driving in switzerland tips?

[dhr90]

In a couple of weeks I'll be going to Switzerland for a week, we land at Zurich airport and have a car hired from Budget, just a fiesta or similar.
From Zurich we will be driving to Grindelwald via Biel and Bern. We also have a trip to Interlaken planned on one day and Lauterbrunnen on another day.
On the return leg to Zurich we will be going via Lake Lucerne.

Budget state within their terms that they winterise the car with snow tyres, and it appears the motorway vignette is provided as well.
Snow chains are a cost extra from the rental company. Has anyone experience on the roads in these areas and can advise if it is likely I will need to rip my fingers off fitting them? Or are they good roads and we should avoid the unnecessary hire of them altogether?

Any other tips for driving abroad? This will be our first time driving abroad and also to Switzerland, so if anyone has any tips, I would appreciate it.

[S60D5-185]

I would contact SwissXC90 on here. He lives there and will know better than most.

Ive been four times and other than the vignette never had anything else to think about other than extorionate prices

[Harvey1512]

No experience of Switzerland but we often hire cars abroad on holiday so plenty of experience there. My biggest tip is to work in tandem with whoever is sat in the passenger seat, share the job. By that I mean if you are driving the passenger is totally responsible for directions, exits, the lot. Your job is to drive safely, they look after the details. You can then fully focus on the road, the cars around you, being in the centre of your lane, speed limits etc.

It's important the passenger knows their responsibility, that it doesn't stop after 10 minutes. It may be that by day 3 or 4 you, or the driver, can do the lot but until then, or perhaps never, you work fully in tandem. Think of it like a rally driver and co driver.

One other tip, check the speed limits before you go for the different areas you will be in, towns, built up areas, dual carriageway. We were in majorca this summer and I was surprised how many roads did not have speed limit signs and so you needed to know the limits yourself. Day one I drove like a nun 🤣, lesson learnt.

I find that you generally get into the flow quite quickly, follow what the other drivers are doing, and it soon becomes routine. Don't worry in effect.

[CJL]

I'm driving from the UK to Lauterbrunnen in a couple of days. Will have winter tyres and chains, but I don't expect to use them. It's been warm there the last week or so, but it is a climb up to Grindelwald, so you might need chains if it was snowing a lot. But like all ski resorts, they are good at keeping the roads open. Got a feeling it might be law to have chains, but not sure.... need SwissXC90.

Only other thing I'd say is Swiss Motorways have green signs, other roads blue... ie the opposite to here.

[Bashy]

Go in summer......

[xsaab]

Take heed of the Dunn accident in August - it is so easy to slip into auto mode when joining a road and proceeding on the LH side as in the UK, remind your passenger to shout out if you have slipped into UK driving mode. THis error often occurs when you have been driving on the right for several days.

[S60D5-185]

Originally Posted by xsaab

Take heed of the Dunn accident in August - it is so easy to slip into auto mode when joining a road and proceeding on the LH side as in the UK, remind your passenger to shout out if you have slipped into UK driving mode. THis error often occurs when you have been driving on the right for several days.

Very good advice.

I have found that it's easiest to make this mistake after stopping briefly for something like fuel.

[xsaab]

Yes that is when I started out in UK mode, fortunately my "shotgun" shouted out and there was no other traffic to avoid.

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by dhr90

Any other tips for driving abroad? This will be our first time driving abroad and also to Switzerland, so if anyone has any tips, I would appreciate it.

A rental car will come equipped with winter tyres and with the Autobahn Vignette, so no worries there.

You have to be extremely unlucky to have an autobahn covered in snow.
They are the first roads cleared and salted, and they salt in advance of the snowfall to keep the tarmac clear of ice and snow.

I bought chains for my older car and never used them in 4 years of ownership here in Switzerland.

The road to Grindelwald is all Autobahn apart form the last 15 kms or so from Interlaken, and the only place you'd get snow on the roads is in Grindelwald village itself.
Everything else will be clear.
Unless there's a snowfall happening right then.

From the Brienzersee over the Brünig pass you can get some snow sometimes, and they do close the pass road. But watch the weather and traffic conditions on Google Maps or TCS and you'll know well in advance.

I throughly recommend driving over the Brünig pass to Luzern, much nicer than any other route.

When in Grindelwald there are a million nice things to do, from skiing, sledding, snowshoe walking and winter hiking. I've done them all there.

As for speed limits:
50 kmph in towns (but in Grindelwald itself it'll likely be 30kmph), 80kmph between towns, and 120kmph on the Autobahn
Very few speed cameras on the Autobahn, people happily drive 130 or 140. But the fines are steep!
The places you'll get flashed are the many many speed cameras on the 80kmph roads and on the outskirts of towns, so watch out.
It's a 40 CHF fine minimum for up to 5kmph over, then 80 CHF, then 300 CHF, then you're into the thousands.....
It's 300 CHF for running a red light too, and there are loads of red light cameras in the cities.

Anyway, if there's any snow on the road you'd be a fool to speed.

Watch the construction site around the Gübrist tunnel on the ring road around Zürich, which you will be driving through.

You don't need to go through Biel to get to Grindelwald. The motorway is straight through Bern to Interlaken. Watch the spaghetti junctions in Bern, they are all 80kmph or 100kmph zones, and make sure you follow the many signs.

Enjoy Grindelwald! It's a lovely town, albeit full of tourists.....

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by CJL

I'm driving from the UK to Lauterbrunnen in a couple of days. Will have winter tyres and chains, but I don't expect to use them. It's been warm there the last week or so, but it is a climb up to Grindelwald, so you might need chains if it was snowing a lot. But like all ski resorts, they are good at keeping the roads open. Got a feeling it might be law to have chains, but not sure.... need SwissXC90.

Only other thing I'd say is Swiss Motorways have green signs, other roads blue... ie the opposite to here.

Lauterbrunnen is currently green and muddy.... the snowfall this weekend is around 1600m and above, below that it's rain. We canceled out snowshoe tour today due to the rain.
Warms up next week, unseasonally warm... might go for another bike ride...