In April I visited Switzerland for the first time, and I am happy to report that I had a very good time. Frankly, it was a bit surprising that it took me this long to finally visit since Switzerland is so close to the Netherlands (where I lived for 3 years) and is easily accessible. 

I believe the reason I didn’t visit before is due to cost. Switzerland is known as being a relatively expensive place, but in fairness, you also get what you pay for, as people typically leave having had very good experiences. That said, now that I have finally visited, there are less than 8 countries on the European continent that I have yet to visit and, unfortunately, I don’t think I am actually going to visit all of Europe anytime soon, considering that it’s not a great time to wander through Belarus. 

Anyway, let me recap my time in Switzerland… 

I had about eight days, and during that time I split it between Zurich, Luzern (Lucerne in English), and Interlaken, in that order. 

To get to Zurich, I took a German Intercity (ICE) train from Frankfurt, which was surprisingly on time (iykyk). The train took me to Basel, Switzerland, and from there I took a Swiss train the rest of the way to Zurich. Prior to visiting Zurich, I had heard that it is an expensive city known for its financial sector, but nearly everything I read online told me to go elsewhere in Switzerland, given that there are far better things to do and see. In that regard, I see parallels between Zurich, Lima, Santiago, and Cairo, as those cities are also located in countries where there are far better things to do outside of the capital. 

Nonetheless, I stayed a night in Zurich and walked around. I found it to be pleasant, but I also saw everything I wanted to see in a matter of a few hours. (For what it’s worth, the main train station is ranked #6 on TripAdvisor’s list of best things to do in Zurich, so I think that tells you everything you need to know about the main sights in Zurich… there’s not much. Not that TripAdvisor is that great of a source though.) While pleasant, I would also describe it as boring. Zurich is a perfectly functional city, and probably far better than lots of other cities in that regard… but it is boring compared to other places in Switzerland. 

Next up was Luzern, which is a pretty town situated on Lake Luzern. The city has lots of very nice mountain views. While there are not infinitely more things to do in Luzern compared to Zurich, it does feel much closer to the mountains, thus feeling more like the Switzerland I’ve seen in photos. Luzern was very nice to walk around, and the air felt fresh and mountainous. It’s a very photogenic place. 

In both Luzern and other places in Switzerland, I observed more Asian tourists (Chinese, Thai, etc) than in any other place I’ve been in Europe. Granted, not many Asian tourists have come to Europe in the last few years, so that was good to see, but also I find it interesting how Switzerland seems to be a top destination for Asian tourists. Chinese tourists are known for spending lots of money on travel, so it’s not that surprising. 

I was most looking forward to Interlaken since many people call it the adventure capital of Europe, and it’s well-known for all of the cool things you can do there. Those things include (but are not limited to) skydiving, paragliding, rock climbing, bouldering, mountain climbing, hiking, and more. 

I didn’t go to Switzerland planning to jump out of a place, nor was I prepared (or adequately equipped) to go hiking or climb any mountains. But there was one, epic thing I wanted to do: paragliding! 

Interlaken is such a unique place in the sense that (when the weather allows) you can look up and see many paragliders in the sky. There are some rules but for the most part, it’s freely permitted, and I’ve never been anywhere else where you can just look up and see people paragliding down from the mountains above. On my first and last full day (both days that the weather was good) at any time I could count 8 to 10 paragliders in the sky. 

I had about 4 days in Interlaken, including the day I arrived. I made a reservation to go paragliding on my second day, and we made it halfway to the starting point only to turn around due to it being too windy. So that was unfortunate. Despite the wind, at least the views were nice.

The next day, it rained, so I couldn’t do much. 

The third time’s the charm right? Fortunately, yes, as the next day the weather cooperated and we could go. It was almost better to go on the third day rather than the first day I initially planned to go because at the starting point (in the mountains above the town) there were several meters of fresh snow. Experiencing snow in Switzerland sounds to me like a really Swiss experience. 

I wasn’t that nervous in advance, after all, there is no free fall associated with paragliding like with skydiving. And you don’t jump to start, you just run until you glide. I did of course go with an experienced pilot, and they do take safety requirements very seriously in Switzerland. 

At the starting point, we took off in the snow and proceeded to glide out over the town. Most paragliding flights are around 15 minutes long, but I got lucky and had a flight that was closer to 25 or 30 minutes. This was because my pilot and I were the first in our group to take off, and we kind of hovered waiting for the rest. It’s quite cool to just hover in the sky for a while.

Paragliding is FUN. It’s so cool to fly over the town and see everything from that perspective. Paragliding was definitely the highlight of my time in Switzerland, and it was actually one of the most adventurous things I’ve ever done. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. 

One thing that I expected from Switzerland was that everything would work. Trains running on schedule. Traffic civility. Reliable wifi (for working remotely.)  Efficiency and punctuality. And Switzerland delivered. There’s something to be said for that. I can report that Switzerland operates very well, unlike Germany (where trains are delayed 99% of the time). On a related note, as many probably know, Switzerland is well known for its engineering, and it’s true: it is very impressive. It’s a very mountainous country and trains cross every corner of it, through and over the mountains. Swiss engineering is impressive. 

In summary, while Switzerland isn’t the cheapest destination to visit in Europe, it’s certainly well worth it and is as good as they say. I’m not quite sure where I’d rank it in my list of best European countries, but it is up there. Besides paragliding, I didn’t even do some of the most adventurous or outdoorsy things. There is definitely more to do in Switzerland, which I am looking forward to doing in a future visit.