The­re is a dic­tum in Eng­lish lan­guage, “works like a dream”. Fin­nish peop­le have tur­ned this phra­se into a form that descri­bes iro­ni­cal­ly the country’s own train sys­tem. The gene­ral opi­ni­on of the mas­ses is that this train sys­tem often runs late, or the gear breaks down. It has almost beco­me a joke that anything could hap­pen to the trains, wea­ther, acci­dents, cir­cum­s­tan­ces or just in gene­ral, things won’t go as plan­ned. Thus, “works like a dream” is free­ly trans­la­ted into “works like the train’s toilet”.

Fun­ni­ly enough, in Switz­er­land the train sys­tem is the ulti­ma­te pro­of of the effi­ci­en­cy this coun­try pos­ses­ses. We wro­te ear­lier about the pre­cisi­on that comes to sche­du­les and time­ta­bles in Switz­er­land. Trains lea­ve from the sta­ti­ons to the minu­te. Not only ever­ything works seam­less­ly but also the stan­dard of the fix­tures are top qua­li­ty. And – for sure – the toi­lets are clean and work.

This effi­ci­en­cy goes throughout the nati­on of Switz­er­land. Ever­y­whe­re you go, it shows in the effi­ci­en­cy, sys­te­ma­tic approach and neat­ness. The socie­ty runs in the most demo­cra­tic way, as the public votes about the govern­men­tal initia­ti­ves. As a Swiss, you need to fol­low cer­tain rules and be a part of the socie­ty in order to the socie­ty to take care of you in cru­cial moments of one’s life. In this way, nobo­dy falls behind or is left as an out­si­der. In the same way the coun­try secu­res that for examp­le immi­grants get used to the gui­de­li­nes and work for the over­all ensemble.

Tou­rism has a huge role for the Swiss eco­no­my and no won­der that it is being orga­ni­zed and struc­tu­red in a har­mo­nious way. If you are an inde­pen­dent tra­ve­ler, you can reach and find pla­ces that shows you the best of the Swiss cul­tu­re. Beau­ti­ful Alpi­ne vil­la­ges, stun­ning moun­tain vil­la­ges and peace­ful waterfalls.

As a group tra­ve­ler, espe­cial­ly big­ger groups, ever­ything is struc­tu­red and ali­gned so that your own safe­ty as well as the group’s flu­en­cy to move around is secu­red. In this struc­tu­red way the Swiss secu­re flu­ent tou­rist flows in volu­mes but also give space for the nati­ves to car­ry on their ever­y­day lives in a coun­try of 8,5 mil­li­on inha­bi­tants and alrea­dy small sur­face area.

As a tra­ve­ler in Switz­er­land you should be awa­re of the­se norms and struc­tures that go through the man­ners, rules and restric­tions. It is for your and everyone’s safe­ty and com­fort. If you are not sure how to get to know the cul­tu­ral flow and system’s details, the best way is to hire a local gui­de or ask a local to help you along your jour­ney in the Alpi­ne world.