Switzerland | Imamother

ESB

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 12:13 am

Im planning a trip in February will be in switzerland from sunday to thursday........
I need help planning my itinerary.
Please reply privatly and I will give you my email address or if you want you can write here.
I know I want to see St Moritz, Arosa, Davos, dunno what else.. I dont want to ski, but sledding and snow tubing will be great. which hotels are affordable. I dont need with food cuz Im banded and dh is a tiny eater. We will stop at my aunt in zurich on our way up and buy some food there. But can we order food up there on the mountains?

Share all your good info here please....
thanx!

Mrs Bissli

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 4:17 pm

Firstly when in February are you going? Mid-Feb may coincide with school holidays in UK, Belgium and France (and other european countries?) so it'll be croweded with families and prices are very high.

Although Davos and Arosa look very close on the map, there's no direct route over the mountain so you'll have to drive on a detour/backtrack toward Chur. I think it would be about 1-1.5hrs. From Zurich it's about 2hrs. St Moritz is further toward Italian Alps so I assume it's about 3hours.

Food: if you stock up on basics (meat, cheese, milk/dairy if you keep CY), you can find either Co-Op or Migros supermarkets across Switzerland. If you go to Zurich koshercc list on icz.org, there's an extensive list of what's approved. (Scroll all the way down to Koscher). There is also a section on kosher bread--now this is specific for each stores in each cantons so you need to pay attention. I find swiss bread to be excellent, we don't eat much hamotzi during the week, though you may play it safe and bring your own challot or pitta.

Accomodation: Can't really comment as we tend to go in (off-season) summer and rent an apartment/chalet. Your best bet is contact local tourist office and get a list of hotels and holiday rental apartments. For self-catering/apartment, there's usually minimum 1week so you may have to throw away a bit of money, and changeover in peak season is usually Saturday to Saturday.

zissy2004

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 4:35 pm

If u have a car it might be worth it to stay in Zurich and go on days outings from there.
U have engelberg and Davos not very far from there and there is a place 30 min from Zurich to go sledding.
We went sledding an hour from Zurich in a place called flumserberg.
This might maybe save money as hotels are very expensive then (it's HIGH season in February)

baba

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 5:22 pm

the 2nd and 3rd week of Feb is ski vacation, so yeah, major high season, I'd be surprised if you could find anything decent in any of the 3 places you mentioned. Also, Davos, Arosa and st. Moritz are all 3 ski places, I'm havent been too all three, but if you're not skiing (and even if you are), I cant imagine it's worth it to go to all of them. I'd just pick one.

baba

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 5:31 pm

zissy2004 wrote:

Hmmmm the alps in February (picture blue sky, all white mountains around you, niflaos haboreh) I really should go back in February lol (sorry, getting carried away here)

Well we were just there, but in a place that wasnt so high up (though still a ski resort) and it's been very warm for this time of year. So picture skiing down a mountain and then, suddenly, skiing on grass....

Mrs Bissli

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 5:33 pm

chaig wrote:

Mrs bissli are you from zurich that you know all these infos?
Op im from switzerland so pm for info u want

No, I'm not from Zurich, but we have been going to Switzerland for summer holidays and I travell zurich/geneve/bern for business occasionally.

baba

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 5:34 pm

Mrs Bissli wrote:

chaig wrote:

Mrs bissli are you from zurich that you know all these infos?
Op im from switzerland so pm for info u want

No, I'm not from Zurich, but we have been going to Switzerland for summer holidays and I travell zurich/geneve/bern for business occasionally.

And you never pop in?!

baba

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 5:36 pm

zissy2004 wrote:

I know baba, I didn't come at a right time Sad

But flumserberg was still fun! I'm black and blue still from sledding hehe!

Ah, so come back soon! And thanks for the Flumserberg tip. I just checked and it's only an hour away.

cool_mama

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 7:14 pm

Mrs bissli, wow not bad!! Btw about the list of icz not everyone will approve of it so the other two communities also have a list and everything in there is kosher not like by icz where they have stuff on it that not everyone will eat!
Baba u live in zh?

ESB

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 10:34 pm

I will be there from February 3-7. Levine hotel said its low season then.

I really want to sled hope I will manage.

THanx mrs bissli, but we are talking about 2 tiny eaters. We live on chips and nosh. I mean we love good food but can see myself going on chips and crackers and tuna. So food isnt an issue.

I will try booking on priceline a resort for cheaper see what I come up with....
can you go snowtubing there? or just skiing and sledding?

amother

Tue, Jan 08 2013, 3:00 am

chaig wrote:

For a list that's more acceptable to everyone, go to www.irgz.ch

lili

Tue, Jan 08 2013, 3:58 am

If I was you, I'd stick to one place.
the places you mentioned are not so close.
Arosa is great in the winter.
You can also stay in Zurich for a day or two and do some outings from there.
I dont think it's practical to go to St. Moritz Davos and Arosa in 4 days.

PM me for more Info if you want

baba

Tue, Jan 08 2013, 4:30 am

amother wrote:

chaig wrote:

For a list that's more acceptable to everyone, go to www.irgz.ch

I really dont think you're being fair to the ICZ list and are painting a false picture.
The ICZ list is the only one that has milchigs on it for those of us that dont eat only CY. Yes, it has a few products on it that they have taken from other countries lists, that not everyone holds by, but all these products are marked clearly, so you can really avoid them if need be. For the rest, the two lists are the same and either way, they're all made by the same rabbi.

Mrs Bissli

Tue, Jan 08 2013, 9:49 am

chaig/amother, thanks for clarifying about the koscherliste. For some reason I always thought Zurich list was more trustworthy than Geneve. Are there specific items on the ICZ list that are not commonly accepted? Is it just chalav akum/CY? Off the topic but does anyone still make acceptable maronnenvermicelli?

Baba, I'll contact you the next time, but I've cut back (or rather my employer has cut back) travelling in favour of conference calls, and as for our holidays, we've discovered French Alps with less onerous exchange rates!

oh and the other amother, I'm only sticking to familiar paces as seen by lack of any comments on Niagara Falls/Hershey/Florida...

amother

Tue, Jan 08 2013, 10:06 am

Mrs Bissli wrote:

You can get marroni puree in Coop - it's called Bio Marronenpuree and comes in a block weighing 220 grams (not to be confused with the regular Coop Marronenpuree that is not on the list) - but you have to add the cream to it and squeeze it through the vermicelle press. There's a brand called Ditzler that's also on the list but it's not as readily available.

The ICZ list has products available in Switzerland that appear on the kosher lists of other rabbinates. Some lists are more reliable and some are less, but the list doesn't tell you which rabbinate approves which items. This is besides the CY problem, which seems to be observed more strictly here than in the US. The IRG list has only items approved by the IRG rabbinate, which is considered very reliable.