Everyone kept telling me Switzerland would empty my bank account, so I went with three friends, split a house, cooked most of our own food, and came home having done eight days for around CHF 1,500 each, flights aside. Not backpacker-cheap, because Switzerland never will be, but a long way off the horror stories. This is the honest version of how we did Switzerland on a budget: the full day-by-day itinerary based out of Luzern, every cost written down, and the one thing that did more than anything else to keep the total down, the Swiss Travel Pass.
If you only take one line from this post: sort your transport and your food before you go, and the rest of Switzerland is a lot more affordable than its reputation. Here is exactly how it worked for us.
I traveled on this trip in partnership with the Swiss Travel Pass, so I want to give you the real, unvarnished verdict on it rather than a sales pitch. You will find that further down, math and all.
How much does 8 days in Switzerland cost on a budget?
Here is what a week and a bit in Switzerland actually cost me, per person, sharing accommodation four ways. Everything is in Swiss francs (CHF), which sat close to parity with the US dollar while we were there in late spring.
| What | Cost per person (CHF) |
|---|---|
| Swiss Travel Pass, 8-day consecutive, 2nd class | 439 |
| Airbnb, 7 nights, house split between 4 of us | ~665 |
| Groceries, cooked most meals | ~180 |
| One meal out (Erwins Imbiss-Stube, Luzern) | 25 |
| Mountain activities on top of the pass | ~165 |
| eSIM (Europe plan that covers Switzerland) | ~12 |
| Odds and ends (laundry, snacks, the water was free) | ~30 |
| Total, 8 days, flights excluded | ~1,516 |
That comes out to roughly CHF 190 a day, all in. The single biggest line is accommodation, and the second is the pass, which is also the thing that unlocked almost everything else we did. One number worth flagging if you are young: the 8-day Swiss Travel Pass is CHF 439 at the standard adult rate, but only CHF 311 if you are 25 or under, so a big chunk of budget travelers can knock over a hundred francs straight off that top line.
A quick honesty note on the accommodation figure. We paid about USD 107 per person per night for a whole house shared between four, which is why splitting it mattered so much. Solo, that same number would be your single biggest expense by far, so if you are traveling alone, look at hostels or a small studio well outside the old town.
Is the Swiss Travel Pass worth it?
Short answer: for a trip like this one, where you move almost every day and lean on the mountains, yes, clearly. Here is the actual reasoning rather than me just saying so.
The 8-day consecutive pass cost CHF 439. Consecutive means the clock runs for 8 straight days from first use, so it only makes sense if you are actually traveling most of them, which we were. What it covered for us:
Every train and every lake boat we took, with no faffing about buying tickets each morning. The buses and trams too, including getting from Luzern out to our place in Kriens. Mount Rigi completely, cogwheel train and boat included, which is genuinely one of the best days of the whole trip and cost us nothing extra. Free entry to a long list of museums, which we dipped into on a rainy afternoon. And 50 percent off most of the big cable cars, including Grindelwald First and Pilatus.
Now the math. I added up roughly what the individual tickets would have cost if we had paid as we went: the Rigi boat and cogwheel alone is around CHF 78 round trip, a Zermatt day by train is well over CHF 100 return, and the Luzern to Interlaken and Grindelwald runs stack up fast on top of the local buses and the Zurich leg. It came to comfortably more than CHF 600 per person before you even count the 50 percent mountain discounts and the free museums. So the CHF 439 pass paid for itself and then kept giving.
The honest caveat: it is only worth it if you move. If you were planning to base yourself in one town for a week and barely leave, buy point-to-point tickets and skip the pass. But for a multi-region trip like this, it is the first thing I would book. You can check current prices and buy the Swiss Travel Pass here.
How good is public transport in Switzerland, really?
I want to spend a moment on this because it genuinely changes how you travel here. Swiss public transport is the best I have used anywhere. Trains leave on the minute, not the rough minute, the actual minute. Connections are timed so a two-minute change across the platform just works. Boats, buses, cogwheel trains and cable cars all run on the same clockwork, and the pass ties the whole thing together so you stop thinking about transport as a cost or a hassle and just hop on.
Practically, that means you do not need to base yourself in the middle of everything. We stayed outside Luzern and reached Rigi, the Bernese Oberland, Pilatus, Zermatt and Zurich all as day trips, because the network makes distance almost irrelevant. Download the SBB Mobile app for live times and platform numbers and you will barely need anything else.
