12 Tips For Driving in Switzerland

12 Tips For Driving in Switzerland

A Switzerland road trip you will find amazing valleys, mountains, lakes and hikes. The roads are amazing and you will be driving thru gorgeous landscapes if you are planning to rent a car in Switzerland. Read here driving a motorhome in Europe

Make sure you get free transportation in Switzerland with the Swiss Travel Pass and Swiss Half Fare Card

WHERE TO STAY IN SWITZERLAND

There’s no lack of hostels, backpacker inns, and budget hotels anywhere in Switzerland. These rooms can go anywhere between 50-100 CHF per night for accommodation in Switzerland. If you are looking for mid-budget and luxury hotels prices are starting from 200-300 CHF.

Click here to get the best deals in Switzerland with Booking and Agoda!

BOOK YOUR TRAVEL INSURANCE

Two of our favorite travel insurance: Heymondo Vs Safetwing cheapest travel Insurance. You can get for $135 USD your Heymondo Travel Insurance with Heymondo discount code valid for 90 days. Read our full comparison of Genki vs Safetywing Travel Insurance Review and the comparison Heymondo vs Genki

Tips For Driving in Switzerland

1. Renting A Car

If you are renting a car in Switzerland for driving in Switzerland can cost you the cheapest around 40 CHF with insurance included per day.

2. Documents To Bring And Insurance

If you are bringing your own card from other country in European Union you will be able to drive with your driving license and with your car insurance (as it happened to me coming from Spain).

3. Swiss Highway Vignette

If you want to drive in the highways during your road trip you need a Swiss Motorway Vignette. The Swiss Highway Vignette is a sticker that you have to put in the front of your car. It costs 40 CHF and it will last for one year. You can buy the Vignette in the supermarket, post office and petrol stations. If you a renting a car in Switzerland you will not have to buy since they have already in the rental company.

It’s not necessary to buy the Vignette if you don’t drive in the highways in Switzerland. But it will save you a lot of time when driving around the cities especially in the Norther part Zurich, Bern, Basel and Lucerne. You can drive between those cities without entering the highways but it will take you longer time.

Read here how to get from Zurich airport to city center.

4. Speed Limits And Signs

The green signs will be indicating the highways mandatory to have the Vignette and the Blue signs are the secondary roads where you can drive without the Vignette. Obviously the speed limit is higher in the highways 120 km/h and around 70km/h in the secondary roads and 50km/h in urban areas.

5. Lights On All The Time in Switzerland

You will have to turn on the lights during the day and at night. You will realize all the cars do it so you will not forget about this!

6. Turn Off The Engine

In a few places while driving in Switzerland as a rule others it’s recommended to turn off the engine while waiting railway in crossings and traffic lights to avoid pollution. What I really love it!

7. Driving in Switzerland in Winter

Be careful while driving in Switzerland during winter. You may need snow tires since it will be full of snow especially around the mountains. Make sure you check the weather before driving in winter.

8. Driving in Switzerland in Rural Areas

Be careful while driving in Switzerland’s rural areas since you can find wild animals, cows and goats crossing the road. And when uphill and downhill can be narrow the priority is for the one going up make sure you know about this.

9. How To Drive in Switzerland

You need to drive in the right side, respect rules and speed limits and not wearing flip-flops or barefoot.

More Tips for Driving in Switzerland

10. PARKING IN SWITZERLAND

For parking in Switzerland, the yellow sign means you can’t park they are private. You can park for free in the blue ones but only for 1 hour during the day could be half and hour more since it starts counting 30 minutes from 30 minutes.

It means if you park at 8 05 am it will start counting at 8 30 am. You can also park the whole night and you need to put the Blue Disk (you can buy in gas stations and supermarkets for 3 CHF).

In the white line, you can park maximum of 2 hours during the day but you need to pay. And you can park for free at night time usually in the cities. But you need to check the limited time for parking there since it’s not fixed and it can change in the cities and outside the cities in Switzerland.

Make sure you are bringing coins sometimes it’s not allowed to pay with credit card. Parking fees aren’t so expensive in Switzerland but it’s hard to find for free.

11. Petrol in Switzerland

Petrol isn’t cheap in Switzerland it’s more expensive than France and Austria but the good thing the distances in Switzerland are really small and most of the places in Switzerland itinerary are only 1-2 hours driving distance or even less.

12. Resting Areas

I was using the Free App Park4Night where you can check where to park and where to stay for free in Switzerland and also in Europe. The app will tell you full information of the services that they parking spot provide if it’s free or there is a charge!

My Experience Driving in Switzerland

I really enjoyed driving in Switzerland the landscape is amazing and the roads are really good. Everything is well indicated and it’s so easy. You have to be careful with the speed limits and you will see it’s a peaceful country to drive. I also slept in my van and everything was perfect, I didn’t have any problem with this in Switzerland.

My main worry in Switzerland was parking since sometimes it was hard to find in the cities and I almost always paid to park. But the prices of the parking weren’t so expensive at all compared with the prices of food and accommodation in Switzerland.

Happy Travels!