Top products from r/Switzerland

We found 18 product mentions on r/Switzerland. We ranked the 16 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

Next page

Top comments that mention products on r/Switzerland:

u/audiohound46 · 7 pointsr/Switzerland

As a fellow midwesterner who just got back from two weeks in Switzerland, perhaps I can offer some advice.

Consider getting a 6- or 8-day 2nd class Swiss Pass instead of driving. The geographic reach, efficiency, and timeliness of the Swiss public transportation system is astounding. The cost may seem steep but the ease of use more than makes up for it. It also allows the holder to get into almost every museum for free and provides discounts on the mountain trains/funiculars/cable cars. I carried my luggage on my back and stowed it in lockers near or in rail stations when necessary. Hotels in major cities such as Zurich and Bern hand out free passes good for unlimited use on the city's public transportation during your stay, so depending on how you schedule the first and last days in Zurich you might get by with a 6-day Swiss Pass.

Regarding your itinerary, the only places I visited that overlap are Zurich and Interlaken (I skipped the Jungfrau). I flew in and out of Zurich and didn’t get to see much there. I spent a couple hours in Interlaken and consider the view from Harder Kulm on a clear day to be one of the highlights of my trip. The funicular to the top is pricy but the Swiss Pass nets a 50% discount. I stayed a few days in Gimmelwald, which is accessible through Lauterbrunnen. I ran into weather problems there most of the time but it was easy to find plenty of walking trails and scenery without running into hardly anyone.

Make a backup plan for each location when the weather does not cooperate. Museums can help with that but be prepared to explore beyond them. For example, I found myself stuck in rainy Zermatt for a day with the intention of seeing the Matterhorn. I breezed through the Matterhorn museum in a couple hours, donned my rain gear, and walked the trails at Sunnegga and those to the south of town for several hours. I never saw the peak of the Matterhorn but still had a great time while avoiding the bulk of the tourists. Watch the webcams for the Jungfrau, etc., and keep an eye on weather forecasts.

Other tips for an American visiting Switzerland:

  • Allow at least 2 hours to get through security and passport control at ZRH when departing. I used nearly all of that getting out on a Thursday morning.

  • Take note of the locations and hours of nearby grocery stores. It is often far cheaper to assemble your meals from these establishments than visiting restaurants. Coop and Denner sell alcoholic beverages while Migros does not. Coop seemed to be more common in the areas I visited. I usually bought my breakfast and lunch from Coop and then selected a local restaurant serving Swiss cuisine for dinner. Take-aways are also convenient and good. Service at a more formal restaurant or cafe will be much more slower paced than that in the U.S., but don't be shy about asking for the check if you're ready to leave.

  • I found out the hard way that many of the rectangular "U.S. to Euro" electrical plug adapters on Amazon will not fit in the 3-prong recessed outlets that comprised 95% of the outlets in my hotel rooms. Luckily I had one of these that allowed me to plug in two devices at once. This two-prong plug has the shape of most recessed Swiss receptacles I encountered but I don’t know how well it works.

  • Either carry an unlocked GSM phone or get one of these mobile hotspots (and some extra batteries). Upon your arrival, go directly to a Swisscom store with your passport and get a SIM card for 20CHF that allows unlimited data for 2CHF/day (the SIM is preloaded with 20CHF so this will last you 10 days). Don't waste your valuable time with Orange and Lycamobile (long story). I had excellent coverage everywhere I went: Zurich, Bern, Murten, Avenches, Lausanne, Geneva, Zermatt, Gimmelwald, Interlaken, Luzern, and Vaduz (Liechtenstein). If you’re using public transportation, the SBB application is critical to getting around easily.

  • Learn survival phrases in German and French. Starting off a conversation with a stranger in their native tongue is appreciated. I got by with "I don't understand", "do you speak English?", "please", "thank you", "check/bill please", and "excuse me." Before I go back again, I plan on learning more German.

  • Rick Steves' Switzerland book contains self-guided walking tours for most major cities that I found useful if for no other reason than discovering other interesting sites along the way.

  • I found no washcloths and sometimes no hand soap in hotel rooms. I was prepared for that and it was not a big deal.

  • As with anywhere else, cash is king. ATMs are common near rail stations and some can dispense up to 2000CHF in one transaction. I never saw a change machine though, so I always had to break larger bills at a store to get coins for luggage lockers and vending machines.
u/bill-of-rights · 16 pointsr/Switzerland

Wherever you move, invest 100% in learning the language. If you are moving into the Swiss-German speaking area, this will be much harder than the French or Italian area, but you must do it.

