Switzerland is one of the most expensive destinations in the world. And largely because of this, it’s a country I still hadn’t been to until recently. To my greatest surprise, I managed to make the Switzerland trip of my dreams happen in July 2025 – for almost free!

This felt like a true rags-to-riches fairytale. The week before this, I was living in my car road tripping, crying about the opening hours of libraries and not showering for 8 days. Fast forward, and I arrived in Switzerland to live my best life, including a free pool. I’m still in shock I made this all happen! Here’s how I did it, and how I spent 3.5 weeks in Switzerland with barely any expenses.

The seed of this idea was planted last year, on my trip to France.

I spent a month in Europe in October 2024, mainly France but also Spain, Andorra, and the Netherlands. The idea of a trip to Switzerland started when I was planning my time in Lyon – a very stressful experience as I was traveling with a friend and arranging the trip with another person. Geneva is very close to Lyon, just 2 hours away by train. And I thought, “hmm, maybe I’ll go there for a few days, and visit another country…” While I ended up having an amazing week in a French fairytale in La Garde-Adhémar instead, the idea was there!

A few weeks later, I visited Andorra and finally counted my countries. I don’t place a huge amount of value on the number of countries I’ve been to, as I think it doesn’t tell the full story of a trip. But in Andorra, I realized I was at country number 49. And I knew my next new country would be country number 50, and I wanted it to be epic.

I knew I couldn’t afford to go to Switzerland unless I had a free place to stay.

Somewhere along the line, I decided I wanted to go to Switzerland in 2025. BUT, it is far too expensive for me, especially coming off of a two-year trip traveling the world. I don’t know anyone in Switzerland or have friends I could stay with, so I started applying for housesits. I set a saved search on Trusted Housesitters, and applied to SO many sits! Over a few months, I was rejected from 10 or maybe even 15, but I kept applying.

Finally, after getting the good news on a freelance project – a gig that would enable me to be a full-time freelance travel writer – I applied to one near Bern. The owner was from Nebraska, and she chose this Minnesota girl for the sit! This meant I’d have free accommodation for 3 weeks, as I’d be taking care of their dog Milo and looking after their house. (Interested in housesitting? Sign up to Trusted Housesitters with this link and get a 25% discount off your membership!)

I’ve spent almost a decade working on my blog, and managed to secure a partnership with Travel Switzerland.

This was due in large part to one of my best friends, who works with Swiss Rail regularly, sticking her neck out for me. She put me in touch with one of the managers, and I pitched a set of deliverables for the campaign. And they accepted! I was offered an 8-day Swiss Travel Pass Flex for my trip, in first class. This has easily been the biggest campaign in my blogging career as a content creator. While it’s been a lot of work, it’s also been immensely enjoyable. I’m very proud of the content I’ve created, and this collaboration.

I sorted out my airport logistics thanks to my blog/Instagram friend!

I confirmed on the housesit and booked my flights to Switzerland back in April, before I bought my car at the end of May. All of a sudden, I realized I had nowhere to park my car – and I’d also need overnight hotels at the airport, due to my awkward flight times. Enter my good friend Tilly, who I’ve known through blogging and Instagram for years! You might know her as Travel Junkie Girl. We’d actually only met in person once before, back in 2020. But I knew she lived vaguely close to Manchester Airport, and she very kindly let me park my car at her place for the 3.5 weeks I was gone! And she also put me up for the night before and after my flight. It was such a huge relief to get this sorted, as airport parking plus two hotels would have cost about £500 booking so last minute! Thank you, Tilly!!

So, I managed to make this dream trip to Switzerland a reality with barely any expenses.

I had one night in a hostel in Geneva. I stayed at Meininger Hostel Geneva, which was expensive but I would recommend it. Having a room with air conditioning in summer was well worth it! Besides that, I had no accommodation expenses. I also had next to no transport expenses, as the Swiss Travel Pass I received for my content creation work covered my trains and buses for most of the trip. My hostel in Geneva included the Geneva Transport Card, which I used for the time during my stay in the city. The rest of my trip was almost completely covered using the Swiss Travel Pass! There was one day I spent 10 CHF to get into Bern, and a few funicular/mountain railway journeys that weren’t included on the pass, but I got a discount on. Thanks to my friend, the logistics around my flight were taken care of. And my flights were fairly cheap, as I booked about three months out.

I managed to make this dream a reality: just over 3 weeks in Switzerland, one of the most expensive countries in the world, for almost free!

How much money did I actually spend in Switzerland?

It didn’t want to do a full budget breakdown for this trip, as it’s such a unique and different type of trip! But I did want to share my costs, as I kept track of exactly how much money I spent (as always). My round-trip flights, including a checked bag of 26kg, were £144, and my travel insurance was £56.

My total spending in Switzerland – including food, extra transport costs, my first night of accommodation in Geneva, sightseeing, souvenirs, etc – was 445 CHF, or £413. Of this, 219 CHF (£204) was on food. I ate out once during my trip.

So, for a grand total, I spent just £613 ($819 USD) for my 24-day trip to Switzerland! This is one of the priciest travel destinations in the world, so I’m dead impressed with this.

I actually felt like I was living in a fairytale – the modern-day Cinderella story. It wasn’t really a case of getting lucky, although it kind of was. Lucky because I got picked for the housesit thanks to the Midwest connection, but not really lucky as I’d persevered through many applications before that. Lucky because my best friend connected me with her professional network, but not lucky because I’ve been working on my blog for nearly a decade and could offer a lot of value in exchange for deliverables.

I decided I wanted to do this, and I made it happen. It was a lot of work to plan and organize, but it was so unbelievably worth it!

So, next time you think you’ll never make shit happen, please remember your dreams are not as unachievable as you might think.

And that’s a quote from the broke girl with barely any money, living her best life in Switzerland.

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Have you been to Switzerland before? 

You might also like my posts:

The Swiss Travel Pass: Is it Worth the Money?

Hiking Augstmatthorn From Harder Kulm: Interlaken’s Spectacular Day Hike

How I Became a Freelance Travel Writer: A Dream Come True

All of my Switzerland posts!

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