Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 82 Transcript

Visiting Switzerland with kids

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Announcer

Are you dreaming of visiting Switzerland? Planning a trip to Switzerland is very exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. How do you choose which are the many scenic cities, towns, and villages to visit? Which mountain-top excursions should you take? And what’s the best way to get around Switzerland? And of course, how much of the country can you realistically see within your time frame? If you’ve asked yourself any of these questions, this is the podcast for you. This is the Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast, and in each episode, your host, Carolyn Schönafinger, chats with Swiss travel experts to answer your most commonly asked questions, provide practical tips, and take you on a virtual visit to the most popular destinations, and of course, some hidden gems to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. And you’ll hear plenty of conversations about Swiss cheese and Chocolate too. Are you ready to plan your trip to Switzerland? Well, let’s get started.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Welcome to Episode 82 of the podcast. Today I’m joined by Carrie Nicholes, who recently returned from a family trip to Switzerland. Despite only having five days to spend in Switzerland, Carrie and her family were able to visit numerous places and enjoy some wonderful experiences whilst creating lasting memories along the way. In my chat with Carrie, she shares her itinerary and all the highlights of her trip, and she has some handy tips for other families considering a Swiss vacation too.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Before we hear from Carrie, I’d like to say a huge thank you to our podcast sponsor, Switzerland Tourism. Their websitesite, mySwitzerland. Com, has lots of helpful information to help with your Swiss trip planning. So do go and take a look. If you need the train ride of a lifetime, you need Switzerland.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Hi, Carrie. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast. It’s lovely to have you here chatting with me today.

Carrie Nicholes

Thank you. It’s nice to be here.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Great. So could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and where you’re from and if you’re a frequent traveler and all the stuff that gives us a good background about yourself.

Carrie Nicholes

Absolutely. I’m Carrie. I am currently in Maryland. We’ve been here almost 15 years. It’s me, my husband, and three children. I’ve got three kids ages 13, 10, and seven. I actually lived in France and Switzerland for a while. I met my husband in Geneva, Switzerland, and then we were recently celebrating our 15th anniversary, which is actually why we visited Switzerland this year.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Perfect. I was going to ask you why did you visit Switzerland? But I can see there’s that connection there. Well, you’ve been married 15 years. How long ago was it that you both met in Geneva?

Carrie Nicholes

So we met in 2005.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, fantastic. Well, what a lovely place to meet. Once you decided that you’re going to return to Switzerland for your 15th winning anniversary trip, what resources did you use to help plan the trip? Did you look at websites, blogs, social media? What things did you find helpful?

Carrie Nicholes

That’s a great question. My husband had been able to explore Switzerland more when he was there. I actually didn’t get to see it much. I was mostly centered in Geneva and felt a little sheltered from some of the other beautiful parts of Switzerland. I let him map out the route, and then I went and started planning based on his itinerary, his locations, what we would do. I used blogs, podcasts. I especially was looking for family blogs. That was the biggest thing that I think I wanted to use, just to get other people who had taken children because this was our first European trip with all of the kids. I wanted to make sure that I did it in a way that they were comfortable and happy and engaged, and it felt like it was a fun vacation for them as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Did you involve them in any aspects of the planning? Obviously, you know your kids, so you know what they like. But did you say, Well, we could do this or we could do that? What do you think? Or did you make the decision for them?

Carrie Nicholes

A little bit of both. I knew some things that I just knew that they were going to love. I would read a blog and I would see something that I was like, Oh, they’re for sure going to love that. And even while we were there, sometimes we would tweak plans based on feedback. All of my children love swimming, so if we can get them in a hotel pool or a lake somewhere, that’s going to be fun. And so we did a little bit of both. I did some planning, thinking about them, and I also did some listening to their feedback.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, great. So when was your trip?

Carrie Nicholes

So we went, what was it? August, I think, 14th that we flew out, and I think we arrived on the 15th. So it’s very recent, just a couple of weeks ago.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, okay. And what was the weather like while you were there?

Carrie Nicholes

It was actually good. I was worried. I’ve seen this a lot in other posts. People will notice the weather and think that the weather is going to be terrible. I have the same experience. I was looking at the forecast and I was saying, It’s going to rain the whole time, our trip is going to be ruined. I think it rained one day and we were actually just able to pivot and it was wonderful.

