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Tzadik Nistar
@Yehuda - 1 day trip
sam28
Sam28 St Moritz Switzerland kosher Grand Hotel Kempinski
Yehudaa - 18-hour Zurich stopover


Kosher food list 2022

Zurich
HOTELS
-The Park Hyatt is fantastic and a 10 minute walk to shul.
Tram stop: Stockerstrasse

RESTAURANTS

Meat:

Florentin - Located inside he JCC https://florentin.rest/
Tram stop: Bahnhof Enge

Grill Cave

Food truck. Check website for opening hours. Burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs etc.
https://www.thegrillcave.co/


Milk/Parve:

Babi's Bagels (Bederstrasse corner Klopstockstrasse 8002 Zürich) Tram Stop "Waffenplatzstrasse"

Bakery:
Ma'Adan Bakery
Manessestrasse/Schimmelstrasse
Has delicious pastries and also sells sandwiches, salads, and some sushi.

Butcher:
Metzgerei Kol Tuv

Can preorder for pickup.
Can also deliver throughout Switzerland by post.
See website for details.

https://www.koltuv.ch/en

ATTRACTIONS
-Walk around the lake area
-Bahnhofstrasse window shopping
-Take a train to Lucerne and buy the golden ticket, included a boat ride on Lake Lucerne, cogwheel train and tram. Then take bus back to Lucerne
-When you arrive in Lucerne you can go to the tourist office to see a live view from Mount Pilatus (Or you can check online). If it's cloudy skip the cogwheel train and just take a nice boatride and explore the town, ancient bridges, and walk on top of the old city fortress walls.




Options in the Alps

Arosa: Metropol Hotel - quaint little old hotel. Not very fancy - it's like honeymooning in your grandmother's house (HT: Mrs. Moishebatchy). The food is very basic, but delicious. Mikva on premises. If skiing is your thing, the have an agreement with one of the ski places (Härtner) not to charge Metropol customers for ski rentals over Shabbos.


Need a meal on shabbes, please PM me (Chuchem). I live 15 minute walk from the hyatt, close to chabad. Zürich has no eiruv!

Major Attractions
“Please edit the wiki to add more attractions”

Central Switzerland
-Lucerne, Pilatus Offers: Cogwheel, Gondolas, Alpine Sliding, Mini Zip-line and fun area
-Titlis Offers: Gondolas, Snow Tubing, Trutti Bikes, Ice Museum, Row Boating
-Brunni Offers: Gondolas, Alpine Sliding, Stroll in Lake(!)

Jungfrau Region
-Jungfrau/jungfraujoch Click here for the Kosher hotel in Wengen / 360-degree panorama of Jungfraujoch-Top of Europe
-Grindelwald Offers: Gondolas, mega Zip-line, Trutti Bikes

Eastern Switzerland
-St. Moritz
Davos / Klosters
Arosa Click here for the Kosher Levins hotel

Southern Switzerland
-Zermatt - "Matterhorn"
-Saas-Fee Offers: Gondolas, Alpine Sliding, Mega Zip-line, Trotti Bikes, (Saas-Grund has Monster Trotteres) and on top of "Allalin" you can go Snow Tubing and Skiing even in the summer!
-Crans Montana You can email the Kosher hotel in Crans Montana Hotelmk@gmail.com  or call them at 0032485640498 or 003233011600


HalbTax Pass

A HalbTax pass (or Half Fare card) is a card designated for tourists and not for Swiss residents (officially...). The card gives you half price on all public transportation like buses, trains, trams, boats and also on "most" cable cars (attractions). There are basically 4 kinds.

1) An annual pass, the price is currently 175 francs. If i remember correctly it has a photo ID of the recipient, so double check before sharing it.
Click here for the annual pass

2) A 30 day pass, the price is currently 120 francs, it does not have a photo ID on it.
Click here or here for the 30 day pass

3) - Recommended for frequent traveling Swiss Travel Pass - you prepay a set amount per day and get unlimited for that day (plus "optional" for a fee, for 1 month including the days you chose, it is a HalbTax, even on the prepaid free days, it's only free for all transportation, on cable cars you only get half off). The price per day depends on how many days you prepay, for example if you prepay 8 days, the price per day will be about 53 francs, if you prepay 3 days the price per day will be about 73 francs. If you are 25 y/o or younger, you can get the Youth Pass which is cheaper - If you prepay 8 days  the price per day will be about 40 francs a day, if you prepay 3 days the price per day will be about 62 francs.
Click here (or here) for the prepaid pass

