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Our self-guided tours offer the same quality, service, and comforts of our guided tours. The only difference is that with self-guided, you are the guide! We design each self-guided itinerary to fit your individual interests and abilities and will provide you with prepaid accommodations, rail passes and our favorite hiking routes and sightseeing recommendations. We’ll plan your tour adventure so that you can travel with confidence.
Self-guided tours are for those that enjoy working out the details of their trip and want to set their own pace and not be tied to the group's timetable.They are ideal for travelers that prefer to venture on their own without the services of a tour guide. On a self-guided tour, you can enjoy the freedom, flexibility and adventure of travelling on your own without the planning. Keep in mind that a self-guided tour does require you read and follow directions provided. You may want to consider whether a guided or self-guided tour is the right tour type for you.
Unfortunately no. We only offer self-guided tours for the areas that we have the most expertise in. You can see a list of all of our self-guided tours offered on our website. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to one of our travel specialists. We can let you know if a sefl-guided tour option is availaible for the type of tour you want to do.
A self-guided tour includes expert support from our Alpenwild Staff and is customized for each guest. We will make hotel reservations (typically with breakfasts), include rail passes or other transportation shuttles, provide a detailed daily itinerary, basic trail or city maps, complete listing of all hotels with contact information, and train/bus schedules to follow each day. It is possible that you could also have the option to add on some dinners and luggage transfers where available, so be sure to ask if you are interested. We’ll handle the logistics so you can enjoy the destination!
In general, we do not include airfare, lunches, some dinners (or drinks with dinners that are included), and excursions on trains, lifts, buses, taxis, etc. In addition, travel insurance and items of a personal nature such as telephone calls, laundry, medical expenses, evacuation costs, etc. are not included. Swiss Topo maps are not included but are available for an additional charge. Please note that we will also list what is and isn’t included on your custom proposed itinerary.
The single supplement is an additional charge for someone that is staying by themselves in a single occupancy room. We always calculate our tour prices based on double occupancy rooms. This means that the price of the hotel room is then split between 2 people. However, if only 1 person is in that room, then we need to charge an extra fee to cover the price for the other half of the room. (Example: If a double room = $300 then it would be $150 per person for sharing. That same room would be $300 for the 1 guest, so we would need to charge an extra $150 as a single supplement to cover the price of the whole room).
We try to book double rooms for all our single guests where possible. But some hotels have a true single room and will only give those rooms to our single guest. If this happens, then the price for that single room is usually a little less than a double room. We’ve already factored this into the total price of the single supplement. A solo traveler many not always have the same size room as our guests sharing a room, but be assured that our solo guests are paying for what each hotel has provided for rooms.
You can book a self-guided tour about a year in advance, however in some cases we may not be able to book select hotels until about 6-8 months prior. It is best to book your tour in the fall for the best hotel availabilty in the summer, especially since accommodations can become quite limited or not available at all.
First you should contact us to come up with an itinerary and tour dates that you are happy with and then you can submit a booking through our website. We require a $500 per person deposit to guarantee your spot and then we will contact all accommodation providers to check availability for the dates you’ve chosen. If any hotel is fully booked, we’ll contact you to discuss alternatives. Final payment will be due 90 days prior to your tour start date.
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Yes, it is possible to start on any date, but this is subject to the availability of the accommodations. Please note that some areas can only be hiked during a specified season such as July to September due to weather and trail conditions.
We will provide detailed directions and a Swiss rail pass or a shuttle voucher to get to the start of your tour.
Seat reservations are NOT required on Swiss Trains (except for the specialty scenic trains such as the Glacier Express and Bernina Express). You can use your pre-validated rail pass to get right on the train when you are ready. Be sure to have your passport available as some conductors will request to see it with your rail pass. You can also be more prepared with our Switzerland Train Travel tips.
In most cases we will provide additional options on your daily itinerary where you can choose the route that you want to hike that day. However, there are some specific hiking and trekking routes where this is not possible. Be sure to talk to your travel specialist to let them know how much or how little hiking you want to do, so that we can plan the perfect tour for you.
We like to stay in small family-owned hotels in traditional Swiss villages. These are usually 3 and 4 star hotels that include breakfasts and are often the same hotels as on our guided tours. We typically book superior private rooms with an ensuite bathroom. There may be an exception if your route includes a mountain hotel that may have shared bathrooms. If you have a specific hotel you would like to request, please let us know and we will do our best to include it.
We do have several self-guided itineraries on our website that you can choose from, but there usually is an option to make changes and simple customizations. Please be aware that we do require a 3 night minimum to put together a self-guided tour package for you.
Many of our tours are suitable for families but we do have some trekking tours that are challenging and may be difficult for children. Please be sure to talk with your travel specialist to make sure the trip you are planning will be a good fit for your family. We can often offer discounts for rail passes (if the tour includes Swiss travel rail passes) for children under the age of 16 and also for families sharing a triple occupancy or family room where available.
You will need to travel with your luggage to get to and from our tours. In some areas, we can provide luggage transfers between villages so that you can hike without worry about your extra bags. Luggage transfers are often included in the self-guided tour price if they are available in that region. If they are not included, they usually can be added on for an extra charge.
Self-service laundry is very rare in Switzerland and we often indicate if and where these services are available on your detailed dail.jpg)
y itinerary. Many hotels will offer to launder your clothes, but it can take 1-2 days to return and is quite expensive. It is also possible to handwash some items in your hotel room sink.
We typically email you 30 days prior to your tour with instructions to access your tour documents on the Vamoos App. Travel documents will include your detailed daily itinerary, hotel contact information, rail passes or other travel vouchers, packing lists, etc. You also have the option to print up any tour documents directly from Vamoos if you prefer to have paper copies.
We will provide you with an emergency contact number to use during your tour if needed. This number will be found on your hotel contact flyer. You can also feel free to email or call your travel specialist for any additional questions or concerns.
You can refer to our terms and conditions which also includes our cancellation policy. Trip Insurance is available through a link on our website to protect against certain unforeseen circumstances that may cause you to have to cancel.
