Old 04-15-16, 02:00 AM
  #3  
Chris_W
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 2,344

Bikes: road+, gravel, commuter/tourer, tandem, e-cargo, folder

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I've lived in Switzerland for 11 years and have ridden my bike across it several times and have done some bike tour guiding. The Swiss National Route 5 is the easiest of the official national routes. Routes 4 and 9 are the most scenic, but involve some long climbs (no problem with the right gearing and right attitude even if you're not used to it). I expect that you've already found this site that has an interactive map showing all routes:
https://map.wanderland.ch/?lang=en&r...31750&Y=189000
Click on the selector buttons on the left to turn on and off the regional, local, or national routes.

All the Swiss national routes take quite convoluted ways to get to places so that they can stay on the quietest roads possible. There are often other nearby roads that are not busy but are far more direct and flatter. After a couple of days of religiously following the marked routes, many people start using the rest of the road network for some sections to make travel more efficient. Swiss drivers are generally courteous. Personally, I've very rarely used the official bike routes and prefer to choose roads to use based on looking at standard maps. Strava Heat Map is also a good resource that shows the routes that cyclists use most frequently: http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#8/7....1313/gray/bike

Switzerland is generally more expensive than the rest of Europe. However, regular products in stores, including food, are not that much more expensive, but services where the majority of the cost is Swiss labor is where things are really expensive, meaning restaurants and hotels. Swiss people themselves don't camp much, but there are campgrounds in all major tourist spots to serve the foreign visitors. I'm not a big fan of organized campgrounds, so when I camp, I normally wild-camp; because I try to be stealthy, I've never been approached by anyone when doing so.
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