Caution to anyone traveling to Switzerland: the country has a unique electric plug system which is only partly compatible with EU electric plugs. Thus a so called Swiss plug adapter or Swiss travel adapter is an essential travel kit for anyone visiting Switzerland.
Whether you come from the EU or from any other part of the world, you definitely need an electrical plug adapter if you want to use or even charge your electric devices in Switzerland.
You can use the smaller (ungrounded) EU plugs with no problem, but for the larger EU plugs you’ll need an adapter. Obviously, for every other type of plugs you’ll need an adapter.
So even if you are visiting Europe and have an EU adapter that works with your local plugs, you’ll still need a Swiss adapter.
Where to Buy a Swiss Plug Adapter
You can definitely buy a Swiss plug adapter at home, preparing in advance for the trip.
It might be difficult though to find it in your local store as visiting Switzerland is not as frequent as visiting the EU. Order it online, I include some options from Amazon in this link.
But don’t worry if you get here without one. It turns out that a swiss travel adapter is such an everyday gadget here that you can find it in almost any place that sells electronic supply.
Just two things that you need to be aware of when buying a swiss travel adapter in Switzerland:
- Make sure you buy the one that fits the Swiss electrical outlet and converts it for an EU plug to fit. Most adapters sold here are obviously the other way around, for Swiss travellers to use them in EU countries.
- Be aware that you can only buy Swiss to EU adapters here. So if you are coming from a third country, the US or UK for example, you’ll still need an EU adapter to use your own plugs.
My Swiss Electric Adapter
This is the one that I actually bought in an electric supply store called Fust in Zurich after I realized that I had forgot to bring one with me.
It cost only around 9 Swiss Francs, and it worked excellently. In fact we could solve our problem of not having a Swiss plug adapter in literally 15 minutes just by walking in the first store.