Where to stay in Luzern on a budget
We based the whole trip in Kriens, the next town over from Luzern, rather than paying old-town prices. It was about ten minutes in on the bus, which the pass covered, and noticeably cheaper for a whole house than anything central. Kriens has a Coop, a Migros and a couple of bakeries within reach, and the bottom station of the Pilatus cable car is right there, so one of our mountain days started a short walk from the front door.
It is not the postcard, and that was fine. We wanted a kitchen, beds for four, and a fast connection into town, not a view we would only see while asleep. If you would rather compare hotels than a whole house, that is where I would weigh up options, but for four people with a kitchen, the shared house won easily on price.
How we kept food costs down: Coop, Migros and one meal out
This is the unglamorous part that saved us the most money. We cooked. Most nights, in the Airbnb, with groceries from Coop and Migros, the two supermarket chains you will find in nearly every Swiss town.
Eating out is where Swiss budgets quietly die. A normal sit-down main runs CHF 25 to 35, so we did a big shop at the start and cooked around fourteen meals between us over the trip, keeping our grocery spend to something like CHF 180 each. Both chains do cheaper own-brand ranges, M-Budget at Migros and Prix Garantie at Coop, and both are perfectly good. Two things worth knowing: the supermarkets close on Sundays, so stock up on Saturday or you will be caught out, and the smaller branches inside train stations are your friend for a quick picnic lunch before a hike.
We did allow ourselves one proper meal out, at Erwins Imbiss-Stube in Luzern, which came to about CHF 25 a head and was so good I stopped feeling guilty about it halfway through the first bite. If you cook all week, give yourself at least one of these. You are in Switzerland, after all.
Do you need an eSIM in Switzerland, and the EU roaming trap
Please read this bit before you fly, because it catches people out constantly. Switzerland is not in the European Union. It sits right in the middle of Europe, it feels European in every other way, but for your phone it is a separate country. If you are relying on an EU roaming plan, or a data eSIM that only covers the EU, it very often will not work in Switzerland or will bill you extra the moment you cross the border.
The fix is easy and cheap. I bought a Europe eSIM on KLOOK that specifically includes Switzerland, which EU-only plans tend to leave out, activated it when we landed, and had data before we had even left the airport. That is the key detail: buy a plan that lists Switzerland by name, not one that just says "Europe" and assumes you will read the small print. No queuing for a physical SIM, no roaming shock on the way home.
Is the tap water really free everywhere in Switzerland?
Yes, and it is a small thing that adds up over a week. Swiss towns are full of public fountains, and the water in the vast majority of them is clean, cold and drinkable unless a sign specifically tells you otherwise. We refilled our bottles constantly, in Luzern's old town, at train stations, on the mountains. Bottled water at Swiss kiosk prices would have been money poured away, especially hiking in the late spring sun. Pack a reusable bottle and you will use it every single day.
The 8-day Switzerland itinerary, day by day
We based every day out of Kriens and let the trains do the work, and each of these day trips maps onto a step-by-step route in my Swiss Travel Pass guide. Here is how the week ran.
Day 1: Arrive and settle into Luzern
Landed, trained into Luzern, dropped our bags in Kriens, and did the all-important first grocery shop before anything else. In the evening we walked Luzern's old town: the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) with its painted panels, the water tower beside it, and the lakefront. An easy start on purpose, because jet lag is not the day to attempt a mountain.
Day 2: Mount Rigi
If you do one thing from this list, do Rigi. It is fully covered by the pass, so we took the boat across the lake to Vitznau and rode the old cogwheel train up to the summit for nothing extra. They call it the Queen of the Mountains and for once the nickname earns it, with the Alps stacked up in every direction and Lake Luzern glinting below. We came down a different way just because the pass let us, and were back in time to cook dinner.
Day 3: Lauterbrunnen and Interlaken
A train morning through some of the prettiest country in Europe. Lauterbrunnen is the valley that looks fake in photos, a flat green floor walled in by cliffs with waterfalls pouring straight off them. The Staubbach Falls drop right behind the village. We walked the valley floor, which is free and honestly the best angle anyway, then carried on to Interlaken, sitting between its two impossibly blue lakes, for a slow afternoon by the water. All of it covered by the pass.
