<p>In the northern city of Basel, we had two department stores, Migros and Manor. Prices were pretty much fixed, so it didn’t matter much which store you visited. They had sales only twice per year, no clearance racks or coupons. Protectionism was a matter of national pride. Beautiful southern European strawberries and other fruits would vanish from the markets as soon as the Swiss crop was ready. We ate our etiolated misshapen fruit and were happy to support the local growers, ya ya. Every weekend I would travel across the border with a Swiss couple so they could stock up on meat from Germany. Shoppers were allowed 500 grams meat per person to bring back into Switzerland, so it was helpful to load the car up with extra bodies. All stores were closed on Sundays, and open only for a few hours on Saturday mornings. I would ride the tram to the grocery over my lunch break during the week and put the groceries in the laboratory cold room. Those were the days!</p>
<p>If you want to know what the National Debt is (certainly not 30 trillion!) look at the debt clock: [U.S</a>. National Debt Clock : Real Time](<a href=“http://www.usdebtclock.org/]U.S”>http://www.usdebtclock.org/) You can look up the 2008 numbers too. And of course they aren’t a third of what they are today.</p>
<p>Switzerland has always been expensive - high standard of living, landlocked country, Swiss bank accounts all play a part. Back in those days Germany’s grocery stores were also only open Saturday mornings.</p>
<p>Several years ago was in Interlaken for a week skiing. The price was high, but not shocking. This trip really shocked me.</p>
<p>Lack of retail? not so on the Main street at Interlaken, the whole street was selling coocoo clocks and the price differencial was minimal. Shockingly the price at restarunt are mostly the same… I cannot believe it.</p>
<p>You can get a 3 bedroom house in switzerland for way cheaper than $1.5M…</p>
<p>They pay through the nose for food and housing, even though by American standards (which they often find vulgar and wasteful) their homes/apartments are fairly small. But at the same time they enjoy free education, fabulous nationalized health care system and generous retirement. </p>
<p>You wouldn’t mind paying those high prices either if you knew that your important expenses, in addition to your children’s education, were taken care of.</p>
<p>Like missy pie, I was recently in Switzerland. Our family of 4 was charged $12 for TAP water, and a simple pizza and salad dinner was $200. We spoke with an American who had relocated there and he confirmed what katliamom says above.</p>
<p>D spent last fall in Zurich, and we visited for two weeks. We did find prices to be high (although quality was consistently high, as well). We spent two weeks in Australia earlier this summer, and we were surprised to find prices were even higher there!</p>
<p>Speaking of TAP water…</p>
<p>I took a tour to ski in the Swiss Alps, our tour operator had never been to Swiss, so when the hotel offered Half Board, they assume… Half Board. Well, dinner time came and they start charging TAP water extra from the meal, the tour operator freaked out, since it was not included in the cost… The breakfast was suppose buffet and all you can eat, really? There was not enough food on the table, so the tour operator had to ‘order’ extra buffet… They never went back(Switzerland) again.</p>
<p>Thought Australia is more reasonable, as the same tour operator revisited Australia every year.</p>
<p>[Cost</a> of weekly food in different countries - StumbleUpon](<a href=“http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2v81qt/formyhour.com/cost-of-weekly-food-in-different-countries]Cost”>http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2v81qt/formyhour.com/cost-of-weekly-food-in-different-countries)</p>
<p>LOL, Pizzagirl, our high was about $9 for tap water. I don’t get that part. Especially if the adults are ordering beer and wine. If they are put to too much trouble putting a pitcher of water under the tap, they could charge a small 1 or 2 franc fee. I think our low per small pitcher was about $4 and the high was $9.</p>
<p>The first night in Wengen, the food at our $60 “meal” (two “large” pizzas that were actually individual sized) was so sparse it was comical. After that I realized that we needed to spend $125-$150 per small one course meal just to not starve. The lowest priced meal we found was at the doner kabab place in Interlaken - about $16.25 per person for sandwich and drink.</p>
<p>Everyone has the right to charge whatever they want for their food. However, I posted a warning on Fodors, so that those on a tight budget would know.</p>
<p>Planestate - thanks for the charming description of life in Switzerland. Having been to Europe on and off over the years, I always thought how quaint and worker-friendly their limited business hours are, until I had to remember which stores opened which days and found myself racing to the stores before early closing time… Suddenly, hypocrite me does not think it’s so quaint at all!</p>
<p>Xiggi - the link reminds me to buy the “Hungry Planet” book. Awhile ago after reading it, I kept track of my family meat consumption for a couple of weeks, and was surprised that we still consumed more than the daily recommendation. And I thought I did such a good job using meat only as “flavoring” Mark Bittman style! Found out I had to cut back my “flavoring” quota even more…</p>
<p>Planestate, I lived in Zurich for several years and you post brought back fond memories. </p>
<p>To save a lot of money on food if you are visiting, take or acquire some basic eating utensils and get most of your food at grocery stores. The larger ones have a huge assortment of ready to eat food and beautiful pastries. They all have bread, always very fresh and often still warm, and good cheese.</p>
<p>A cheap place to eat lunch in Zurich is the student cafeteria at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Take the Polybahn (<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybahn[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybahn</a>) from Central Square near the train station. The view from the terrace there is lovely.</p>
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<p>interesting. My friend and I had a pizza in Lauterbrunnen that was fine for the two of us, and much cheaper than $30. Mostly we ate from grocery stores though (buy some fruit, some bread, cheese, and meat), since we were budget traveling.</p>
<p>At the end of Allmendstrasse, Interlaken, there is a huge supermarket. Food over there does not seem too expensive. We did not buy anything because we’ve already bought half board at the hotel and cooking is not allowed in the hotel.</p>
<p>xiggi, the picture of the family from Chad, sitting with their tiiny pile of $1.23 worth of food, is haunting me.</p>
<p>A lot of the reasons as to why it is so expensive in the Schweitz have been listed here. I know several people who are living over there and after the initial culture shock, have chosen to remain long term residents . The trick to doing this in any country is to learn to live like the natives and not try to replicate a lot of your US lifestyle. That can cut down the costs tremendously.</p>
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<p>I know, and it brings a different perspective to many of our daily frustrations. </p>
<p>This said, we should not be “ashamed” to discuss the price of taking European vacations. Every time I fill my gas tank, I remember that it represents more than what average workers makes a week just ten miles south of our border with Mexico. And think what this would be if I were to fill the same tank in Europe! </p>
<p>Fwiw, I would like to see a picture of you when getting that bill at the pizzeria in Europe.</p>
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<p>Well, we knew what the pizzas cost, so the bill wasn’t that much of surprise (exc the tap water cost.) What would be a great picture is what we looked like when the two tiny “large” pizzas were set before our family of 5. We had a hard time waiting to burst out laughing until after the waiter left.</p>
<p>I’m actually surprised you got tap water. In Germany everyone thinks it’s poisonous and even if you ask for unbubbly water it won’t be tap water. After enough stomach issues dh began to think maybe they were right. </p>
<p>At first the limited store hours drove me crazy, but about three years into our stay, I got to really appreciate the fact that our weekends were really weekends, because everything was closed. We did a lot of hiking on Sundays (followed by coffee and kuchen), because there was forced relaxation.</p>
<p>The Swiss franc is like gold - people buy it it times of crisis because it holds it’s value. Hence high exchange rate and even higher prices than normal at the moment. </p>
<p>I recommend visiting Iceland. They are pretty much bankrupt so everything is much cheaper than in the past (not cheap - similar to the UK - but cheaper than before).</p>