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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 604468 times)

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: Trip to swizterland and italy
« Reply #20 on: June 10, 2010, 11:48:37 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!

Interlaken is nice, but relative to the other places in Switzerland its nothing.
thanks...any tips on transportation and food?

See the kosher list of switzerland of products that can be purchased in non-jewish stores http://www.irgz.ch/Koscherliste100307.pdf


Offline moishh

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Re: Trip to swizterland and italy
« Reply #21 on: June 10, 2010, 11:50:57 AM »
Interlaken is nice, but relative to the other places in Switzerland its nothing.

what other places in switzlerand...please enlighten me...its a once in a lifetime trip for us and we wanna make the best of it in the short time we have...

Offline Dan

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #22 on: June 10, 2010, 12:15:47 PM »
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.
I've merged this with the Switzerland Master Thread.  Please discuss Madrid and Venice in their own Master Threads that already exist, Thanks!
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 SuperFlyer

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #23 on: June 10, 2010, 02:13:29 PM »
what other places in switzlerand...please enlighten me...its a once in a lifetime trip for us and we wanna make the best of it in the short time we have...


There is what the "yiddelach" consider nice, which is not bad at all such as St Moritz and the likes, but you have the places that have the more untampered look as well.

Places such as saas-fee (saas almagell), arolla, and even crans-montana and zermatt are beautiful.

the only downside is that it is a bit out of the way.

Saas Fee



Few mins drive from Saas Almagell




Arolla




Crans Montana




Zermatt





The pics aren't anything major, but I didnt really have more time to spare.



Offline kivabb

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #24 on: June 10, 2010, 02:34:48 PM »
Any SPG hotels like Sheraton Davos Hotel Waldhuus or ArabellaSheraton Hotel Seehof fit that mold (of your beautiful images) or do we have to fend for ourselves?

Offline moish

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #25 on: June 10, 2010, 02:58:03 PM »
zermatt is a must

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #26 on: June 10, 2010, 03:16:18 PM »
Any SPG hotels like Sheraton Davos Hotel Waldhuus or ArabellaSheraton Hotel Seehof fit that mold (of your beautiful images) or do we have to fend for ourselves?

not sure what you mean to say that the hotel fits that mold.

You can have beautiful scenery but in a town, which kind of messes it up.

Offline kivabb

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #27 on: June 10, 2010, 03:59:10 PM »
not sure what you mean to say that the hotel fits that mold.

You can have beautiful scenery but in a town, which kind of messes it up.

In other words, where do I stay to go to these beautiful places you have pictured? I assume it costs a fortune out there.

I was asking if by chance they had a SPG hotel in one of these beautiful settings so I can save some $$$$

Offline moishh

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #28 on: June 10, 2010, 05:12:56 PM »
thanks for the tips superflyer..and the pics!!  do you think i just stay in zurich spg as a base or davos dorf?  cuz the davos dorf spgs are cheaper and have cash/points available.

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #29 on: June 11, 2010, 01:29:03 AM »
The pics I posted I find are a lousy representation, and reality is much nicer (as opposed to the usual tourist trap pics), but had ittle time looking for pics.

I assume that wherever there is an SPG, its a city, crowded, and lost its purpose.

(No offense, but quite a few americans that personally know, went to Switzerland, and they couldn't tell the difference. It was just mountains vs mountains. Such people should stay in an SPG).

I would not travel out of zurich to visit the mountains for the day.

Travelling around I'd do by train (www.sbb.ch) or you coud end your fight in GVA (geneva) for the aforementioned places.

Offline kivabb

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #30 on: June 11, 2010, 09:41:20 AM »
The pics I posted I find are a lousy representation, and reality is much nicer (as opposed to the usual tourist trap pics), but had ittle time looking for pics.

I assume that wherever there is an SPG, its a city, crowded, and lost its purpose.

(No offense, but quite a few americans that personally know, went to Switzerland, and they couldn't tell the difference. It was just mountains vs mountains. Such people should stay in an SPG).

I would not travel out of zurich to visit the mountains for the day.

Travelling around I'd do by train (www.sbb.ch) or you coud end your fight in GVA (geneva) for the aforementioned places.


So if you had 3.5 days in Switzerland, landing in Zurich, how would you spend it? Where would you stay? Your taste seems right up my alley. Thanks

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #31 on: June 11, 2010, 09:46:56 AM »

So if you had 3.5 days in Switzerland, landing in Zurich, how would you spend it? Where would you stay? Your taste seems right up my alley. Thanks

Alright, I expected to be put in cheirem for my comment, but I guess I have someone on my side.

I will pm you the number of someone you can call (and speak in english) that knows everything concerning mountains and so on, like no other.

Offline moish

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #32 on: June 11, 2010, 10:02:31 AM »
imho, mountains are mountains. like jackie mason said, if youre looking for blue water, you need not go past your toilet bowl

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #33 on: June 11, 2010, 11:48:06 AM »
imho, mountains are mountains. like jackie mason said, if youre looking for blue water, you need not go past your toilet bowl

I want to hear someone say something similar about hotel/airlines, and get lynched on the public forum....

Offline silverfaxmachine

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #34 on: June 15, 2010, 09:58:51 AM »
There is a hotel in Arosa Hotel Metropol. It is a bit primitive but the food is amazing and as I went right before pesach they gave good bochurim deals. Skiing was great there!

Offline chuchem

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #35 on: June 15, 2010, 11:04:45 AM »
Hi all

I have been to all places mentioned. Davos is nice and has a spg hotel. There are some nice mountains around, but it does not get close to St. Moritz or Zermatt.

St. Moritz has a lovely lake, amazing mountains around. The village itself is also very nice. This is the last summer were the kosher hotel is open. To stay there is very expensive, but you can stay at other hotels and buy takeout or eat a supper there. There is even a bakery that sells kosher bread. Its prob. the best bread you will ever have. St. Moritz has minjan, mikva, kosher food.... I think its your best bet.

Zermatt is also nice, The picture from sf is the famous matterhorn, you can also do summer skiing there. A nice, expensive, half day fun. (after one, the snow gets to slushi) No kosher food, minjan or mikve

My advice, go to St. Moritz!!! If you are not to fussy about hotels stay in the Hotel Sonne. Decend rooms, good prices, but nothing fancy. You will not spend to much time in your hotel anyway, so dont waste $$$ on it. www.sonne-stmoritz.ch

Any other questions, feel free to ask me

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #36 on: June 15, 2010, 11:06:29 AM »
I would rank it

1) St Moritz
2) St Moritz
3) Zermatt
4) Davos
5) Arosa

Offline chuchem

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #37 on: June 15, 2010, 11:08:22 AM »
Before I forget one important think. Davos looks like bnei Barak in the summer. Its full, really full of frum jews after 9 Av. You cant believe it until seen. The reason for that. All cablecars are for free in the summer in Davos. For a family with 8 kids, that makes a big difference on the budget, so a lot of people go there.

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #38 on: June 15, 2010, 11:19:41 AM »
There is what the "yiddelach" consider nice, which is not bad at all such as St Moritz and the likes, but you have the places that have the more untampered look as well.

Places such as saas-fee (saas almagell), arolla, and even crans-montana and zermatt are beautiful.

the only downside is that it is a bit out of the way.



As i predicted....

Offline ChikkyMonkey

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #39 on: June 15, 2010, 12:41:18 PM »
St. Moritz is my pick... you may have to forget about spg if you want to stay in the mountain areas. But I would say it's worth splurging on a hotel in a good location. I had a great time in St Moritz!