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Planning for a visa:
Ensure your cover letter mentions the people, number of days, and intent of traveling clearly
In your itinerary, ensure Switzerland is the country you are arriving at, and spending maximum time in or leaving from, to fulfill the criteria of applying in the Swiss embassy for a visa.
Please keep your itinerary as detailed as possible. This is the make or break for your visa getting processed.
You do not need to submit evidence of intra-city or inter-city travel, just accommodation evidence of every city you are traveling to should suffice. Ensure the dates of booking on your accommodation are the same on your itinerary as well.
Please ensure the photograph adheres to the background and size rules.
Also, ensure you carry a Xerox of all pages of your passport where there is a stamp. Some consulates may/may not require it.
Other than the documents listed on the website, it is also good to produce documents showing your strong ties to the home country and thus giving enough reasons to return back to the country. I usually submit by sale deed as evidence, along with a CTC letter from the company, etc.
Please do not submit documents showing liabilities - like credit card statements or home loan documents.
Please do not initiate a huge transfer to your savings account a few days before applying for a visa, to show a good bank balance. The folks processing the visa will suspect they were transferred just for a visa. So if you want to show a higher balance, you can submit documents of fixed deposits, and mutual funds as well. Or make a transaction to your main savings account well in advance.
The bank documents need to be signed and stamped by the bank, so keep some time to get this done as well.
If you have multiple bank accounts, you can get documents from only one of them signed and stamped. You can attach other documents without a sign and stamp.
Reach VFS 30 mins before your slot, since there is a queue on the ground floor and they let people in regardless of the slot sometimes, so it’s better to try your luck
You get a token number for your visit. The token number is either given on the ground floor, right after security for some countries ( France, Germany, UK, etc) by people behind a counter or on the first floor(or second - not sure of the details), dispensed by a machine. This is your order of application submission for the day.
If a particular country is popular for applying for a visa, it would have a large crowd and would take a longer time, so ideally you should keep a day off for visa application. But quite often, VFS opens up more counters and processes things quickly.
Priority processing only facilitates ease of application submission. It doesn’t mean your visa will be processed faster, so you can avail of it only if you are running short of time on your day of application submission.
VFS Bengaluru accepts cards, so you should be fine not carrying cash.
Please be mindful of your exit from the premise, as they can ask you to re-enter from the path with a security scan again. So perhaps carry some light meal or so, or speak to the security guard before leaving for some work.
The visa is processed in a maximum of 15-20 working days. Working days would mean excluding Saturday and Sunday. It would also mean, we should exclude the days until VFS has passed on your application to the consulate - usually, it passes it on the very next day or the following Monday, if you submitted your application on a Friday.
Tips for first timers
Ensure you have the right visas even for your transit
The airport usually lies in a different zone, so do check if your city transportation card covers this. http://www.geneva.info/transport/free-ticket/ → info for the airport to the city center of Geneva. There is a free ticket.
The bus stops can be confusing, so you can use “live view” in google maps to see the exact location of the bus station for your path.
Citymapper is a better app in most European cities. It also nudges you when to get off public transport, the right carriage with the least folks to get on, etc.
If you happen to get on the wrong train/tram/metro/bus, do not panic. Get off at the next station and change. Do ensure your tickets are valid for the duration. In most European cities, it is not a problem, as the tickets are valid for a certain duration of time, within certain zones, so the direction of travel wouldn’t be a problem.
There is usually an announcement or a display in most modes of transport to show you the next stops, or Citymapper does a good job as well.
Some stops are on request, so there is usually a red button near most seats, use that to indicate you want to stop at the NEXT station.
Please carry an umbrella. If it rains, you can use it. If it’s too sunny you can use it.
Every city has some scams, do read about them before going. It makes you more aware. But nothing to be scared of as such.
You can download the language beforehand on google translate. And also use google lens to translate live/old images.
Maps.me is a good app for offline maps and navigation without the internet.
Sunset during summer months is around 11 PM, but most attractions close by 5-6 PM, so you can still admire the architecture from outside.
Most places look deserted after say 7 PM, other than the main streets. But that shouldn’t be a problem.
The frequency of transportation reduces past 8 PM or 10 PM in certain cities. So you can plan your travels keeping the frequency in mind and check for the next departure on google maps.
You can scan your passport and keep a copy on your phone and do not carry it for intra-city travel if you fear losing it.
If you are buying a local sim, try installing the “Too Good to Go” app, it offers amazing discounts on food from 5-star restaurants at the end of the day, to avoid food waste. So you can score an awesome meal for a reduced price. Most times it is a surprise box, but the contents are still great.
Some other tips:
On the SBB app, there is a day-saver pass option as well, which will ensure all your travel for the day is free. If you aren’t using the SWISS TRAVEL PASS and want to save some money, you can calculate all your journeys in the day and use this pass instead.
There is a super-saver ticket which is sometimes around 5-8 CHF lesser than the usual ticket price. The super-saver ticket can be bought up to a day in advance and is marked by the % sign on the SBB app. You can make use of this as well to get a cheaper ticket.
One can also buy a day’s transport ticket to the city you are traveling to, along with the travel ticket to the city on the SBB app. This helps if you are in the city for a day trip and would use their public transport. If you spend a night in a city in some hostel/hotel/Airbnb, you are eligible for a local transport card, since you will be paying taxes in the city. This was available in all cities except Zurich.
