Switzerland / France / Singapore
- caravanhalen
- Apr 6
- 9 min read
After a very brief time in Liechtenstein, we were off to Switzerland for a week, and I think it was my favourite part of the trip. We’d spent most of our time on holiday in cities, and had thoroughly enjoyed a lot of old towns and history, cathedrals and museums. But it was great to spend a bit of time in nature, and treat ourselves to a big helping of fresh air and wide open spaces
How's the serenity? We’d loved the scenery of Austria and Southern Germany, and Switzerland took the best of that and added some massive and dramatic mountain ranges. Mountains can pose some problems with getting around, but the Swiss have got it figured out. The motorway network is outstanding, and priced accordingly – especially as there’s only one vignette option, valid for a year. Seemingly a good chunk of those fees are reinvested in innumerable tunnels through mountains, including some several kilometres long
And if you need a really, really long tunnel through a mountain, you don’t have to build a motorway – a train line will do. Twice on our travels we found the best way from A to B involved a car-transporting train. Pull up to the station, drive onto the carriage, and sit back as you’re driven through the mountain. It’s pitch black, very loud, and a bit smelly, but still a very cool experience.
More cowbell! And then when you reach the mountain you’re aiming for, if you’re wanting to get a bit higher, you’ll likely be spending a bit of time in a cable car. The big resort areas like Zermatt and Grindelwald have loads of epic, very expensive options, but anywhere even vaguely touristy will have a few options to take you up to views and hiking
Our first stop was the small town of Emmetten, twenty minutes or so from Lucerne. We’d originally planned to head into the town, or to one of the more well-known resort areas nearby like Stanserhorn or Mt Pilatus. But the cable car going up the mountain across the road from our hotel looked like a pretty good option too, with a relatively cheap ticket taking you 10 minutes uphill to Stockhutte, with a cracking kids adventure play area, a restaurant, some great family hiking trails, and the option to come down on a ‘mountain scooter’. The mountain scooter looks good in theory and photos, but the parent/kid sharing option proved remarkably uncomfortable, and we were all quite glad to get the bottom
Before proving we weren’t cut out for mountain scootering life, we went on a nice little stroll, soundtracked by a lot of cows with a lot of cowbells. The hiking trail had several BBQ areas, with families stopping to cook sausages and raclette, and an archery trail, seemingly a popular summer sport
Next stop Brig, about as close as we could get to Zermatt, the gateway to the Matterhorn, without taking out a second mortgage. Zermatt itself is car-free, and reached by a park and ride train. The village itself is precision engineered to extract as much money as possible from the wealthy tourist, with every kind of luxury shop, restaurants and cafes galore, and then some very pricy cable car and train options to get closer to, or a different view of, the Matterhorn. We opted for the budget version, a sandwich from the supermarket and a reccie on foot
The Matterhorn itself is stunning, competing only with Mt Fuji for the title of the world’s most recognisable mountain vista, especially if you’re partial to Toblerone or have been to LA Disneyland. Like it’s Japanese rival, it’s often hiding behind the clouds, which was our experience. It’s still a wonderful sight, and it’s fun to wander around Zermatt and the foothills, with even small changes in angle and elevation showing a slightly different vista
Trainspotting There are some brilliant hikes around Zermatt, but most are relatively long and challenging for younger hikers. We opted for one of the more straightforward options – skipping the return train ride, and taking a trail downhill instead for a couple of hours, lured by the promise of marmot sightings. Sadly, the marmots had other plans, but we did enjoy a herd of shaggy two-tone mountain goats, and waving to the train
Our third Swiss stop was Grindelwald, an even more picturesque, even pricier resort area, home to the Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger (Young Girl, Monk, Ogre) peaks. We stayed at the backpackers, and it was still the most expensive accommodation on the trip. But a view like this out the window softens the blow somewhat
There are backpackers with worse views The most famous outing in Grindelwald is a trip to the Jungfraujoch station, the Top of Europe. A family ticket is getting close to NZD$1000 so we went for a cheaper option – the cable car to Mannlichen, hiking the Panorama Trail to Kleine Scheidegg and the cog railway back down
The cable car ride itself is amazing – it just keeps going and going, past herds of jingly cows, the view getting even better. Mannlichen is about 2300m above sea level, roughly the same as Mt Ngaurahoe. You definitely notice the elevation – the air is a lot thinner and it’s appreciably cooler. The kids enjoyed another cracking playground, including a giant cow slide. The Panorama Trail was brilliant, with incredible views of the three famed peaks. With enough bribes of sweets, the kids didn’t even mind the hike too much
Outside of Eastern European, most places on the trip had seemed expensive. We’d expected Scandinavia to be the most budget-busting, but Switerland comfortably took the (posh chocolate) biscuit, with even coffee, beer, burgers or groceries seeming a good 30-50% dearer than a France, Germany, or UK.
