Where to go – and when
Although Switzerland is best known for its mountain scenery, there are any number of hooks on which to hang a visit, whether you choose to stay in one city or resort, take in the hiking or cycling possibilities of a single region, or make a tour of exploration around the whole country. In the space of a short holiday and without moving far from a central base, you could easily take in a dizzying diversity of landscapes and cultures. Getting about is easy, with an unrivalled network of trains, buses and boats cutting journey times between the regions to an hour or two in most cases. You'll find places to stay and get a hearty meal wherever you end up, even in the wildest of mountain valleys. English is widely spoken, and highly organized tourist offices mean that information is readily accessible wherever you go.
Thankfully, Switzerland has no big metropolises on the scale of Paris or London. Swiss towns and cities were preserved from bombing in World War II, and all of them have at their core explorable networks of medieval alleys and old houses and churches. Geneva is positioned at the tip of the idyllic Lake Geneva in the southwest, a short distance from the graceful lakeside city of Lausanne. In the northeast, Zürich too is set on its own lake, within striking distance of the peaceful Bodensee (Lake Constance). The diminutive Swiss capital Bern has a UNESCO-protected Old Town of sandstone arcades and cobbled alleys, while equally attractive Luzern (Lucerne) lies in the centre of the country on its own, famously beautiful lake. Two much-overlooked urban centres are in the extreme north and south of the country respectively: Basel is located on the Rhine at the point where France, Germany and Switzerland meet, while sunny Lugano basks on the shores of an azure lake a few kilometres from the Italian border. Any of these – or smaller but no less characterful cantonal capitals such as St Gallen, Schaffhausen, Neuchâtel, Chur, Fribourg, Sion or Bellinzona – could serve as a base for a relaxing short break, especially during the temperate summer months (June–Sept). At other times they can get distinctly chilly, although most receive generous dumps of snow in the winter, which, combined with glittering sunshine and frozen lakes and rivers, paints the most romantic of urban pictures.
Switzerland is ideal if you're looking to get out into nature, and whether it's for hiking, skiing or simply relaxation, there are almost limitless possibilities. The Alps run in a band across the centre and south of the country, with resorts big and small along with stunning scenery guaranteed wherever you head for. The two main seasons run from late May to October, and from mid-December to mid-April; between these times, mountain resorts close down altogether. The best-known Alpine region is the Bernese Oberland, focused around the tourist hub of Interlaken and boasting such famous names as Wengen and Gstaad; just to the south, in Canton Valais, sit Verbier, Crans Montana and, at the foot of the shark's-tooth Matterhorn, Zermatt. Occupying the southeast of the country is Canton Graubünden, holding Davos, Klosters and – perhaps most famous of all – St Moritz. Justifiably popular, all these places boast some of the best skiing in Europe but can draw stifling crowds. Although it's relatively easy in even the busiest centres (which are still nothing like the mega-resorts of the French and Italian Alps) to head off the beaten path and explore alone, or to aim for smaller, more manageable satellite resorts in adjacent side valleys, you may prefer to shun the big names altogether and seek peace and quiet in the less frenetic hinterlands. Two regions stand out: in the northwest, the scrubby, windswept Jura mountains hugging the French border are an ideal landscape for long lonely walks and bike rides; while in the south, the wild valleys of Alto Ticino lace the southern foothills of the Alps with little-known hiking trails, a world away from the super-chic lakeside resort of Locarno nearby.