The card comes with a few days “you could chose your dates later”, officially when you want to use a certain day for the free day you should fill in on the pass that date, and when the first conductor comes he punches that day, but technically you can leave the date blank until the conductor comes, that way you have a chance if no conductor asks you for your card (happens quite often) you can save it for the next day :)

4) Swiss Transfer Ticket" This card costs 141 francs and is valid for 2 trips from and to the boarder or airport, for example you are traveling from the airport to Arosa and are not planning to go anywhere else or take any other transportation, with this card you will effectively pay 71 francs per way. This card is only valid for trips to and from the airport or boarder and no (long) stops allowed. Technically if you will travel one more day, the Swiss travel pass mentioned above will probably be cheaper.

Make sure to order your pass a few weeks before leaving, it takes about 1-3 weeks for the pass to arrive. But you can always buy it in the Airport, though you might have to wait in line and also if you want to buy the Youth pass (for 25 y/o or younger) they might ask you for proof...

There is also a family pass if you travel with a large family, I am not familiar with that.


Fast Baggage
There is a service via SBB, They deliver your luggage for you!! For example you are traveling from ZRH to Arosa, you don't want to be busy Shlepping around your luggage, You can check in your luggage in the airport and they (SBB) will deliver it to the train station in Arosa. This service is available "from and to" most train stations in Switzerland. You can ask about the Fast Baggage by any train station or read here or here

You can even buy a tag that you put on the luggage before checking in your luggage in any airport (i.e. JFK) and Rail Europe will take your luggage from the airplane in Switzerland and deliver it either to your hotel or to the train station in the city you're going to.  Read about Flight Luggage Here




PS. When doing research and getting to a website in German, just add /en (after .ch) to translate to English.
And Hey, Don't forget to write a TR ;)

Sample Itinerary for 9 hour stopover on Swiss flight from TLV to U.S. that lands at 810 and takes off around 5
Copied from @cholent:
Here it is: landed in zrh, crazy line for entering country but moved pretty quickly, about half an hour. Picked up sim in the airport. Rented car through Priceline from europecar. Drove to Titlis, stunning scenery along drive. Missed a turnoff because I couldn't get Waze to talk and I was trying to do some stuff online while we were driving, added half an hour to get there, but the stunning scenery made it worthwhile. Got there, parked, you pay at the entrance if you're going to park for more than an hour. Paid, took the cable car. Got off at there halfway station by mistake, gorgeous lake. Went back on and back up to the top. It was somewhat cloudy which was a pity. Suspension bridge was fun but no view because of the clouds. Took the ice flyer to the other peak, then went sledding down the hill, lots of fun. No tubing because there wasn't enough snow. We didn't have enough time for the ice cave because of the extra time driving there and we weren't sure where it was anyway. Made some new Israeli friends and took the cable car down with them. Got back to the airport, returning the car took less than five minutes, getting through the airport took a little longer so we didn't have time for showers at the lounge. It was amazing all around, I would definitely recommend

« Last edited by yyzzrh on October 20, 2022, 01:16:48 PM »

Author Topic: Switzerland Master Thread  (Read 604391 times)

Offline MosheS

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Switzerland Master Thread
« on: May 18, 2009, 12:58:33 PM »
Would greatly appreciate if someone can post information on how to go about getting a good price for a train pass (actually all transportation pass) in Switzerland. I will be traveling to Switzerland in June for 8 days. I would like an 8 day pass. Any info about it would be appreciated. Thank you
« Last Edit: June 08, 2010, 05:36:26 PM by Dan »

Offline me

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Zurich Master Thread
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2010, 08:22:56 PM »
After Shavuos I'm flying to Israel with a 12 hour stopover in Zurich (morning to night).

PLEASE REPLY HERE WITH SUGGESTIONS!

I'm flying with my wife and baby (will be just over 3 months old).

Should I rent a car for the day?
Anywhere good to base myself? Hotel etc?

Thanks in advance!
« Last Edit: May 05, 2010, 03:05:11 AM by Dan »

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: 12 hours in Zurich, what to do?
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2010, 08:41:29 PM »
No car.
Buy a "Tageskarte", loosely translated as a daypass. Make sure it covers your way to and from the airport, as well as the city center. From the airport take a train to "Zurich HB" which is is the main station, and in the center of zurich (takes 7 mins). Right in front of you, lies the Bahnhofstrasse, which is the local 5th ave. Walk casually down the street, and you will get to the lake which is beautiful. Take a boatride using your daypass (depending on how many zones you got covered in your pass, you can go further.)
While strolling ask where is the "Altstadt" which means: Old city. Its very close by.
Tips: go to www.irgz.ch to download the latest kosher list (they don't have hechesherim, just products that they checked and is very reliable). When speaking about "denner", "migros" or "coop", they are talking about supermarket names.
Try changing some swiss francs, as cc might not be accepted below $10. Block temporarily your cc, as they have very expensive things in town. ;-)
The price per square meter in this street, is one of the highest in the world.
And finally, don't speak out loud ZRH airports official name, as dutch/flemish people might turn 'you'into real estate.

