The best value destinations for Swiss francs right now
Key Highlights
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+2 more in the takeaways below
Check the rate on your banking app this week and you will see it: 1 franc buys 1.06 euros, or 1.21 US dollars, according to the Swiss National Bank's own published rates for September 17, 2026. That is not a blip. The franc has been near multi-year highs against both currencies for most of 2026, and Switzerland itself just got confirmed as the second most expensive country in Europe, edged out only by Iceland.
Put those two facts together and the trip math changes. Everywhere else on the continent gets relatively cheaper the moment you leave, because your money was never worth this much abroad and your home prices have never been this high by comparison. We pulled the official price-level data, ranked the real gap country by country, and picked eight destinations where that gap is worth planning a trip around, not just noticing at the till.
- The franc is strong: CHF 1 buys EUR 1.06 and USD 1.21 as of September 17, 2026, per the Swiss National Bank.
- Switzerland got even pricier, relatively: its own price level sits at 81 percent above the EU average, second only to Iceland, per Eurostat data reported by The Local.
- Biggest verified gaps: North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Montenegro all price out at under a third of what the same basket costs at home, per Eurostat's own comparative price index.
- The closest easy win: Germany, still 41 percent cheaper on the same measure, and a direct flight or train ride away.
- The traps: Iceland looks similar to Switzerland on paper but barely discounts in practice, and Turkey's headline cheapness does not survive contact with its currency swings.
The short list
Here is the list: eight places where the current gap between the franc and the local price level is big enough to notice on the ground, ranked from the widest discount to the smallest. Each one has a real, dated number behind it, not a feeling.
- North Macedonia - the single widest verified gap on this list
- Bulgaria - EU member, Black Sea coast, and Eurostat's own cheapest EU country
- Romania - fully in Schengen since January 2025, so no extra border stop from most of Europe
- Montenegro - Adriatic coastline at Balkan prices
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - Sarajevo and Mostar, still a genuine outlier on price
- Poland - the safest "first big trip" pick on the list, with real cities and real infrastructure
- Portugal - the best-value pick that still feels like a classic Western European holiday
- Germany - the smallest discount here, and still the easiest trip you will ever plan
Once you have picked one, the harder part is usually not the destination, it is getting everyone in your group to agree on dates and a budget. That is a separate problem, and splitting the actual costs without the group chat turning into a spreadsheet fight is worth sorting out before you book anything.
How much further your franc goes, by the numbers
The numbers start with Eurostat's own price-level index, which runs across the whole of Europe: it prices an identical basket of goods and services in every country and expresses the result as a number where the EU average equals 100. Switzerland's score in the most recent full dataset is 184.3, meaning prices here run at roughly 1.8 times the EU average. Rescale every other country against Switzerland instead of the EU average, and you get a direct read on how far your own money stretches once you leave.
| Country | Price level vs Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Switzerland | 100 |
| Germany | 59.2 |
| Portugal | 46.1 |
| Poland | 38.1 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 32.4 |
| Montenegro | 31.4 |
| Romania | 31.1 |
| Bulgaria | 30.9 |
| North Macedonia | 26.9 |
Read the chart as "cents on the franc": North Macedonia sits at 26.9, so the same basket of everyday goods and services runs at roughly 27 percent of what it costs in Switzerland. That is based on Eurostat's actual individual consumption price index, the latest full country breakdown published for this measure, from 2024. Germany, the closest and easiest option here, still sits at 59.2. That lines up with what The Local reported for everyday groceries: roughly 40 percent cheaper across the border, with staples like butter and eggs running around 63 percent less.
Why this is happening right now
This is happening now because two things moved at once, and neither one is a one-off. The franc itself has been climbing: it gained around 16 percent against the euro over the past five years, per The Local. Separately, it appreciated 12.7 percent against the US dollar across 2025 alone, a run that put it at an 11-year high in late January 2026, according to SWI swissinfo.ch. Economists there point to political stability, a strong current account surplus and low debt as the structural reasons it stays strong, not a temporary swing.
At the same time, Switzerland itself got more expensive relative to its neighbors. Eurostat's most recent full ranking put Switzerland at 181, or 81 percent above the EU average, across a basket of more than 2,000 products and services including healthcare and education, per The Local's coverage of the release. Only Iceland, at 183.7, scored higher. Switzerland did not get cheaper. It just stopped being the single most expensive place in Europe by a hair, while staying near the top and everywhere else stayed roughly where it was.
North Macedonia: the widest gap on the list
North Macedonia prices out at 26.9 on our scale, the single largest gap of anywhere we checked. Skopje is the obvious base, with the Vardar river running through the old bazaar and Lake Ohrid, a UNESCO World Heritage site, a few hours further south. Direct flights connect Zurich to Skopje, so this is not a multi-connection trip.
North Macedonia is not in the Schengen area, so you will get a passport stamp on the way in and out, same as flying to any country outside the zone. Swiss and EU passport holders travel there visa-free for tourism, per the EU's own citizen travel information.
