VAN-COMPARATOR Guide
Motorhome Rental in Zurich: Swiss Vignette, Graubünden and the Bernese Oberland
Zurich by campervan: where to rent in Switzerland’s largest city, the CHF 40 vignette, then the Engadine via Chur, the Bernese Oberland and Lake Constance.
Switzerland’s largest city and busiest airport, Zurich is the most practical gateway to the Swiss Alps — and a formidably central starting point: the Engadine two and a half hours away, Interlaken two hours, Lake Constance one.
Renting in Zurich
The offer is dense but Swiss prices sit above European averages — to weigh renting locally against crossing the border first, our complete guide to renting in Switzerland lays out the numbers. First reflex: the motorway vignette, CHF 40 (about €44) for the year, mandatory from the first motorway kilometre for any vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes — heavier rigs fall under a separate charge. The full country-by-country picture is in our guide to European vignettes.
Three itineraries from Zurich
- Graubünden and the Engadine (4-7 days): via Chur, the Albula or Julier passes, then the high Inn valley — our Graubünden campervan guide runs the full route.
- Bernese Oberland (3-5 days): Interlaken between its two lakes, Lauterbrunnen and its 72 waterfalls, Grindelwald beneath the Eiger — details in our Bernese Oberland guide.
- Lake Constance (2-4 days): an hour away, three countries around one body of water — our Lake Constance and Swabian Jura guide continues on the German side.
The mountains are changing, and so are the seasons
Travelling the Alps by campervan also means watching a landscape in transition: the study by Hans Elsasser and Rolf Bürki published in 2002 in Climate Research — a classic of the alpine literature — already showed that warming threatens winter tourism first through snow reliability, pushing alpine destinations to reinvent themselves around the warm seasons (Google Scholar page). Twenty years on, the summer campervan at altitude is exactly that reinvention.
Good to know
Wild camping is regulated canton by canton — often banned in the lowlands, tolerated at altitude under conditions: our guide to wild camping in Europe sums up the rules. And with Swiss fuel often pricier, fill up before the internal borders on your route.
Free checklist: your first campervan trip
Licence and vehicle size, pick-up inspection, stopovers or campsites, water and electricity, insurance, drop-off: everything to check before and during a first trip. Sign up — the link to the full checklist appears immediately.