Money saving tips during Switzerland tour

When I started planning for the Switzerland tour, the first question my European boss asked me was “Switzerland is the most expensive country in Europe ! and you want to go there first ? better goto Austria !!”
so as I was aware of this fact and since was planning to travel on my own it was most important for me to travel in budget. Group tours are comparatively cheaper, but they do not provide u flexibility to travel at ur wish !!So costs come from your stay, travel & food (shopping is ur choice)for the stay, if you plan well in advance you can get good budget 2-3 star hotels at around price of 6000~7000 Rs per night, as you approach towards the season month July-Aug, the prices start soaring like anything ! so it is must that u plan in advance and book ur stay in advance. Actually after visiting Switzerland now I can say that selecting a backpackers hostel also can be a good and cheap option, it will save half the price of ur stay, and after wondering all over the day, one can sleep anywhere easily. also for the fact that these hostels provide u the facility to cook ur own food, which is again a great cost saving for you.

coming to the food, again if u talk about Indian restaurants, typical Chapati would cost u around 4 CHF ! and food for two persons would cost u around 40 to 60 CHF for one meal !! so it is damm costly. way round what I used to use the ready to cook food packets which i carried from India.
Although I tried all types of ready to eat food from different companies, what I found was that best taste and satisfaction u get with the Rice (Pulaov) and Dal fry.

Money saving tips during Switzerland tour

Ready to eat food packets

These u can use by putting into boiling water of tea maker or use a small coil heater (which u can buy for just 40 rupees from pimpri market, this was really useful for me to make tea)
Gitz – Veg Pulao (Good taste)
Gitz – Veg Biryani (Good taste)
Gitz – Potato gravy vegitable (acceptable taste)
Gitz – Rajma rice (acceptable taste)
Gitz – Dal fry (very good taste – must have it, so that u can eat with rice and bread too)
Aashirvad – Chole (not so good)

Paratha & Chapati

At least u can have Chapati on the day u reach Zurich, and Paratha u can have the second day. Pithale (Basen) – now this u have to prepare in milk so that it can sustain for 2 days, this was very much useful for us so we could have these for the first two days as food.

Instant soup

Knorr – make a cup type, two options 1) Tomato (good taste) 2) mix veg (good taste)

Boiled eggs

(remains in good shape for 4 days – only thing u need to take care is during transport, pack them in proper plastic container, with no room for movement, else they will break)
Fruits

Apple, Pears- remains in good shape & taste for 6~7 days (apples strongly recommended )

Tea packets

(instant) from Wagh Bakri, Girnar, Society (all u get in Star Bazaar of different flavors) – although u get tea while bk fast, but it is not as Indian as we want, so these packets serve a good way 🙂 it is must in the cold environment there

Misc but must have – Rajgira laddu packets, Khajur (Dates), Peanuts, Laddu, Chivada, Chakali, Bakerwadi etc.

If u r planning to stay at backpackers hostel, then u must read my trek recipes which are home made and instant food recipes from my mother 

My mothers recipes 

Instant Upma, Instant Pithale (Zunka),  Instant Khichdi 

In case u wish to buy fruits, milk, bread, sandwich, snacks, wine goto  Migros, they are found at most of the places, and offer good prices too. even COOP stores can help u a bit. also what i have heard (not experienced) is that after 5 pm stores offer good discounts on perishable items, try this trick too.

my experience is that food offered in trains specially scneic trains is good to taste and not so costly, so I did buy it in golden pass as well as glacier express and can say that it was good to have it at fair cost.

 Coming to the last point i.e. travel, after completion of my 8 days of unlimited travel using swiss travel pass, and calculating the total cost of my travel in train, bus, boat, cable cars and lits, I can surely say that the unlimited travel pass offered me huge saving, and remember we were only two, if u hv kids below age of 16 then two kids can also travel in the same travel pass cost, hence it would be more cheaper for u.
also as said most of the museums have free entry with ur swiss pass, so that is also additional saving.
and mountain passes will have 25 to 50% discount if u r holding swiss travel pass.

In case u hv not opted for travel pass, most of the local hotels provide u free bus pass, do use it. also these passed also have some offers from local shops, do read them.


coming to the other points where u can get something more is read the travel brouchers that are distributed in the travel desks, many of them contains good offers for the travelers like free chocolates, wine tasting, free gits, in my case unfortunately when I came back and started studying them in point of view of blog writing I could see the offer coupons 🙁 so stupid, I only referred them to see maps !! and never thought of getting some offers in that !! so don;t miss the offers !!!

another cost that u will hv to bear is toilets … so if u wish to save on that (in face during our complete trip, we did not spend single CHF/Euro for toilets) .. mainly all trains have toilets so as the train stations (only train station at mount titlis is having paid toilet) … also public places like at lucerne u hv free toilets, all the mountains have free toilets, i could not find toilets in the supermarkets but since most of the time i was traveling in train, it was not an issue.

use of cash card in CHF was also a good idea as per me, since i was able to pay in fractions and need not carry coins and keep them counting and returning, .. the good thing is that i have only 0.65 CHF left after the trip due to use of cash card.

Carry empty water bottles from India, so that u can use them while on travel, u can refill them at any fountain, or top up from ur hotel itself.

for the other things to buy for .. refer to my earlier post to get good prices on the chocolates, souvenirs etc.
also check for the seconds sell markets, i have mentioned my experience for the vevey market where u get good items for dirt cheap prices saving lots of money.

Hope this helps !

cheers !!