Many people have asked us about our success with Airbnb. After all, when you rent a hotel room, there are generally government regulated rating systems which designate hotels as three, four or five star and that way you can be reassured that your personal standards will be met. As well, with hotels, there are chains (Hilton, Marriott, etc) that give you an avenue for complaints or praise that generally carry some weight.
The argument against Airbnb, is that you are renting from an individual and in essence are renting blind. And since you generally pay in advance, you have no avenue for recompense if the advertised standards are not delivered. And in many cases with Airbnb, you never actually meet your provider, he or she is invisible. You choose from a website and pay online. In many cases, you pick up the keys from a lockbox and read a set of instructions or a guidebook that is provided online or provided in printed form when you enter the rental unit.
So what have been our experiences and how can we be assured that what we want will be delivered?
We can tell you that we have been using Airbnb and similar providers like VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) for a number of years and generally have been very pleased with our experiences. But like in any business transaction, you have to do your own research to minimize any issues.
First, the widespread availability of Trip Advisor in every area of travel has made the research easier. There are reports on trip advisor for almost every apartment or vacation home that you might consider. We read those reports and if there is a general rating of 4 or 5 stars consistent in a large number of Trip Advisor reports, you can rest assured that the place is OK.
As well, Airbnb uses social media to protect both the landlord and the renter. The renter is urged to review his experience within a couple of days after the rental is complete; as well the landlord is urged to review the renter. This way both are protected. Because before you rent, you can read what everyone else has written about their actual experiences in that specific accommodation. Did the place actually have high speed wifi? Was the place really quiet and clean? Was the view the actual view that you will see when you arrive? Did the landlord respond quickly to emails? As well, the landlord can read everything that other landlords have said about you when you rented their places. Were you clean, did you trash the place etc.?
With the use Street View on Google Maps, you can actually look at the facility and the location. You can map just how far it is from necessary facilities like supermarkets, public transportation and in our case, the availability of local synagogues.
Our actual experiences in renting private apartments on Airbnb and other sites has been excellent and we use the service extensively in our travels. Because of our kosher food needs, the availability of apartments with kitchens is almost a necessity when we are travelling to locales with little kosher infrastructure. And therefore when we are looking at the apartment's facilities, we will look for a fridge, a cooktop, a microwave etc. And while some people are OK with renting a shared space, we only look for totally private apartments.
If you look carefully enough, you can find very reasonably costing apartments on Airbnb; examples are the two that we rented on this trip. Both were under $150 a night which is very reasonable for five people who in a hotel situation would pay much more with much less room.
The place we rented in Hasliberg from a local called Max was a beautifully situated totally private (ie; we had the whole building) ski lodge. While the place we had in Austria was an apartment in a multi unit facility and was beautiful, Max's place was a three storey house, with the basement being the laundry and utility rooms; the main floor having a living room, dining room, outdoor patio and kitchen; and three bedrooms and a bathroom on the upper floor. All the windows in the unit faced Alp peaks and the valley below. Our unit was about halfway up a large mountain which we reached by driving a number of kilometres up switchbacks and hairpin turns.
In this particular case, Max, an elderly Swiss man and his daughter, greeted us at the apartment and explained how everything worked. The unit was probably the best equipped Airbnb that we had ever stayed in. Everything that you might ever need was available for your use in Max's place. He even provided coffee beans so you could make freshly ground and brewed coffee in his Saeco Coffee maker; umbrellas, a pepper mill, and every possible kitchen utensil (most of which we could not use because of kashrut concerns).
We really enjoyed this Airbnb and the granddaughters could not get over the view to which they awoke every morning. Utterly awesome and magnificent. When we got there we davened mincha together and really understood the meaning of the prayer "ma rabu maasecha Hashem" - "how wonderful are Your creations, Hashem"
After a very busy week in Austria, we had decided that our Switzerland experience would consist of more relaxing days. And because it was overcast and threatening, we took our time leaving Davos on Sunday morning and arrived in Lucerne in the early afternoon. We parked our car in the Lucerne Train Station or Banhof which is located right next to the port for all the tourist boats and opposite the famous Kapellbrucke (or Chapel Bridge), which is a covered wooden footbridge, the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe and the world's oldest surviving truss bridge. It is the city's widely photographed symbol and one of Switzerland's main tourist attractions.
