EuropeWestern Europe

Switzerland

Flag of Switzerland

Capital

Bern

Largest City

Bern

Top-Level Domain

www.example.ch

Calling Code

+41

Driving Side

Right

Currency

CHFSwiss Franc

Camera Generations

NGen 1
NGen 2
YGen 3
YGen 4
NTrekker
Flag of Switzerland

Switzerland

Welcome to the lowcam paradise of Europe - Switzerland! From the beautiful and impressive mountains of the Alps in the center to the agricultural plains of the Mittelland - read on to get Switzerland spot-on.

Subdivisions

Switzerland is comprised of cantons, of which there are 20 "full" cantons and 4 "half" cantons:

  • AG Aargau
  • AR Appenzell Ausserrhoden
  • AI Appenzell Innerrhoden
  • BL Basel-Landschaft
  • BS Basel-Stadt
  • BE Bern/Berne
  • FR Fribourg / Freiburg
  • GE Genève
  • GL Glarus
  • GR Graubünden / Grischun / Grigioni
  • JU Jura
  • LU Luzern
  • NE Neuchâtel
  • NW Nidwalden
  • OW Obwalden
  • SH Schaffhausen
  • SZ Schwyz
  • SO Solothurn
  • SG St. Gallen
  • TG Thurgau
  • TI Ticino
  • UR Uri
  • VS Valais/Wallis
  • VD Vaud
  • ZU Zug
  • ZH Zürich
AG
Aargau
AR
Appenzell Ausserrhoden
AI
Appenzell Innerhoden
BL
Basel-Landschaft
BS
Basel-Stadt
BE
Bern
FR
Fribourg
GE
Genève
GL
Glarus
GR
Graubünden
JU
Jura
LU
Luzern
NE
Neuchâtel
NW
Nidwalden
OW
Obwalden
SG
Sankt Gallen
SH
Schaffhausen
SZ
Schwyz
SO
Solothurn
TG
Thurgau
TI
Ticino
UR
Uri
VS
Valais
VD
Vaud
ZG
Zug
ZH
Zürich

License Plates

Swiss license plates are typically white with black lettering. Since Switzerland is not in the EU, they do not have a blue band on the left side of the plate; instead they have, going from left to right, the following:

  1. The coat of arms of Switzerland (represented by a + below),
  2. A 2 letter abbreviation of the canton (see the Subdivisions list) the vehicle is registered in,
  3. A number with up to 6 digits, and
  4. The coat of arms of the canton (represented by a ∇ below)

for the following format: + AB•123456 ∇. This means Swiss license plates differ from canton to canton, but in terms of Geoguessr the blur renders these differences useless. In contrast to other European countries, Switzerland has taller versions of license plates in addition to long ones. Diplomatic vehicles have a green CD or CC on the left. They are often seen around Bern and Geneva due to the presence of embassies and international agencies in each city, respectively. Utility vehicle registration plates are blue, agricultural vehicle registration plates are green, military vehicles have black plates and mopeds, segways and e-bikes have yellow plates.

Phone Codes

Phone codes in Switzerland are organized around towns and cities, and are typically prefixed with a zero (0):

South 2

  1. Lausanne
  2. Genève
  3. N/A
  4. Yverdon, Aigle
  5. N/A
  6. Fribourg
  7. Valais / Wallis

West 3

  1. Bern / Berne
  2. Biel / Bienne, Neuchâtel, Solothurn, Jura
  3. Berner Oberland
  4. Bern-Emme

Central 4

  1. Luzern, Zug, Schwyz
  2. N/A
  3. Zürich
  4. Zürich

North 5

  1. Winterthur, Schaffhausen DE
  2. N/A
  3. N/A
  4. Rapperswil
  5. Baden, Zurzach

Northwest 6

  1. Basel
  2. Olten, Oberaargau, western Argau

Northeast 7

  1. St. Gallen

East 8

  1. Chur

Southeast 9

  1. Ticino, Bellinzona

Roads and Markings

2-lane roads have white center lines and solid white shoulder lines. Single-lane roads only rarely have any road markings. The swiss pedestrian crossings are long and thick yellow lines. Swiss bollards are usually but not only round and always white. In winter coverage, you can find wooden snow bollards with usually orange painting on the tip. On highways, you will find kilometer markers with the road numbers on the guardrail in the middle of the highway.