Day 4: Grindelwald, First and the trottibike
This was the rainy day, and I am leaving that in because it is the truth: it absolutely poured on us in Grindelwald. It did not matter. We took the cable car up to First (CHF 21 one way for me, thanks to the 50 percent pass discount) and did the First cliff walk, a series of metal walkways and a suspension bridge bolted onto the cliff face, dramatic even with the clouds rolling through. You can book the First cable car here.
Then the best thing we did all trip: the trottibike. One heads up on how it works, because it confused us at first. After going up to First, you take the cable car back down to the middle station at Bort (a separate fare), and from Bort you pick up a trottibike, a sort of oversized kick-scooter, and ride it all the way down to Grindelwald. The trottibike itself was CHF 25, paid at the station, and it was worth every franc. Flying down a mountain road in the rain, brakes squealing, laughing the whole way, is the memory I came home with. Book the cable car ahead, but grab the trottibike on the day at Bort.
Day 5: Mount Pilatus
Pilatus rises right above Kriens, so this was our easiest start. The pass gets you 50 percent off rather than a free ride here, so budget a bit extra. The classic way up is the golden round trip, a loop by boat, the world's steepest cogwheel railway, and cable cars, which you can book as the Mount Pilatus Golden Round Trip. It is less crowded than Rigi in my experience and the views back over the lake are worth the climb.
Day 6: Zermatt and the Matterhorn
A big day, and the trains make it painless. We rode down to Zermatt, the car-free village beneath the Matterhorn, and took the Gornergrat cogwheel railway up to one of the great mountain viewpoints in the Alps, staring straight at that impossible pointed peak. The regular trains are covered by the pass and the Gornergrat railway is discounted with it. You can book the Gornergrat Railway ticket in advance to skip the queue. It is a long day out from Luzern, but the kind you remember.
Day 7: Luzern properly
After a run of mountains we gave ourselves a slower day in Luzern itself: the old town's painted houses, the Musegg wall, the Lion Monument (busy, quick, free to look at, and quietly moving), and a long sit by the lake. If it is warm, Ufschötti is a free lakeside park where you can swim, just bring a towel. We cooked at home, did laundry, and planned the last leg. On an eight-day trip you need a day like this, or you burn out.
Day 8: Zurich and out
We used the pass one last time to spend the final morning in Zurich, wandering the old town and the lakefront before heading to the airport. The pass covered us right to the gate, which is a small thing that felt very satisfying on the way home.
What I would tell a friend before they go
Book the pass if you are moving around, and check whether each mountain is fully covered or only discounted before you get your hopes up. Base yourself somewhere with a kitchen and split it if you can. Shop on Saturday. Carry a water bottle. Buy a Switzerland-specific eSIM, not an EU one. And leave one day completely open, because the trains make it far too easy to fill every hour and forget to just sit by a lake.
FAQ
Is the Swiss Travel Pass worth it for 8 days?
For a trip that moves around, yes. My 8-day 2nd-class pass was CHF 439 (CHF 311 if you are 25 or under), and the trains, boats and fully covered mountains I used would have cost well over CHF 600 bought separately, before the 50 percent cable-car discounts and free museums. If you are staying in one town all week, buy single tickets instead.
How much does Switzerland cost per day on a budget?
We averaged about CHF 190 per person per day over 8 days, including the rail pass, a shared Airbnb with a kitchen and cooking most meals, but excluding flights. Traveling as a group and splitting accommodation is what kept it there.
Is Switzerland in the EU?
No. Switzerland is not in the European Union, which matters most for your phone. EU roaming plans and EU-only data eSIMs often will not work here, so buy an eSIM that specifically lists Switzerland.
Can you drink the fountain water in Switzerland?
Yes. Public fountains in towns are almost all drinkable unless a sign says otherwise, and the tap water is excellent. Bring a reusable bottle and refill it everywhere.
How do you save money on food in Switzerland?
Cook. Book a place with a kitchen, shop at Coop or Migros using their M-Budget and Prix Garantie ranges, and save eating out for one or two meals you actually want. Both chains close on Sundays, so stock up on Saturday.
What is the best thing to do in Grindelwald on a budget?
The trottibike from Bort down to Grindelwald was the highlight of our whole trip and only CHF 25. Pair it with the First cliff walk (50 percent off the cable car with the Swiss Travel Pass) for a brilliant half-day.
