Anyone camped in Switzerland?

[Freeley]

In 3 years of cali ownership we have not yet ventured abroad. :?
Things may be about to change as we've got a couple of weeks holiday approaching at the end of september. Following discussions with my much travelled brother in law we quite fancy the idea of switzerland as he raves about it.
Has anyone been there (i'm guessing BerndRos has) on their hols who could perhaps advise on places to stay and go, things to watch out for etc or even if it's a good idea for a euro virgin to go that far at all!

Cheers.

 

[BerndRos]

Very expensive, but some great areas to doss down......by Lakes, Mountains, City Streets.....and no one will trouble you......

 

[Freeley]

Great. Can you recommend any areas or sites? We want somewhere with spectacular scenery
Would be going for nice walks during the day, preferably with a pub (or whatever the equivalent is in Switzerland) within walking distance.
I'm assuming bike hire is commonplace? Or perhaps it would be cheaper to buy a couple before we go

 

[BerndRos]

I can't advise on camp sites as I very rarely used them. As for ' free camp' spots I never took others tips as to do so would have been to stray from my chosen path. Best I can say is not to worry and simply hang loose. You will always find a spot even if you have to drive around a locality to satisfy yourselve re a spot.....

In 15 months the only problem I had was being chased by a drunk in Budapest....and it was easy to give him the slip......

 

[Hubert]

Hi Freeley
Good choice if you want fantastic scenery.
We've stayed in the Alps, plenty of sites around Interlaken which makes a good base to visit from. You can also use the train to get about. There are also a couple of sites at Grindelwald where you can spend a week easily without going over the same walks twice. Waking up and looking at the Eiger takes some beating and a trip up through inside the Eiger by train to the Jungfrau is fantastic.
We've found that you have to get on with your neighbours, some of the pitches can be quite small and don't be offended if someone parks just a couple of feet away.
The journey to Switzerland is also worth the effort, some beautiful areas to travel through - the Alsace in France, Black Forest in Germany.
Take the van abroad, it's a great adventure once done you'll be there every year.

Hubert

 

[Freeley]

Cheers hubert will look those areas up tonight when i get my book.

 

[Hubert]

Couldn't remember the name of the site we stayed at in Grindelwald when I posted this morning.
We stayed at Camping Gletscherdorf near the gondola station for Pfinsteg, about 10 - 15 min walk into the centre of Grindelwald, three years ago and the site was clean with decent facilities then.
try -
http://www.gletscherdorf.ch/

Hubert

 

[Harrythecat]

I've stayed on this campsite in Interlaken. Nice site and a few minutes walk into town:

Alpenblick Camping Interlaken
http://www.camping-alpenblick.ch/en

There are a few more on the UK Campsites site which look alright as well.

I have to say that Switzerland wouldn't be at the top of my list for a trip abroad. Parts of it are picturesque like Grindlewald, Saas Grund, Saas Fee etc. but it might be worth considering other options.

I personally think Austria is nicer than Switzerland overall. I would also consider places like the Voges or Jura in France plus the French Alps which I spend a bit of time in.

Maybe the Eifel area of Germany which is an easy day from Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, or Calais, or the Black Forest which is a longer trip but rather nice. I'm off there in a fortnight's time but on the bike rather than in the van.

Lots of lovely places to visit but as someone has mentioned some of the sites are crowded in season and some pitches are small. Best to research possibles before you go and read the reviews.

Go and enjoy

 

[Freeley]

Cheers for the replies chaps its very useful.
Austria, Germany, Spain etc are all on the list but you have to start somewhere!
Been leafing through the aa best drives in Switzerland tonight - the scenery looks spectacular .
Weggis ( i think that's how it was spelt) looks smashing as does the interlaken area as recommended by hubert (who comes up as puberty on my phone's predictive text :rofl )

Lots to think about and organise - hope i don't have much work on in September to give me some time to sort it out!
Thanks again.

 

[Hubert]

looks smashing as does the interlaken area as recommended by hubert (who comes up as puberty on my phone's predictive text :rofl )

Is that a backhanded compliment, makes me feel young again :grin:
Hubert

 

[Freeley]

Thought i'd stick a few pics up on here of our recent holiday to france and switzerland!

First stop Kaysersberg in France, pretty little town with wooden framed buildings, was only going to be a one night stay on the way to to switzerland but liked it so much we stayed for 3.