Offline hocker

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Re: 12 hours in Zurich, what to do?
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2010, 04:44:09 AM »
superflyer where did you get somuch knowledge about ZRH.

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: 12 hours in Zurich, what to do?
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2010, 08:03:09 AM »
Favorite hub.

Offline hocker

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Re: 12 hours in Zurich, what to do?
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2010, 11:22:35 AM »
i agree Flughafen is a gr8 hub. Just get them 2 finish the work on the shuttle.

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: 12 hours in Zurich, what to do?
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2010, 11:37:56 AM »
Flughafen means airport, its the "K" word...

Offline me

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Re: 12 hours in Zurich, what to do?
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2010, 10:24:38 PM »
Thanks SuperFlyer!

What about kosher food? any good lunchtime restaraunts?

Offline ChaimB

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Re: 12 hours in Zurich, what to do?
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2010, 11:25:12 PM »
Thanks SuperFlyer!

What about kosher food? any good lunchtime restaraunts?

 2 dairy Shein & Fein or I think Milk & Honey. I didnt like S&F so much

 Fleshig is Shalom very small portions for alot of $$$

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: 12 hours in Zurich, what to do?
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2010, 05:58:21 AM »
There are always a couple that open and close. there was rimon, shuarma place on the street (amechaye), and maybe this books & bagel place is still open.

chuchem should knows more about this
« Last Edit: March 22, 2010, 06:00:52 AM by SuperFlyer »

Offline hocker

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Re: Zurich Master Thread
« Reply #10 on: May 23, 2010, 02:23:32 AM »
books and bagels is open and runing

Offline kivabb

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #11 on: June 09, 2010, 01:09:22 PM »
Once I'm in Switzerland, any recommendations on nice places with views of the Alps to get away for 2-3 days? Any SPG hotels recommended or do I have to stay in Zurich?

Offline Dan

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #12 on: June 09, 2010, 01:19:17 PM »
I'll post this here for future reference:
Zurich Trip Notes
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline moe

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #13 on: June 09, 2010, 03:49:39 PM »
Once I'm in Switzerland, any recommendations on nice places with views of the Alps to get away for 2-3 days? Any SPG hotels recommended or do I have to stay in Zurich?
They have 2 spg's in Davos, which is realy in my opinion.

Offline moish

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #14 on: June 09, 2010, 04:28:27 PM »
really what?

Offline moishh

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Trip to swizterland and italy
« Reply #15 on: June 10, 2010, 09:05:28 AM »
My wife and I are taking a trip next week to madrid for a day, then flying into zurich for 8 days.  and we we were thinking of taking a train down to venice for shabbos in the middle.  Any ideas of what to do while in these places? also best places to stay and eat.  Ive got 80000 starwood points but want to save like 20000.

Offline ChikkyMonkey

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Re: Trip to swizterland and italy
« Reply #16 on: June 10, 2010, 10:05:10 AM »
Look into Interlaken, some great mountains...Juangfrau is a must, you can ski, be pulled by dogs, Ice caves very neat... not cheap though!

Offline moishh

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Re: Trip to swizterland and italy
« Reply #17 on: June 10, 2010, 10:28:57 AM »
i can ski and do snow stuff in the summer?  and where is the best place to stay as a base?...i like the snow dogs idea

Offline ChikkyMonkey

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Re: Trip to swizterland and italy
« Reply #18 on: June 10, 2010, 10:45:12 AM »
it's not proper ski, because the slope is small, but it's the idea thats great... it's hot and you go skiing/snowboarding... (it acutally gets a bit cold up there)

The train goes through the mountain for about 2 hours (literally through the mountain).... It's definitely a must...

I stayed in St. Moritz, So Starwood but I love the city, they call it playground for the rich.. nice lake you can go hiking biking etc.... not a cheap one though. at the time I stayed at the carlton...

Offline moishh

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Re: Trip to swizterland and italy
« Reply #19 on: June 10, 2010, 11:30:34 AM »
thanks...any tips on transportation and food?