Camping in Switzerland – some basic advice needed!

Miss J is going to a summer camp in Leysin, and Mrs J and I will drive her down and spend a couple of weeks on holiday. Mrs J has said she would like to camp – a new departure for her!!! – so I’d like to ask if folk have advice for camping in Switzerland – could be specific picturesque campsites, or advice on if you need to book ahead, or … anything that might be useful!!

Thanks!!

We went to Interlaken a couple of years ago – we stayed here. Really nice friendly site with its own little bar/restaurant, and fantastic views of the Jungfrau and Eiger. The mountain biking is fairly good too.

Camping in Switzerland doesn’t seem to be any different from other European countries – we never book ahead, and didn’t have a problem, even in the middle of August.

Hope you have fun – we loved it.

MrsT

Thanks – looks great!!

a Rough Guide or similar should be helpful

expect rain, i went camping in austria a few years back, it went from 30/40deg and bright sunshine at mid day to biblical/torrential rain (i’ve never seen rain like it!) in a few hours. Ended up pitching the tent halfway up a mountain, net to some woods to shield me from the most fo the wind, and on a very steep slope to stop the tent ending up in a puddle!

The alps do have a habit of having downpours. Dig a little trench around your tent if you can so that you dont get standing water under your groundsheet. Also plan your route carefully so that you dont end up having ridden your bike for 11 hours solid in 30 degree heat and only have a nuist camp to stay at!! I think they are more common in Austrian than Swtitzerland.

We camped in Interlaken last summer (different place to Mrs Tricky by the look of it) and it was definitely a family camping resort. The owner tried to dissuade us from staying there and was insistent on the 10.30pm curfew. There was no noise from other people after this time and security guards patrolling. We had to keep quiet to prevent being evicted…
This is not a warning about campsites in Switzerland, just advice that you should get an idea of what the campsite is like before you book.

For example, we camped in Sion a month later, had a barbeque and music playing (quietly) until 3am with no problems….

There is a bike park in Leysin and some good trails apparently, I’ve been there once and didn’t rate it but will return this year for sure. If you plan on staying in Interlaken, visit Lauterbrunnen to see the waterfalls… You can get a train to Grindelwald (or higher) and cycle back down to Interlaken. There are plenty of companies in town that will take you rafting, paragliding or canyoning too!

I bought an ASCI camping guide from Lidl about 3 years ago and have used it regularly on motorbike trips to Europe and Scandinavia. I don’t know if the book is still available, but you can order a DVD and look at the following website Eurocamping[/url].

It has been great when riding the motorbike. When we get fed up or too tired of riding, out comes the campsite book and we look for the nearest one that is on (or close to) our route. If you check out the website, they have photos and descriptions of all the sites and a list of the facilities.

So far in 3 major trips, we have only been turned away from one site because it was too full and I can only think of one site (a huge one in Normandy) that was noisy and a bit grotty (although the facilities were great).

I can certainly recommend the ASCI campsites and there are over 200 of them listed on the website in Switzerland.

Excellent! I’m not sure that a DVD can replace a book, but that will help a lot!

According to the website, they do a smaller guide with less campsites in.

I agree with you though, how do you view a DVD while you are travelling?

I think I might email them and see if they are doing another book.

Dr J

I emailed the the UK distributor of the ASCI guide and they don’t think that they will be producing a paper version of the DVD for the UK. Lidl might but that is up to the Lidl management.

The distributors did sugest the following guide, but say it’s not quite as good as the ASCI one as they don’t visit the sites every year.

Caravan Club Guide

you could try: http://www.alanrogers.com

well organized and informative website and in my experience (mainly france) accurate descriptions of campsites you can book through them or just use as a resource

ADAC (the German equivalent to the AA) do the definitive camping guide for Europe IMO and list every conceivable thing about each camp-site. IME Swiss camp-sites were always very clean and the friendly but some closer to the railway stations were always oversubscribed with inter-railers in the holiday season.

Another Interlaken visitor here. Went last year, second the Grindelwald trip. Stayed at a site called Manor Farm, there are a few near each other next to lake Thun, one where you can stay in big wigwams!

Nice leisurely walk to the town centre from the campsite by the river, ferry trips etc and the biggest mountains you ever saw overlooking the whole place.

From Grindalwald there are cable cars in all directions and hiking trails to a glacier, cows with bells the works. Was red hot, never rained once.

20 mins down the road from Interlaken is Meiringen. We stayed here and will be returning this summer:-

http://www.alpencamping.ch Very nice new loos and facilities to suit novice camper…. No need to book in June but would email ahead for summer.

Lauterbrunnen / Grindelwald / Interlaken are nice places but in summer will be crawling in tourists from all over the globe. Brienz at the other end of the lake is OK and much quieter (everyone does boat trip there from Interlaken).

Also don’t miss out on a day trip to Luzern.

We had a week of sun at start of June last year. Only problem was the hot fohn wind trying to flatten the tent!

Ive camped at Brienz and Luzern, loveley. I remember there being firefly things flying about, I thought I was having more acid flashbacks.

Swiss Camping Links

there are some useful links on this My Switzerland page…

And to prove the Swiss do have a sense of humour, this video shows the crack team of mountain cleaners.. 🙂

Swiss Mountain Cleaners

Thanks again everyone. Also – I have found that the ASCI book is available here in Holland. Of course it is in Clogg-ish, but the little symbols are easy enough to understand.