Lake Ohrid, the main draw beyond Skopje, is a mixed natural and cultural UNESCO World Heritage site, per the IUCN World Heritage Outlook. The downside: tourism infrastructure is thinner than in Bulgaria or Romania, and English signage is patchier outside Skopje, so it rewards a bit more planning than a normal Balkans trip. We'd treat it as the pick for a genuinely new kind of trip rather than a repeat of somewhere you've already done.
Bulgaria: the EU's own cheapest member
Bulgaria scores 30.9, and it is not just our own calculation saying so. It is, per Eurostat's most recent household price-level release, the single cheapest country in the entire EU, at 63 percent of the EU average. Sofia gives you a real capital city with mountains on its doorstep, and the Black Sea coast is a completely different trip if you want beaches instead of hiking.
Bulgaria has been in Schengen for air and sea travel since March 2024, so flying in from Zurich means no extra passport control beyond what you would face landing in any other Schengen country. The downside: the coast gets genuinely crowded with regional tourists in July and August, which erodes some of the calm the price tag implies. We'd book Sofia over the coast for a first visit, since it is the better-connected of the two and easier to combine with the mountains in the same trip.
Romania: fully in Schengen, no border surprises
Romania sits at 31.1 on our scale. What makes it worth a special mention right now is timing: land border checks between Romania and the rest of the Schengen area were fully lifted on January 1, 2025, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs confirms. That means Bucharest and Transylvania are now a normal Schengen entry from Switzerland, not a special case.
Bucharest has the food and nightlife of a major European capital at a fraction of the price, and the Transylvanian towns further north, Sibiu and Brasov among them, are an entirely different, slower kind of trip. Direct flights run from Zurich to Bucharest. The downside: outside the two main tourist corridors, public transport thins out fast, so a rental car makes the Transylvania leg much easier.
Montenegro: Adriatic coastline at Balkan prices
Montenegro comes in at 31.4, close behind Romania and Bulgaria, and it is the coastal pick on this list if the others feel too far inland. The bay at Kotor, itself a UNESCO World Heritage site, is the postcard image, but the coast runs well beyond it, and prices do not spike the way they do on the Croatian coast a short drive north.
Montenegro is not in Schengen or the EU, so it is a passport-stamp entry like North Macedonia, but Zurich to Podgorica is a direct route. The downside: the coastal towns get expensive again in peak summer, which eats into some of the gap versus Switzerland. We'd go here specifically for the coast, and pick Bulgaria or Romania instead if the trip is really about cities.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: still a genuine outlier
Bosnia and Herzegovina scores 32.4. Sarajevo remains one of the least-visited capitals in Europe relative to how much it has going on. There is an old Ottoman quarter, a genuinely dramatic siege history you can walk through as a museum, and mountains close enough for a day trip. Mostar, an hour and a half south, is the more photographed stop, but Sarajevo is where the actual value sits.
Zurich has a direct route to Sarajevo. Like Montenegro, it is outside Schengen, so budget a few extra minutes at passport control on both ends of the trip. The downside: public transport within Sarajevo itself is limited, so plan on walking or taxis for most of the old town.
Poland: the safest first big trip
Poland lands at 38.1, a smaller discount than the Balkans but still close to 62 percent cheaper than Switzerland, and it comes with the fewest unfamiliar variables of anywhere on this list. Krakow's old town is the obvious draw, and Warsaw is the better city if you want a genuine capital-city trip. Both are already firmly on the well-worn European city-break circuit, which means restaurants, transit and hotels that are easy to book without much research.
Poland is a full EU and Schengen member, so entry from Switzerland works exactly the way it does for France or Italy. Zurich runs direct flights to both Warsaw and Krakow, making this the lowest-friction pick on the whole list.
Portugal: the classic Western European trip, at a discount
Portugal scores 46.1, roughly 54 percent cheaper than Switzerland, and it is the pick if the rest of your group wants something that still feels like a conventional Western European holiday rather than a frontier trip. Lisbon and Porto both have direct flights from Zurich, and the Algarve coast is a genuine beach alternative to the Mediterranean without the Cote d'Azur prices.
Portugal is the destination on this list most likely to already be on someone's shortlist for reasons that have nothing to do with the franc, which is exactly why the price gap is worth pointing out. It is a trip people already want to take, and it happens to be one of the better-value ones on the continent right now, not just among the Balkans.
Germany: the smallest discount, the easiest trip
Germany scores 59.2, the smallest gap of anywhere on this list, but it is also the one requiring the least planning. SBB's own city-break page for Freiburg shows direct trains from Basel in well under an hour, no flight needed at all. The Local's own price comparison found groceries running around 40 percent cheaper across the border, with an Omega Speedmaster watch pricing out at roughly 200 francs less and a specific Hermes bag around 7 percent cheaper.
We'd use Germany as the answer to "we only have a long weekend," not as the main event. It will not deliver the dramatic discount that North Macedonia or Bulgaria will, but nothing else on this list is a two-hour train ride away.
Where the math looks better than it is
The math looks better than it is in two places. Iceland scores 172.7 on the same Eurostat index, close enough to Switzerland's 184.3 that the discount barely registers once you land. And Turkey's headline price level looks like the cheapest option we checked, but its currency has moved so sharply that a number that was accurate when it was measured can be stale within months. We'd treat any Turkey price you read today with real caution, and we've written up why the value case for Turkey has actually gotten worse for travelers, not better, if that is on your shortlist.
