Switzerland, landlocked with yo-yoing mountains and crayon-blue lakes, is famous for cheese, chocolate and gold-bullion banks. Its mountain huts and medieval hill towns are less well known, but this is what I picture when I think of the country. That and snow-groomed pistes, pink summer sunsets and autumn vineyards during harvest time. I religiously return every season and what I miss most when I’m away is not just the wrinkly horizon or blazing sky, but the people who help bring the country’s most beautiful landscapes to life.
What simplifies all this is the best transport system in Europe, with ruthlessly efficient trains, buses, boats, cable cars and funiculars taking you anywhere, anytime. There are top-notch hotels in every valley and their magic is to fuel you for the country’s everyday adventures — be that skiing or sailing, biking or hiking, climbing or canyoning, or more horizontal pursuits by the pool. I first visited nearly 30 years ago and, scores of trips later, nowhere else has left such a lasting impression. The cheese and chocolate aren’t half bad either. I’ll be back again soon — but for now, here’s my pick of the most beautiful places in Switzerland.
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1. Lake Lucerne
If a picture of a jewel-blue lake and pop-up book of peaks keeps coming back to you, then you’ve probably seen Lake Lucerne before. It’s the queen of Swiss lakes, like a movie star itself, and it is crowded with everything you’d want from a prime Swiss destination: a gorgeous gateway city (Lucerne) and four lifetime-best mountain viewpoints to see it all from (Pilatus, Rigi, Stanserhorn and Klingenstock); superstar hotels (Mandarin Oriental Palace, Burgenstock, Park Hotel Vitznau); sailboats, ferries and, yes, a submarine on which to discover its alien-coloured water.
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The Mandarin Oriental Palace is effortlessly chic, with a lakefront view (naturally, for the price), swish rooms, breath-of-fresh-air restaurants and a vibe that is Côte d’Azur minus the crowds.
Trafalgar has a nine-day Best of Switzerland tour, including Lucerne and a ride on the world’s first double-decker cable car to the top of the Stanserhorn.
2. Aescher
Centrefold mountain huts are ten-a-penny in the Alps, but Berggasthaus Aescher is still the gobsmacker to beat. Framed by the blue-green water of Seealpsee and the white cheeks of Säntis peak, it clings to the side of a cliff face in the Alpstein massif and is as retro as Switzerland gets. You don’t get these views for free, though; it’ll take you three hours to the top of Ebenalp. Even so, your final reward is all of Appenzell at your fingertips below.
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Landsgemeindeplatz in Appenzell is one of Europe’s most photogenic squares and, at its heart, is Romantik Hotel Säntis, with a beautifully painted façade and cosy restaurant.
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Cosmos has a ten-day Grand Tour of Switzerland, including a visit to Appenzell and its 16th-century town hall.
3. Mürren
The panorama you’ll see from the train to this Bernese Oberland hideaway is like a swooping aerial shot from a nature documentary. Beyond the windows, muscular ridges, bone-chilling mountains and rippling glaciers unspool as if on a film reel. The union of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains, plus a symphony of some 200 summits behind them, is what so many visitors yearn for. The spectacle is equally impressive from Grindelwald in the neighbouring valley — but harder to reach, car-free Mürren seems all the more unvisited, wild and, therefore, sublime.
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That you’ll feel like you’re in a Bond movie at Hotel Eiger Mürren shouldn’t seem so surprising. The stars of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service hung out here in 1969. Still, it’s the dizzying panorama that elevates this family-run spa hotel to something worthy of the A-list.
Exodus has an eight-day Walking the Bernese Highlands East tour, including a hike from Grindelwald to Mürren.
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4. Chillon Castle
Fresh mountain air, a mirror-calm lake and delicious views of Veytaux on Lake Geneva: the location of island-set Chillon Castle can’t be bettered. It’s the country’s textbook castle, with Savoy-era halls, courtyards and a moat, and the tooth-shaped peaks of rock and ice creating perfect symmetry in the water. The castle provides inspiration wherever you look and, fittingly, it influenced English romanticist Lord Byron. Another high point: Montreux, the swish Swiss city of jazz, grande dame hotels and terraced vineyards, is a ten-minute bike or train ride away.
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Belle époque-era Fairmont Le Montreux Palace is sassy — and that’s before you encounter the original Montreux Jazz Café, the hotel’s basement club that’s become a byword for the best finger-popping festival in the country.
Insight Vacations has a seven-day Magical Switzerland tour, including a curator-led tour of Chillon Castle and a visit to Montreux.
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5. Bosco Gurin
It takes effort to reach this traditional Walser village, but, blimey, it’s worth it. You’ll find it tucked away up a dogleg off the equally stunning Maggia Valley in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, and what awaits is a time-stopped, pedestrian-only village that’s off-grid and committed to tradition. There are narrow cobblestoned streets, stone houses heated by stoves and a sense of being not just a world apart from modern Switzerland, but a lifetime away too.
