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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 604369 times)

Offline Avid Reader

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #180 on: February 22, 2011, 12:51:08 AM »
Nice report and beautiful pics!

Offline jack12

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #181 on: May 04, 2011, 12:28:50 AM »
In ZRH, if I'm flying swiss-air, is there any lounges that I can get into with my amex platinum cc?

Offline Dan

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #182 on: May 04, 2011, 03:00:02 AM »
In ZRH, if I'm flying swiss-air, is there any lounges that I can get into with my amex platinum cc?
Tons of options with priority pass via amex plat.
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 aussiebochur

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #183 on: May 04, 2011, 03:44:47 AM »
Tons of options with priority pass via amex plat.
But which ones serve Thommy? ;)

Offline jack12

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #184 on: May 04, 2011, 08:07:10 AM »
Tons of options with priority pass via amex plat.

How do I decide which one to go to? Any that have kosher food? Any recommendations?

Offline djnimon

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The Alps?
« Reply #185 on: May 18, 2011, 08:27:00 PM »
Anyone been to the Alps? Is it a nice trip in the summer?

Got any suggestions for airports to fly into? Any and all info would be great because I know nothing about this topic. Thanks!

Offline moish

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Re: The Alps?
« Reply #186 on: May 18, 2011, 08:29:26 PM »
sure

Offline henche

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Re: The Alps?
« Reply #187 on: May 18, 2011, 08:45:27 PM »
I wanna go.

Offline yissie

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Re: The Alps?
« Reply #188 on: May 18, 2011, 10:24:36 PM »
The Alps are Gorgeous in the Summer, The Alps is a mountain range that extends in Switzerland, Italy and France, Austria, Germany.

I recommend Switzerland. For overall beauty.  Be advised that Switzerland Gets a lot of rain in the summer so leave yourself time for rainouts.   Flying into Zurich is a good option about an hour and a half train to Interlaken which is the heart of the Bernese Oberland Heart of Swiss Alps.
KTH

Offline Ergel

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #189 on: May 23, 2011, 03:03:23 PM »
@chuchem
If I can rent a car for 132 CHF and I staying at the PH (which has free parking)-how would this compare to taking trains from ZRH-Zurich-Lucerne-ZRH for 2 people? How much more am I paying? Do you think it's worth it.
Thanks for your help
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Offline Dan

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #190 on: May 23, 2011, 03:36:50 PM »
@chuchem
If I can rent a car for 132 CHF and I staying at the PH (which has free parking)-how would this compare to taking trains from ZRH-Zurich-Lucerne-ZRH for 2 people? How much more am I paying? Do you think it's worth it.
Thanks for your help
Take the train IMHO.
Don't forget to factor in gas and parking!
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 Chaikel

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #191 on: May 23, 2011, 03:49:48 PM »
Take the train IMHO.
Don't forget to factor in gas and parking!
+1 Very efficient, fast and convenient. If they were the same price I'd probably stick with public transportation in Switzerland
Create professional looking itineraries.
Check out eliteitinerary.com

Offline Ergel

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #192 on: May 23, 2011, 07:52:40 PM »
this is true even if i will have luggage? you wrote before that lx will check it thru with on a 2
3 hour stopover. is this still true? what would i do with my luggage
« Last Edit: May 23, 2011, 08:08:39 PM by Ergel »
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Offline Ergel

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #193 on: May 24, 2011, 02:29:30 PM »
Also what's the best place to daven Shacharis from the Park Hyatt. A quick godaven.com search revealed Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft Zuerich which has Shacaharis at 6:15 and 7. Would this be the best option?
Thanks
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline chuchem

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #194 on: May 24, 2011, 08:09:21 PM »
I am not in switzerland at the moment, so not online alot.
To answer some questions:
Irg is the schul closest to the ph. About 10 min walk
Take a train to lucerne, its much more relaxing, then driving on roads you dont know. If its nice weather, go up the pilatus,its not cheap, but the view is unreal.

Offline Dan

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #195 on: May 25, 2011, 12:10:36 AM »
I am not in switzerland at the moment, so not online alot.
To answer some questions:
Irg is the schul closest to the ph. About 10 min walk
Take a train to lucerne, its much more relaxing, then driving on roads you dont know. If its nice weather, go up the pilatus,its not cheap, but the view is unreal.
+1
Also if you go to the info center in the train station they will show you a live view from on pilatus so you can see if its worthwile to do that or to just stick with riding the boats and walking on the bridges and on top of old city walls.
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 world2see

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #196 on: June 06, 2011, 09:15:08 AM »
my wife and i are planning on stopping in europe somewhere on the way into newyork from israel,we have 2 "babys"2 year old and newborn(months) the only availability in business into new york was thru zurich.leaving tav at 530 am and have the option of continuing to ny any day for the rest of the week. assuming we leave monday morning from tlv,how many days should we spend in zurich? where to stay? what is doable with 2 kids? any other stopover recommendations would be appreciated,(although we have seen a large part of europe already.) we are leaving the week beginning july 24th. thanks for all the help!!!!!!!!!

Offline damaxer91

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #197 on: June 06, 2011, 09:29:09 AM »
my wife and i are planning on stopping in europe somewhere on the way into newyork from israel,we have 2 "babys"2 year old and newborn(months) the only availability in business into new york was thru zurich.leaving tav at 530 am and have the option of continuing to ny any day for the rest of the week. assuming we leave monday morning from tlv,how many days should we spend in zurich? where to stay? what is doable with 2 kids? any other stopover recommendations would be appreciated,(although we have seen a large part of europe already.) we are leaving the week beginning july 24th. thanks for all the help!!!!!!!!!

The main attraction is Switzerland is Chuchem. Some would argue that its the alps but I still think its Chuchem

Offline Dan

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #198 on: June 06, 2011, 10:08:51 AM »
Swiss Business is great. 
We spent 22 hours in Switzerland and had a blast, I'm sure we could've spent more time.  The Park Hyatt there is an excellent location and is very nice if you have Hyatt points/nights.
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 ChAiM'l

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Re: Switzerland Master Thread
« Reply #199 on: June 06, 2011, 10:38:21 AM »
Could anyone advise me on this? I've been reading up on speeding tickets in Zurich and I'm getting a little nervous. I was there in January '09 and got flashed on the way to the airport. I don't have any details of the offence (ticket no. etc.), but I want to pay it now or sort it out somehow. What is the best way to go about it?