Carolyn Schönafinger

It’s great to be able to have that flexibility, isn’t it? Going with the mindset that we might have to slightly change our plans to avoid bad weather in one spot or do an indoor activity if there’s a bit of drizzle. But as you say, a lot of people get so hung up about the weather forecast but when you’re in the mountains, the weather can change five times a day.

Carrie Nicholes

Exactly. Actually, I would say the concern that I wasn’t thinking about too much was the heat, and it was hot. It was warm while we were there.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, that is definitely something that some people underestimate, they think we’re going to this mountainous country. It won’t be hot, but the old buildings, they’re not air conditioned, a lot of them.

Carrie Nicholes

Yeah, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly what I was thinking. I was like, Oh, it’s going to be up in the mountains. It’s going to cool off. I underestimated the heat.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah. Well, it’s easy to do. It’s a common thing. Can you give us a bit of an overview of your trip, where you flew into, and which places you stayed in, and for how long?

Carrie Nicholes

Absolutely. We flew into Geneva… We actually visited Switzerland and France. I’ll go into more detail about Switzerland, but I’ll give you a little teeny highlight about France. We did five days and five nights in Switzerland. We landed in Geneva. Did you want me to go day by day right now, or do you want me to just give you the overview?

Carolyn Schönafinger

Maybe just an overview, and then we’ll go into it more in detail.

Carrie Nicholes

Yeah, we did five days and five nights in Switzerland, and then we did an additional four days and three nights in France.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, so did you also fly home from Geneva?

Carrie Nicholes

We actually didn’t. That was part of the hiccup. We usually book these kinds of trips on points, and we were able to get a really great deal flying into the Geneva airport on points, and we couldn’t find what we were looking for going back home, but we found a crazy deal leaving out of Paris. So we took the TGV up to Paris. We did circle back around to Geneva and took the TGV from Geneva up to Paris.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, yeah, fantastic. Well, that’s another great thing to know that you don’t have to fly into and out of the same city. You can do what’s called an open jaw trip, if that makes more sense.

Carrie Nicholes

Exactly. There’s so much flexibility there. Whether you’re paying cash or points, you can look for great deals. There are so many easy ways to get from city to city in Europe.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, exactly. You mentioned there that you used the TGV when you went up to Paris, but how did you get around when you were in Switzerland?

Carrie Nicholes

We rented a car during our time there. We just thought with the itinerary that we had, we were also staying only for a short amount of time in some of our locations. We really wanted the flexibility to get there as quickly as we could. We didn’t want to… We didn’t want to deal with the train situation. Having kids too, I think it’s just sometimes easy to have them in a car with us instead of dealing with public transportation.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, sure. I guess if you need to make a stop, it’s easy to do that, whereas getting off the train and then getting on the next train can be a bit more difficult.

Carrie Nicholes

Exactly.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Can you tell us now a bit more detail about your itinerary, which places you stayed in, and what you did each day while you were there. 

Carrie Nicholes

Absolutely. Day one, we landed in Geneva, and we just hit the ground running. I think we got in probably 8:00 AM. I think our flight was delayed. It was supposed to be in at 7:00. We hit the ground running. We actually did a day-use hotel to go get showered, rested for just a couple of hours, just get ready for the day. And then we started driving. We visited Chateau de Chillon over in Montreux. I had never been there before, but my husband had, and it was beautiful. We loved that. It was a great way to start the trip. And then we headed up to Maison Cailler, and we did a chocolate factory tour, and the kids loved that. That was a highlight. I love chocolate. I’m all about chocolate, so you want to incorporate chocolate on any trip, and I’m there for it. But it was really engaging for them, and they had great samples, like a good selection of samples. So we stalked up on chocolate, and then we headed over to Gruyeres, and we did dinner there. I had been to Gruyeres before, and it was probably my fondest memory during my time when I was in Geneva.

Carrie Nicholes

It was so fun to be back and to experience that with my family. It’s so cute. I love that it’s mostly a walking village. We had dinner there. The view from our restaurant was just jaw-droppingly beautiful, and it was a perfect first day.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And you probably had the benefit too, that a lot of the day trippers had gone. So by the time you were there for dinner I’m sure it was a lot less busy than it may have been if you were there for lunch.

Carrie Nicholes

It was surprisingly quiet and wonderfully so. I could tell that as we were trying to find parking spot that people were leaving and I was like, It’s perfect. It was a great timing. And then we headed up to the hotel that we were staying at in Fribourg that night.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, great. And where did you go next?