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Hotel Ristorante Walser is the Ritz for Bosco Gurin and the base for all its sightseeing potential, from quiet ski slopes in winter to empty hiking trails in all other seasons.
UTracks has a six-day Ticino Lake Cycle tour, including a day in the Maggia Valley and a ride to the Unesco-worthy castles of Bellinzona.
6. Creux du Van
Switzerland has its own Grand Canyon? Well, sort of. All eyes are on the canton of Neuchâtel for this ridiculously handsome rock arena with steeply raked walls and Jurassic Park-sized natural basin. Of course, it doesn’t host rock bands and you won’t come across a tyrannosaurus, but the Jura Mountains are home to chamois, ibexes, lynxes and fancy-footed mountain goats. The hike from the Val-de-Travers is a stunner too and, to raise your spirits further, the valley is the original home of absinthe. The Maison de l’Absinthe in Môtiers reveals the magic behind what must be Switzerland’s most mind-bending export.
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Not too far from the Creux du Van, Neuchâtel’s Beau-Rivage Hotel is a lakefront swooner. Glamour is on tap in the rooms and restaurants, and it’s surrounded by jewel-box watch salons — a reminder that this is a wellspring of Swiss watchmaking.
Globus has an eight-day Swiss Escape tour, including visits to Zurich, Bern, Lucerne and Neuchâtel.
7. St Moritz
Arriving in St Moritz feels like being invited to all of the world’s best parties at once. There are champagne bars galore, superlative five-star hotels and châteaux dripping with celebrities. Yes, Gstaad in the Bernese Oberland has a similar faux fur-and-fun air, but St Moritz is less stuck in the past and much better to look at. It has stunning Lake St Moritz for one, but also Corviglia, Corvatsch and Diavolezza, three of the loveliest mountain playgrounds in the Alps. Visit in winter when the fizzing peaks crank up the sense of escapism.
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Best hotel in the Alps? Badrutt’s Palace claims to be just that, and if you can’t do it here, it’s likely not possible anywhere else.
Newmarket Holidays has an eight-day Lake Como, St Moritz & the Bernina Express tour, including riding the Unesco-worthy Bernina Express to St Moritz.
8. Kandersteg
Up in the Bernese Oberland, Kandersteg is a bastion of eye-candy colour. It does the pine-green forests and snow-white peaks as well as anywhere, but it’s the deep blues of Oeschinen Lake below the Blüemlisalp massif that provide the landscape-scale wow factor. Cool off there, or in nearby Blausee (the clue is in its name) for a dinky stop and an epic Swiss swim.
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Landgasthof Ruedihaus could be the most chocolate-box of any guesthouse in the country. More than 250 years of tradition oozes from every beam and rafter, the rooms are almost museum-like, and it’s window-box heaven.
Exodus has a six-day Walking in Kandersteg tour, including four days of self-guided trekking.
9. Ascona
Much of Ticino is uncharted territory for most visitors to Switzerland, which makes this Mediterranean-style town on Lake Maggiore such a find. It has all the cafés and crinkled boulevards you’d expect from the Italian Riviera, but without the international crowds, and it retains a real sense of place and identity. The crystal-clear lake is the star turn, as is the tradition of taking the cable car from Locarno to view it from the top of Monte Brè.
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Ticino’s snazziest address is Hotel Eden Roc, where razzmatazz restaurants and a lakefront spa collide with beach resort chic. To stay is to feel like winning the lottery, especially after dining at two-Michelin-star La Brezza.
Titan Travel has a nine-day Grand Tour of Switzerland, which includes a two-night stay in Locarno, as well as overnights in Zermatt and Montreux.
10. Zermatt
The climbers, skiers and expedition leaders of the past would surely now recoil at the sheer number of hotels and restaurants in this celebrated mountain eyrie, but its appeal remains the same as it ever was. The crumple-horned Matterhorn is the centrepiece and it’s an astonishing meditation in landscape, no matter which way you look at it. What improves the scene is this: Zermatt is car-free (ditch the car, then take a train from Täsch); there’s a surplus of trains and cable cars to whoosh you skywards; and it’s possible to ride all the way over to Italy and back in a day, thanks to the Matterhorn Alpine Crossing. My favourite view? From the Gornergrat rack railway, the highest open-air train in Europe.
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Opened more than 160 years ago, Mont Cervin Palace Zermatt shows little sign of age and offers an ultimate view of Zermatt’s serrated peak.
Great Rail Journeys has a nine-day Classic Glacier Express tour, including a rail trip on the world-renowned Glacier Express from St Moritz to Zermatt.
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