We had a pretty good crack at the Swiss food experience. As well as lots of tasty chocolate, we enjoyed raclette (cheesy potatoes), alpermagronen (swiss mac and cheese), and best of all, fondue. The latter was on our way to France, at Yverdon-les-Bains, in a tiny restaurant that was charmingly old school and cash-only. The fondue with wild mushrooms was outstanding, although I think was full for about a week afterwards
France
We stopped off for a night in Beaune to break up the drive to Paris, where we would return our car and enjoy our last European city of the trip. Beaune is in the heart of Burgundy wine country, and is also known for the distinctive roof pattern of the Hopsices de Beaune, a historic hospital. Partial to a nice roof though I am, we were tired from the trip and just wanted to crash at our motel. I did check out the giant Carrefour however, and was wowed by an enormous selection of local wine and a surprisingly big shelf of local craft beer
The drive to Paris was one of those days of travel logistics that are best forgotten. It was very hot, and Paris is a very big city, with very big city sprawl and traffic. Driving round unending ring roads to get to the car dropoff near the airport seemed to take forever, including a couple of urgent stops to avoid Kitty carsickness. Putzing round the Charles de Gaulle terminals and train station with all our luggage to try and find a taxi rank or Uber pickup zone took hours more. Our hotel in Paris was in a great location near Notre Dame, and was charming building with friendly staff, but sadly no elevator, and lugging all our gear up five floors of spiral staircase nearly finished us off. But then we went outside
In any list of the world’s great cities, Paris would have to be near, and probably at, the top. It’s certainly a pretty effective and fast antidote to a bad travel day. A quick wander across the Seine to the Ile de la Cite to gaze at Notre Dame and everything feels very good again
We kept walking, criss-crossing the river, seeing an outdoor dance party by the Pont Chatelet, stopping for a Seine-side beer, and glimpsing the illuminated Eiffel Tower with its tourist batsignal. We wandered through the courtyard at the Louvre and the carousel garden. By this stage we were way overtired, but it’s a genuinely magical city to wander around at night
Our hotel had a fantastic breakfast for all guests – a basket with baguettes, crossants, butter and jam, and juice, coffee and hot chocolate. I used to travel a bit for business, and my fave bit of hotel breakfasts used to be dunking my croissant in my coffee, which usually attracted strange looks, but it definitely feels like the only appropriate course of action here
It was rainy and a little cold, and we went back to Notre Dame for some daytime views, then for a wander north of the Seine towards the Pompidou Centre, largely closed for renovations, but still a fun sight. We walked down the Champs Elysee, to the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe – being a cheesy tourist seems ok when the sights are the finest fromage
Pyramid scheme You could spend days at the Louvre and only scratch the surface, but we did a high speed half day, including joining the scrums at the big highlights. Mo has good museum crowd instincts and sharp elbows, so managed to get a good view for a snap of the Mona Lisa. The Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrice were much less touristed, and the incredible Louis XIV rooms and crown jewels were well worth a hike off the beaten track. We were all fascinated and mildly creeped out by the Egyptian hall (“Dad, is that a real dead person under there?”)
We made a slightly questionable dinner choice at a touristy place near the Arc de Triomphe, and tried to eat our way through some classics. ¼ of the party thought the snails were delicious
I could happily spend weeks wandering aimlessly and eating pastries, and we definitely did a fair amount of both. The kids enjoyed the Luxembourg Gardens, even if the mini sailboat hire was closed for the season. We found some cracking playgrounds too. Shyness may have got in the way of Mo using her French more often, but she ordered me a bloody good sandwich
Eiffel awesomeness I’m always amazed when reading how the Eiffel Tower was highly controversial and relatively widely disliked when it first opened for the World’s Fair. It’s both such an indelible icon of Paris, but also a brilliant design, perfectly situated. We took the elevator all the way to the top. The views from the middle layer are fantastic, and from the top simply incredible. My feelings about heights are changing rapidly as I get older, and I found the second elevator ride rather unpleasant. We took the stairs down, which is an endeavour in itself. A picnic of snacks and bubbles from the garden in front of the tower is a pretty great idea too, and being approached 47 times by the dudes hawking chilly bins of wine and beer only slightly dampened the fun
The day we had chosen for Paris Disneyland was wet and miserable, but if you can’t have a great time at Disneyland even in the rain then we can’t be friends. Eurodisney is a smaller footprint than LA, with a few differences in rides. The Haunted Mansion is replaced by the spookier Phantom Manor, the fairytale castle has an animatronic dragon underneath, and Hyperspace Mountain is a whole lot faster and more intense than Space Mountain (confirming that I have long lost my thrill ride mojo). We enjoyed all the classics like It’s A Small World, and Pirates of the Caribbean. The kids loved driving in Autopia, but no-one appreciated me convincing them that Big Thunder Mountain was a) family-friendly or b) worth an hour's queue
And that was that – we needed to get up early to head to the airport, with our lovely hotel leaving a tray of breakfast in our room for an early snack. Au revoir Paris, and the end of an awesome time in Europe.
Singapore
We came home via a night in Singapore, but in hindsight we’d got the timings all wrong. Treat this not as a review of Singapore as a holiday destination, more as a pen portrait of some people who really needed more sleep and more air conditioning. Our flight landed in the morning – we hadn’t slept a lot, but it was too early to check in, so we went for a swim and then a walk around a very muggy Sentosa Island. Everyone was tired, hot and a bit cranky. After a too long afternoon nap we got the monorail (monorail!) to VivoCity for a sushi train with robots, and much confusion at a Labubu popup. We slept all wrong and too late, went back to VivoCity the next day for more food (at the probably highly inauthentic but definitely highly delicious hawker market). And then off to the airport and home. Singapore, we apologise – we’ll need to come back when we’re in vaguely the right timezone and do this properly
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