Swiss Weather New Snow in Switzerland Rail Timetable Euroairport Basel Geneva Airport Zürich Airport

Getting Around

Switzerland has the best transport infrastructure in the world, bar none. Every ski resort has timetabled public transport serving it, and it runs on time. Precisely.

Amazingly this well-oiled integration is accomplished across over 200 separate companies. I live in Switzerland and I do not expect buses to be a minute late, let alone trains, trams and cable cars. Having said that, it is worth getting to know your connections ahead of arriving at a destination. Usually they are straight-forward, but some of the larger stations, such as Bern, Luzern, Basel and Zürich can be confusing. Often there is only a few minutes between one connection and another - if you know where you are going it is usually easy, but if you linger you can easily miss your connection. The Rail Timetable on the left is provided by Swiss Railways but covers buses, gondolas, cable cars and even Shanks' pony - as well as rail lines, of course. it also provides information on platforms and station facilities.

Trains and buses are accustomed to people having ski and snowboard gear so there is always adequate stowage available, although Swiss Railways will, for a small fee, carry your gear in advance for you to most stations. This even includes transit from most international airports. See here for details. Usefully most stations and valley stations also have storage lockers so you don't need to cart your gear around the mountains if you are doing day trips.

If you have not booked your transportation in Switzerland ahead of arriving from abroad, the Snow'n'Rail scheme offers excellent value, with a discount of around 20% on the combined cost of public transport and lift pass, and a discount on equipment hire from Intersport. Passes are available for one, two or six day breaks to most of the significant resorts, and the one and two day passes are available, in English, from the ticket machines in Swiss railway stations as well as from the ticket counters.

The roads in Switzerland are every bit as good as public transport. However you do need a carnet (40 SFr for one year) to go on the motorways, and should have Winter tyres fitted in Winter - although you are unlikely to need chains. For anyone familiar with driving in Europe, Switzerland has broadly similar driving regulations but with generally more punitive financial penalties for infringements. At night and weekends, traffic lights are often turned off and the rule that should be followed is to give way to traffic from the right. The exceptions are that you should always give way to trams, pedestrians and traffic that doesn't seem to know the rules.

If you are driving, remember many passes are closed in the winter and you may need to use a car transporter to get between valleys. These are drive-on, drive-off train services and are normally quite painless. Typically the Vereina car transporter from Klosters to the Engadine costs SFr37-42 for a car and runs every 30 minutes. Other car transporter services that operate in winter include the Oberalp Pass (Andermatt and Sedrun), Simplon Tunnel (Brig and Italy), Lotschberg Tunnel (Kandersteg and Goppenstein), Furka Base Tunnel (Oberwald and Realp) and Albula Tunnel (Thusis and Samedan).

Listed here are selected destination typical times and distances by road from major cities, sortable by clicking on the relevant column headings.

I have displayed by default the information below with particular relevance to people living or staying in the Basel area, or who use Euroairport as a gateway to enjoy Winter Sports in Switzerland and the Black Forest. For other starting points, however, just click on the location name below to pull up or hide details on transit times and other relevant details on getting to resorts by public transport - click on column heads to sort the table:

Selected resorts from Zurich by public transport

Selected resorts from Berne by public transport

Selected resorts from Lausanne by public transport

Selected resorts from Lugano by public transport

Selected resorts from Basel by public transport

A final option on getting to the slopes is to use one of the many tour operators who run bus trips to and from selected resorts. Usually these operators advertise in the local papers and offer great value - for example Erich Saner runs day trips at weekends from various stops in the Basel area to places like Sorenberg, Gstaad Mountain Rides and Meiringen-Hasliberg for SFr 65 inclusive of lift pass. Many resorts also provide similar facilities, e.g. Lenk organises buses at the weekends and during the week from various locations including Olten and Berne (See here).