Topic Wiki

Trip Reports
Dan
Yungerman
chucksterace
VacationLover Part 1
VacationLover Part 2
Chapshnell
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

Shabbos Takeout:
Oneg Shabbos.

Can usually ship throughout Switzerland (through the post, obviously packaging may be difficult and items can leak).

They come up every Friday in season to Davos and can purchase in the shul. Usually at Schiaweg.

Email is Oinegshabbes@gmail.com.

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.

Cresta Sun Hotel in Davos.  Kosher food and open for much of the year.  Call or WhatsApp 41 81 511 2290

There are nice towns, e.g. Klosters and others, around Davos as well.  To get better deals on some hotels as well as apartments in the region contact  Menachem at BestStay Davos  41 79 346 35 61.   He also can arrange kosher food to be delivered to your apartment there and other towns in the Alps.  His email is info@beststaydavos.ch.

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 djcos on April 25, 2025, 10:02:09 AM »

Author Topic: Switzerland Master Thread  (Read 819224 times)

Offline mr.

  • Dansdeals Gold Elite
  • ***
  • Join Date: May 2017
  • Posts: 120
  • Total likes: 10
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
  • Location: ISRAEL
Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #3080 on: Yesterday at 03:31:46 PM »
lev Travel who has been in Arosa for the last few years
will be in Cervinia this summer
I Know it belongs to the Italy forum but the swiss foreum seems to be much more active
happens to be it next to Switzerland it the other side of the Matterhorn and with a cable car one can actually reach Zermatt
anyone have any experience with that area

Offline Ekay

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite
  • ****
  • Join Date: Oct 2018
  • Posts: 482
  • Total likes: 9
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
    • View Profile
  • Location: NYC
Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #3081 on: Today at 12:17:12 AM »
Have a 10.5 hour stop in zur. I want to take a train to Lucerne and spend my day there. Have two concerns, luggage and food.
1) can I check my luggage for the second leg 10 hours before the flight (its @ local flight with LX)?
2) is there any away to get kosher food delivered to airport in the morning when I land, and then later in the evening for dinner (Don't want to waste time going into the city)?
3) Is there any kosher food in Lucerne?
4)what are the shul options in Zurich if I do have time to go into the city?
« Last Edit: Today at 12:59:11 AM by Ekay »

Offline iluv2travel

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jul 2019
  • Posts: 1316
  • Total likes: 335
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #3082 on: Today at 09:26:04 AM »
Have a 10.5 hour stop in zur. I want to take a train to Lucerne and spend my day there. Have two concerns, luggage and food.
1) can I check my luggage for the second leg 10 hours before the flight (its @ local flight with LX)?
2) is there any away to get kosher food delivered to airport in the morning when I land, and then later in the evening for dinner (Don't want to waste time going into the city)?
3) Is there any kosher food in Lucerne?
4)what are the shul options in Zurich if I do have time to go into the city?

1) I doubt you can check luggage that far in advance, most of the time the max is 4 hours prior to flight. I'm guessing that you have 2 separate reservations and can't check your luggage through from origin? The main train station in Zurich  (Zurich HBF) has luggage lockers and storage so that could be an option.

2) I don't think there's any kosher establishment that has this service yet but you can call Babi Bagel and ask since they do have a service that delivers to Lucerne

3)https://www.chabadluzern.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/3837401/jewish/Order-Kosher-Meals.htm

4) https://www.godaven.com/list-shuls/z%C3%BCrich

Offline Ekay

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite
  • ****
  • Join Date: Oct 2018
  • Posts: 482
  • Total likes: 9
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
    • View Profile
  • Location: NYC
Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #3083 on: Today at 03:15:16 PM »
1) I doubt you can check luggage that far in advance, most of the time the max is 4 hours prior to flight. I'm guessing that you have 2 separate reservations and can't check your luggage through from origin? The main train station in Zurich  (Zurich HBF) has luggage lockers and storage so that could be an option.
Thanks for your response, appreciate it.
I found this on swiss.com.
 "In combination with online check-in, you can drop off your baggage at Zurich and Geneva Airports up to 23 hours before departure".
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this?

Offline iluv2travel

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jul 2019
  • Posts: 1316
  • Total likes: 335
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #3084 on: Today at 05:12:00 PM »
Thanks for your response, appreciate it.
I found this on swiss.com.
 "In combination with online check-in, you can drop off your baggage at Zurich and Geneva Airports up to 23 hours before departure".
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this?

If you're flying with Swiss then this is correct. For other airlines you can't do this.