Carrie Nicholes

That night we stayed in Hotel La Croix-Planche in Fribourg. That was just a practical location. It was great for a family of five. It had two bedrooms and then a living room, which was nice. I think it’s difficult to find lodging for five people in Europe in general, so we had to search for that stuff. We went and explored Fribourg the next morning just quickly. And then this was our bad weather day. So we were originally planning on going straight to Grindelwald, and it was raining, and we decided against that. So we took a detour and we visited Lake Thun, and we did… We had the Bernese-Oberland Pass, the three-day BO Pass. We did the Lake Thun boat cruise, and we visited Oberhofen Castle. It was a gem. I was just throwing darts. I was like, Okay, what are cool castles in the area? I stumbled upon that one. It looked beautiful, and it was amazing. It was so kid-friendly. They had just introduced, I think that month, a mouse hunt where the kids go and there are hidden mouse throughout the castle to get them engaged. So we, as adults, get to enjoy visiting, and then they have this fun activity that keeps them entertained and not so bored. And it was amazing. It was incredible.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, it’s a great castle. I visited it for the first time myself this summer. I’ve been past plenty of times on the boat, but this year we went and visited it. Yeah, it’s great. And the displays in the room of reenacting how it would have looked all those years ago really well.

Carrie Nicholes

It was really fun. It was really fun. I’ve never been in a tour like that as far as castles go. Usually it’s like you go room to room and you see what would have been, but it’s a lot more. It’s almost entertaining. Like you said, they’ve got multimedia in there.

Carolyn Schönafinger

It’s cool. Yeah, that’s great. You hopped off the boat. You were doing the cruise, you hopped off the boat at Oberhofen, and then you hopped back on and went back to Thun, or did you go further?

Carrie Nicholes

Yep, that’s correct. We didn’t go see a lot of the lake. Unfortunately, I wish we had time to do more, and I wish we had been able to go back. Our time was limited, but we did just Thun, Oberhofen and then back to Thun. It’s gorgeous.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, so then I guess you drove on to Grindelwald.

Carrie Nicholes

That’s right. We headed on to check in at our Airbnb. We stayed at the Chalet Carve. I think it’s four units that are owned by this super nice family, and it was incredible. It’s got this beautiful view and a nice deck. It also accommodates a family of five, so it was two bedrooms. They had a kids’ room that had three beds, and it was perfect for us. We really loved it.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. Did you have any time once you got to Grindelwald that first day to look around there, or was that more just arriving, settling in?

Carrie Nicholes

We arrived just before dinner time. We got settled in, and then we spoke with the host of the Airbnb, and she gave us a few dinner recommendations. We were able to go find a really nice dinner place with this just stunning view. It’s almost hard. When you’re in Grindelwald, it’s almost hard to believe what you’re looking at. The mountains are just breathtaking and gigantic, and it feels like you’re in a painting. So we had an incredible dinner. I think it was the Alpenhof Hotel restaurant that we ate at that night, and it was just an incredible introduction to Grindelwald.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, good. Okay, so I think you stayed there three nights, is that right, in Grindelwald? That’s right. Yeah, we did. What did you do on those two full days that you had there?

Carrie Nicholes

So the next day was the first full day that we had in Grindelwald. And we went up to Mannlichen, and we played at that playground. What is it? The Alpine playground up there in Mannlichen. And that was incredible. I’ve never seen playgrounds like that in my life. You get the combination of this stunning, incredible view, and then this amazing playground. My oldest is 13, and he was like, Mom, why did the Swiss have all the cool things? They were sold, and you’re there and there are cows all around you and their bells are ringing. And it’s just so picturesque and it’s stunning. We went and visited Wengen and we did a little picnic down there, and that was really cute. We just walked around a little bit, and then we came back up and we did the hike down the Liselotte Trail, which is very kid-friendly. I had seen that in some blogs, and they explain that they’re like 12 or 13 stops along the way. It’s really like an hour and a half hike, and the stops along the way really keep the kids engaged. They’ve got water stops or milking a fake cow or just climbing on things.They’ve got binoculars at some of these stops, and that was perfect. So.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, good.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. So for the listeners that don’t know. So you went from Grindelwald to, you can go up to Mannlichen and by one cable car, and then there’s another cable car that goes down the other side to Wengen. So you did all that, and that is all covered with the Berner Oberland Pass.

