 Poster: A snowHead
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Have we been lied to?
Just heading back from a weekend watching the World Cup in Wengen and I was expecting to need to price up selling a kidney but it was.....cheap compared to Morzine and my recent Austrian jaunts.
4chf hot chocolates in nice slope side bars. Beers for 5chf, dinner for 3 with decent wine for 120chf- totally unexpected. With the hotel and trains I'd even go as far as to call it good value. Is this just this area?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Bit of price competition to attract trade?
I've friends who went to Basel a couple if years ago for Christmas markets and prices then were reasonable.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I spend a lot of time in Zurich and Lausanne and they're still in the rip
off pile @HutToHut, for a ski resort I thought it was well under what I anticipated
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Does sound cheap for Switz. Maybe it's the reduced number of tourists is having an effect.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Nadenoodlee, Was that your first time to the Wengen area? If so I hope you were suitably impressed with the views (and the races). Where did you stay Saturday night?
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It was bloody lovely @Alastair Pink, we went for a girls weekend and had a fab time- we ended up staying in a lovely little hotel in Lauterbrunnen as some others wanted to join us and couldn't get in at the other place. It was great - I cannot fault the place. Hoping to go back for another short break this season.
I enjoyed the racing but my favourite bit was the fly past on Friday! We were in Wengernalp and the skies were blue- it was phenomenal!
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@Nadenoodlee, Sounds like you had a great time. If you do go back you must ski the blue run from Kleine Scheidegg down to Brandegg, which has a great view of the North Face of the Eiger, and when you get to Brandegg the restaurant is renowned for its apple fritters served with Vanillesauce (custard), nom nom. 
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@Nadenoodlee, glad you had a good weekend, and thanks for dispelling the myth about prices here 😀
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I tried to explain patiently last year how prices in CH were often cheaper on the hill and I got a lot of grief ....maybe it was the way I said it...sigh...
...including a lot of grief about bad service...oh well
But this is a good thread....I wish more people would consider CH
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@valais2, I live in France bad service is a national sport
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Normally people who live in France tell us about the charming local bistro when they do an amazing menu-de-jour with wine for €8 or something equally improbable
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@rungsp, spot on....
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@rungsp, ...this is an old observation but quite a nice one. In deepest Feb 2008, I decided unwisely to head across to Arolla dragging a group of friends with me; checked the meteo, nice high pressure but I missed the wind speed - so did the hyper long drags to the top of the hill (45mins on three endless drags) and it was chuffing freezing - well below minus 10 and probably nearer minus 20 with windchill - frostnip on cheeks and noses - after two hours of farting about in deep powder but being knocked around by the wind, we dashed for the only cafe on the hill (as a strict monopoly it could name its price) and we would have paid 25:00 gbp each for any hot food - indeed 50.00 gbp out of desperation - boy were we cold - the place was pretty chocked, not least since it was one small room ... The air was thick with humidity and the smell of good food. A huge bowl of hot soup and home made bread was 5.00 chf - at that time, about 3 quid. Cheap or what?
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You know it makes sense.
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I had week in zermatt early December and it was a lot more expensive. Perhaps it depends on area. Good to know though. I hope to see more of Switzerland so we hen might be added to the list.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@speachmaus, ...ah...zermatt. That's another story. A kind of unique black hole with an immense gravitational field pulling all the money money out of your pocket....
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Poster: A snowHead
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@valais2, ah you've been??? I just made sure I had lunch on Italian side.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Have to say we found Switzerland expensive, but we were in Geneva and near Interlaken (late september). Hotels going rate was £300 per night, meals out were £80 for 2 (couple of drinks, pizza and salad). That said, clothes in the shops were cheaper and snacks weren't prohibitively expensive... the main issue for me was the exchange rate obviously prices aren't going to change much in relation to the exchange rates...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Levi215 wrote: |
| Have to say we found Switzerland expensive, but we were in Geneva and near Interlaken (late september). Hotels going rate was £300 per night, meals out were £80 for 2 (couple of drinks, pizza and salad). That said, clothes in the shops were cheaper and snacks weren't prohibitively expensive... the main issue for me was the exchange rate obviously prices aren't going to change much in relation to the exchange rates... |
No idea where you were staying, but you'd never pay anything like that in Wengen. As an example, my father in law came to visit a couple of weeks ago. He paid less than £600 for a weeks half board in a 2* hotel right on the main street. And that was including flights and transfers.
Dinner for 2 as you describe it costs about CHF70 here. And there are cheaper options if you want them. Obviously you can push the boat out and splurge CHF200 on a chateaubriand and some fine wine if you want to, but hardly anyone does.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We have those @rungsp, but the 8€ meal is normally only available after begging them to acknowledge and bowing to their power and majesty 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Shhhhhhh - don't tell everybody.
The only problem is that the lifts are not quite up to standard - still a key tow, Tschuggen, and still arguing over replacing the deadly slow Mannlichen gondola.
