Just landed myself a job in Switzerland to start in February. I'll be based in Fribourg so not in the mountains but not too far away so can't complain!
I know there are a few of you who live out there so if any of you can offer any advice on both general living and of course riding, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Tim
I'd just like to know how to land a job in Switzerland
A bit of effort, a lot of luck and a very rare alignment of the planets!
I lived in Bern for 2.5 years and have now been in Basel for 5.5 years.
Fribourg is not in the mountains but pretty damn close, like probably 15 minutes away from the closest thing you could call a mountain. Loads of good riding close to there. My personal favourite spot is the Valais for riding. Just so so SO much good stuff to do.
If you ever venture to Zurich/eastern Switzerland, there's quite a bit of a English-speaking MTB scene going on over there organised by an Irish guy who frequents this forum called Dave.
Trains here are excellent. Get a half-fare card (yearly) which gives you reasonable value. You can use trains to get to the trails, bikes go on them no bother, although you have to buy a chf15 day pass for your bike.
The Swiss are a bit particular about some stuff, but generally nice I think. Learn their language and you'll get on with them better. You're moving to a bilingual city, so that'll be cool.
Good luck!
Hi Ash,
Thanks for the response, I'll be sure to check out valais come spring time, I expect my mate has ridden there already. Will be getting one of those travel cards for sure, it costs a fortune otherwise! I think I'll have some spare time on my hands so will be trying to refresh my gcse French. Many swiss people speak good English but I'd be an idiot not to make the most of it and speak the language.
Thanks again. Anyone else? I know there are more of you out there!
There is a chance we might be moving there in February so we visited Zurich a couple of weeks ago for a look see. I came away feeling like a poorper. Zurich is so expensive it made my eyes water.
The Swiss tend to be friendly in a kinda smug way, but it is nice that everyone that we came across spoke English.
I've been here six years now and coming on a regular basis for 10. I second everything that Ash said. Wallis/Valais is breathtaking in every way you can think of. If you are planning on riding a lot the halb-tax is invaluable and there is also a yearly ticket to take your bike on the train. The two together are great for doing bike routes that don't start and end in the same place.
In my book Graubunden compares with Valais in terms of the trails but the best stuff is a little bit more hidden and the scenery is not quite as spectacular in Valais. It's still stunning up there though.
The country is small enough that day trips are possible to almost anywhere and the crew that I ride with make use of that quite often. I don't know the area around Fribourg too well but I'm sure you've got to have some good stuff on your doorstep and some amazing stuff within a short journey.
If you want to see whats on offer within about 1-2 hours of where you are just check out the "Vast" and "Virtuous" videos. It's nearly all here and all very easily accessible to anybody who wants to find it.
If you do find yourself heading east give me a shout, or occasionally we'll be riding down Wallis direction once the snow starts to melt, as we've got to get fit for an event that some bloke who frequents this forum is organising in the south of France. 
BTW... I'd also second what Ash said about learning the language. It really helps with finding the off the beaten track stuff.
I lived in morgins for about two years but can't help much as i very rarely came down from the mountain , but I can say its great 
Alot of Swiss i heard 
I'll get my coat 
The same Hugh Jardon that frequents a certain boat forum?
And yes you should definitely get your coat, I'll call a taxi too 
Hi Tim,
Lived in Basel for 4 years, and will be here for likely 3 more. Me and the family love it.
Really must hook up with Ash, as I am sure we will have passed one another with respective riding groups at some point up the Gempen. (i'm the fat bloke either huffing up, or swearing incessantly on the way down!).
As for living, only thing to prepare you for is that it is a **** load more expensive to live here than you can possibly imagine. Tax seems cheap, it is, but health insurance, dentists (oooh, don't get me started on dentists), eating out etc are brutally expensive. takes a bit of adjusting to, financially things are just a bit more 'long term' here, and once you shift from UK way of thinking, you'll be fine. Takes a year or 2 though.
If you have any wiggle room for more cash on your contract, push for it.
There will be lot's of trails near you, just get out and ride. The bigger stuff is stunning, but basically all the forests have legal and cheeky trails that can all be linked up nicely.
HTH!
Kev
Some great advice, thanks. I've been out a few times now to visit and ride with my mate so I have a fair idea of the additional costs. Fribourg seems reasonable compared to what people say about Zurich and Geneva. I'll be on far more than I am now so overall I think I'll be better off despite higher cost of living.
Does anyone know the ins and outs of car insurance for a swiss car and also an English car? What about mobile phone contracts? If you are just over the boarder in France, are you charged international call rates?
