a cool view of the city.

• Walk under the Jet D’Eau--a super high fountain in the middle of Geneva’s lake

• You can take the tram around town--very easy and convenient

• Walk through the Park des Bastions--its cute and pretty, life sized chess boards

Innsbruck, Austria

I was here in 2019 for skiing. HMU if you have any questions because unfortunately I didn't write an itinerary at the time.