Anyway my one post before this dreadful system tells me "I am down a crevasse" but does not allow me to get out of it. Makes the SCGBH website look brilliant I am afraid to say
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| valais2 wrote: |
| I tried to explain patiently last year how prices in CH were often cheaper on the hill and I got a lot of grief ....maybe it was the way I said it...sigh... |
Must be the way I say it too...
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@Nadenoodlee, 4CHF seems to be the going rate for a hot chocolate, and your other prices match my experiences here. I really haven't found eating out on the Swiss mountains expensive - definitely cheaper than when I did a season in Paradiski! Scski and I had lunch in a very pleasant slopeside hut today where at the expensive end of the menu alpenmacaroni with apfelmus was 13 chf. At the cheaper end, half a baguette with hotdog was 4 chf, hamburger was 5 chf, - large portions. There are also picnic rooms everywhere.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I like skiing in Switzerland and have skied there a lot down the years, including every April for the last six years. I must confess I have never found it cheap , good value yes often but compared with the less popular French Austrian and Italian resorts never cheap.
Eating out in the evening has been invariably pricey unless you chooses the pizza/ pasta /fast food option in my experience.
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@countryman, PM and rescue on the way.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I don't find Switzerland significantly more expensive than France (but more expensive than Italy).
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Right, that does it, back to Switzerland for me next year. I LOVE the Jungfrau region and I keep promising myself to go back to Crans/Montana to refresh childhood memories.
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Love skiing in Switzerland, especially Wengen and Villars/Bretaye. Find eating on the hill pretty good value for money. Bit pricier for those of us in the euro zone since they took the cap off tho!
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You know it makes sense.
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How does Nendaz fair price wise? Is it Wengen end of scale or a bit more Zermatt?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| thecramps wrote: |
| How does Nendaz fair price wise? Is it Wengen end of scale or a bit more Zermatt? |
For a family self catering I have found the accommodation very good value, decent priced lift passes with family discounts. Varied prices eating on the mountain, depending significantly on the hostelry you choose and standard Swiss prices in the shops (not cheap). Definitely cheaper than Zermatt by a margin a long time since I went to Wengen.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@T Bar, thanks
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Levi215 wrote: |
| Have to say we found Switzerland expensive, but we were in Geneva and near Interlaken (late september). Hotels going rate was £300 per night, meals out were £80 for 2 (couple of drinks, pizza and salad). That said, clothes in the shops were cheaper and snacks weren't prohibitively expensive... the main issue for me was the exchange rate obviously prices aren't going to change much in relation to the exchange rates... |
This year will be my 3rd season staying in Interlaken. Great little hotel is costing me under £50 a night. 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| thecramps wrote: |
| How does Nendaz fair price wise? Is it Wengen end of scale or a bit more Zermatt? |
Went to Nendaz last season expecting it to be very expensive; was pleasantly surprised to find that eating out was good value. I think some common sense has crept in among hoteliers and restauranteurs; crippling prices mean fewer customers!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@LOTA, In the 4 Vallees the prices really aren't too bad, Verbier tends to be more pricy, but the other resorts seem to have held their prices steady over the last few years.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Swissie, That's what I found. Somewhere like Engelberg, too, has generally reasonable prices and if you like a beer, you can do well at happy hours etc!
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Didn't seem all that expensive when I was there in Summer. What I paid for lunch on the Swiss side and the Morzine side were comparable, although the Swiss place I ate at probably aren't on the ski piste map but the French ones certainly are.
In Neuchatel, I was paying probably about €30 for steak dinner including a beer or 2. More than Germany for sure (the beer price differential helps there), but certainly in line with other places I've eaten.
€5.50 for a metric pint in Morzine although with Mutzig there's quite a good ABV per € ratio there, and you need fewer beers to get to the wobbly leg status. Honestly don't recall the Swiss price, but I imagine similar. Germany must be sub-€4, and Austria certainly was last time. Italy has gone up a lot (€4.50). Although What I pay €3.80 on tap I can buy in the supermarket for €0.89 round these parts.
I certainly don't view Switzerland as extortionate.
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I do get fed up with people moaning about how expensive Switzerland is. I'd certainly agree that Italy is generally cheaper compared to other Alpine countries. Obviously, if you stay in a central Verbier or Zermatt hotel or Chalet and eat out, it won't be cheap, just like, say, central Courcheval 1850, or Vail, or wherever. And if you choose the wrong on-piste restaurant/cafe then yes, like these other places, you can get hit with a big bill. But I still think that if you are sensible and careful, the premium for a Swiss holiday is worth it for the relatively less crowded slopes and less time spent queuing.
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@msej449, Well said! Just back from a trip to Heavenly/Lake Tahoe. Great fun but the on-mountain prices charged by Vail resorts are eye-watering compared to a lot of Swiss resorts!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Was thinking of around £500 equivalent in cash for the weeks around Lauterbrunnen/Wengen/Murren area... do you think this is about right? (got credit card as backup)
Based on a bite to eat on the piste each day with a beer or 2 and a few sharpeners before evening meal etc... 5 weeks and counting 
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