Please use the live cams for mountains to check for visibility before traveling. Poor weather can reduce visibility drastically and might lead to wasting your money on the ticket.
The Bernese Oberland pass doesn’t get scanned in some places(like the Eiger Express), in which case you can contact an operator and they will let you in.
If you have the Bernese Oberland and the half-fare card, you can get a half-fare price of 63 CHF ( winter prices) for the journey to Jungfraujoch. It is a paper ticket without a bar code, so please show this to the operator for entry on the train.
Please check for any festivals during your time of visit, so that you can experience them as well. During our visit, we had the Sechselaeuten.
Carouge, Geneva's small Italy: near to the city center and worth exploring, with its colored buildings and having ice cream, while sitting on one of the many benches in that area.
CERN tours have to be booked on-site, and can’t be booked in advance.
Day trips:
Montreux
Taking the Golden Pass Bella Epoque. There are many Golden Pass trains, but you should take the Bella Epoque. This train is useful only if you are traveling to Interlaken from Geneva, else it doesn’t service the direct route between Geneva to Montreux
Mount Pilatus: webcam - we bought tickets on-site, to show our half-fare pass and get discounts. You can buy tickets online as well, using the half-fare option. If using a Swiss travel pass, you should still go for the half-fare option. Discounts (GA, Half-Fare travel card, SwissTravelPass) must be presented at the turnstile. Please check the live cam before planning your travel. We didn’t and ended up not seeing anything. Let me share an extremely poor video that I had taken :P
Cable car round trip from Kriens( take a bus till here → covered in Lucerne city transport card which you will get at your accommodation) Kriens - Pilatus Kulm | Hin- und Retourfahrt
Here are sample times for each leg of the trip:
Boat ride – The boat ride takes 1hr15. You should arrive at least 20 mins before your boat departure time so you can secure a good seat on the boat. THIS IS COVERED IN THE SWISS TRAVEL PASS
Cogwheel train – The cogwheel train ride takes 32 mins. But expect to wait in line for 10-30 mins before boarding the train. THERE IS A 50% DISCOUNT ON THIS USING A SWISS TRAVEL PASS/HALF-FARE CARD
Mt Pilatus – I suggest planning for at least 1 hour at the top. Add 1 hour if you plan to eat at the restaurant. Add 2 hours if you plan to hike to Tomlishorn.
Cable car – The full journey from Pilatus Kulm to Kriens (cable car + gondola) is 36 mins. On busy days (especially in the late afternoon), you may need to add time waiting in line, 15-30 mins. THERE IS A 50% DISCOUNT ON THIS USING A SWISS TRAVEL PASS/HALF-FARE CARD
Alpine slide – add at least 30 mins if you plan to ride the slide, more if it’s busy. This includes walking to the slide, waiting in line, the ride, and walking back to the gondola.
Bus – The actual bus ride is about 15 mins. But add waiting time in case you don’t arrive in Kriens exactly when the bus departs.
The cheapest way to reach Mount Rigi from Lucerne is by using public transportation. Take a train or boat to Vitznau or Weggis, followed by a cable car or cogwheel railway ride to the summit. The boat ride is free on the SWISS TRAVEL PASS and a 50% discount on the SWISS HALF FARE CARD. The boat leaves Luzern Bahnhofquai platform 1.
Another route is to take the boat to Vitznau, then the cable car from Vitznau to Rigi Kulm. Sit on the left side going up from Vitznau to Rigi Kulm for the best views. While coming back, walk down to Rigi-Kaltbad to get the cable car down to Weggis. At Weggis, take the boat back to Luzern. All parts of the journey are covered in the SWISS TRAVEL PASS.
The Mount Rigi Panorama Trail is a picturesque hiking route that surrounds the summit of Mount Rigi in Switzerland. This trail, measuring approximately 8 kilometers in length, provides stunning views of the surrounding Swiss scenery, including Lake Lucerne and the Swiss Alps. The trail can be started from various locations, including the Rigi Kulm summit, Rigi Staffelhöhe, and Rigi Kaltbad, and takes roughly 4 to 5 hours to complete. So you can use the trail while coming down from Rigi Kulm to Rigi Kaltbad as per the path in point 2.
You can do the Panorama Trail. It is marked on the map as well(layer - Schynige Platte, color- yellow )
Be mindful of the train timings from Wengen to Lauterbrunnen and ensure you catch the train back, else you will have to go via Grindelwald
A good sunset place is the Harder Kulm. Please do not miss the sunset from this place.
The boat trip on Lake Thun and Brienz departs from Interlaken OST, so please check the timings on Timetable | BLS-Schiff
We would check the live cam for Schillthorn and Jungfraujoch before visiting these places. Additionally, some places like Bachalpsee Lake and Oeschinen Lake were frozen in the month of April. Schynige Platte was also non-operational owing to snow in April. Please check opening periods before planning your travel, in general. Though I liked the vibe of Lauterbrunnen with misty valleys and waterfalls, some folks might get discouraged in such weather.
Top of Zurich: Uetliberg – Zurich's Very Own Mountain - Zürich. You can do a hike on the Planetweg trail and then take a funicular from Felsenegg. The hike takes around 1.5 - 2 hours and is an easy hike. There is also a lunch spot on the hiking route with benches. The hike offers amazing views like this:
