Swiss Miracle

Customer Reviews

• RK

  Reginald

  · November 16th, 2024
  Vtaly was an excellent guide. Very knowledgeable. Good driver. Care about us
  Trip date: November 2024
• HR

  Hamsakumari

  · October 17th, 2024
  This tour is incredible! Based on my experiences, highly recommend it! The amount you get to see really gives you a good intro to Switzerland. Tour is an excellent balance of the country’s natural beauty as well as the cultural historical gems. In a few days we cover so much, yet are done daily by 4-5pm and with 2 free days to pursue optional excursions or to explore on our own. Hotels are 4 stars and very nice with good breakfast - one right on the lake near Interlaken, in heart of Geneva across from main train station, and modern Marriott Chaplin themed hotel. Free public transportation in each of these areas with hotel stay.. (Two notes about European hotels - even in 4 star, rooms are smaller and AC/heat not always available but can usually get portable fan/heater. ) Tour description does not do the tour justice. We had walking tours of Zurich, Geneva, Bern, historic beautiful towns of Gruyère, SteinAmRhein with lunch right by the river. Visited Chillon Castle 45 min, Olympic Museum in Lausanne for short time, stopped to see UNESCO-listed Lavaux vineyard terraces, Queen’s music studio in Montreux, visited several historic Churches along with visiting cheese and chocolate factories (with sampling of Swiss chocolate of course). On our free days, some explored the Interlaken area where you can even do paragliding on your own and staying in Vevey, you can take a boat tour on Lake Geneva. (Or even take boat over to Evian, France for a short visit. Enjoyed doing but takes all day and involves changing 2 boats each way.) There is an optional tour to hot springs in the evening in Vevey that people who did, really enjoyed. Visits to the natural gems were my favorite! Rhine Falls, widest waterfall in Europe to the Trummelbach falls inside a mountain! So unique! Then getting to walk 45 minutes on path suspended midway of a deep canyon/gorge, with the walls towering above you, following the river below you from its widest parts to its narrowest, is incredible. Lauterbrunnen Valley, valley of 72 falls (in spring) with its steep cliffs & views of snow capped mountain peaks is incredible! So many waterfalls including site where a James Bond movie was filmed. All in the beautiful hilly Alpine background of pastures & cows- yes does look just like the postcards! Lakes, mountains, pastures, rivers - waters that are blue in one place and an incredible green elsewhere. Takes your breath away! Traveling through Switzerland, it is incredible to see the seemingly impossible engineering marvels that bring you up close to these natural gems! Loved the small group. With only 5-8 of us, we got personal attention, lot of interaction with our guide, our questions answered, plus got to know our fellow travelers. Been on several large day tours - no personal attention, difficult to get your questions answered. Our guide Vitalli makes this tour special! He definitely knows his history & shares his passion with us so makes it more exciting. We learned about the government, daily life, banking, culture as well as history. Vitalli knows all the BEST photo spots! We quickly learned to wait for him to tell us the best spot lol. He also took photos for all of us. Vitalli was humorous and most importantly thoughtful and kind. If it was hard for someone to walk, he stayed with them and dropped off right in front, picked up, if needed, helped with luggage, etc. On our free days, he would share options, get us maps, train/bus schedules, sit down and give detailed instructions how to do - even having us take notes. If we wanted to do individual things on our free days, he helped us plan and be prepared. Vitalli genuinely cares that each one of us really enjoy our Switzerland experience. For example optional excursions can only happen if there are a minimum number of people. Yet some of us wanted to still do those excursions and he advised us how to still do on our own. If you can tolerate the altitude and are able to do, visit Jungfraujoch! Breathtaking to take the amazing cable car to 11,000+ feet, to be on top of a glacier in snow, wind, ice and to go to Sphinx Terrace, see the Ice Palace with floors/walls of ice and ice carvings. It is expensive and weather dependent but based on my experience, so worth it! Would have been great to have gone on the optional tour with Vitalli as our guide to Jungfraujoch. Also went to CERN via tram, the particle accelerator science site, 15 minutes from Geneva on my own, and did a small tour on the last day. Great experience. This tour is truly a Swiss Fairytale - did not get the name first but realize now. From German speaking areas of Zürich, Interlaken, to Bern, to French speaking areas of Lake Geneva, Vevey, Montreux and Geneva - Switzerland is incredible and Vitalli is an amazing knowledgeable tour leader who genuinely cares that each of us enjoy the experience and learn.
  Show more
  Trip date: September 2024
• H

