PR blogger goes cuckoo for Switzerland
TravelMole blogger Helena Beard finds Switzerland has more to offer than clocks,cheese and odd -shaped chocolate bars……
The reactions to my announcement that we were taking the kids to Switzerland last summer fell into two camps; the ‘ooh lucky you’ camp of those who had been there themselves, and the ‘er, why?’ camp of those who hadn’t.
To be honest, I was rather in the ‘why?’ camp myself but, given that I have trouble persuading my husband to venture outside Brighton, within 24 hours of him expressing a passing interest in Geneva, I had booked us all in for a city break followed by Heidi-esque family activity week in the Vaud.
My reservations grew when I saw my fellow travellers on the flight. There was money in them there aisles. Perfectly creased jeans in such numbers have not been seen since 1982. Healthy looking women with sweaters flung around their shoulders shared luggage sets with perma-tanned men in blue blazers. I even saw a teenager in a suit. Like a proper one. With a tie.
We clearly didn’t fit in. I asked one of the blazers if Switerland was nice in the summer. ‘Oh yes, it’s fabulous’ he replied, before realising in horror he may have made a huge mass-market- invasion-type mistake and adding ‘Don’t tell anyone’. By ‘anyone’, I’m guessing he meant my friends, or people owning almost nothing from Boden.
However, my inverted snobbery was entirely dismissed during the week ahead. Switzerland was wonderful. The scenery was dramatic and breathtaking, the people were kind and helpful, even the food was quite good. But this isn’t a Swiss travel guide. I’ll leave that to the proper travel writers.
What I wanted to say is simply that more families with small kids should ask about Switzerland for a summer holiday and more travel agents should offer it. It is just so easy. Not sure where you’re going? Perfect, clear signposts abound. Need the toilet in a Montreux multi-storey car park? Oh look, there’s a brilliantly equipped, spotlessly clean one. Kid splits head open on the bathroom floor (yes, that actually happened)? In and out of A&E with five stitches in less than an hour. Flights? Under £100 each, direct from Gatwick, couple of hours. Easy, easy, easy (Jet).
Is it expensive? Yes. But once you’ve saved £800 on the flights for four over what it would have cost to go to Greece or Turkey in peak summer holidays, that’s quite a few hiked restaurant bills covered.
And you’ll save a ton on bottled water.
Having a splashing time in Montreux
Helena Beard is Managing Director of KBC PR & Marketing, a PR, representation and marketing agency specialising in travel and tourism. For the record, The Swiss Tourist Board is not one of her clients. Much to her chagrin…
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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