Don’t even mention restaurant prices, it’s ridiculous that buying from the supermarket is cheaper.

Funny, I’m from Switzerland and for me it’s surprising that in some places in the world it’s cheaper to eat in a restaurant than to buy groceries and cook them yourself. How does this even work? And shouldn’t you save money if you put in more effort yourself?

Anyway, I digress. It’s a pretty country, especially the mountains and nature. It is very expensive, especially restaurants as you mentioned. It’s hard for me to judge from your perspective, but I went to Denver last summer and I was surprised how expensive everything was in the US. For instance Starbucks didn’t feel exactly cheap to me. So perhaps Switzerland is not that much more expensive.

In the end it really depends on your budget and what you want to do. Fine dining in St. Moritz requires a bigger wallet than just grabbing a backpack and going for a hike.

Here some random reference points (from a citizen, not a tourist):

• Just had lunch in a restaurant for 30 CHF (causal, not fancy)
• Bern-Zürich (1h) by train costs 53 CHF without any recuded fare.
• The coffee I grab at the train station in the morning is 4.10 CHF.
• 1 day ski pass (just the pass) in Zermatt is around 100 CHF, 7 days are around 500 CHF.
• The ~8000 CHF from your PPP example would last me 3-4 months, living in a shared apartment and not consuming a lot^ (obviously vacation will be more expensive).

^ for instance NOT buying 100 CHF liquor bottels.