Carrie Nicholes

Yeah. And it was so easy to use going in. I was a little nervous about that the public transportation beyond the rental car situation. It was incredibly easy and intuitive. Once you go there, you’re like, Oh, it’s not a big deal at all.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, exactly. Okay, so after that, what did you do?

Carrie Nicholes

So that night we came home and we just ate dinner. We ate at the hotel Aspen Restaurant. My daughter’s name is Aspen, so we couldn’t resist, and that was delicious. Then we went back to the Chalet Carve, and we slept that night. Then the next day was another full day, and we visited Allmendhubel, the flower playground? Yeah, flower toddler playground. Again, just stunning. We lucked out. We got there early. There were a lot of people coming up to Murren, but there weren’t as many people going up to Allmendhubel, and it wasn’t too crowded. So we were probably one of maybe two or three families up there at the beginning, which was nice. As we were leaving, I think more people were coming. And then we just hiked around and then we hiked back down. We did the hike back down to Murren. We had lunch there at a bakery.

Carolyn Schönafinger

So again, just for the listeners that don’t know from Murren, you go up to Almmendhubel on a little funicular. And obviously you can go back down on that as well. But as you said, you hiked. How long did the hike take? About an hour?

Carrie Nicholes

I think so. Yeah, I think it was about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. And again, it’s just beautiful, too. So it’s a fun hike.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah. And whilst the kids are playing on all that great play equipment, the adults can just get the most amazing views, can’t they, from up there, it’s just stunning.

Carrie Nicholes

Exactly. That was the whole idea. We wanted something that we could enjoy and they could enjoy it. And you could just sit there and look at the beautiful mountains while they’re having a blast playing on these incredible playgrounds. Yeah.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And was the weather warm whilst you were staying in Grindelwald?

Carrie Nicholes

Yes. Very. 

Carolyn Schönafinger

So you did have the very hot weather while you were there?

Carrie Nicholes

Yeah. Yeah. It was warm and made it difficult to sleep at night. I wasn’t too worried about trying to find places that had air conditioning because I’m like, Oh, we’re going to be up in the mountains. Not a big deal. It’s okay. I knew it was August, which is going to be hotter, but I thought the locations we were staying at would cool off at night. And unfortunately, it was warmer than I had anticipated.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. So were you able to go swimming at all whilst you were there?

Carrie Nicholes

We did, yeah. That same day, actually. So we went down to Mirren, had our lunch, and then we quickly went down and visited louder, Brunen. It was way too crowded that day for me, so we did not stay there very long. It was like, Okay, saw it. Okay, bye. And then we decided we were going to spend more time there, but we actually decided to go visit a little beach pool area on Lake Brienne, and it was awesome. I think it’s called The Beach. It’s in Bönigen. And it was… They have the waterfront of the lake, but they also have a pool, so you can do whatever. And then for the kids, they’ve got these two big trampolines on the water and this little thing that connects them so you can run between trampolines, and the kids are running. And it was so fun. There were a lot of local kids there. So my kids were playing with the local kids and making friends. I really think for the kids, it was one of the highlights of that trip.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, so how did you find out about that? Was that something your Airbnb host had told you about? Yes.

Carrie Nicholes

I said, Listen, I think we might want to go swimming. Do you know anywhere? And that was one of the places that she recommended, and it was perfect.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, great. Okay, so the next day, what happened then?

Carrie Nicholes

So the next day we headed out. So that was our three nights in Grindelwald, and we headed on to Zermatt, which was a hike to get to. I knew it was going to be, I think the drive was probably two and a half hours. And then, of course, you have to go park in, what is it? Tosque? Tosque?

Carolyn Schönafinger

Täsch.

Carrie Nicholes

Tasch, yeah. And then you take the train up to Zermatt. And that was beautiful. And we lucked out and we had a clear day. So we had an amazing view of the Matterhorn, which the kids also said was one of their favorites. Just stunning. And that day we went up to Sunnegga, and we visited the Wolli Park playground up there. So fun. They’ve got this lake and this cute little… I don’t even know. It’s like a raft that the kids can pull a string and they move themselves across the lake on this raft. It was just a blast. We spent probably a couple of hours there, hiked around that a little bit, and then we went back down to Zermatt, walked around in the village down there. We ran into their old village, I think it’s called Hinterdorf, where it’s the older houses that are from the 1500s, 1600s, which was so cute and so fun. Zermatt itself is really adorable. It was a really fun place. Then we just went back to the hotel. We got dinner at the local hotel restaurant, and then went and swam at the pool for my youngest because he was looking for some pool time.