I worked in Fribourg for a while, nice town. Very close to some amazing riding. Probably two hours and you're in the Portes du Soleil too.
Good luck, I'm jealous!
Regarding mobiles, I locked mine to my Swiss network, and it stays on that even if you're just over the border.
Car insurance is fairly straight forward. You'll pay more than you do in the UK, it's about the same as I used to pay in Ireland. You might have a bit of trouble insuring a UK car still on UK plates but it is possible. AFAIK, you're UK insurance will only cover you for one year. After that you're car has to be registered here anyway and you'll have to change to a Swiss license (straight swap).
Mobile phones, there are three main operators (Sunrise, Orange, Swisscom(Vodafone partner)) and a few cheapy prepaid ones which piggy back on the main networks (Yallo, Migros, COOP etc). You will be roaming when you cross the border to France, you also need to be careful with Data on your phone when riding near border areas. I've had emails come in when riding close to the border with Italy and got charged roaming rates even though I was still in Switzerland. We use Sunrise for mobile, landline and internet. I can't remember what we pay but it's not too expensive and the internet is thrown in for free. You'll need to find which one suits you the best but we are quite happy with Sunrise.
Whatever people say Zurich doesn't have to be expensive as it's made out. By living a little outside the city rent can be halved and train connections can get you to a city centre office in less time then some of the trams would take if you lived in the city!
Some stuff is expensive but in general I am far better off here then I would ever be living at home in Ireland and I am certainly not in the CH high earning bracket. It's quite easy to avoid the exorbitantly expensive places and shop or eat out where the locals go.
More good advice, thanks. I won't be taking my car out, but may get something out there. It could be the excuse I've always needed to buy a pickup
Everyone so far seems to reside in the east, anyone around the south/west areas?
Congrats....I'm jealous!
Zurich is a great city - I have friends there and always find reasons to visit..
I lived in Davos (next to Klosters) for a year, which is a famous resort for skiing and summits, and well worth a visit.
French is the main language in Fribourg but the Swiss German(Switzerdeutsch) is difficult to understand, and even being fluent in high German, I could only understand about half of what was being said when they spoke amongst themselves!
Good luck
Auf Wieder Lueger !
It fair to say Switzerland is expensive, but as Dave said above there are ways to more cheaply..... we chose the grow as much food as you can tactic (the climate is very good for this). It works well with some graft, but you don't have to go to those lenghts. Try and buy stuff (like bike bits) online, and get them posted over, even with import duty it still comes out cheaper. Also if you've got anything to fix, try and DIY, swiss labour is expensive. Theres loads of stuff to do in the mountains though so just get out there and keep exploring.
Oh and we're based in canton Vaud (in case the user name didn't give it away) near Lausanne. There is alot of riding to be had in both Vaud and Wallis. We packed our bikes away for winter for moment, in favour of the boards and XC skis, but give us a shout come spring and we're happy to share what we've found so far.
Rich
As above re phone morgins where I was is right on swiss France border and I just locked to swiss networkand it held it a fair way over the border
Yetivaud, are you who I think you are? If so hope you got home safe on Saturday.
It fair to say Switzerland is expensive, but as Dave said above there are ways to more cheaply..... we chose the grow as much food as you can tactic (the climate is very good for this). It works well with some graft, but you don't have to go to those lenghts. Try and buy stuff (like bike bits) online, and get them posted over, even with import duty it still comes out cheaper. Also if you've got anything to fix, try and DIY, swiss labour is expensive. Theres loads of stuff to do in the mountains though so just get out there and keep exploring.
Oh and we're based in canton Vaud (in case the user name didn't give it away) near Lausanne. There is alot of riding to be had in both Vaud and Wallis. We packed our bikes away for winter for moment, in favour of the boards and XC skis, but give us a shout come spring and we're happy to share what we've found so far.Rich
Yeah, tired, but fine. Big thanks again though, it was great day out. How you liking those eggs?
The eggs were great... I had to go back for them though. Me being the ultimate numpty walked out without them. :-/
Good honest to goodness Jura chickens.
Phototim - good luck in the new job. It's not like the blokes you will be working with won't know where the good riding will be
Thanks again for all the advice and thanks too for the offers rides come summer! I'll be sure to check this thread again when the snow starts melting.
Stoatsbrother, word seems to spread far on this interweb thing (scuttles off to see what his brother has been up to...)
Anybody know where the good stuff is in Vaud? I go there regularly but have yet to find great singletrack.
Also, could anybody advise what the situation is on legal vs. cheeky trails?