The bridge was originally built in 1365 as part of Lucerne's fortifications and was partially destroyed by fire in 1993. It was reconstructed and reopened to the public a year later and continues to be a widely visited and photographed attraction.
The best time to view the bridge and the surrounding area is on a sunny day but since we were driving right through Lucerne on our way to our Airbnb in Hasliberg, we decided to tour it in the rain. The kids loved Lucerne and also enjoyed walking through the pedestrian streets in the old city just beyond the bridge. Unfortunately, because we were visiting on a Sunday, everything was closed. And so we decided that we would try to return sometime during the next few days that we were in the area.
Here is Lucerne on an overcast day and a similar view a few days later in the sunshine.
In the late afternoon we headed out to our Airbnb which we have described earlier, unpacked, had another enjoyable meal together sitting on the patio overlooking the Alps and planned the activities for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Before we had left Toronto, we had a conversation with Jack Martell, who had previously visited the area and he told us that one "do not miss" attraction in the area is the Trummelbach Wasserfalls. As well, our host Max told us that we should make an extra effort to visit the Aareschlucht Gorge which is quite close to Hasliberg.
So, on Monday we planned to begin the day with a drive to Aareschlucht and then to drive on to Trummelbach and finally, time permitting, to visit the town of Interlaken, the centre of tourism in the area.
On Tuesday, our itinerary would be a boat ride on the Brienze Sea and then a return in the afternoon to Luzerne, which we would hopefully be able to visit this time in the sunshine with stores open for business.
And then on Wednesday, our last full day of the trip, we would pack up Max's place, drive up to the area near the Zurich Airport to drop off our luggage at the Zurich Airport Hilton (where we would spend our last night in close proximity to the airport where we would all be catching 9:30 AM flights on Thursday) and then drive up to the quaint town of Schaffhausen for some surprises that we had planned for the granddaughters.
Here is a summary of each place that we visited as well as the Wednesday surprises.
Aareschlucht Gorge - a "schlucht" in German is a gorge and since this Gorge occurs in the Aares River, it is called Aareschlucht. It is near the town of Meiringen and is one mile long, with sheer cliffs of up to 50 metres high on either side. At its widest point it is 30 metres wide and at its narrowest point it is just one metre wide. Permission to build walking paths was granted in 1887 and two years later it was opened to the public as a tourist attraction.
In contrast to the gorges that we visited in Austria, this one is much flatter and straighter with stairs to climb only at the end of the walk.
It takes about 40 minutes to walk the full length of the gorge and it was quite a refreshing and pleasant walk. Before we set out on the walk, I asked the lady at the ticket counter whether there were any options for the return trip, as the total with picture taking and resting could stretch to two hours, and she replied that there was a train station at the end and for 4 francs each, we could ride the one stop return on the train which would deposit us back at the parking lot near the entrance.
And that is what we did....it is a very dramatic gorge and we enjoyed this attraction quite a bit. One should ask at the end for directions to the train station for the return as it is somewhat hidden and the path that you take leads you over a pedestrian bridge which crosses the river and takes you to a closed door, which only opens once the train has arrived and you walk thru the door directly onto the train. Quite unique.
Trummelbach Falls - we drove from Aareschlucht to Trummelbach which is on the outskirts of the town of Lauterbrunnen. The name Lauterbrunnen means "clear spring" and it is located in one of the deepest valleys in the Alps, when compared with the height of the surrounding mountains. Some of the mountains that surround Lauterbrunnen are the famous Eiger and Jungfrau peaks.
We stopped in the valley before getting to Trummelbach because of the numerous very high waterfalls descending from the mountain walls surrounding the town. Quite a sight...quite a Kodak moment!
We drove on a short distance to the Trummelbach Falls. These Falls are unique because they are mostly contained within a cave on the side of the mountain.
You enter at the end of a walkway from the parking lot and then take a Funicular up into the mountain. When you exit, there are quite a few steps built into a tunnel/cave that take you almost to the top of the waterfall. And then you can walk back down to the funicular or walk completely to the bottom which is much more scenic as it allows you to see and experience the force of the waterfalls as they make their way down to the river at the bottom of the mountain. This is a very dramatic waterfall in a very dramatic setting. Definitely worth the drive.
