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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

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 604514 times)

Offline Chaim#1

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1160 on: January 11, 2016, 03:03:53 PM »
is there a lot more to do at night in Arosa over crans ?

Offline VacationLover

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1161 on: January 11, 2016, 03:24:26 PM »
is there a lot more to do at night in Arosa over crans ?
Negative

Offline an613

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1162 on: January 11, 2016, 09:17:38 PM »
Do you need a Kosher hotel? If not than Saas Fee and Montana (there is a Kosher hotel in Crans) have the best views (and highest altitudes) when skiing

nope, don't need kosher hotel. I guess it would be convenient to get some food from there for shabbas but we're coming from TLV so we can always bring with us if we really want.

Any recommendations for places to stay in Saas Fee or Montana? Also, if we're doing that, would you say we could skip Lucerne on wednesday? Any other place (preferably along the train route from Zurich) to stop that would be worthwhile?

Offline karen

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1163 on: January 13, 2016, 03:20:23 PM »
My family plan to visit Switzerland for 3 days, we like see-sighting,  which cities/places do you suggest me to visit? And which city should I stay? I have searched for a while and got lost  :( Thanks!

Offline sky121

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1164 on: January 13, 2016, 03:36:40 PM »
My family plan to visit Switzerland for 3 days, we like see-sighting,  which cities/places do you suggest me to visit? And which city should I stay? I have searched for a while and got lost  :( Thanks!

Safe to assume you're flying in Zurich?
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline karen

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1165 on: January 13, 2016, 04:24:10 PM »
Safe to assume you're flying in Zurich?
Yes. I will fly in Zurich on June 7, then leave for Greece on June 10, I will fly back from Germany.  I have 11 days to plan, no sure whether it is long enough. I have searched the whole afternoon, for Switzerland, I plan to do a day trip to Lucern, and spend some time to visit Zurich lake and old down. I am thinking  another day trip, maybe.  :)
« Last Edit: January 13, 2016, 04:29:49 PM by karen »

Offline Chapshnell

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1166 on: January 13, 2016, 04:45:58 PM »
My family plan to visit Switzerland for 3 days, we like see-sighting,  which cities/places do you suggest me to visit? And which city should I stay? I have searched for a while and got lost  :( Thanks!

Zurich or Geneva for that matter there isnt much "to see".
To see is in the alps.. Its not Paris, Rome, London or anything even close to that.

Offline karen

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1167 on: January 13, 2016, 04:54:27 PM »
Zurich or Geneva for that matter there isnt much "to see".
To see is in the alps.. Its not Paris, Rome, London or anything even close to that.

Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe (from Zurich)
Rhine Falls

Which one is better? Is it a doable day trip from Zurich? Thanks!

Offline Chapshnell

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1168 on: January 13, 2016, 05:06:55 PM »
Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe (from Zurich)
Rhine Falls

Which one is better? Is it a doable day trip from Zurich? Thanks!

I go to Switzerland yearly but I try not to hang around in the city too much.. Honestly I dont know.. Wouldnt you rather take in the beauty of the alps?

Offline LeahB

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1169 on: January 14, 2016, 04:38:36 AM »
Hi, I'm planning a stopover in Switzerland on my way to US from Israel, read through most of the posts here!

1. Does it make sense to do Lucerne (Pilatus) and Engelberg (Titlis)?

2. Can they both be done on the same day? Thinking of an 18 hr stopover...

3. How can I get the Youth Pass, and what does it include? Will I need an additional pass for Pilatus?

Offline VacationLover

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1170 on: January 14, 2016, 12:40:00 PM »
Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe (from Zurich)
This

Offline VacationLover

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1171 on: January 14, 2016, 12:44:40 PM »
Hi, I'm planning a stopover in Switzerland on my way to US from Israel, read through most of the posts here!

1. Does it make sense to do Lucerne (Pilatus) and Engelberg (Titlis)?

2. Can they both be done on the same day? Thinking of an 18 hr stopover...

3. How can I get the Youth Pass, and what does it include? Will I need an additional pass for Pilatus?
1)Of course it makes sense.
2)In the same day? Doable but not enjoyable... Especially in the winter where the day is pretty short.
3)http://www.swiss-pass.ch/swiss-flexi-pass/

Offline VacationLover

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1172 on: January 14, 2016, 12:47:10 PM »
I go to Switzerland yearly Wouldnt you rather take in the beauty of the alps?
Honestly, I don't  think that by traveling to Arosa you know what the alps are all about :P

Offline LeahB

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1173 on: January 16, 2016, 11:48:14 AM »
1)Of course it makes sense.
2)In the same day? Doable but not enjoyable... Especially in the winter where the day is pretty short.
3)http://www.swiss-pass.ch/swiss-flexi-pass/

Yes in the same day, will be summertime then- is it very tight to do both?

Offline VacationLover

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1174 on: January 16, 2016, 06:12:07 PM »
Yes in the same day, will be summertime then- is it very tight to do both?
As i said you could "do" both but not "enjoy" both. You could easily do Titlis and another smaller mountain in one day for example Titlis and Brunni.