One for the wine experts, a carpet of vineyards as far as the eye could see (and you could try the grapes as you walked through all the different varieties):




My favourite building in Kaysersberg, as seen from the castle turret overlooking the town:




Next stop Grindelwald, this is the view from inside our Cali! Eiger on the right, snow covered Fiescherhorn in the middle (this was the only day we had a clear view of it), and the Schreckhorn on the left. What a view ! :

A short walk up the path from our site, looking back at the Schreckhorn and Eiger:

View down to our campsite from Pfingstegg on Schreckhorn (that dark dot in the centre of the picture is our cali!):

A couple of pics of Jungfraujoch (the top of europe!), amazing place and only !!! a £180 train fare for 2 if you caught the early train like us, otherwise it was £250! For a 90 minute train ride!

Snow plough at work getting the ski run ready:

A short walk from our next site at Stuhlegg took this pic of Lake Thunnersee, you can see Interlaken between the two lakes:

Stumbled on this view after a steep climb up a hill near Frutigen, we sat here for a rest!

And finally a pic of our lovely Cali which never missed a beat and made it a really memorable holiday:

 

[CannellWalker]

Excellent pictures.
Makes us want to start planning our next trip.

 

[GeoffB]

Our experience is somewhat different. We passed through Switzerland en route to Austria and cut short our intended time in the country. We don't think we'd bother going back. Our reasons?

1. It is relatively expensive, more so than the 6 other (Euro-zone) countries we visited. Example - 38 francs for one night we spent in a pretty average campsite with no electrical hook up. Food was not as cheap as in the Euro-zone.

2. We thought it relatively unfriendly. Example - walkers across Europe usually greet one another but the Swiss pass on by without even making eye contact (not to us, to their own countrymen and -women). At one camp-site the rubbish containers were padlocked, and campers were expected to show their rubbish to the campsite staff before they'd unlock the wheelies and let you dump the trash! Whether they were checking you didn't dump too much, or didn't recycle, heaven knows.

3. The food and drink are not inspiring - great if you like cheese with everything and what they describe as "lager hell" (!). There were no smoking restrictions that we could see and other diners and drinkers smoked like chimneys, quite nauseating.

4. We found finding a lay-by on non-motorway roads really frustrating - just to stretch one's legs, not to camp. Everything off the roads seemed to be labelled private, keep off.

5. After trying three campsites which were completely full one afternoon, we wild-camped in an empty ski-lift car park in desperation, but we expected to be woken up and moved on all night.

But maybe it's just us. Still wouldn't go back though!

 

[Freeley]

That's a shame, that's certainly a lot different from our experience.
The sites we stayed at were very relaxed, certainly better than any caravan club site in this country for instance! We could park the van in any direction we pleased for a start, and put our awning up without fear of being told to move it or be charged extra.
Food and drink is certainly expensive and as a result we didn't really eat out, but it didn't bother us as we were glad to spend some quality time in the cali

We met a lot of people on walks and MOST said hello or at least acknowledged us, probably more than at home to be honest. And everybody we spoke to in shops, train/bus/cable car stations spoke excellent english and were happy to speak it, unlike in france where i felt that a lot of them probably do speak english but refuse to! (just my opinion of course).

 

[Stu]

We recently spent a few days in Switzerland and had a great time despite the rain. We have said we would definitely like to go back.

 

[Freeley]

We recently spent a few days in Switzerland and had a great time despite the rain. We have said we would definitely like to go back.

Whereabouts did you go?

 

[Stu]

Not too far from where you were.

Aaregg, Brienz, Espace - Swiss Plateau

Seestraße 22
3855 Brienz
Switzerland

 

[Freeley]

Nice one will look it up for future reference

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Stu]

Wonderful site, right on the lakeside. Truly the best wash/shower facilities I have ever seen, I've used worse in so called top hotels. (Brand new, with electric sliding entrance doors, great child's showers with things like an elephant trunk as the shower, Dyson Blade hand dryers, upright full body electric dryers, washing machines)

We found what we think is a Military Airfield just up the road which oddly is not at all secure and you can drive across it. On the day we left they had lots of fighter jets there flying around doing take off and landings. You can get sooo close to them it's unbelievable, could have stood and watched all day.

 

[Freeley]

Looks nice.
I see what you mean about being not far from where we stayed - you could see Lake Brienz in one of my photos lurking behind Interlaken.
Did you have a lakeside pitch?

 

[Stu]

Yes we were right on the waters edge. I think it was Pitch 31 if you can see a map on their website.