budget in the Alps

It will help if you quote in CHF, as whichever $ you are referring to (HK? CAN?) is probably moving quite a lot against the CHF at the moment....

We have no idea what kind of dollars you are talking about, Canadian, United States, New Zeland. Please use Euros on this forum.

Please use Euros on this forum.

normally I'd agree but an exception should be made for Switzerland which still uses the Swiss Franc. But yes, '$' doesn't mean much.

I meant US$. I already did the conversions from Francs to Dollars since it's easier for me. if you want I can write in Francs. $ is just what I'm used to when colculating budgets so it comes naturally.

This summer, the exchange rate EUR/CHF changed every week.
Actually 1 EUR corresponds to 1.16 CHF,
2 weeks ago 1 EUR corresponded to 0.99 CHF
in spring, 1 EUR was worth 1.30 CHF
Nobody can predict the degree of irrationality of the EU financial policy (which will of course influence the exchange rate EURO/CHF) in the next 2 months.

Only prices in CHF will remain valid in October.

Train ticket prices with half fare card:
ZRH - Lucerne - Bruenig - Lauterbrunnen (valid 1 day): 30 CHF
Lauterbrunnen - Kandersteg (valid 1 day): 16 CHF
Kandersteg - Zermatt (valid 1 day): 29 CHF
Lauterbrunnen - Kandersteg - Zermatt (valid 2 day): 42 CHF
Zermatt - ZRH (valid 1 day): 60 CHF
ZRH - Spiez - Kandersteg - Zermatt round trip (valid 10 days): 120 CHF
Spiez - Lauterbrunnen one way (valid 1 day): 9 CHF
Zermatt - Gornergrat (round trip): 39 CHF
Lauterbrunnen - Jungfraujoch (round trip): 83 CHF
Lauterbrunnen - Schynige Platte (round trip): 36 CHF

littlerunaway84, I am from the US and we usually write a dollar amont like this: $2300 not 2300$.

Also, the Franc has not been used in France for a number of years now, they are curently using the Euro ( € ).

#5 & 6 make some good points

I think you need to budget more for food. At the moment 1 US Dollar equals 0.78 Swiss Francs and if this continues, then $20 a day for food will not be enough. Even if you go the a supermarket and eat super cheap, a good sandwich will set you back about CHF 4.50. So unless you really only want to eat once a day, I don't think your food budget is high enough. Where are you planning to go hiking? That of course will make a difference to your budget. #6 makes a really good point about the flucutation of the currencies and mentions how much train travel costs, it really depends on your itinerary. Personally, I think you need have a bit more money on you. If the weather turns bad while you're here, a hot meal might be more on the lines than a cold sandwich! Plenty of hostels do have breakfast either included or for a small charge, but since you are trying to not spend much, book only the places that have breakfast included, otherwise you should add anywhere between CHF6.- and CHF 12.- for breakfast alone.

accommodation about 13*40$. I'm going for the dorm beds and I found prices around 35-45$ so I'm taking a 40$

What kind of accommodation are you looking at? In cities or out hiking? $40 is not a lot for out-there hiking, but may be enough for population centers.

food 1320$. this is the part I'm not sure about. I'm not planning to eat in restaraunts. hoping to get some sanwiches/snacks in the supermarkets. does 20$ a day makes sence? (assuming breakfast is not included, although in some hostels it is, and the occasional cup of coffee, I'm a coffee juncky).

That's not enough for food.

Quite frankly 20 bucks is one meal. Are you going to live off of supermarket sandwiches for 13 days?

Some food prices at Coop supermarkets at Lauterbrunnen and Zermatt:
Bread: 5 CHF/kg
Local cheese: 20 CHF/kg
Salami: 40 CHF/kg
Milk: 1.50 CHF/liter
Butter: 15 CHF/kg
Cucumber: 2 CHF/piece (in October)
Tomatoes: 3 CHF/kg (in October)
Mineral water: 0.50 CHF/liter
Sandwich: 5 CHF/piece
Swiss wine: 10 CHF/liter
count about 4 CHF for a non alcoholic drink (coffee, tea, coca, sprite, lemonade) and 1-2 CHF for a croissant in a restaurant