This list is deliberately narrower than a generic "cheapest places to travel" roundup. If you want the broadest possible ranking of low-cost destinations worldwide, not filtered by what specifically favors a Swiss franc right now, our wider budget destinations guide covers that ground instead.
How we chose this list
Here is how we chose it: every country is ranked on one public, official number, Eurostat's price level index for actual individual consumption. It compares an identical basket of goods and services, from groceries to housing to health care, across countries, and expresses the result against the EU average.
We pulled the 2024 country-level dataset directly and rescaled every figure against Switzerland's own score instead of the EU average. We then kept only the countries where that rescaled number came in under 60, meaning the destination prices out at under 60 percent of what the same basket costs at home. Every destination also needed a real, currently scheduled direct flight from Zurich, confirmed against live route data, so nothing on this list requires a connection to reach.
We deliberately left out destinations with major currency instability in the past year, even where the headline price index looked attractive. A discount calculated from a currency in freefall is not a discount you can plan a trip around with any confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the strong Swiss franc going to last?
Nobody can say for certain how long the franc stays this strong. Forecasts vary by bank. Raiffeisen expects the euro-franc rate to ease only slightly by the end of 2026, while UBS sees no reason to expect the dollar to weaken further against the franc, according to SWI swissinfo.ch's roundup of bank forecasts. Nobody is forecasting a reversal back to pre-2025 levels in the near term.
Do I need a visa for the Balkan countries on this list?
No visa, but you do need a valid passport, and Switzerland's own status is worth understanding first: it is a Schengen member but not an EU member, and that distinction matters here. For Bulgaria, Romania and Poland, all EU and Schengen states, entry works the same as any other Schengen trip. For North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, none of which are in Schengen, Swiss passport holders can still enter visa-free for tourism, per the EU's own travel information portal. Expect a passport stamp rather than the borderless crossing you get inside Schengen.
What is Switzerland's duty-free allowance for bringing goods back?
CHF 150 per person for goods bought abroad, as of September 2026, per the Swiss Federal Office for Customs and Border Security. Go over that combined value and the whole amount becomes dutiable, not just the excess.
Why is Switzerland so expensive in the first place?
Eurostat's price-level index puts Switzerland at 81 percent above the EU average, per The Local's coverage of the 2026 release. That is driven partly by high wages feeding through into service prices, and partly by the same currency strength that makes trips abroad look cheap by comparison. It is genuinely a two-sided effect: the same strong franc that makes your salary buy less at home is what makes it buy more once you cross the border.
Is North Macedonia actually cheaper than Bulgaria and Romania once you're there, or just on paper?
The Eurostat index is built from a real basket of everyday goods and services, not a single sample price, which is what makes it more reliable than a one-off anecdote about a cheap coffee. On that measure North Macedonia scores lowest of the countries we checked. But the gap between it and Bulgaria or Romania is small, 26.9 versus roughly 31, so flight cost and how well a destination fits your group's interests should probably decide between them, not the last percentage point of the index.
Key takeaways
- The franc buys EUR 1.06 and USD 1.21 as of September 17, 2026, near the strongest levels of the past decade.
- Switzerland's own price level is 81 percent above the EU average, second only to Iceland, so the relative gap to almost anywhere else has never been wider.
- North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Montenegro all price out under a third of Switzerland's cost on Eurostat's own index.
- Germany is the smallest discount on this list but the only one reachable by train, which makes it the answer for a short trip.
- Skip anywhere with recent currency instability, however cheap it looks on paper. Once you've settled on a destination, TripProf's itinerary and expense tools handle the planning and the group cost-splitting from there.
Sources
- Swiss National Bank, current exchange rates: CHF/EUR and CHF/USD rates as of September 17, 2026
- The Local, "Switzerland dethroned as Europe's most expensive country": Eurostat price level index for Switzerland and Iceland, published July 6, 2026
- The Local, "Shopping tourism: where does the Swiss franc go furthest abroad": cross-border price comparisons and 5-year franc appreciation, published July 16, 2026
- SWI swissinfo.ch, "The franc should remain strong in 2026": 2025 currency movements and bank forecasts, published December 29, 2025
- Eurostat, comparative price levels database (prc_ppp_ind): 2024 country-level price index for actual individual consumption
- Eurostat, household consumption price levels release: Bulgaria confirmed as the EU's lowest price level, published June 18, 2026
- European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs: Bulgaria and Romania's full Schengen accession, land borders lifted January 1, 2025
- Swiss Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG): duty-free allowance for goods brought into Switzerland
- European Union, Your Europe citizen travel portal: entry and visa rules for EU and Schengen travel
- FlightConnections, routes from Zurich (ZRH): direct flight availability to destinations listed in this article
- SBB, city break in Freiburg by train: cross-border rail access from Basel to Germany
- IUCN World Heritage Outlook, Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region: UNESCO World Heritage status for Lake Ohrid
- Wikipedia, List of World Heritage Sites in Montenegro: UNESCO World Heritage status for the Bay of Kotor
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