As a German, I spent several weeks in Switzerland hiking in the mountains with a backpack and a tent. You can absolutely travel on a budget there if you're fine with that simple lifestyle and you bring your own equipment. I don't think my daily budget was more than 20 CHF per person a day. If you shop minimalistic (lentils, couscous, pasta etc.) I'm sure you can go even below 5 CHF.

Don't even mention restaurant prices, it's ridiculous that buying from the supermarket is cheaper.

Funny, I'm from Switzerland and for me it's surprising that in some places in the world it's cheaper to eat in a restaurant than to buy groceries and cook them yourself. How does this even work? And shouldn't you save money if you put in more effort yourself?

Anyway, I digress. It's a pretty country, especially the mountains and nature. It is very expensive, especially restaurants as you mentioned. It's hard for me to judge from your perspective, but I went to Denver last summer and I was surprised how expensive everything was in the US. For instance Starbucks didn't feel exactly cheap to me. So perhaps Switzerland is not that much more expensive.

In the end it really depends on your budget and what you want to do. Fine dining in St. Moritz requires a bigger wallet than just grabbing a backpack and going for a hike.

Here some random reference points (from a citizen, not a tourist):

• Just had lunch in a restaurant for 30 CHF (causal, not fancy)
• Bern-Zürich (1h) by train costs 53 CHF without any recuded fare.
• The coffee I grab at the train station in the morning is 4.10 CHF.
• 1 day ski pass (just the pass) in Zermatt is around 100 CHF, 7 days are around 500 CHF.
• The ~8000 CHF from your PPP example would last me 3-4 months, living in a shared apartment and not consuming a lot^ (obviously vacation will be more expensive).

^ for instance NOT buying 100 CHF liquor bottels.

Eating out is expensive, I would recommend at least Fr.150 per person per day for food. That should cover 2-3 meals and a coffee, sweet treat, etc.

In Europe it's normal that supermarket prices are significantly cheaper than restaurants. The people preparing our food deserve a living wage.

Sure there will be some fancy ski hut waiting for someone rich or drunk enough to shell out 100k for booze, but just because it exists doesn't mean it's the norm.

It's a luxury vacation destination. It's amazing to visit but you're going to pay for it. If you're counting every $ spent, don't go there.

Switzerland is expensive for every traveller. I haven't been but had two friends go on different trips within the last 5 years and they both enjoyed the trip but had some expensive times.

Iceland. Also cold. Also beautiful. And they have puffins.

If you are open to it, hostels are inexpensive and a great way to meet other travelers.

I visited in September a few years back. Perfect weather every day but the Aurora isn't very visible that time of the year.

I did a waterfall tour that was like 5 hours of touring the southern waterfalls. On a big buss with huge truck wheels. While the guide told us the history of Iceland and legends of trolls.

I paid $60 for that tour.

I'm sure everything is more expensive now (that was like 6 years ago that I went) but the country is invested in tourism so there are a lot of things to do for almost any budget.

Also , most natives also speak English so that's helpful if you only speak English.

I booked my trip and scheduled my tourist stuff online myself. Saved me money and I thought it was pretty easy to plan and book everything.

One thing I will say that I learned from traveling from Chicago to Europe/Iceland is that every time I've flown across the pond, I arrive early in the day. Like 10 am. Noon.

But most hotels and hostels won't let you check in that early.

Now the problem is , by the time I get there, I'm exhausted. I don't sleep on planes or trains. I can't.

So what I did was contact the hostel and tell them I wanted to also book the night before I arrived but that I wouldn't be checking in until early the next day. That way I could check in immediately and go sleep. Just tell them why and they will accommodate.

If it's a hostel it's probably only $30-40 for that extra day.

And for someone like me who can't sleep on planes/trains, I'm running on about 20 hours of no sleep by the time I get there. Waiting 3 to 4 hours in a lobby to check in is not great.