Cheers
Andy
They don't like you building stuff in the woods, if that's you mean, but to date I've not had any problems just riding random paths I've found (with random clearing of branches from the path to make them ridable). Mind you I don't see many folk when I'm out, so it's not like I've seen people who would complain.
As for places to ride.....theres not much classic alpine singletrack in vaud (or at least I've not found it). But there is some good stuff to ride, Mt.Pèlerin has some cheaky stuff tucked away in the forest, although theres a fair few walkers there at the weekend.
Rochers de Naye is pretty ossum, especially if you start the climb from the lake, thus getting a full 1600m of descending from the top, we always do this at the beggining of the summer.... as a sort of right of passage to the summers alpine riding on the 6" full sussers.
Leysin (full suss) is also good as is the Moléson (hard tail), they both have some alpine singletrack, but I've yet to link up some good loops there.
In the Jura around the Col de Marchairuz, I'm just starting to link together some sweet stuff as we live near by. I've started exploring a fair bit with a map. It's hard work though to find good stuff, and you end up looping around a bit to get the best out of the area. But it's perfect hard tail territory, with the best stuff tending to traverse the ridge of the jura. It's good though, the ups are short and sharp a bit like the downs and they follow in quick sucession. Tiring at 1400m.
I'm happy to share what I know, if anybody wants to hook-up for some riding when the snow thaws.
Thanks Yetivaud. I've ridden Leysin a couple of times and the lift assisted stuff is fun. I think there's more to explore there. Never tried Moleson, but it's not too far away so will have to check it out in the summer. Re legal/cheeky I've never been sure about whether it's ok to ride on mountain paths. I've tried to research on the web without success.
Would be good to hook up when the trails re-appear!
Hello All,
Interesting thread, I've recently moved with my family to the French Alps just south of Lac Leman, and have been thinking of heading over to the Saleve or the Jura for a bit of riding one weekend. Obviously its a bit snowy now but it would be great to hook up with some people for a bit or riding in the spring before the lifts open.
Also, does anyone know where some BMX tracks are in the area of Geneva / Thonon / Evian?
Cheers!
Some good info here, thanks.
Does anyone dabble in a bit of downhill? I ride everything but love a bit of lift up and then point it straight down kind of riding. Are all the ski lifts open in the summer for riding? What about races? When I was in zermatt in September, there was a swiss national DH race. Are these the only DH races I'm likely to find?
Try Dorenaz, its an awesome track.
ddmonkey - there's a great looking dirtjump circuit next to the UCI building in Aigle if that's of any interest to you. Not that I would dare ride them.
Ok cheers I'll look it up - not sure how far that is from me. I've been told there is a track in Thonon but have found out where yet...
for some lift assisted riding, try this one in chaumont, next to neuchâtel:
http://www.traildevils.ch/trail.php?tid=133
it's not exactly real DH, more like north-shore-type of riding, but fun anyway.
also, check out http://www.traildevils.ch for trails and community-stuff in switzerland (german only). might be helpful, covers almost all of switzerlands official trails with maps, vids etc.
now some thread-hijacking, sorry: ash, am i wrong or are you the guy that posted a vid from a nice sunday morning downhill in the southern part of the black forest, some weeks ago? i'm a swiss based in basel but the black forrest is more or less unknown to me - was that some place near freiburg (D)?
thanx
Hi there, I live in Lausanne and have been here for 5 years. If Fribourg's anything like Lausanne you'll find that during the summer there's always something going on - the Swiss love their fêtes.. You'll have to adjust to restricted opening hours in shops and the fact that nothing is open on Sundays; but that just forces you to get out and enjoy the countryside..
If you're going to try and restore your GCSE French I would recommend the Michel Thomas courses..
For car (and other)insurance, you should check out Comparis
A very useful source of info and social events is here: English Forum
If you need cheering up, there is a touring English comedy club (your nearest venue would be Lausanne I think..)
Funny Laundry
Finally, in terms of MTBing and downhill, one place that's worth a look is Metabief. It's in the Jura, just over the French border. There are various routes down from the chairlift including some scary downhill stuff...
sorry: ash, am i wrong or are you the guy that posted a vid from a nice sunday morning downhill in the southern part of the black forest, some weeks ago? i'm a swiss based in basel but the black forrest is more or less unknown to me - was that some place near freiburg (D)?
thanx
Yeah it was me. The ride was off the south side of the Belchen in the Schwarzwald. I live in Kleinbasel and go to Vosges/Schwarzwald quite often because I think they are much better for singletrack than Jura (personal opinion). Let me know if you want to go for a ride sometime! (sapaudia AT gmail DOT com)
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