Switzerland! What a place! When people ask me what my favorite country was, Switzerland is one of the top three, and in a three-way tie with Scotland and Cambodia.

I don’t even know where to begin. I was floored by the beauty and serenity of Switzerland. I never in my life dreamed I’d one day get to see the Swiss Alps and the ACTUAL Matterhorn, let alone have a view of it from my chalet, and also get to go snowboarding on it.

I stayed in a surprisingly affordable mountain hostel (I didn’t actually know mountain hostels existed! It’s exactly like a chalet, but a hostel!) in Zermatt, Switzerland. I found it on Airbnb (Link below). It had a view of a small meadow with the Matterhorn in view against the sky, and a quaint attic with video games. It was a little bit off the beaten path to get to; it’s about a five minute walk uphill on a dirt and gravel road alongside a babbling brook, so if you’ve got a lot of large bags or rolling suitcases, it might not be the most practical option. But if you’re traveling light, it’s silent at night except for the sound of the river flowing. It was absolute tranquility. Zermatt was one of the quaintest and most romantic places I’ve found in my travels. It’s tucked away in the mountains; you’ve got to take quite the train ride to get there, but it’s worth it!

Airbnb Chalet Link: https://air.tl/rwAIvCI0

A Note on the Food:

Be forewarned; it’s going to cost you likely $30/ meal *minimum* virtually anywhere in Switzerland. I went to Zurich, Geneva, Zermatt, and Oeschinensee. A The lattes are $6/ latte on the cheap end (average of $8 for a 16oz latte). I was not warned ahead of time- Switzerland isn’t cheap. However when I was in Geneva, I was made a Teddy Bear Latte (See photos below), which was the single most adorable latte I’ve ever had in my life. Now about the raclette; (If you’ve never had raclette, it’s traditionally a half-cheese wheel, and the top gets broiled so the uppermost layer of cheese melts and is then scraped off and served as a pile of gooey golden bubbling melted cheese with pickled onions, pickles, and potatoes on the side. It’s delicious liquid gold with pickles (See photos below). Did I mention there are pickles? I found the raclette to only be $12-$13 max for a plate, even for the really fancy regional ones. This post was written in 2023, so if you go in a few years, I can’t guarantee that price won’t change. The other amazing bit about Switzerland is (obviously) the Swiss Chocolates. When I was in Zurich, I went to a place called Confiserie Sprungli for a box of delicious Swiss chocolate. They’re also not cheap, but they’re not completely outrageous as far as chocolate goes, either. I think I wound up paying about $14 for a box of six and eating them in the sun next to the many swans of Lake Zurich.

(Which, by the way, I’ve never seen that many swans gathered in once place in my life. There had to be at least 70 or 80 of them and somebody brought crackers to share with strangers so we could also feed them, and they started gobbling away at my fingers).

I’d recommend taking a train for transportation between cities.

Airbnb Chalet Link: https://air.tl/rwAIvCI0

Bonus Note: Okay, I got these mittens in Scotland, and about four seconds into wearing one of them realized it looked like a hand puppet. I had some spare googly eyes in my pocket and shortly thereafter adhered them to the mitten and decided that I wanted a photo of this thing in front of every major sightseeing sight (and then promptly forgot), but I did manage to get this shot in front of the Matterhorn.

Related Posts: