Switzerland Hotels

Hotel accommodation is very important to me when I go on my holidays. For business trips, I can still tolerate mediocre hotels but not for my own personal holidays. I like to know that I am going back to rest and relax in a nice hotel room after a day or sightseeing/hiking/shopping/eating. I do not need the hotel to be luxurious or 5/6-star rated but at least it should be modern, clean, comfortable and located in a safe area.

I do my research and ask around for recommendations when booking hotels. Most of the time, I am happy with my choices but once in a while, I do have to live with disappointment. =)

Some friends have been asking me about my accommodations while in Switzerland earlier this year, so I have summarized it here. Hopefully, it can be of use to you as well.

FYI: You can find my trip itinerary here and the map below.

2 Nights in Zurich:

We stayed at the Walhalla Hotel which is very close to the Zurich HB. My sister and her family have stayed here before and she recommended it to me. We had room 501 which, I think, is one of the very few rooms that can take 3 and more people. The room faces the evening sun and days are long during summer, so we found the room to be too warm for us. We asked for an extra fan to cool down the room. I booked the hotel directly with the hotel's website and it is CHF261 per night for a triple economy room with breakfast. Being an Asian, I am used to having a minibar and fridge in the room but this hotel does not have both. So, if you are looking for a cold beer at night, do buy some from the convenience store on your way back to the hotel or go to the pubs nearby.

2 nights in Interlaken Ost (East):
We stayed at a tiny hotel called Alphorn Hotel. The rooms are also tiny and the extra bed that they  have put in for my 11-year-old son looks like it is more suitable for toddlers. Nonetheless, my son said the bed is actually quite 'comfy'. Location-wise, the hotel is a bit farther away from the main tourist areas but it is within walking distance from the Interlaken Ost station. The plus point about this is the hotel is very quiet with no traffic sound at night. The lady who runs the place is quite fierce but efficient (very Swiss). The room is CHF180 per night.

Love the way they arranged the pillows .. shaped like the Swiss Alps!

3 nights in Zermatt:
We stayed at the Dufour Hotel. This is my favorite hotel for this trip. The hotel has no lift but the strong lady owner helped us carried our luggage up to the room! Good-sized room with a balcony which opens up to a majestic view of the Matterhorn. The service and breakfast were excellent. I will definitely recommend the hotel to friends and return to stay if I visit Zermatt again. The room is CHF228 per night.

Love this hotel!!

My breakfast at Hotel Dufour.

3 nights in Bern:
We stayed at the Best Western HotelBern. There are a few Best Westerns in Bern and I think I chose this one because of its price and close proximity to the train station. This is my least favorite hotel for this trip. It has no character and is typical of a chain hotel. I think it caters to tour groups as well which is something that I don't like. The only good thing about this hotel that I can remember is the room that was allocated to the 3 of us was a larger room with an extra area for round table that made it feel less like a chain hotel room. It is CHF212.50 per night per room with no breakfast.

All the hotels came with free WIFI, breakfast (except for Best Western) and an extra bed for my son. All are booked directly with the hotels' website.

Hotels in Switzerland are so expensive, so it is important to do ample research beforehand. Hope the above helps.

Till my next blog post, happy holidays! =)

Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan

My son went on his school residential trip last month for a week and since I have no mummy duties and I desperately need to take some time off my work, I rewarded myself with a girlfriend trip to South Korea. My best girlfriend is awesome and a great travel partner.

We spent 3 nights in Busan and 3 nights in Seoul. While in Busan, we:

• Appreciated a lot of great wall art at the Gamcheon Culture Village
• Had very fresh seafood at the Jagalchi Seafood Market
• Though it is freezing, we hung out at the Haeundae and Gwangalli Beaches for dinner
• Got lost doing some hiking at the Beomeosa Temple
• Had my birthday breakfast at the Bujeon Market

I will share more of what we did in Busan later but here is what I remembered and thought of the Gamcheon Culture Village.

Near the coffeeshop where we had our hot chocolate, there is this shop selling my favorite wafer fish with red bean. We went into the the shop asking for 2 wafer fish. We signaled to the owner with 2 fingers and he gave us 2 packs. In each pack, there were 3 pieces of the wafer fish and each pack was only about Won1,000 or Won2,000 (I can't remember exactly how much)! Imagine my surprise! The wafer fish were crispy, warm and delicious!

The Little Prince is French but the Koreans are crazy over him.
But who isn't, right? =)

What I love most about this place is there is no fixed route to follow and you will never know what is  waiting in the next corner. You just have to move ahead all the time. We did some u-turns but hey! that's life, right?

Till my next blog post, explore your journey! =)

Photos from Lucerne

Continuing my summer holiday in Switzerland.... On day 9, we went to Lucerne. We did not go to Mount Pilatus or Mount Rigi or the lake cruises (we had our fair share of hiking and mountains at Ebenalp, Interlaken and Zermatt) and so, we decided to wear our city shoes and clothes and did the city walking tour.

A picture is worth a thousand words. I will let my the pictures do the talking. =)

 

 

 

 

Till my next blog post, plan for a winter holiday! =)

Zermatt, where people go and see the Matterhorn

After a 'break' of 2 blog posts totally unrelated to my summer holiday in Switzerland, I am now back to continue with days 5 to 7 of our adventure.

We spent 3 days in Zermatt to enjoy some more hiking and the fantastic views of the Matterhorn. We were lucky that we had beautiful sunny days. It started to rain heavily only towards the end of our stay in Zermatt. =)

The famous Matterhorn. This is what we came to Zermatt for. =)

On Day 5, we travelled from Interlaken Ost to Zermatt. We checked ourselves into Hotel Dufour. It is a beautiful hotel. Good-sized room with a balcony which opens up to a view of the Matterhorn. The service and breakfast were excellent. I will definitely recommend the hotel to friends and return to stay if I visit Zermatt again.