Carrie Nicholes

That was how we spent our time in Zermatt. It was great.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, so you stayed at a hotel there. Was it difficult to find somewhere that accommodated all of you or not?

Carrie Nicholes

Yes and no. We stayed at… It was a strange find. It’s the Best Western Alpin Resort, but it was awesome. It was really cool. On the main floor they had the main bed and then a sofa bed, and then upstairs they had a loft with two additional twin beds, so it was perfect for the kids. And from the we had this amazing view of the Matterhorn. So it was wonderful.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, wonderful. Okay, so once you left Zermatt, is that when you drove back to Geneva, France or not?

Carrie Nicholes

Yeah, the next day we did Chamonix and then we went on to Geneva.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, great. All right. So what about I mean, you’ve mentioned some of the restaurants and things that you ate at and you had a few picnics and so forth. Did you find it was easy to find food that suited everyone? Were your kids a bit apprehensive about trying Swiss food or could you always find something that they were happy to eat?

Carrie Nicholes

I felt like it wasn’t too bad. So for breakfast, mostly we had a couple of days where the hotel included breakfast. But when we were at the Airbnb, we just went and got groceries. So we did simple, easy things like yogurt and cereals and things like that. For lunches, we tried to do more picnics. We’d go to a bakery and grab quick sandwiches, and that was fine for them. And for dinner, we did try to push them to explore a little bit more some of the Swiss food. I didn’t think it was too hard. They would at least try it. The younger ones sometimes would get a kid’s meal that’s more chicken tenders or something. But we would encourage them to try our dishes as well, and they take a bite and either they loved it or they didn’t. But I thought it was easy to find food. The food is definitely more expensive than I remembered. I knew Switzerland is expensive, but I think even for me, I was like, Oh, this is more than I thought. This is more than I was anticipating, but it’s worth it. It’s worth the experience.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Did you find Switzerland to be family-friendly?

Carrie Nicholes

Oh, my gosh, yes. Surprisingly, family-friendly. I was so impressed with just kids everywhere and all of these beautiful playgrounds that are tailor-made to draw children in and allow them to explore the outdoors and have fun while they’re doing it.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, well, that’s great to know. You’ve already mentioned a couple of things that you think were the highlights to your kids, but what things do they keep talking about from the trip that really made an impression on them?

Carrie Nicholes

I think the playgrounds, yes. We visited three. So in general, I would say the playgrounds are memorable, the views of the mountain. So in every place we had some amazing… You’ve got either the Eiger or the Matterhorn. Or Mont-Blanc in Chamonix. We just had vistas that are unmatched. And then what else? I think those were the highlights for them. I think those are the big things. And the swimming, of course. The lakes are beautiful. Okay.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And what about for you and your husband?

Carrie Nicholes

I would say that you feel like it’s almost like a fairy tale. You feel like you’re in a painting or something familiar that you’re like, This is so beautiful. How can this possibly be real? For me, it’s the natural beauty of everything I think was my favorite.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, it certainly leaves a lasting impression, I think, on anyone who visits because, as you think you’re just looking at a postcard but it’s actually real.

Carrie Nicholes

Exactly. Yes. You’re like, I don’t even know if my brain can capture all of this information.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Even when you take a photo, the photo might turn out wonderful, but it’s still not as good as actually seeing it.

Carrie Nicholes

100%. You know, when you’re taking a picture, you’re literally saying out loud like, This doesn’t do it justice. This just doesn’t capture it. It’s going to be a beautiful picture, and it’s still not going to do it justice.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, that’s so true. Was there anything that surprised you about Switzerland?

Carrie Nicholes

I would say I was surprised by the price even. I think I was surprised because I was going in knowing that Switzerland is expensive, and it still caught me by surprise just how expensive food was in particular. It surprised me how warm it got in the mountains even at night. I was expecting hot days, but cool nights. That was maybe partially true. It certainly pools off at night, but it was still warm.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And when you say that you found food expensive, did you find the prices in the grocery stores more expensive than you would have expected as well? Or was that mainly just from restaurants and eating out? I would.

