Would like to visit Bern, possibly this coming Saturday. Any recent tips for the airport (apart from PPR, the somewhat high fees and high vis)?
How well does the public transport connection to Bern city work in practice? I understand it takes some time all in all. But a taxi straight to Bern city is ~50€, so 100€ total…
No Uber in Bern either, no?
On Sunday, I’d possibly like to visit a few airfields in the mountains in southern Switzerland. Thinking of Gruyères, Bex and Raron. Any other ones I should really do? (I have already done Saanen twice, which is a great one, but get bored of airports like Sion and Samedan).
Problem is the last one before leaving needs to be one with Ausflugszoll…
Thanks!
Bern is well organized so no particular points besides the ones you mentioned. Just check parking rate and availability as well.
There is Uber available in Lausanne / Montreux area so I would expect the same for Bern.
Gruyere is very nice with a traffic pattern around the village of La Gruyere. Very scenic.
Not that many more in mountains in Southern Switzerland than you mention (Sion of course yes) but one close by is Ecuvillens (Fribourg) and is a bit sporty if you wanna try that. Not that much activity there though, the same for Yverdon. Neuchatel has a bit more activity weekends and is scenic too.
Don’t know top of my head status of last three mentioned re Departure Customs. Otherwise, there’s always Lausanne fairly close by depending on where (how far south) in Switzerland you fly.
But Saanen is always great. Never forget parking next to a Falcon 7X there which came straight from US into Saanen… with that rather tight approach at the end of a 7/8+ hour flight. Those guys had the right stuff!
Let me know if I can be of any further help.
You can use public transport everywhere in Switzerland: it is well organized, usually on time and in some cities faster than cars. You can check the schedules under sbb.ch but I personally use Google maps: it has a very complete coverage of the routes and provides all the information needed, including if it is running on time or if there are delays. E.g. from Bern Airport to downtown Bern it takes 30 minutes with one change as you can see here. You can buy tickets either at the stations (machines) or online (again sbb.ch) or there are mobile apps (again search for SBB).
About airports:
Thanks @ all,
Re Bern: so, far so good. Getting PPR was a matter of two lines via email.
Tower was quite busy when we arrived. Public transport into the city went like clockwork (as expected in Switzerland). Bern is beautiful and interesting… for a day or so…
Fingers crossed for the weather tomorrow… hoping to do some Alpine flying…
Today was an awesome day of flying indeed! The first flight was Bern to Bex, with detours into the Valais and the Bernese Alps…
We fought the Arrow up to 14,000 feet (actually, she climbed up there quite alright) and to start off with, enjoyed the views of the Valais Alps (Dent Blanche, Matterhorn and Weisshorn), from all sides.
Then we flew back to the Bernese Alps.
Aletsch Glacier
Moench, Eiger and Jungfrau, from the south.
At Bex, we parked alongside a beautiful Travel Air (which we had already seen this morning at Bern…)
After a very nice and relaxed lunch at the Bex airfield restaurant, we basically flew all across Switzerland (from southwest to northeast). What a flight!
Back home now. Tired, but happy!
Wonderful pics…. Is that fresh snow around Jungfrau?
I wouldn’t think so.
Peter wrote:
Is that fresh snow around Jungfrau?
It was 32 degrees in Zurich last week and there was no precipitation, so I don’t think there was new snow on Jungfrau.
Was a nice flight, apparently Thanks for sharing.