Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Swiss have only one kind of food - starch (bread or potatoes) with melted cheese. They are very clever though and have convinced the world that there is actually a "cuisine" behind this.

Basically, you can have fondue - melt the cheese, stick the starch in yourself. Or Raclette - melt the cheese and pour it over the starch. Or croute au fromage: melt the cheese on top of the starch in the oven. Finally, if you manage to get near to Savvoy, you can have tartiflette - cheese and starch in a dish, baked-melted in the oven. The origins of all these dishes is in Switzerland frugal mountainous rural poverty, long gone but some of the habits have stayed.

Unless you drink fruit juice or wine with these "delicacies", you will be immensely constipated. Also, you must eat the cold sausages and hams and the green salad with MSG-loaded white dressing that are served alongside to assist your digestion (basically to make your bowels irritated and slippery). If you avoid all this and just drink cold water with the cheese dish, you are setting yourself up for a hospital visit where you will make intimate friends with a rubber hose.

$40 for 2 at McDonalds sounds about right. Also, ethnic food in Switzerland (Indian, Chinese, etc.) is an exotic specialty, usually bad, and very expensive.

As the old joke goes: "Q:Where is the best restaurant in Switzerland? A:In France."

There are exceptions and locals and expats know where these are and do post on trip advisor. But keep your expectations really low.

I'm in Switzerland 6-8x per year for work and this is all very, very true

That said, the Swiss have amazing beef. Some of the best in world. You'd be a fool to not eat a grilled steak, a fancy cheeseburger, or steak tartare at a nice restaurant. Cattle farming is Swizterland's most prized and protected industry, even above banking.

Fortunately, I'm often in Basel where they have more German and French influences in cooking. Plus the FR-CH-DE border runs right through town, so the lower prices bleed across the border.

Anonymous wrote:The Swiss have only one kind of food - starch (bread or potatoes) with melted cheese. They are very clever though and have convinced the world that there is actually a "cuisine" behind this.

Basically, you can have fondue - melt the cheese, stick the starch in yourself. Or Raclette - melt the cheese and pour it over the starch. Or croute au fromage: melt the cheese on top of the starch in the oven. Finally, if you manage to get near to Savvoy, you can have tartiflette - cheese and starch in a dish, baked-melted in the oven. The origins of all these dishes is in Switzerland frugal mountainous rural poverty, long gone but some of the habits have stayed.

Unless you drink fruit juice or wine with these "delicacies", you will be immensely constipated. Also, you must eat the cold sausages and hams and the green salad with MSG-loaded white dressing that are served alongside to assist your digestion (basically to make your bowels irritated and slippery). If you avoid all this and just drink cold water with the cheese dish, you are setting yourself up for a hospital visit where you will make intimate friends with a rubber hose.

$40 for 2 at McDonalds sounds about right. Also, ethnic food in Switzerland (Indian, Chinese, etc.) is an exotic specialty, usually bad, and very expensive.

As the old joke goes: "Q:Where is the best restaurant in Switzerland? A:In France."

There are exceptions and locals and expats know where these are and do post on trip advisor. But keep your expectations really low.

Anonymous wrote:Having been to the Italian Alps, Swiss Alps, the French Alps, the Swiss Alps are really in a league of their own. They are much higher, the valleys are deeper and narrower, overall much more spectacular (although I still loved the Dolomites and the French Alps). The Austrian Alps come closest.

But travelling in Switzerland is like having a vacuum cleaner permanently attached to your wallet. Whoosh! There goes another $200 without thinking about it.

FYI food was quite good, if you know where to look and what to order. Which is the same as in Germany. Love their rostis and cheese and speck and sausages. And spatzle. And wonderful pastries. And yes, chocolate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I decided to go to Switzerland, looked at itinerary, etc. Once I saw the prices of everything, I realized they have beautiful mountains and lakes and better food in Italy for a fraction of the cost so we're going there instead.

Yes, Switzerland is crazy expensive. First hint is at the Zurich airport where a poster for McDonald's burger boasts the price is only about 20 Swiss Francs.