Carrie Nicholes

I’d say both, but emphasis on restaurants. I think the restaurants in particular were surprising for me.

Carolyn Schönafinger

From this trip, is there anything that you wish you had done differently? If you were doing the same trip again now with hindsight, would you change anything around or were you happy with how it all went?

Carrie Nicholes

That’s such a great question. I’ve been trying to think about this one, and I’m torn because I would say I wish we could have added time on to our trip because really, we wanted to see a lot of places, but we also didn’t have a lot of time. I wish we had been able to give Zermatt more time. I wish we’d been able to give Chamonix more time. But realistically, we had some constraints based on work and getting the kids back for school and everything. So we were doing the best we could, but I wish we had had some more days to add on to that trip.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, I think anyone thinks that no matter how long they visit Switzerland for.

Carrie Nicholes

Exactly. I think you could be there a month and still say you don’t feel like you had enough time.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Totally. Totally. For those other families that are listening that are thinking of planning their own family vacation to Switzerland, have you got any tips for them?

Carrie Nicholes

This is a really random, practical tip. When we flew into Geneva, when we were renting a car, we did not realize there’s a French side of the airport and a Swiss side of the airport. The side, it matters what side you rent the car on. If you’re going to be in Switzerland, you need to rent from the Swiss side because I guess they have some vignette that it’s like a toll pass or something, I think, right? That’s fine, yeah. It’s cheaper sometimes to rent on the French side, but you really do need that. Then when we dropped the rental car off, we followed the instructions that were on our document, and it instructed us to go back to the French side, and they, in fact, scooted us back over to the Swiss side to drop it off. You just have to be careful about that. I’ve never seen that before in another airport, so I didn’t even know that was a thing. But that’s a little detail to pay attention to if you do happen to use a rental car.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. Anything else that the family should be aware of?

Carrie Nicholes

I would just say pad your budget for especially food. Just know that it’s going to be a little extra. I found it more convenient, as far as transportation goes, to use the Berner Oberland Pass because then you just don’t have to think about it. I know some people are paying for this one ticket at a time, one trip at a time. And for me, it was just simple to get the pass and not even stress about it for the days that we were there. I would definitely recommend that. I would recommend, especially if you’re taking kids to find activities like what we were able to do that keep them excited to be there and engaged. You as an adult are going to love the view no matter what, and then you’re allowing them to enjoy the experience too.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Great. Well, you’ve obviously made some wonderful family memories on this trip. Do you have any plans, perhaps, for a future trip to Switzerland?

Carrie Nicholes

I sure hope so. I’m already thinking, Okay, where would I go next? Because we spent a lot of time in one section. But there’s so much that we haven’t seen. So I hope to go again and I hope to explore some of the places that we haven’t been to yet.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thank you very much, Carrie. It’s been great chatting to you. I will put in the show notes for those listeners who are interested, I’ll just jot down where you stayed and the places that you visited on your itinerary, so that if anyone else is keen to check them out with their own family or even if they’re traveling without children, they’ve got all that information there. So thank you again. It’s been a pleasure chatting to you and hearing about your wonderful trip.

Carrie Nicholes

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. It was fun talking to you.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Bye for now. Whilst Carrie wishes she had been able to stay longer in Switzerland, I think that’s true of just about everyone who visits. But as she has proved, thanks to it being a relatively small country, you can cover a lot of ground in a relatively short space of time. Limiting the number of different overnight destinations to just three was a good decision, in my opinion, as changing your lodging every night can be very time-consuming. I love that Carrie was able to include lots of activities that the children enjoyed, such as playgrounds, swimming and chocolate factories, and combine them with things that the adults enjoyed too. Going up to the mountains like Mannlichen and in Allmendhubel and sitting there taking in the stunning views whilst the kids played in the playgrounds would have been no hard task at all. You’ll find links to all the places the family stayed at and the places they visited in the show notes for this episode. I’ll also include a link to a detailed guide and a previous podcast episode about the Berner Oberland Pass that Carrie mentioned. This is a regional transport pass that includes public transport, boat rides and mountain excursions in the Berner Oberland.

Carolyn Schönafinger

So it’s something you might want to consider if you’re visiting that area. The show notes can be found at holidaystoswitzerland.com/episode82. Thank you for joining me today. Next time we’re heading to the region that is best known as the home of Zermatt, but has so much more to offer. I hope you’ll join me then. Tschuss.

Announcer

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You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.