A four-day excursion across the Swiss regions, flying in from Birmingham, exploring the likes of Zurich, Lausanne and Geneva.
Date
December 2025
Countries
United Kingdom > Switzerland > United Kingdom
Trip overview
Trip summary and learnings
- Switzerland operates transport as one genuinely integrated, national system across all modes
- Airports, cities, rural areas and mountain regions are seamlessly connected by rail and local transport
- A single app (SBB) successfully unifies journey planning, ticketing, disruption and live information
- Consistent passenger information on phones, stations and trains builds confidence and ease of use
- Standardised service categories (EC, IC, IR, RE, R, etc) help passengers quickly understand what they are boarding
- Trust-based systems (no gates, open stations) make transport feel like part of the city, not a barrier
- Simple, frequent urban networks (e.g. Lausanne Métro) demonstrate that clarity beats complexity
- Hotel-funded local transport passes quietly encourage visitors to default to public transport
- High frequencies, reliable connections and integrated timetables makes cross-mode interchanges effortless
- Heavy rail usage shows how central public transport is to everyday Swiss life
- Familiarity and consistency across the country make the system easy to rely on, even for visitors
Finance overview
- Switzerland has one of the highest costs of living in Europe
- Sian and I budgeted approximately £1,500.00 for the trip
- We ended up spending around £1,650.00, a £159.00 overspend to be exact
- This was mostly led by an increase in costs for activities vs budget, and a decrease in costs for food vs budget
- Trains were so affordable thanks to rail staff international travel benefits and Sian’s Interrail pass, the latter of which was the majority of the transport costs.
| Category | Budget | Actual | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel | £481.00 | £481.00 | +£0.00 |
| Food | £330.00 | £268.00 | +£62.00 |
| Flight | £329.00 | £341.00 | -£12.00 |
| Activity | £173.00 | £375.00 | -£202.00 |
| Train | £148.00 | £156.00 | -£8.00 |
| Incidentals | £43.00 | £37.00 | -£6.00 |
| Metro | £0.00 | £5.00 | -£5.00 |
| £1,504.00 | £1,663.00 | -£159.00 |