My First Solo Trip to Switzerland

It’s no secret among my friends/family that I love travelling. I’ve touched on it in previous posts but this was a slow development into what is now a full blown obsession. At around the age of 15, I got my first Lonely Planet coffee table book (which I no longer own) and fervently began planning a gap year around Europe which would never happen because ‘unfortunately’ I never failed my A-levels so went straight to university after sixth form.

It got to the point where it was approaching the end of my first year of university and my long (~4 month) break was looming with little to no plans for the summer made. I can’t remember if I tried to determine if any friends were interested but either way I decided that the only way to get something done for sure was do it myself. So in a moment of exam stress and needing something to look forward to, I popped online (probably didn’t know what Skyscanner was so just went on Easyjet’s website) and found cheap flights to Zurich in Switzerland. Before you knew it, I’d booked flights for an 8 day trip to Zurich! 8 days was basically a random choice – I think I wanted around 5 days but the flights were cheaper for 8 days.

So in July off I went! One thing I will say is that this was in 2014 and all of the photos included in this post were taken on my state of the art iPhone 5… so don’t judge awful photo quality. The other thing is that it pretty much rained solidly for the 8 days I was there, which is great luck for July in Europe! Nonetheless I had a great time, and Switzerland is firmly on my list of places I need to revisit (especially because I only got to see a tiny corner of this country).

I will say that Switzerland is not necessarily a great choice for a student on a budget… it was SO expensive. I didn’t eat in a restaurant once and lived on my hostel’s free breakfast, which I would also use to make a sandwich wrapped in tissues for my lunch. I seem to remember having cereal for dinner which doesn’t seem like 3 sufficient meals?!

It was my first experience (of many) of hostels and all the room-sharing, weirdo-avoiding, friend-meeting that comes with it. I had the unlucky pleasure of sharing my bunk bed with an aging hippy man from America who thinks the peace sign is upside down (it’s a YOUTH hostel hun, hang out with people your own age). As for the rest of the hostel residents I met, it was great to chat to people and the FIFA World Cup was on which is a natural magnet for socialising. I went on a few day trips with people that I met so this hostel experience definitely made any future travels less intimidating.

Even with all of the rain, I made sure to make the most of my time here. It was really lovely to have so long somewhere and really feel the relaxed pace. It’s a way that I haven’t really ever travelled since, because I’m always trying to make the most of my time… a 4 months break isn’t really on the cards at the moment!

Ascending to the summit of Mt Rigi

I spent a number of days walking around the city; I did a walk up to a hill overlooking the lake (Lake Zurich). The day trip that I did with hostel friends was to the Rhine Falls and then I also booked 2 other day trips on Viator before I arrived. One of these was to Liechtenstein (hello passport stamp and another country!) and the village of Heidi which I wouldn’t actually recommend. The other day trip on the other hand was AMAZING. It was to Mount Rigi and Lucerne and I loved the fresh Swiss air on top of that mountain! On my last day, the sun came out and I spent most of my day (waiting for my flight) swimming in the lake. It was most likely the thing that sparked my love my lakes and lake-swimming as it was an absolute dream, although I did then have to get my flight slightly damp!

In general, my trip went smoothly given it was my first real solo trip. Of course there were some hiccups, particularly along the theme of not packing for the right weather. Of course I checked the forecast before going and knew it was going to rain but I was thinking it would still be warm so all I would need is an umbrella? Well I didn’t call it quite right because it felt absolutely freezing. On day 1 I bought tights and the cheapest jacket I could find (I still have it). A few days in I bought some trainers from Nike (the cheapest I could find) because I realised I wanted to do a lot of walking and my ballet shoes weren’t going to cut it in the rain.

All in all I definitely recognise the important of this trip in my life and am very grateful I was feeling impending doom that exam season. I would encourage everyone to do a solo trip at some point, whether they have people to go with or not. I’m finding it to articulate why it’s so valuable to do but I guess I just always had the confidence from that trip on to know that I could experience everything I want to, travel partner or not. It may happen that you don’t need to travel solo, but time to be selfish and do what you want to do on a trip is pretty great regardless. It’s now been a while since I have travelled solo and I’m definitely itching to plan something solo again soon so I don’t develop that comfort blanket of accompanied travel!

If you have any questions about my trip or anything else please drop me a comment below!