Basic costs in Switzerland

Hello,
Wife and self thinking of skiing in Switzerland (maybe Zermatt or Wengen but could be elsewhere). Have not skied there for 7/8 years and realise due to exchange rate etc its relatively expensive these days.(as already confirmed by quite a few contributors to the forum!)
However we would appreciate advice or comments on basic costs (Coffee, meals on mountain, beer, wine etc etc) from people who have skied there recently. -)

If you last skied there 7 or 8 years ago, I'm guessing the exchange rate was about 2 CHF to the £. I think it's about 1.45 at the moment which has been the going rate for the last 3 or 4 years.

Therefore it's bound to feel about 1/3rd more expensive, notwithstanding the affect of inflation over the period. We've skied Zermatt twice in the last 2 years. I did a report on our 1st trip as below:

https://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/15193.page

On the mountain, coffee and soft drinks were approx £3 to £4. Meals such as Rosti were between £15 and £20. It's possible to eat out in the town without blowing the bank account but you would need to restrict your choice to pizzas etc (I think these were £12 to £15). Restaurants offering traditional menus were considerably more. On our 2nd trip we spent over £350 on our final night in a nice restaurant (4 adults and 2 teenage children)! This was a mid price restaurant by the way! We were half board on our 1st trip so somewhat insulated from eating out costs. We self catered 2nd time round.

For our family of 4, I estimate that we spent between £75 and £100 every day on the mountain (lunch and separate coffee stop). We tend to ski the full day so need to keep well fuelled and I'm not keen on lumping around a backpack.

Therefore it ain't cheap. Superb resort though. We think it's one of the best we've skied.

Today we paid CHF 4 (£2.85) for a coffee, same for a hot chocolate at an on-piste cafe in the Savoleyres sector of the 4 Valleys. Earlier at lunch, it came to a total of CHF 25 (£17.60) for two people to each have a large glass of apple juice, thick veg soup with crutons and cheese, and a roll. This was at the summit station of the sector. A beer would have been CHF 7 (£5). You do have to be careful once you start eating more interesting food e.g. champignons en croute would be CHF 20 (£14).

Here's the menu and prices middle-of-the-road on-piste restaurant where we stopped for coffee/chocolate, called 'Chez Simon':

http://www.chezsimon.ch/chezsimon/index.php/nos-menus/carte-d-hiver

The rabbit (lapin) is very local - they live outside in their huts. I've always wondered if - as with lobster - you have to go outside and choose the one you want to eat.

Of course, if you decide to stop at one of the on-piste, up-market restaurants right in the middle of the Verbier slopes, then you'll probably pay a fair bit more. Chez Simon is somewhat out of the way in terms of the Verbier ski area, so it's probably the minimum you'd pay for that standard of food.

Thanks to both of those replies--exactly the sort of detail we have been looking for. Just looked up the date we were last in Zermatt, March 2008 so quite a difference in ex rate.

I skied Zermatt 4 days out of 6 last week. Prices vary from place to place. Disgracefully it was 12 CHF for a 1.5 litres bottle of water in the self service at Riffelalp, although we paid 4 CHF for coffee lower down at Furli, lovely little piste side cafe with on site hotel. Food on slope side you will expect to pay 20CHF for a main course.
Today is showing at 1.47 to the £.
We also paid 6 CHF for a decent sized beer up the mountain towards Gornergrat.

Zermatt, I have to say, is a superb place to ski if you are confident and like to travel around.

As a postscript, I took a look at the menu board of a major, in-village-but-on-piste terrace restaurant in Verbier today as we waited for the link bus. It also gets a lot of clients who turn up by car and, I suspect, do little or no actual skiing. Mains were between CHF 33 and 55. Entree salads around CHF 30. A glass of decent wine around CHF 4 to 6. There are good 4-Star restaurants in central Verbier that aren't as expensive: it's a nice place in summer, specialising in local mushroom dishes, but obviously in winter, is happy to pander to those prepared to pay high prices to 'be seen'.

Thanks Tony and again to msej. I have to say that its tempting to return to Switzerland despite the costs. So we may well push the boat out this year and do another trip there, particularly if the conditions on piste are looking good.

Went to Nendaz last March and there was a definite moderating of prices in restuarants, bars etc as the resort traditionally has a high number of British visitors. It will be interesting to see what prices are like in Arosa/Lenzerheide this March as that's a Swiss resort that doesn't attract too many British tourists.

https://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/16054.page