A customer of mine is originally from India, and he only conversed with his wife in English when they lived outside of Switzerland. When they moved to Switzerland, upon landing she said, "these are the last words in English I will speak to you, from now in it's Swiss-German." He thought she was joking, but she wasn't. It was tough love, and 6 months of hell, but now he speaks Swiss-German like a local, with no accent. This is extremely rare. And even as someone who is clearly not Swiss, he is 100% accepted into his village and really enjoys life here.

I also recommend this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Working-Switzerland-Survival-Handbook/dp/1909282634

It has tips and tricks that even most Swiss don't know.

u/madillinsane · 1 pointr/Switzerland

There is an American-born Swiss author named Stefan Bachmann. He writes in English, so I don't know if this really counts, but I reckon you won't find Swiss books translated into English very easily. He writes science fiction and his first book, The Peculiar, received widespread acclaim. Definitely worth checking out.

u/Zombie46 · 5 pointsr/Switzerland

If you don't need too many details, I found Swiss history in a nutshell rather enjoyable: http://www.amazon.com/Swiss-History-Nutshell-Gregoire-Nappey/dp/3905252198
And it does cover surprisingly much. But in a "fun" way. So if you want something more detailed and scientific, this might not be the right thing :)

u/Motzlord · 2 pointsr/Switzerland

Racism is usually defined as views, practices and actions reflecting the belief that humanity is divided into distinct biological groups called races and that members of a certain race share certain attributes which make that group as a whole less desirable, more desirable, inferior, or superior. (Wikipedia)

So for the first part you are right, but stereotypes are bigger than race, they go way beyond that. In a stereotype you can include all races, sexes, sexual orientations and what not, while a "race" is pretty narrow-minded. Btw, stereotypes are not necessarily a bad thing, it's just the way our brain handles stuff that is new to us. It happens everywhere as well, it's not just us rich Swiss judging evil foreigners, it goes both ways.

If you're interested, I'd recommend giving this a read: James G. Carrier - Occidentalism, Images of the West
and Edward Said - Orientalism

u/jimmythemini · 3 pointsr/Switzerland

Transport for Suburbia by the late, great Paul Mees talks a lot about the Swiss transport system, and how it's principles can be applied to other developed countries.

If you are in anyway interested in transport theory it is required reading, and is one of my favourite non-fiction books.

u/dufour · 1 pointr/Switzerland

A great read is Diccon Bewes' account of the first intrepid British Thomas Cook tourists in Switzerland: Slow Train to Switzerland - One Tour, Two Trips, 150 Years - and a World of Change Apart.

u/JJTheJetPlane5657 · 1 pointr/Switzerland

Digitec was super overpriced when I went to buy my mouse. And electronics isn't the only thing that I use Amazon for... I want to buy a wine bottle cutter, and I have no idea where to buy it. At home I would just order it online. I mean maybe a craft store, but I don't think craft stores have this in stock.

u/DefinetlyAPlane · 0 pointsr/Switzerland

6 months ago i was interested in buying the razer 15, i had 2k and thougt it was a nice machine. However getting it with the swiss keyboard layout would have cost me 2.5k.

This razer blade 15 has an Nvidia 1660 IQ and it costs 3k

https://www.digitec.ch/de/s1/product/razer-blade-15-1560-full-hd-intel-core-i7-8750h-16gb-ssd-notebook-10002499#

While this one (the exact same device) only costs 1.5k

https://www.amazon.com/Razer-Blade-15-Smallest-i7-8750H/dp/B07HPQPNV1/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=razer+blade+15&qid=1564572205&s=gateway&sr=8-2

I know that the digitec deal is horrible but even if you would find it somewhere else for 1k less, you'd still pay 500 bucks more.

u/poppyclover · 3 pointsr/Switzerland

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Working-Switzerland-Survival-Handbook/dp/1909282634 this book will answer all your questions and much more, it was invaluable when I moved.

u/tomatotomatotomato · 3 pointsr/Switzerland

Does anyone have a recommendation for a book dealing with Swiss German, preferably the Zürich dialect. I'm looking for a grammar reference of sorts (ideally a Swiss version of Hammer's German Grammar and Usage), not a dictionary.
Merci vielmal.

u/[deleted] · 3 pointsr/Switzerland

Tell you what - I'll order him something similarly stupid if you send him a horse mask

Because everyone knows, military trainees need proper camouflage. Like if they're in a field of horses and the Germans attack, they can hide better.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could parlay this into a massive project to send huge amounts of incredibly stupid shit to Rekrut Kälin...