Getting to Switzerland

Switzerland is small, central and extremely well connected, which means there are usually several sensible ways in and the cheapest is not always the obvious one.

The airports

Zurich (ZRH) — the largest, and the best connected internationally. The train station is under the terminal and the centre is ten minutes away; see from the airport. It is also a full national railway station, so you can go straight to Lucerne, Bern or Basel without entering the city.

Geneva (GVA) — six minutes from the main station by train, and there is a machine in the baggage hall giving a free 80-minute transport ticket into the city, which almost nobody finds; see Geneva transport. Best for the Valais, Lake Geneva and the French Alps.

Basel (BSL/MLH) — shared between Switzerland, France and Germany, with separate Swiss and French exits. Take the Swiss one unless you mean to go to France; the two sectors are connected but not interchangeable. Often the cheapest of the three for low-cost flights.

Bern and Lugano have small airports with limited services.

The foreign airports worth considering

This is the part most guides leave out.

Milan Malpensa — often much cheaper than Zurich, and about an hour and a half by coach to Lugano, two and a half to Locarno.

Munich, Stuttgart, Lyon — worth checking for the eastern, northern and western corners respectively.

Weigh the saving against the transfer: a cheap flight into Milan plus a coach can beat Zurich for Ticino, and rarely beats it for anywhere else.

By train

Switzerland sits on the main north–south European rail axis, and arriving by train is genuinely competitive on time once you count airport transfers and security.

• Paris to Geneva — about 3 hours by TGV; Paris to Zurich about 4 hours
• Milan to Zurich — about 3 hours 20 through the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the longest railway tunnel in the world
• Munich to Zurich — about 3 hours 30
• Frankfurt to Basel — about 3 hours
• London to Basel — about 7 hours via Paris, and doable in a day

Night trains run from Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Zagreb.

Book long-distance international tickets in advance; unlike domestic Swiss travel, the fares rise sharply near the date.

By road

Switzerland is in Schengen but not in the EU customs union, so there is usually no passport check and there is very much a customs border. See customs — the duty-free allowance is 300 francs a head and it is enforced at the road crossings.

To use any motorway you need the vignette, 40 francs, valid fourteen months, sold at the border and online; see driving in Switzerland.

Long-distance coaches — FlixBus and others — serve the main cities and are the cheapest way in from Germany, France and Italy.

Once you are here

You almost certainly do not need a car; the railway reaches everywhere worth going and includes buses and boats on the same ticket. See getting around and work out the pass arithmetic before you arrive rather than at the station.

Entry requirements

Schengen rules apply. EU, UK, US, Canadian, Australian and many other passport holders need no visa for short stays; others need a Schengen visa, which Switzerland issues in the normal way.

Rules change, and this page is not the place to rely on. Check the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration or your own foreign ministry before travelling.

When to come

See when to go — the short version is that April and November are the two months when a great deal of the mountain transport is shut, and that September is the best month of the year.