Our way to help with tourism is to help educate people how to behave in Switzerland. You might end up in a situation where you are not sure what you did wrong but there is a local not being nice to you talking in Swiss German in not nice manner.
A very common thing.
First thing to understand here. Swiss people in general are very private, focused, law obeying citizens. And if there are rules there are here to be followed. There is strong emphasis on private property. A good way to describe the mentality is that my freedom stops where your freedom starts. Put into this mixture tourists from all over the world from different cultures and you can imagine that just after a few weeks of high season locals are on the edge. All this can sometimes lead to unpleasant encounters with locals.
So if such a situation happens to you first of all try to understand where it’s coming from but better is to avoid ending in such a situation at all.
Here are a few things, what not to do.
Littering is an absolute no go. Swiss people are very tidy and their gardens, houses and streets are clean because it is a way of life.So don’t leave any trash behind you. If there is an option to recycle, do so. This is double important if you are somewhere in nature.
Private land/property
You see a simple rope fence you wanna climb over because it’s easy or the gate is open and it is a nice spot for a picture. Definitely don’t do that; the only option is when the owner allows you. As this might seem a very simple rule, people in places like Lauterbrunnen valley often don’t understand this basic concept.
Running Cars.
Swiss law says you cannot have your car running for more than 20 sec if you are just parked. Is it hot weather and you wanna use an aircon ? It sounds weird, but it’s not allowed. Law is there because they try to keep as clean air as possible.
These are in our eyes important and common mistakes people make without realising this is no go in Swiss culture. If you just follow this and behave like you are a visitor in foreign country with respect to nature and locals you will be fine. But as said there is always a chance that you might be the unlucky person who will get barked at by frustrated locals without any particular reason:) in that case just don’t care too much about it. That is just life in the region.
