Switzerland When I or you think about Switzerland what first comes to your mind? For me it was always the big snowy peaks. Huge cold enormous Alps walls. Full of snow. That’s the image I always had in my mind. Of course, the second thoughts are about green Alps meadows full of cows, chocolate, watches, cheese, banks and many other things 🙂 But cold harsh mountain environment was the first image which I always came to my mind.
So I always assumed that Switzerland is quite cold country, like Norway or Sweden. Or like my home country Lithuania 🙂 And I was wrong. Very wrong 🙂 Switzerland is God damn hot in summer. And even winters here are very mild (of course it’s cold up in the mountains), in Basel we always had no snow all winter. I was very surprised first that it is so hot. It’s quite usual to have +35 degrees by Celsius in summer. It’s casual. By the way, tomorrow it will be +36. Jesus… 🙂 I am really not used to that (this is my second summer in Basel, so this year it’s much easier to me), as in Lithuania summers are not that hot and winters can get very cold. We have real winters in Lithuania 😉 And just when I kind of started to think why it’s so hot here, I thought of Switzerland’s geographical situation. It’s right next to Italy, France.. which are pretty hot countries with famous summer spots. Beaches, sea, surfing, wine yards and all that stuff 🙂 Especially Italy is very hot during summer, you can even experience +40 degrees or more. So when you think about it, Switzerland should be pretty hot as well. It is not the case in mountains, as temperatures can be +10 or +5 in the middle of July in some places or snow all the time on the peaks. But if you are travelling to Basel, Zurich, Luzern, Geneve, don’t forget to take your shorts, swimming suit and a hat as it is going to be awfully hot in here 🙂
Good thing is that most of the big cities in Switzerland have some kind of water place: Basel has Rhein, Zurich, Luzern and Geneve have their own huuuuuge and crystal clear lakes, with many many small beaches or docks. Summer in Basel I am not really sure about Zurich or Geneve, but in Basel the river Rhein bank is full of people every day. Hundreds of people gather there, Rhein shore has many restaurants or small bars, so you can enjoy cold beer and some snacks any time. It’s pretty cool to walk there, as people are very laid back, listening to music, grilling some fresh meat, chilling, sunbathing and swimming in a river. That’s like small Miami 🙂 In Basel it’s no problem to go to any park or any bigger green meadow and sunbath, it’s not considered a bad manner as in some places. It’s even very normal to walk shirtless in the middle of the city and many people are running in Basel shirtless as well. What is kind of strange for me, that the heat keeps at the same level even up to 9pm. So if it is +34 at 2 pm, it will be +32-34 by 9pm and just then the sun starts to go down, temperature goes down as well. It’s strange for me, because in Lithuania, the peak temperature is as well at 2pm, but it starts to go down at 5-6pm. So even in the evening it’s pretty hot in Basel 🙂 My advice So as I said before, if you are planning to go to Switzerland in summer time, be sure to have all the right clothes and take swimming suit with you as you will be able to enjoy lake or river in almost any city 🙂 
But if at the same time you are planning to spend some time in the mountains, take the warm clothes as well. I was in Grindelwald couple of weeks before, Grindelwald is at 1034 m elevation and it was absolutely hot there.. but when I went to Kleine Scheidegg at 2000m elevation, it was pretty cold, like +10 degrees or little more 🙂 So it’s very different story up there 🙂 I hope you are going to enjoy summer in Switzerland!
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