Smarter Travel in faraway places
On a recent business trip to Zurich, Switzerland, I was pleased to see smarter travel practices. No wonder the Swiss are called efficient!
The Airport
After picking up my luggage at the Airport baggage claim and clearing customs (wow – it was a Right for declare and a Left for nothing to declare – the nothing to declare plopped you into the outside walking area – Left was pretty much a no brainer) I headed to the hotel shuttle area. Once there, I was wondering how 15 people awaiting it, each with 1 to 4 bags of luggage, would all fit. When the van pulled up it was obvious. Someone had the idea to put in tow, a covered trailer. This is where all the passengers luggage went. No more stuffing the van’s back doors or limiting the number of people. No charge per bag.
Escalators we have in the US. The Swiss do it better. First, the escalators only move when they sense someone approaching, or someone is on the escalator. This saves wear and electricity. Second, the escalator entrance and exit steps are flat when you start to get on them for about 4 steps and the go flat again when you step off. Typically, in the US, it is only 1 or 2 steps. The longer area gives more time to get on-board and then they start to raise. They are also lighted at both ends with neon green giving them a clean appearance.
Tipping
Tipping is typically not required. At first this felt odd to me. Back in the states, the driver or waiter basically stands there with their palms out and open, or they look at you until you provide up the cash. After dinner, in the US, we all try and figure the sum between 15% and 20% and I’ve seen family shouting matches if someone paying tries to short the waiter with a measly 10%. Not here in Switzerland. In Switzerland, the tip is engineered into the food price. You pay for your meal and if you feel kind (or a bit awkward), leave a few CHF’s (Swiss Franc’s) but that is really optional. As anyone coming into Switzerland will soon realize that nothing is inexpensive here.
Better Transportation
In one of the cities I visited, called Basel (pronounced Bah-zel), the central down-town is mostly devoid of traffic. Beautiful, clean and well kept electric street cars (trolleys) are used in the city. The Swiss are typically quite fit. Seems all that Walking does wonders. The trolleys run by the honor system. Buy a ticket for your ride at the machine at any stop , and if you are very randomly asked for your ticket and don’t have one, you have to pay a steep fine + buy the fair ticket. This makes the trolley ride much simpler, no exchange of money for ticket by the driver. Their job is just to drive and keep the trolley safe. This goes for their intercity train system too. Another thing of beauty to get people to work. There are cars, but parking garages are expensive and so is having a car here.
Bicycles Rule too. I really think the Swiss climate is very similar to the North East US. But, if you are in most US cities, there are a very limited number of business men and women that ride to work and back. However, in Switzerland, this may have to do with the lack of outside parking, and gas prices being much higher compared with the cheap US cost (even if most American’s think that gas is way to high where they live)
Trains are set to leave at the time posted. Make sure you are there ahead of the time posted, otherwise if the time is posted 9:59 Depart, the train will depart at 9:59 and you can miss your train. Seems the city virtually runs on Trolley’s and Trains.
Safety
The streets are safe. Very little crime for the large cities they have. You feel a sense of ‘I can walk anywhere and I should be OK’. I walked around usually with some colleagues at dinner time, and we had no issues at all. Also lacking were homeless people lounging around the train stations, near the city trolley areas, etc.
In the hotel I stayed (The Airport Hilton) they engineered a system for the electronic room key. It controlled not only the access to the door, but a slot was placed inside the room, where upon inserting it, the lights would go on. When you leave, just take the card, leave the room, and the lights go back out after a few minutes. Returning, they will go back on to where you had them set.
Each room had a digital safe. Super easy to use. Placing your passport and other valuables, made you feel less vulnerable while away from your room.
Even with the best of trips, you never know when you might misplace your wallet, lose your luggage or perhaps you have a medical emergency. I always take with me my “Secured Traveler” drive. This is a drive purchased from Aspenologies on the web at www.SecuredTraveler.com . It was very handy to have on the trip to keep a daily journal of my trips activities. The drive is loaded with special software to allow inclusion of a backup copy of my passport, my medical information, credit card call numbers back to the state just in case, and the drive is fully secured as it has a biometric finger swipe to gain entrance. It also has 256Bit encryption.
I enjoyed my stay in Switzerland, with lots more to see in coming years. The people are friendly and hard working, the countryside and mountains are beautiful and you can set your watch to any train you hop onto – That Swiss efficiency!
