When I think of Switzerland, the first few things that come to mind are the Swiss Alps, Swiss watches, Swiss cheese, and of course Swiss chocolate (yummmm).
Yep, all things that I want in my life! But too often we ignore the other side of these beautiful countries.
As you know, I always focus on the diversity I see in new cities and what it’s like as a black person visiting the area. In this case I peep what being black in Switzerland is actually like.
If you didn’t know, we have a 5-Fro scale to rate the quality of what it’s like to visit a city as a black person by taking into account every factor that plays a part in a trip.
After a close look during my visit, Switzerland got a solid 3.5 out of 5 fros.
One of the most expensive countries in the world to visit or live in, but also one of the most beautiful and geographically diverse countries I’ve visited in Europe.
So how did they end up with 3.5 Fros?
Demographics
4 Fros
Switzerland is one of those countries that I felt very comfortable being in my own skin, and that’s saying a lot since I hit a lot of different parts of it during my road trip.
But the spots I spent the most time in were the village of Lauterbrunnen, Zermatt for hiking, and of course the city of Zurich. So go figure, in the villages it was very obvious that I was a tourist because:
A) They are tourist destinations.
B) There are hardly any black people around.
and C) About half of the time, I’m running around with all this camera gear. So it just ain’t hard to tell why I’m there.
I can’t start to tell you about the demographics of Switzerland without telling you about my first night.
First Night in Zurich
The first night I arrived in Switzerland, I stayed in Zurich and was prepping for my road trip starting the next morning. Till then, I decided to go out and peep Zurich’s night scene
A friend of mine, who’s from Zurich, suggested that I hit this bar Bar 63 for drinks.
This bar was in a district called Langstrasse. Remember this name!
A few 12 dollar cocktails later, I split and started strolling down the street to scope the block out. All of a sudden, I heard some kissy noises from across the street.
I looked over and peeped that there were some ladies trying to call me over. First thought was that there ain’t no way it’s that easy to get chicks here… Then it hit me!
I was standing in the heart of Zurich’s red light district (prostitution district)!
I then started to peep my surroundings a little more. The streets weren’t well-maintained and a lot of spots looked run down. It looked a little sketchy.
I noticed a solid mix of ethnicities and races around, but you gotta remember that this is my first few hours in Zurich so at the time, I’m like “ayy I guess Zurich got more flavor than I expected”.
I thought Langstrasse was dope and it says a lot that a local recommended the area for its nightlife.
And then there was this…
I was standing on the corner of that same street waiting on an uber and some lady rushed up to me with the crazy eyes and was like, “Hey I’m looking for something”.
I was like, “Huh, what?” So confused right now.
She said, “I’m looking for SOMETHING, you got it?”. By her tone and the cracked out look on her face, I realized she was trying to cop some schedule 1 good stuff from ya boi.
I said “Oh nah I ain’t got it I left it at the crib”. Without a moment’s notice, she scurried away.
As a black dude, that’s happened to me a lot in various places. It’s happened at parties, sketchy streets, could be anywhere.
When I’m posted up somewhere waiting on an uber, people assume the black dude standing on the corner is the dope man.
That’s something I never talked about to other black dudes so let me know in the comments below if you’ve ever been mistaken for the plug.
After my road trip around Switzerland I came back to Zurich to explore for one last day.
What’s bugged out is even though it’s the most racially diverse city of the one’s I visited, it’s the only one where I even thought about my race.
Part of that is because race was brought up super randomly in 2 separate conversations that I had with locals.
Racial Conversation #1
I met an older white lady (around mid 50’s) I met in the streets pretty randomly, who’s actually from America but has lived in Switzerland for 30 years.
And some way or another, race got brought up in the convo. That tends to happen when you’re black.
She gave me the whole run down of how she’s seen Zurich change over the past few decades.
She said that she’s just now starting to see interracial couples regularly, and 10 or 15 years ago it wasn’t common at all.
She also mentioned Zurich’s still very segregated like many cities in America. Most black people live in the lower income areas of Zurich and, like anything else, there are exceptions to the rule.
The sad truth is a city can be demographically diverse but not well-integrated, which I can relate to, having grown up in North Carolina.
Now check this!
She told me if I wanted to see the majority-black area I should go to LANGSTRASSE!!
Yep! The same Langstrasse I was drinking at on the first night. I just happened to be in the blackest part of town and didn’t know it.
My whole perception of Zurich’s demographics and diversity was skewed by Langstrasse being the first spot I peeped.
It’s all making sense now.
With all that being said, Langstrasse is where I found the best music, cheap drinks, and best overall vibes in the city for me.
And my home girl from Zurich suggested it, so you know it’s the heat.
Now I’m getting a better idea of what it’s like being black in Switzerland.
Racial Conversation #2
It was lunchtime and I spotted a traditional Swiss cuisine restaurant. Now this made my tail wag since my knowledge of Swiss cuisine was limited to cheese and chocolate (yummm).
I walk into the spot and it’s super packed! The waiter says if it’s only you we have a spot for one left.
Pro-tip: One of the perks of solo travel is there’s always room for one more.
To my surprise, they sat me at a 2-seat table with a white dude in his mid-50’s already sitting in the other seat directly across from mine.
Now this is a tiny table and we’re facing each other so this is gonna be awkward. But I can take awkward for a few minutes to feed the tiny angry man in my stomach.
After faking like I was looking at my menu for a minute I finally break the ice and say, “What’s good to eat here?”
He flashed a friendly grin and suggested a bomb ass traditional dish that we’ll come back to later.
