Let's Go rough or go lonely, just bring a guide zum Schweiz?

October 4, 2007 11:31 AM

Swissfilter: Moving to Switzerland. Looking for book recommendations.

Travel guides? We've found they vary in quality between countries. Mostly used to using Let's Go and Lonely Planet. Also looking at books for expats, and will be getting the Culture Shock! Switzerland book, and one someone recommended "Living in Switzerland". Any more suggestions? Thanks!

posted by Goofyy to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

I'm from the US, I lived in Zurich for three months and had a fantastic time. If you don't mind a self link, I wrote a lot of blog posts about travels and life in Switzerland you may find useful.

If you're there for more than a couple of months then be sure to buy the Halbtaxe, the half-tax card for the rail system. You pay a fixed fee that gives you half off all Swiss train travel. Pays for itself very quickly if you want to travel.

David Hampshire's book Living and Working in Switzerland is invaluable for everyday practical stuff; buy it and start reading now. Don't get Glueck's book "Living Among the Swiss". It's snide and fails to be funny and contains no useful information.

Will you be moving to Zurich? If so, the Expats in Zurich mailing list is a great little resource and community for you. The folks there were very friendly and helpful.
posted by Nelson at 11:51 AM on October 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Stupid Amazon broke my link: try Hampshire's book Living and Working in Switzerland, 10th edition. There's an 11th in the works but don't wait for it, the editions don't change much.
posted by Nelson at 11:56 AM on October 4, 2007

Seconding the living and working in Switzerland book, it is really good.

Once you're here if you are bored be sure to join the New in Zürich meetup group!
posted by sebas at 12:58 PM on October 4, 2007

I went to Switzerland for two weeks and ended up living in Zürich 10 years. There was a good english bookshop run by Orrel Füsli (might have the spelling wrong) just off the Bahnhofstrasse on the left two blocks up from the Hauptbahnhof. They'll have a good selection of current culture-shock-type books.

It is very easy to fall into a pattern of hanging out with other expats. I couldn't stand that scene. If you're going to be there for any length of time (ie 2+ years) make the investment in taking German lessons. They'll start you out with "HochDuetsch" until you've gotten the basics down, but after a while you'll find ZuriDuetsch sneeking into your vocabulary.

Have a great time. I left ~3 years ago to come to Australia but I'll always feel a bit homesick for the place.
posted by michswiss at 4:43 PM on October 4, 2007

Definitely don't hang out too much with other expats. It turns it into one big hey-we're-a-bunch-of-Amis-in-a-German-speaking-theme-park-called-Germany/Austria/Switzerland experience, and it's (in my opinion) not as much fun. I found the Lonely Planet guide to Germany to be useful when I lived there, but the prices will almost certainly be out of date. Call or look at the web site of museums, transportation, etc., to double-check.

As said above, if you don't speak German, try to learn at least the basics. At least in Germany, people are generally pleased if you at least try to speak German, but will frequently want to speak English with you. I don't know about the Swiss.

Oh, and avoid discussing politics.
posted by oaf at 5:15 AM on October 5, 2007

Sorry it took so long to mark a favorite, and thanks for the help. My internet was down for over a week! Be sure, I am quite looking forward to getting away from South African internet access!
posted by Goofyy at 10:36 PM on October 18, 2007

Sorry for the late answer, but there is a good and funny book called "Beyond Chocolate" by Margaret Oertig-Davidson. Even as a Swiss, I enjoyed this lighthearted introduction to my own culture.
posted by lord_yo at 5:11 AM on June 6, 2008