• Home
  • About
    • Disclaimer
  • Destinations
    • United Kingdom
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • America
    • Disney
  • Lifestyle
    • Korean TV
    • Food & Restaurants
    • Photography
    • Just For Fun
  • Travel Tips
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Let's Go Somewhere Else

Travel & Lifestyle

You are here: Home / Europe / A BUDGET GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND (INCLUDING: PHOTOS FROM LUCERNE)
Europe

A BUDGET GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND (INCLUDING: PHOTOS FROM LUCERNE)

23/01/2020

Lucerne Bridge

Whether you love to Ski, or you simply want to visit Switzerland for its beautiful scenery, Switzerland has been a destination that most people want to go to. My self-included. Unfortunately, being rated as one of the most expensive countries in the entire world, many people do avoid visiting, for fear that it’s impossible to do on a budget. Recently, my partner and I went to Switzerland for 5 days. We based ourselves in Lucerne, bought a Swiss travel pass and hopped on any train we could, maximising our days until we were falling asleep standing up! Guess what? We managed to do it on a budget.

Lucerne Bridge - a budget guide to switzerland

The Breakdown

Although it might be considered “out of budget” for many, we managed to get our costs down as much as possible. Honestly, the absolute lowest we could. Full credit to my partner here, because a lot of research was involved. Luckily, he loves to research! I… Not so much. Basing ourselves in Lucerne, it opened up a lot more doors for us. Not only in terms of access to beautiful places, but budget too.
Please note that price conversions (hotel) are subject to the value of the Pound/Euro, but this is what we paid:

Flights: £77.50 per person, return
Hotel Apartment: £308

City Tax on arrival: £34 (for two)
Swiss Travel Pass – 3 days: £186 per person
Zurich to Lucerne: Around £15 per person (one way)
Lucerne to Zurich: As above.

Total for two people: £851.50
One person: 425.75 for 5 days.

Lucerne Decorative building

Be Flexible

One of the biggest suggestions I can give you is to be flexible. We couldn’t in this situation, but we made the best of it. Of course, if you are heading there alone I’d definitely recommend heading to a hostel as that could work out cheaper. As we went in December, it was considered “off peak season” so the flights worked out in our favour. Plus, it was December. We wanted it to be snowy, cold and Christmassy!

On this occasion, we wanted an apartment where it had a kitchen. I’d heard that food was the most expensive part of Switzerland, which is usually typical of any European country anyway, but more so here.

Star vacation homes, lucerne

We managed to find a studio apartment just 15 minutes’ walk from the train station. This was called: Star Vacation Homes, Lucerne
We booked this through Booking.com, not AirBNB on this occasion. As the AirBNB turned out more expensive. Originally our first flight to Zurich was cancelled and they were really accommodating! So, I definitely recommend them. Especially as there was a supermarket only a couple of minutes’ walk away!

Lucerne sunset view

Swiss Travel Pass

So, you’ve got the budget accommodation with a kitchen, budget flights but what else? Of course! The Swiss Travel Pass. This pass is the key to keeping things low cost while in Switzerland. Train travel can get ridiculously expensive if you’re paying return fares. The pass allows you to get rid of that completely. The Swiss Travel pass allows you to travel unlimitedly on a set amount of days. On rail, bus, boat as well as most cable cars to the top of the mountains. The amount of days this can be bought for is 3,4,8 or 15. Due to our plane times, we had 3 days in between so we opted for those 3 days to be covered by the pass and just payed the fare to/from Zurich airport.

I have a whole guide on the Swiss Travel Pass. You can click > here <

lucerne christmas decor budget switzerland

Our Spending Budget

We set aside around £300 each. I know I know, a crazy amount. But we really weren’t sure on where the money was going to go. I think we ended up only spending £250 between us both. We only spent money on our supermarket shop and excursions which were not included on our pass. On our last day, we decided to really go “all out” and bought some posh chocolate and some magnets. So LAVISH! Haha.

On our first day, we ended up arriving so late due to our cancelled flight, that we missed all supermarkets being open. Luckily for me, my boyfriend likes to bring his “panic noodles” whenever we go travelling. The “just in case I’m hungry” ones.  They came in handy our first night! Supermarkets in Lucerne close around 6pm/6.30pm. Otherwise, we set aside a budget and bought own brand food from Aldi, where we also bought staple items like eggs, bread etc. Things that we could eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Tip: If you’re a plain chocolate/chocolate with nuts or fruit kind of person, buy the budget brand! It really tastes the same!

A budget guide to Switzerland, Swiss chocolate

A typical meal that we had during the week to going “all out” on the last day! (side note: yes I bite my nails, yes it’s gross) 

Lucerne night time view chapel bridge

A note about Lucerne

As you know by now, we based ourselves in Lucerne and it was perfect. It felt very central to all the smaller places and mountains we wanted to see. Especially as our accommodation was not far from the train station, as mentioned earlier!

lucerne chapel bridge

We didn’t really get to explore Lucerne all that much in day time. As our original flight was cancelled, it removed a full day of exploring for us. But what I can tell you from what I saw, it is full of beautiful architecture, small local shops and beautiful views. We walked around the town after getting back from other adventures (that I will talk about soon) but nothing really touristy that I can recommend to you. 

lucerne sunset river view

That’s all for my post! A short and sweet one. It’s difficult to talk about budget because what might be for me, might be way out of it for you. I hope you enjoyed the pictures of Lucerne too! Apologies that I couldn’t really recommend anything specific. We didn’t get much time to explore, but I’d definitely recommend it as a town to stay.

 

What do you think? Did this post help you? Let me know in the comments! 

About Me

Welcome to Lets Go Somewhere Else! My name is Kirstin, I'm a 30 year old solo traveller who knows what it's like to want to travel so much but not have the time. Let's Go Somewhere Else covers destinations on a budget, within work holiday allowance and while you have a 9-5! All photos on this blog were taken by me unless otherwise stated.

Want to stay updated for when I post?

Enter your email address here to receive notifications of new posts by email.

Design by SkyandStars.co
Back Top

Copyright © 2022

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
SAVE & ACCEPT