If you’re travelling on a budget, a youth hostel (Jugendherberge, auberge de jeunesse, albergo/ostello della gioventù) is likely to be your accommodation of choice, whether you’re youthful or not. They can often be extremely good value, and offer clean and comfortable dorms as well as a choice of rooms (doubles and sometimes singles) that can often undercut normal hotel prices. Both city and country locations can get very full between June and September, when you should book in advance.

There are two main hostel associations in Switzerland. The 70-odd “official” hostels of Swiss Youth Hostels are affiliated to the Hostelling International network (aka International Youth Hostel Federation) and are refered to throughout this guide as “HI hostels”. These places are of a universally high standard, although they tend to be better choices in countryside and mountain locations than in cities, where they are quite often located awkwardly far from town centres and can suffer from an atmosphere of institutionality. The old habits of early breakfasts and daytime and late night curfews have survived – most are closed for cleaning between roughly 10am and 6pm, and also lock their doors sometime between 10pm and midnight. Almost all close down in the low seasons: spring and autumn in the mountains, winter in the cities. Bed prices depend on the season and the individual hostel, covering the range Fr.19–32 for a dorm bed including breakfast and bedding (average roughly Fr.25). Extras such as kitchens for guest use, TV rooms, and so on are common, and evening meals, where available, are around a bargain Fr.10. If you’re not already an HI member in your home country (see here), you pay Fr.5 extra per night, or you can get annual membership while in Switzerland at any affiliated hostel for Fr.25 (membership is also automatic after any six nights of paying the supplement). Under-25s tend to be given priority and there’s usually a three-night maximum stay during summer in city hostels. Note that you can reserve by fax but not phone, but since all hostels worldwide are linked by an International Booking Network, you can also ask the Swiss hostel you’re already staying in to reserve a bed for you at your next port of call – this costs Fr.1 (plus a Fr.9 deposit).

Many new hostels have opened in the last few years to supplement the “official” ones, and there’s now a rival, and very popular, grouping of thirty called Swiss Backpackers. Their lively hostels are less institutional than the HI ones, often in prime locations in the centres of town and cities, and priced to compete. No membership is required. You’ll almost certainly spot their informative and very useful Swiss Backpacker newspaper while in Switzerland, available free in all their hostels and other prominent touristed places around the country.

Comparatively priced Naturfreunde hotels, run by the Swiss Federation of the Friends of Nature, are an alternative to youth hostels if you prefer a little more peace and quiet, and something of a personal touch. Their 97 hotels, well away from beaten tracks and often historic buildings lovingly restored and maintained, are all run by individuals with a passion for nature and the environment.

Otherwise, pretty much all ski resorts have places offering dormitory accommodation, quite often hotels putting a converted annexe to good use. Such a dorm (Touristenlager, Massenlager or Matratzenlager; dortoir, dormitorio) may simply comprise one room with as many mattresses as possible squeezed into it side-by-side, each “bed” sold at bargain-basement prices. This is also the style of dorm accommodation in the 150 or so Alpine huts dotted around higher altitudes on or close to hiking trails (some of the more isolated ones may only be accessible to full-blown mountaineers), although bed prices tend to rise according to how remote the place is.