Cheap ways (for teen) to visit Switzerland and mountains!

[iwantavuvezela]

This might be a big ask, but DD and friend are going to Switzerland after final exams. The big ask is they have small budgets for this trip!

They can fly to Geneva to and stay with friends on way in and way out - and then want to head to "mountains" for a 3-5 days.

I was thinking perhaps Jungfrau area, but even youth hostels look quite pricey . wondering if anyone has done a short 5-7 day trip to this area with any tips.

They could possibly camp as well but they want to be around other young people to chat and mix with in the evenings.

Any suggestions or ideas to get them going.

If you want to do it cheaply, I'd take the bus over the border to Annecy. There is a youth hostel that overlooks Lake Annecy and has access to the mountains. Auberge de Jeunesse HI Annecy | Hi France It is significantly cheaper than what you would be looking at staying in the Swiss Alps (or any I've come across anyway) and it's a beautiful location. The bus from Geneva to Annecy takes around 45 mins.

Camping jungfrau offers pre pitched tents and caravans for reasonable price or they could take a tent, there are a few sites around there.

Camping Jungfrau in Lauterbrunnen has accommodation, rooms in the guest house as well as chalets and caravans, has a nice restaurant and shop. There are cooking facilities and a Co-Op and bakery in the village to keep the cost of catering for themselves down.
Swiss Travel Office has different travel passes that can be purchased before travel to reduce the rail fares and get reductions on the mountain railways.
www.swissrailways.com/en

France will be a lot cheaper!

France will be much cheaper, why don’t they make their way over to Morzine instead! It has a youthful vibe with cool bars, they could still head up into the mountains using the cable cars. There is summer tobogganing and they can chill by the lake and rent a boat, paddle board one day. Much better for for teens.

There are multiple train passes which give a fixed number of days travel and include some private mountain railways(although some will be extra and not cheap). Youth hostels are a thing for cheap accommodation https://www.youthhostel.ch/en or mySwitzerland.com has a list and suggested itineraries. Take student id cards in case reductions are available.

There is also an organisation called workaway which offers home stay accommodation in return for help, although may still need a visa.

Do the mountains have to be Swiss? Other more affordable countries have mountains.

If they are set on Switzerland get them to choose one of the areas where you get a regional pass when you pay the tourist tax. The Saas Valley is one where you pay 7Sfr a day and the post buses, most of the cable cars and some activities are then free. There is a similar scheme in the Villars area as well as in the Jura (some others too but I haven’t used them). You can even get it when you camp, just check that your accommodation is a member. www.saas-fee.ch/en/saastalcard/saastalcard-in-summer-and-autumn

Thanks everyone - that is so helpful - really appreciate this and going to look into all suggestions - they are set on Switzerland (it's a dream for one of the friends travelling). However they might need to change once we do a proposed itinerary and cost it .

Snap!!

Cafes in supermarkets like Migros sell some self service meals by weight which can be cheaper.

If they're camping, they need to take a decent tent. The weather's normally warm, but mountain storms are fierce and a festival tent won't survive.

Switzerland used to have quite an active couch surfing community because there are lots of foreign students, but I don't know if it exists now that airbnb is so big. Mountain huts can also be quite cheap but you need to walk up to them and book in advance. Even when they're there, they're not going to be able to afford food, tourist attractions, beer, cable cars etc, so if mountains are the goal, France or Italy would be much better. The Aosta valley in Italy goes under the Matterhorn or you can get under Mt Blanc in France.

I holidayed in Switzerland a couple of years ago, albeit in Zurich which is notoriously expensive.

Switzerland is extremely high cost for food and travel compared to the UK. Travel should be OK with student passes but if youth hostels have cafes there it could be worth staying in them, as buying food even in Migros is so expensive.

It’s expensive! Somewhere like morzine would be fab and there is a cable car route over to Switzerland (just for a quick visit).

As a pp suggested I would stay in a different country bordering Switzerland and visit.

So as mentioned above Morzine has ski lift links, also Cervinia in Italy is linked to Zermatt by ski lift. These lifts are open in summer

I appreciate staying over the border would be cheaper, but Camping Jungfrau at Lauterbrunnen is brilliant, as pp have said. When I stayed it was a changeover hub for the Megabus (yes, I’m old) so was full of backpacking young people from all over the world. The restaurant and pizza place were great hangouts for the young uns.
and it’s so beautiful there. Jungfrau, the Eiger, Schilthorn, boats around Interlaken, waterfalls all over the place.

I was travelling with a 10 and 7 yr old and went into such a lovely restaurant in Interlaken. The waitresses were so kind and attentive, although I worried about their uniforms being s bit chilly for them. Twas only after I realised I had taken the kids to dine at one of those Hooters places 😳