Offline LeahB

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1175 on: January 17, 2016, 04:38:16 AM »
Ok so here's the tentative schedule:

Sunday- arrive early morning, take train to Lucerne, go up Pilatus and boat ride on the lake
Monday- train to Engelberg, do Brunni and Titlis
Tues- train to Wengen, stop in Interlaken along the way, then in Wengen go up Mannlichen and hike down
Weds- Trummelbach Falls, Schilthorn, then back to Hotel to pack and go by Golden Express to airport

Does this make sense? Too much/ too little? we are 4 or 6 adults

When would we have to leave Wengen on weds to get to the airport in time for a 10:30 PM flight?

Offline VacationLover

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1176 on: January 17, 2016, 07:30:42 AM »
Ok so here's the tentative schedule:

Sunday- arrive early morning, take train to Lucerne, go up Pilatus and boat ride on the lake
Monday- train to Engelberg, do Brunni and Titlis
Tues- train to Wengen, stop in Interlaken along the way, then in Wengen go up Mannlichen and hike down
Weds- Trummelbach Falls, Schilthorn, then back to Hotel to pack and go by Golden Express to airport

Does this make sense? Too much/ too little? we are 4 or 6 adults

When would we have to leave Wengen on weds to get to the airport in time for a 10:30 PM flight?
Sounds good - for someone who is in for fun and a lot of traveling. You can concider Sunday night travel to Engelberg. Monday morning Titlis [skip Brunni] and in afternoon head out to Jungfrau. (Jungfrau region is worth spending more time) Wednesday you would leave about 4:pm see what I copied from sbb.ch/en

From: Wengen
To: Kloten, ZRH (Flughafen)
Date: Th, 07.07.16 13:17 (Dep.)
Time   Platf./ Edge   Stop
dep 16:03      
Wengen
R   
arr 16:21      
Lauterbrunnen
dep 16:33      
Lauterbrunnen
R   
arr 16:54   Pl. 2A   
Interlaken Ost
dep 17:00   Pl. 5   
Interlaken Ost
IC   
arr 17:52   Pl. 6   
Bern
dep 18:02   Pl. 2   
Bern
IC   
arr 19:16   Pl. 2   
Zürich Flughafen
walk   9 min
arr      
Kloten, ZRH (Flughafen)
Dur. 3:22.

Note the the weather does not always match your plan and can cause you to reroute. Hopefully you'll have fantastic weathers every day.

Offline LeahB

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1177 on: January 17, 2016, 08:26:47 AM »
Sounds good - for someone who is in for fun and a lot of traveling. You can concider Sunday night travel to Engelberg. Monday morning Titlis [skip Brunni] and in afternoon head out to Jungfrau. (Jungfrau region is worth spending more time) Wednesday you would leave about 4:pm see what I copied from sbb.ch/en

From: Wengen
To: Kloten, ZRH (Flughafen)
Date: Th, 07.07.16 13:17 (Dep.)
Time   Platf./ Edge   Stop
dep 16:03      
Wengen
R   
arr 16:21      
Lauterbrunnen
dep 16:33      
Lauterbrunnen
R   
arr 16:54   Pl. 2A   
Interlaken Ost
dep 17:00   Pl. 5   
Interlaken Ost
IC   
arr 17:52   Pl. 6   
Bern
dep 18:02   Pl. 2   
Bern
IC   
arr 19:16   Pl. 2   
Zürich Flughafen
walk   9 min
arr      
Kloten, ZRH (Flughafen)
Dur. 3:22.

Note the the weather does not always match your plan and can cause you to reroute. Hopefully you'll have fantastic weathers every day.

What is the weather usually like there in the summer?

What is the shul/kosher food/ruchniyus situation in the summer in Lucerne, Engelberg, Wengen?

As for transportation, what is the best travel pass to get?

Offline VacationLover

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1178 on: January 17, 2016, 10:41:37 AM »
What is the weather usually like there in the summer?

What is the shul/kosher food/ruchniyus situation in the summer in Lucerne, Engelberg, Wengen?

As for transportation, what is the best travel pass to get?
The temperature is usually the same, hot/warm in the city's and cool/cold on the alps. The issue is the rain and clouds which can be often. If it is cloudy there is no reason to go up a mountain if the weather doesn't clear out

Kosher food is too of a general question everone abviously has different opinions and levels. In Engelberg they had the last few years a kosher mini market of basic food like chicken and meat. Drinks and fruits you can buy everywhere and in the summer you can also buy bread that is kosher in COOP and Migros (Ruchbrod) and plenty of other items. In Wengen there is a Kosher hotel (rented by TourPlus) which is pricy. Minyan in Engelberg is next to train station.  You can PM me closer to the summer and I'll give you the exact address a d contact info. Ruchnius is perfectly fine. No issues at all.

For a travel pass it would undoubtedly be best to get the 3 day unlimited travel which is also a 7 day Halbtax

Offline LeahB

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #1179 on: January 17, 2016, 01:47:49 PM »

For a travel pass it would undoubtedly be best to get the 3 day unlimited travel which is also a 7 day Halbtax

I checked the site but I can't find that option, also halbtax means half-price admission to attractions, ie. Pilatus, Titlus...?