  HT

  · October 14th, 2024
  I highly recommend Open Up Swiss to everyone. Our tour guide, Vitalii, was incredibly knowledgeable and ensured that each of us (group of 9 adults) had a special experience. He took a lot of photos for us and made excellent recommendations for restaurants and other places to visit in Switzerland. Thank you again Vitalii.
  Show more
  Trip date: October 2024
• GN

  Glen

  · October 6th, 2024
  Vitali, is a fantastic guide, so helpful and smart.
  Trip date: September 2024
• LP

  Lenore

  · October 5th, 2024
  The trip around Switzerland was perfectly timed! We saw enough of every part to really say we saw Switzerland! Our guide Vitale, was the best. I am a fan of history but he knew and shared details of each place that were both interesting and unusual. He has a passion for history and it shows. Great trip and I recommend it to everyone. Last note - when Vitale says “Follow me!” He means it! He had us trained by the end of the week
  Show more
  
  Trip date: October 2024
• S

  S

  · September 26th, 2024
  What awesome tour! Vitalli was an excellent guide. With a background in history, he gave us a wealth of information and fun facts. Highly recommend him and this tour!
  
  Trip date: August 2024
• YH

  Yan

  · September 20th, 2024
  The tour guide Vitalii is exceptional, full of knowledge & stories, highly recommended 👍
  
  Trip date: September 2024
• VB

  Vivien

  · September 17th, 2024
  The tour is really a six day tour, not eight and probably quite expensive for what you get. The tour guide/driver arrived at 9.00am on day 2. He introduced himself then loaded our luggage and we were off. At the end of day seven, the guide dropped us at our hotel at 5pm and the tour was over. To call day 8 free time in Geneva is a little ambitious. The itinerary was quite good for the length of time and the places visited very interesting but the activities often felt rushed. There was days when we had several events on and not enough time, then a whole day of free time following. Maybe these activités could be organised over the two days with a longer time at the places of interest. The optional tour of Lucerne is definitely overpriced at $100chf for a very average and rushed tour and I believe should be included in the tour. Unlike any other tour I have been on, the guide did not stay with the group and appeared to go and do other things while the group had free time. We had a change of guide for a day for some reason. The hotels were good and served a good breakfast each morning. Some hotels were quite a distance from general places of interest and public transport, free mainly, has to be used to get into places of interest on the free days. The guide was friendly and knowledgeable.
  Show more
  Trip date: August 2024
• O

  Odi

  · September 17th, 2024
  Fantastic adventure in the most beautiful places in Switzerland. Zurich during August was around 33 degrees Celsius (105F) and humid, so was not too pleasant considering that there is no a/c anywhere, not in restaurants, not in hotels (lucky us, Zuri had a/c), so it was hard to enjoy Zurich. Once we went to the mountains, (and September came), the weather was perfect. True a fairy tale, gorgeous landscape and views. The included tour to the cheese factory and chocolate factory were great. Our tour guide and driver, Vitalii, was very knowledgeable of the history of each site we visited. He cared about us and ensured our comfort everywhere. I love the very small group size, it was intimate, and we all got along. Be prepared that everything in Switzerland is very expensive!
  Show more
  Trip date: July 2024
• MH

  Maria

  · August 1st, 2024
  I thoroughly enjoyed my Swiss Fairytale tour, guided by Vitali. Vitali gave his all, and was very knowledgeable and friendly. . He gave great local tips. His knowledge of history was incredible . Communication was excellent, and I always felt cared for. The tour was a great balance of shared activities and some free days, I’d highly recommend this tour, with Vitatali as the guide. Many thanks, Maria
  Show more
  
  Trip date: July 2024