12

Signage

In Switzerland, there are 2 types of very useful signs.

  1. Green (highway) and blue (mainroads) directional signs to decently sized towns. They also have roadnumbers sometimes.
  2. Townexit/entry signs (blue for bigger towns and white for very small villages) sometimes have the canton abbreviations on them. On their backsides they have distances to the next bigger town down the road.

Architecture

In Switzerland there are 4 general tips for architecture. Note that these are all tendencies. There are always exceptions!

  1. The Mittelland has loads of detached houses, in the suburbs especially. They are often similar in style.
  2. In the canton of Ticino there are a lot of pink houses. Besides that, the houses have a strong Italian influence.
  3. Swiss Chalets. One other thing, Switzerland is famous for are the Chalets. Usually in alpine regions, always wooden and always looking similar (Disclaimer: Austria, France, and Italy sometimes have similar buildings).
  4. Grison style. The Grison farm houses are often white or stoney around the ground floor and wooden on top (this is not limited to GR but very common there). Houses in villages often have paintings on their facades. This meta doesn't work for bigger towns like Chur, Davos, St. Moritz and similar.

There are of course other things to watch out for concerning the architecture. The following tips are more vibebased and are usually harder to spot. Around the Jura mountains, near the western border with France, the architecture is heavily influenced by the French. In the hilly Emmental region of Bern canton, farm houses are typically wooden and have red flowers in front of their windows. This is not limited to Bern but nevertheless is very common there. In rural Valais houses are often vertically split into wood and white facade, unlike Graubünden where they are horizontally split. In Thurgau, St. Gallen, and the two Appenzell cantons, houses with wooden joints are very common.

Area- and zipcodes

Language

Switzerland has four official languages:

  1. German
  2. French
  3. Italian
  4. Romansh

Swiss Standard German is distinguished from German and Austrian varieties by its lack of an eszett (ßß), and is typically replaced by a double s. The easiest way to spot this difference is on street signs, where "...straße" as used in Germany and Austria is written "...strasse" in Switzerland.

Script

Swiss German & Swiss Standard German

Aa Ää Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii
Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Öö Pp Qq Rr
Ss Tt Uu Üü Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

French

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii
Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr
Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

(Diacritics)

Àà Ââ Ææ Çç Éé Èè Êê Ëë
Îî Ïï Ôô Œœ Ùù Ûû Üü Ÿÿ

Italian

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Ll Mm
Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Zz

Romansh

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii
Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr
Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Samples

Swiss German

Aui Mönshe sy frey und gebore mit gliicher Würd und gliiche Rächt. Si sy xägnet mit Vernunft und Gwüsse und söue enang mitemne brüederleche Geischt begägne.

Swiss Standard German

Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der Brüderlichkeit begegnen.

French

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

Italian

Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità e diritti. Essi sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono agire gli uni verso gli altri in spirito di fratellanza

Romansh

Tuots umans naschan libers ed eguals in dignità e drets. Els sun dotats cun intellet e conscienza e dessan agir tanter per in uin spiert da fraternità.

Hidden coverage

In the cantons of Jura and Valais there are a couple roads with coverage, that isn't visible on Google maps. Some maps use a trick to include those roads nevertheless.

Meta

There are a couple ways to directly identify Switzerland by the following things:

  1. Lowcam. The camera is a bit lower than in other countries. It's easy to recognize with the big blur where the Google car is supposed to be. With the new gen 4, the lowcam is harder to spot.
  2. The camera generations in Switzerland are gen 3 and 4 plus some sparse gen 2 trekkers. Gen 4 is mostly seen in and around bigger cities.
  3. The bollards are distinct.

Map Library

Countrywide Maps

Regional Maps

Cantons

Thematic Maps