We continued on to Interlaken which we found to be very busy and very touristy. Interlaken's name is derived from its location; it is located in between the two major lakes in the area, Lake Brienze and Lake Thun. Two of our granddaughters wanted to go bike riding and they rented bikes for an hour to explore the town while we and our third granddaughter strolled through town and watched parasailers make their way from the top of one of the surrounding mountains to land right in front of where we were sitting in the local park.
We returned to our house in Hasliberg on the very curvy and switchback filled road....definitely have to pay attention to your driving up here....especially with no guardrail in many places. Here is a screen shot of Waze showing our highway going into a tunnel at the bottom of the mountain and exiting near the top....on the way to our apartment.
For dinner we bought a one time use BBQ and had a delicious dinner of hotdogs, sausages and cold cuts with potatoes made three ways and a couple of salads on the side.
Tuesday was a somewhat relaxing day. We drove to the little fishing village of Iseltwald on Lake Brienze and rented a motor boat for cruising on the clear calm lake. Each of the granddaughters had turns playing captain of our vessel and with the scenery and the clear sunny weather enjoyed our refreshing hourlong boating experience.
We then drove back to Lucerne and spent the rest of the afternoon re-experiencing this quaint town in sunlight and warmth. We did some shopping and some picture taking and enjoyed the relaxing non programmed afternoon of in town sightseeing and souvenir shopping.
We returned to the apartment and spent some time packing up for our final full day in Switzerland.
On Wednesday, we had a couple of surprises planned for the girls.
First we packed up and closed the Airbnb apartment and began the drive north to the area near the Zurich airport to the Airport Hilton where we would spend our last night. We checked in and then returned to our vehicle for the drive north to Schaffhausen.
Just south of the town is the famous Rhinefalls, the largest waterfalls in Europe. Not Niagara Falls by any stretch of the imagination but nevertheless powerful and dramatic.
The area of the Falls is quite wide and quite close to the walkway that has been constructed for the throngs of tourists that visit annually. One of the main features is the ability to take a number of scenic boat rides up to the actual Falls and the one that we chose allowed us to actually dock at one of the islands in the eye of the Falls and climb to the top which affords you a very upclose front row seat to view and experience the force of the Falls.
By the time we finished the boat ride, the girls were tired and the weather had turned very warm. But we had a final surprise for the day and the trip.
A number of years ago, when we visited Schaffhausen, a well preserved mediaeval city, with buildings that are close to 1000 years old, we met Ladd and Caroline who own and run the Cafe Vordergasse in Schaffhausen. It is a vegetarian restaurant with all of the ingredients used being kosher and under supervision. Normally, we would not eat in a vegetarian restaurant because of various other kashrut issues. But in this case, despite the fact that there are very few Jews in Schaffhausen, Ladd and Caroline happen to be Shomer Shabbat observant Jews and they are the owners and chefs in this beautiful cafe in the heart of the old picturesque renaissance town that dates back some 1000 years.
We had been back a second time a couple of years ago and have developed a relationship with this wonderful friendly couple and as a surprise to the girls, we had contacted Ladd and Caroline and told them that we would be bringing our group to their cafe for our "last supper" of our trip. We also asked Caroline if she would make a special cake as all three girls had recently celebrated birthdays.
And we kept the surprise going until we were almost in front of the restaurant. All the while, the girls, tired and hot and having a bit of difficulty keeping up with their much older Bubbie and Gramps, were asking whether we should instead head back to the hotel and turn in early before our flights home the next morning.
But then they noticed us making eye contact with Ladd and noticed his kippah which he wears proudly in the totally non Jewish environment of Schaffhausen and the surprise was over. Not having eaten in a restaurant on the entire trip, they were now very happy to sit down at the beautiful and rather full patio in front of the restaurant at the table that had been reserved specially for us.
They all ordered meals and freshly squeezed juice cocktails and were just overwhelmed by the meal itself, the beautiful setting and by the warm friendship of Ladd and Caroline. And then when Caroline brought out the specially baked Lava Cake with three candles for the three girls, and everyone began singing happy birthday to them, their smiles and happiness made it clear that this was a very good way for us to end our two week trip to Austria and Switzerland.
We returned to the hotel and were up early for our shuttle to the airport and we each caught our respective flights back to Toronto and Tel Aviv.
This was a very enjoyable two weeks of bonding with three granddaughters, and we are grateful that we had the chance to do another great Grandparent trip. We look forward to the next one.
All the best
Fran and David