View from my room at Hotel Dufour

Once we arrived at Zermatt and checked into the hotel, we took a quick short hike to Gorner Gorge. Zermatt is a car-less place, so we walked everywhere. We do not need to worry about getting lost as all trails lead back to Zermatt.

View of Zermatt on the way back from Gorner Gorge. Beautiful, right?

My favorite day on my entire Switzerland holiday was day 6. We took the underground funicular (a freezing ride for about eight minutes), gondola and cable car up to Rothorn and hiked downhill from Rothorn to Sunnegga. I love, love, love this hike! We passed by Lake Stellisee where we stopped for a while to enjoy the fresh air, the freedom, the space, the view and watching people fishing and swimming in the lake.

The day was sunny, the wind was nippy, the views were intoxicating and so we got all happy and did not realized how tanned we got until we got back to town in the afternoon. We passed by a mirror and saw that our skin is so tanned that it was starting to burn (despite applying sunscreen in the morning). We bought more sunscreen and after-sun care from the Coop and religiously applied onto ourselves over the next few days, hoping that our skin will not peel.

Beautiful Lake Stellisee

On Day 7, we took the train up to Gornergrat. It was freezing up there and it rained a bit. We took the train back down to Riffelap and hiked from there back to Zermatt.

Two consecutive days of hiking downwards did a LOT of damage to my knees and I had 3 blisters on my right foot (my right foot is slightly bigger than my left) but the pain and sweat is all worth it. Zermatt was definitely a highlight!

On both days, after our hikes, we sat at the busy junction at the Matterhorn Museum to enjoy a big scoop of Movenpick ice cream and watch the goat parade. Old Zermatt Cafe nearby is a good place to an early dinner after burning your calories while hiking.

 

The daily goat parade. Once they passed, watch your steps, you don't want to step on their poo!

Till my next blog post, visit Zermatt! =)

Photo App from A Beautiful Mess

I wrote about my favorite photo apps last August and 1 year later, I am still using Labelbox and less so of the other 3 apps.

I am in love with the photo app from A Beautiful Mess right now. I love the very unique and handmade fonts that they have.  They turn normal pictures into something meaningful for people to remember. I love jazzing up my pictures and send them to my friends for a good laugh and smile. =)

Till my next blog post, be creative with your photos! =)

Making more rubber stamps ...

I discovered the joy of making rubber stamps a few months ago and am still loving it. I am still doing letters and words. Sharing with you some of the rubber stamps that I have made ...

Set of alphabets from A to Z.
Now I can stamp my own name on everything. =)

Till my next blog post, do some rubber stamping! =)

Interlaken and Jungfraujoch

Day 3 and 4 of our summer holiday in Switzerland:

We travelled from Zurich to Interlaken in the morning of Day 3, visited the Swiss Open-Air Folk Museum at Ballenberg in afternoon and went on a boat cruise from Brienz to Interlaken.

We stayed in a small bed & breakfast in Interlaken West and from there we took the train and bus to the Museum. Our Swiss Passes gave us free entry to the Museum. The Museum showcased the architecture, life and crafts from the various regions in Switzerland. It is ok, not great and quite fake. There are some farm animals kept in captivity which really made me sad.
=(

The highlight for me was the boat trip from Brienz back to Interlaken. I loved it! It was very relaxing, the weather was great and the wind blowing at me made me feel so light and happy. 

We took this boat from Brienz to Interlaken Ost



On Day 4, we set off early to Jungfraujoch, the Top of Europe. The train rides took about two and a half hours. The place like a shopping mall up there. There are tons of people, a few restaurants with overpriced food, an 'ice palace', a history exhibit, a video show, ski and sled facilities, etc. We took the elevator to the Sphinx observatory, the highest viewing point. We went out to walk around on the snow and my son went sledding. He has been looking forward to doing some sledding or skiing.

The views from the train rides were beautiful! I sat on the right side of the train and I want to say a big 'thank-you' to the Swiss who built the train tracks and tunnels up at this high altitude for ordinary people like me to enjoy.

 

Till my next post, forget about the destination and just enjoy the journey! =)

Hiking Ebenalp

Day 2 of our summer holiday in Switzerland:

 

Our first hike in Switzerland was an easy hike at Ebenalp. We took the cable car up to Ebenalp and took a short loop hike - Ebenalp-Wildkirchli-Ascher-Ebenalp.

The hike is supposedly to take 50 minutes. But we stopped numerous times to have lunch and ice cream, take photos, drink water, enjoy the views, watch the hang-gliders, etc, that it took us more than 2 hours to do the loop. But, no regrets. We had a great time. =)

We had lunch at the Gasthaus Ascher. I had some pork with my rosti. The rosti was good. As I was eating, I noticed that there are many flies flying around which seemed strange to me as I have always thought flies are specific to Asia. Don't ask me why. Maybe humidity breeds flies. After lunch, we continued our hike and we passed by a herd of pigs about less than 50 metres from the restaurant. That got me thinking that perhaps the flies and my lunch came from there ..... 

Crowded lunch spot. We have to wait for seats.

Putting the pigs and the flies aside, we also passed by a small chapel and the bear cave. Our experience at Ebenalp was fantastic. Spectacular views, clear air, blue skies!! What more can I ask for? Pure bliss!

Till my next blog post, watch the flies! =)