B10 Switzerland

Does the Hotel Movenpick accept the Discover credit card? - Unfortunately no. The hotel accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club in order to guarantee your hotel room and to pay your hotel bill.

What is the agenda for the tour to the Thomson factory on Wednesday? - Buses will pick us up at the Hotel Moevenpick in Regensdorf at 1500 hours. We will arrive in Turgi at 1545. There will be a tour of the Thomson factory from 1600-1800 hours. At 1800, we will go by bus to the town of Bottstein, located about 5 kilometers from the German border, arriving at 1830. Thomson will invite us for an aperitive and dinner at the Bottstein Castle from 1830-2130. At 2130, the buses will pick us up at the castle and take us back to our hotel in Regensdorf.

Is breakfast included at the Movenpick Hotel? - A large buffet breakfast is included in the conference package for those staying on the nights of August 1 through August 5 (so it includes breakfast for the mornings of August 2 through 6). If you will be at the hotel before or after those nights, the breakfast buffet is available for 23 Swiss francs. (The normal rate is 28 francs.) There is a shopping center adjacent to the hotel which has a few restaurants, and they should have some sort of breakfast available as well.

What sort of Internet facilities will there be at the hotel? Is there Internet in the hotel rooms? - There will be WiFi Internet access in the main meeting room from Monday through Friday, August 2-6, sponsored by the NASB. Internet access is available in the individual hotel rooms, but there is an extra charge of 19 francs per day. There is also a business center in the hotel, which we understand has three computer terminals with free Internet access, and we have been told that you can connect your own laptop there. We suggest bringing an Ethernet cable in case some of the connections are wired.

I need a specific invitation letter for my management or in order to obtain a Swiss visa. Can you provide this? - Yes, just let us know at info[at]wrmi.net and we will send you one.

Is there also a hotel transfer available from the Zurich main train station? - The free shuttle bus only operates between the Zurich airport and the Hotel Movenpick in Regensdorf. However, if you arrive at the Zurich main station (Hauptbahnhof), you can change to local train S6, which leaves at 2 and 32 minutes past each hour from Platform 21 or 22. Get off the train at the Regensdorf-Watt stop and follow the signs to the Movenpick Hotel.

Is any further sightseeing planned? - At this point, there is no further group sightseeing planned, although the conference registration desk can arrange local tours upon request. We highly suggest shopping, sightseeing and dinner in Zurich's historic Old Town area, which is only 15 minutes by local train from Regensdorf. From Old Town, you can also take various inexpensive boat excursions on Lake Zurich.

Will the hotel conference fee and the room charge be paid and invoiced together? - Yes, your hotel bill will include the room charge of CHF 150 per night plus the hotel conference fee of CHF 98 per person per night (only for the nights of August 1-5), and you will pay the hotel directly for these charges. The separate HFCC/ASBU conference fee of 75 euros is payable in cash to the conference registration desk. If you have additional persons in your hotel room (such as spouses) who are not conference delegates, they will not be charged the hotel conference fee (and the buffet breakfast will not be included for them, although it is available at a reduced price of CHF 23).

Will a shuttle bus pick me up at the Zurich airport and take me to the hotel? - We have asked for your flight arrival information so that the hotel front desk will know approximately when you will be arriving. However, there will be no HFCC/ASBU personnel at the airport to meet you. You simply need to take the Movenpick Hotel Zurich-Regensdorf shuttle bus, which you can find between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 in the airport arrivals area. The bus is white with black signs. It takes approximately 10 minutes to drive from the airport to the hotel. Please refer to the shuttle bus schedule above for regular departure times. Also, please note that on Saturday and Sunday the last shuttle bus departure from the airport in the morning is at 1030 hours, and there are no more departures until 1730 hours. (It may change to 1740 hours by July and August.) So if your flight arrives between those times, you will need to take a taxi or train to the hotel. If you take the train, you need to go to the Zurich Main Station, and then take local train S6, which leaves at 2 and 32 minutes past each hour from Platform 21 or 22. Get off the train at the Regensdorf-Watt stop and follow the signs to the Movenpick Hotel. It takes approximately eight minutes to walk from the Regensdorf-Watt train station to the hotel (or you could take a taxi).

Is there more than one Movenpick Hotel in Zurich? - Yes. There is a Movenpick Zurich Airport Hotel and a Movenpick Zurich-Regensdorf Hotel. Be sure you go to the Movenpick Zurich-Regensdorf Hotel.

What is the best form of local transportation around the Zurich area? - Glen Tapley has been investigating this. He writes: "I was looking at the transportation situation in and around Zurich. It seems that one can purchase an all-day ticket for around 8CHF for unlimited transportation. A single ride ticket is around 4CHF so the all-day is best. This covers 2 zones. Regensdorf is in Zone 11 and most of Zurich is Zone 10. There is also a 6 day unlimited ticket for 2 zones for 43.20CHF. I didn't realize and don't know what the difference is between a 1st class and 2nd class ride on a tram, but these are what they term 2nd class tickets. A first class ticket is double the price. These tickets are good on trains, trams, buses, boats, and cable cars. So I figure 8CHF per day will allow travel on the train from Regensdorf to Zurich HB (the central station) and then on to a tram to wherever in Zurich and back. The train from Regensdorf is the S6. What's cool about this is that one could take a boat journey around the lake [included in the daily pass price.]
Tickets are purchased before boarding at kiosks at the train and tram stop stations. One word of caution: If anyone is caught on a mode of transportation without a ticket, it is an 80CHF fine. There are some other alternative tickets such as the Swiss Pass, but it is for those who want to travel throughout Switzerland and it costs about 350CHF. Just thought I'd mention it. Looks like there are a lot of really good restaurants, some very expensive ($$$$) and some medium priced ($$) that look pretty good. Of course by Swiss standards, $$ is still fairly steep. Also, there are a vast number of watering holes."