Touring Information For Switzerland

Motorway Vignette: To ride/drive on the motorways in Switzerland a “Motorway Vignette” € is compulsory. If you arrive at the Swiss border via a motorway you will be stopped by Swiss Customs and will have to purchase a Vignette in order to continue to use any Swiss motorway. The Vignette currently costs £34.50 (but please check before travelling) and is valid for a year. If you get caught on the motorway without a valid Vignette the fine is 200SF plus you will have to buy a Vignette to continue. However, if you enter Switzerland via a non-motorway route you do not have to purchase a Vignette and as long as you stay off the motorways you can therefore save yourself the cost, so set your SatNav to plan routes in Switzerland via non-toll roads to avoid paying.

Speed Cameras: It is illegal in Switzerland to have advance warning of speed cameras on your SatNav. There are no advance warning road signs of speed cameras. The speed cameras in towns are in what looks like concrete litter bins so they are very hard to spot and on the open roads are usually very well hidden. The fines appear to be variable, depending on what speed you were over the limit by and most speeding fines are by camera.

Filtering: Filtering is very definitely illegal in Switzerland.

Currency: Switzerland is not in the Euro and the currency is the Swiss Franc (SF). However you don’t need to take Swiss Francs with you as everywhere accepts Euros. However, a point worth remembering is, if you are going to pay in Euros use small denomination Euro notes as your change will always be given in SF, often in coins, and you could end up with a bag full of SF coins that you can only spend/change in Switzerland. Current SF/Euro rate is approx 1 Euro = 1.2 SF.