Chasing Peaks, Chocolate, and Cheese in our Camper Van
Planning our visit to Switzerland was a little tricky because, as you may know, Switzerland is incredibly expensive, and we didn’t want to blow our budget and impact the rest of our trip. As we did our preliminary research, we were immediately worried about whether we would be able to pull it off. Hotels, train tickets, food… everything was going to be SO expensive, especially during the peak of summer. Just as we were about to pivot and look for an alternate destination, we started to explore what it would be like to do a camper van trip through Switzerland, and that’s when everything started to fall into place.
As we’re sure you’ve figured out by now, we love road trips, especially when they involve van life. So, we were excited about the possibility of exploring Switzerland in a van, but we just needed to figure out all of the logistics. One tricky aspect was that van life in Switzerland is not super well documented on blogs or YouTube, and the information available was, at times, contradictory.
Some people said that Switzerland is super easy for van life while others say it is quite tricky. We even asked our friend who lives in Switzerland what he knew about van life and he said it is pretty uncommon. We opted to go for it, and we are so glad we did!
The first day of our trip started out a little rocky. After taking an overnight train from Amsterdam to Zurich, spending the morning running errands, lugging our packs and groceries all around town, and making our way to the pickup lot outside the city… we were informed by the rental company that our reservation was delayed one day. Yes, we found this out AFTER our pick up time. Thankfully, the rental company covered our hotel and transport costs for the night and we had a chance to enjoy a very large fest in Zurich that apparently only happens once every three years. On this trip, we’ve gotten much better at rolling with the punches and finding the silver lining when things don’t go as planned, because at the end of the day we much would rather be in whatever less than ideal situation we find ourselves in over working. No offense work friends… but you would think it, too! 😬
We’re happy to say that, after the reservation mishap, the rest of our time in Switzerland was smooth sailing. We relied on two apps, Park4Night and Campercontact, to find places to stay, water fill ups, and camper services. They were incredibly useful. Everything with van life turned out to be much easier than we had anticipated, which made for a really fun and easy trip!
We started our road trip by heading northeast from Zurich to Appenzell, which is known for its traditional Swiss feel, cheese, and beautiful hikes. Yes, that sounds like all of Switzerland… but trust us… Appenzell was VERY Swiss! In Appenzell, we went on Britt’s (least) favorite hike of our entire trip because it was essentially straight uphill for two hours… and then back down. It was well worth it. At the top of the mountain, there was an old inn built into the cliff with stunning views. We enjoyed our packed lunch while taking in the fresh air and listening to the calming sounds of the cowbells echoing throughout the valley. This was the perfect first day of our Swiss road trip, especially after the prior day’s disruption. After our hike, we made our way back down the mountain before settling in for the night.
After one night in in Appenzell, we made our way to Stoos, a town in the mountains only accessible by foot or the steepest funicular in the world. Justin could not convince Britt to hike to the top of this mountain, so we opted for the funicular. It was CRAZY how steep it was, and we can only imagine how the hike up would have been. Justin is still wondering who he could have convinced to do it with him. Probably only his pal, Willy. After riding the funicular, we started our roughly three mile hike across the Stoos Ridge Trail. Britt was extremely thankful we were able to take the funicular and then a ski lift up to the start of the hike and back down at the end, all for the low price of $120. Needless to say, this was the only time we paid to get to the top of a mountain. Worth every penny if you ask Britt!
We found a campsite for the night right on the shore of Lake Lucerne about 10 yards from the water. We jumped in the lake for a refreshing swim… which also served as a shower… and we may or may not have washed some of our dirty clothes. Then, we popped a bottle of wine and watched the sunset before retreating back to the van for the evening. It was such a peaceful night!
The next morning, we headed to Lucerne where we visited a few sites and walked around the city center. This is also where we had our first taste of Swiss chocolate, and it was all downhill for our blood sugar from there. The chocolate in Switzerland was incredible… even the cheap bars in the grocery store! We still aren’t sure how the Swiss make it so much better, but we’ll definitely be making another trip solely to acquire more in the future. But we digress…
After spending the afternoon in Lucerne, we started to make our way towards the center of Switzerland where we planned to explore Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, and Grindelwald. We ended up finding a beautiful spot to park the van just outside of the town of Lungern overlooking yet another beautiful lake. It was a very peaceful and quiet night. In the morning, we walked into Lungern, a quaint town with only a few shops, a bakery, a grocery, and beautiful Swiss homes. Stumbling across this tiny town reaffirmed our decision to explore Switzerland by camper van because we would have never passed through otherwise!
Lungern was just one of a number of small towns we were able to visit and stay in throughout our trip, and we could go on forever describing them all, each unique with its own charm. We won’t bore you with the details and will instead share just a few highlights that stood out to us:
Brienz — We spent a night here getting lost (in a fun way!) exploring an old settlement, admiring the Swiss architecture, and watching a beautiful sunset. Breinz is also home to a really cool open-air museum with ~100 original buildings from all over Switzerland.
Iseltwald — Set on the shores of Lake Breinz, this tiny town has a population of 438! We found a park and had ourselves a good teeter-totter and then we stumbled across a self service cheese fridge that sold cheese on the honor system!
Brugg — A small city where Justin somehow coerced his way into a pick up soccer match and scored a goal within the first two minutes.
Lavaux — Swiss wine region with some of the most stunning vineyards we’ve seen on our trip thus far! However, we will admit that the wine wasn’t our favorite… even then, this region was still worth the visit!
Gruyères — Cheese! We saved our fondue indulgence for our visit to the home of the delicious cheese. Gruyères was very small (and touristy), but we enjoyed our pit stop. It was much easier to get to with a car, and we aren’t sure it would have been worth the logistics of catching the train out and back… but worth a visit if you have some time!
In addition to the small towns we visited, we also hit some of the larger cities, including Interlaken, Lausanne, and Bern. As with the small towns, each of the larger cities had their own charm. From Interlaken with paragliders peppered across the sky everywhere you look, to Lausanne with its high fashion shopping streets and some gnarly hills, and Bern with its old medieval feel and many fountains, we loved each place we visited.
Overall, Switzerland was truly an incredible place to visit. We absolutely loved the melting pot of French, Italian, German, and Swiss cultures, with an incredible ability to coexist. It was a very high functioning society. Every corner of the country was clean and well-organized, with incredible infrastructure and amenities such as free drinking water EVERYWHERE! It felt as though everyone in Switzerland got the memo and was on board with being eco-friendly and taking care of nature. While we only spent two weeks exploring the country, we know we barely scratched the surface and we are so excited to plan future trips to see more!