We have the good ol’ intro convo. Names, where we’re from, you know the spiel. He was actually a really cool dude who’s from Zurich originally. We were getting along just fine.
But then I started to feel those rays on the side of my face that you feel when someone is staring at you.
I looked to my right and there was this cute little baby in his mother’s arms at the next table over with his eyes locked on to ya boy.
Those wide-eyes were fixed on me for 2 minutes straight which creeped me out a lil bit, but you know babies do what they do.
What’s bugged out is that ol’ dude that I was chatting with was like,
“That baby’s probably never seen someone who looks like you before”
I admit, he said it in a joking tone. At first, I ain’t know how to feel because a white person in America would refrain from saying that to a black dude that they don’t know like that.
But then I was like, aight we’re not in America. Things are different here.
More importantly, how can I be upset at ol’ dude when I was thinking the exact same thing as him?
When I was looking at that baby I was seriously thinking, “That baby ain’t never seen a black person in his life”.
True or not, me and the old fella clicked even more after that and we chopped it up about a lot of other topics. We exchanged Linkedin’s oddly enough. Nice fella.
Treatment & Safety
5 Fros
Switzerland is a place where people, for the most part, seem to mind their own business and look to enjoy their lives surrounded by nature.
After all, Zurich is always rated as one of the best places to live so I assume people spend most of their time basking in the high quality of life and taking in all of the surrounding picturesque nature scenery.
And there are enough people of color in certain parts of Zurich that I’m not a rare sighting so there’s no reason for people to stare and be curious about you.
I never had any issues with service at restaurants, stores, or establishments, so you’re good on that front.
You just gotta make sure your pockets are heavy if you want to enjoy any of those things.
Cost to Visit
2 Fros
One thing I typically don’t bring up, but that I’d be remiss if I didn’t, is the cost of living there.
Everything is SOOO damn expensive.
Their currency is the Swiss Franc which is valued the same as the USD, so we’re comparing apples to apples here.
But any meal I bought was at least 30 bucks. Anywhere I parked was a minimum of 25 bucks.
The drinks were at least 10 bucks everywhere I went except for some cheap beers on Langstrasse for 5 or 6 bucks.
Mixed drinks were way up there in price and my pockets were hurtin’ after I left the bar, so you really gotta plan well if you wanna have a budget vacay in Switzerland.
You can make it happen. I didn’t, but I believe in you. Zack did that, so hopefully you won’t have to go through that.
Hiking
5 Fros
The Swiss Alps is the MECCA of hiking in Europe. If you’re visiting Switzerland for some good ol’ mountain trekking, you’ll probably go to the more known and touristy places like I did.
Zermatt is a huge tourist destination!
Not many people that look like me were there. But it don’t matter because that’s the case when hiking anywhere, even back home.
Also, everybody’s from somewhere different so it’s a very welcoming environment where we’re all just trying to find our way up the big rock. This doesn’t have much of an effect on the experience of being black in Switzerland.
Weather
3.5 Fros
The weather was hit or miss while I was in Switzerland. I visited at the start of October and I ain’t gon’ lie it was chilly and rainy as hell at the start of the trip.
But I got hit with every type of weather through the weekend because I was road tripping to different parts of the country.
In Zurich it was cold and windy. In Lauterbrunnen it was grey and rainy as hell at night. Further south in Zermatt, it was gorgeous! 70 & Sunny, which is perfect for a hike.
I hear Spring and Summer are perfect times to visit Switzerland for weather. Keep in mind that Summer will be the most touristy, and the nice weather doesn’t make up for the lack of space and privacy for me.
Food
4.5 Fros
I tried a lot of traditional Swiss food and surprisingly it was very soul food-ish. They can throw down, for real!
They come in a close second place versus Italy for best food in Europe
One bomb dish was Zurcher Geschnetzeltes. But at the amazing traditional restaurant, Zeughaskeller, I just called it “The one right here that starts with Z”.
That shit’s so good, make you wanna slap yo mama (R.I.P. John Witherspoon). They’re veal strips in creamy cream sauce with some hash browns on the side.
Oooo, there’s this other dish I had at the hostel, Camping Jungfrau Alpine Lodge, in Lauterbrunnen called Alplermagronen which means Alpine Macaroni.
It’s a Swiss pasta dish made by layering pasta and potatoes with cheese, topped with caramelized onions, with a little applesauce on the side.
It makes you all warm and cozy on the inside when it’s cold outside.
Oh damn, look what you’ve done. I’m hungry now so I’m gonna wrap this up.
Overall
3.5 Fros
The people of Switzerland keep to themselves mostly, but also have engaging conversations.
Consider that, along with the treatment, safety, cost of living, and hiking atmosphere.
Switzerland gets 3.5 out of 5 Fros!
It would have gotten a much higher score if it didn’t hurt the pockets so much, but everything else there was sick.
It’s definitely a place to visit for almost anything you’re looking for on a trip, except a beach.
As a black person only visiting for a few days, I felt at ease being in my skin, interacting with the citizens, and embracing all of the beauties that Switzerland has to offer. I had no issues with being black in Switzerland.
Don’t hesitate to plan your next trip to one of the dopest countries in Europe!
If you’re still not sure about ‘em, get some more Swiss travel inspiration by checking out my Swiss Alps road trip video!
Drop any questions you have about Switzerland in the comments section below or feel free to email me about anything.
I’ll catch ya’ll in the Alps, my nomads.
ya boi,
Zekarias
