profile

Jana & Brett | Aplins in the Alps

Swiss Hotels just got cheaper!

Published 7 months ago • 3 min read

, can you believe that 🎄 Christmas is just 80 days away?!

We can — because we just booked a few trips to visit Swiss Christmas Markets! ☃️ (Yes, of course we will share the details with you in our weekly emails!)

But you know us, always trying to maximize our travel budget. Which is how we scored some 🍭 sweet discounts on hotels during peak Christmas market season!

Meet HotelCard, which allows you to save up to 50% off hotels in Switzerland!

  • We've enjoyed 10 nights so far using HotelCard
  • We just booked 4 more nights in December for Christmas markets!
  • We've saved an average of nearly 85 CHF per night
  • That's a total savings of 1,186 CHF! 🤯

Here's how HotelCard works:

  1. Browse 500+ hotels in Switzerland (and some neighboring countries) for available dates and prices.
  2. If you like what you see, then you can buy HotelCard for 69 CHF. (→ It's originally 99 CHF...our link gives you 30 CHF off!)
  3. This is valid for 1 year. 1 HotelCard per room.
  4. By the way, the deals are better the earlier you book. So if you're already making plans for your upcoming Swiss vacation, be sure to check it out!

How we use HotelCard (tips + tricks!):

  • We use HotelCard to stay near the airport the night before we fly out! Bonus: you can usually save more than 69 CHF on this one night alone — already making HotelCard worth the money.
  • We use HotelCard for one-night stays or when it doesn't make sense to book an Airbnb (because whew, those fees are expensive). It's even better when the hotel has free breakfast too!
  • We use HotelCard for last-minute trips, like when we went to Zermatt for a week in August and only booked 1 week in advance. (We were waiting on clear weather!) Our choice to stay in hotels was actually cheaper than the few Airbnbs still available. Win!
  • We use HotelCard to reduce decision fatigue. When you're searching for somewhere to stay, you're usually presented with hundreds of choices. With HotelCard, we only have about a dozen options, which makes it much easier to pick. And in our experience, HotelCard has fantastic, clean hotels in great locations, so we trust their options!

We tried out HotelCard for a few months before we shared it with you. But honestly, it's too good to NOT tell you about it!


Hello, Reader!

Here's a little collage of some of YOU who we met recently! (from USA, Canada, Singapore, Iceland, Spain, Costa Rica, France, Philippines, and beyond!)

Honestly, we LOVE meeting you because you're ultra encouraging and it's a joy to hear how our resources help you enjoy your vacation to the fullest!

So this is your cue: if you see us while you're in Switzerland (or anywhere, really), please stop and say hello!

A few of you who we met over the past few weeks asked how you can support us.

Here's a quick snapshot of how you can encourage us with your generosity:

  • Watch our YouTube videos. And keep sharing them with your friends and fellow travels. This is where most people first discover us!
  • Buy our travel guides. So far we have 4 Guides, and we're currently creating 2 more (one for Zermatt and one for Swiss transportation).
  • Book a Consultation. Ask us all your questions about traveling Switzerland, from where to find bathrooms to which train pass you need to when to visit. We're here to help with it all!
  • Leave a $$$ tip. Did you know that we have a virtual tip jar? You can select how much you'd like to give! (There's also a built-in "super thanks" tip jar on YouTube too.)
  • Buy through our affiliate links. We're not influencers seeking endless partnerships. We try stuff first and then tell you about it — only if we love it. When you purchase something from our gear page (like these collapsible containers or foam laundry sheets), we earn a small commission. We also have affiliates for an eSIM card, hotspot, SPF makeup, adventure activities, and more!
  • Tell us! We love your encouraging YouTube comments, and we're working on a way for you to add Guide reviews on our website.

YouTube Community


What type of BUDGET VIDEO do you find the most helpful?

–Breakdown of how much we spent

–Tips to save money

–Travel credit cards

–Other (tell us!)

–I don't watch budget videos

Instagram Fam


We know Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in the world...but HOW expensive are we talking??

Behind the Scenes

A brief look at our lives behind the camera and computer.

LOVING: the fresh apple juice we bought at the Grindelwald Autumn Market!

PLAYING: 7 Wonders Duel (one of our all-time favorite 2-player board games)

VIDEO EDITING: Things to do in Lauterbrunnen

BOOKING: flights home for Thanksgiving

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: You can also support us by applying for a travel credit card through our links. Here's an example of how you can save $1000s on your next European vacation!

Jana & Brett | Aplins in the Alps

If you love traveling Europe, getting off-the-beaten path, meeting locals, or having foodie experiences (especially coffee and gelato), then you're in the right place! We're Jana and Brett, a travel couple exploring Europe. Since we got married 10 years ago, we've spent more than 2.5 years adventuring in Europe. But we aren't your average travelers... —Dual USA and Italian citizens —30 European countries...and counting! —We didn't sell everything to travel (we still own our home in Tennessee!) —Both work online (Brett: business operations and consulting. Jana: SEO copywriting and content editing.) Get to know us better by joining our newsletter, binging our YouTube videos, or browsing our blog! When we're not traveling, you will find us hanging out with friends, hosting dinner parties, or playing strategic board games.

Read more from Jana & Brett | Aplins in the Alps

📣 If there was a news station reporting on Swiss transportation, THIS would be the headline today all.week.long. If you've been following us for a little while Reader, then you know we're a bit partial to the Half Fare Card and Berner Oberland Pass. And there are a few BIG updates for the 2024 Berner Oberland Pass that you won't want to miss. Today's email is full of details, so give yourself more than 30 seconds to give it a scan: ▶️ New video: the Berner Oberland Pass just got even better 💬...

3 months ago • 2 min read

Reader, have you ever made any travel mistakes? We certainly have! We've been caught in a new country with the wrong currency. (I think it was Denmark? Or maybe Hungary?) When we were in Paris, we missed the last bus of the night, so we had to walk 3 miles back to our lodging. (We could've paid for a taxi, but we were traveling for 1 year+ on a tight budget.) One time we mimed back and forth for 10 minutes with a man in the French countryside because we didn't speak French and he didn't speak...

4 months ago • 2 min read

Happy New Year, Reader! We hope that the first few days of 2024 have brought you an abundance of joy! For us, we've enjoyed some walks where we watch our breath puff in the cold air, clean food (and minimal sugar after the holidays), fresh-outta-the-box board games, and an eagerness to get back to work (we have a lot of big projects for the next few months!). However, things don't always go as planned... For example: We planned to have dinner with friends on New Years Eve...but we got sick...

4 months ago • 2 min read
Share this post