Switzerland Travel Tips
Read the Europe Travel tips first if you need any background on some tips
What to See
Is there a bad place to visit in Switzerland? I don't think so!
Switzerland is a place that is far better in real life than in pictures. What makes the Alps so grand is not that they are high but that the mountains go from a high altitude into a valley thousands of feet vs. the Rockies for example remain high fairly consistently. The valleys are so much deeper and they go on for miles and miles.
After consulting with the locals (I worked with people in Switzerland) they told me the best places are the Jungfrau area as it is less touristy than say Matterhorn or something.
A great route can be from Munich all the way down to Geneva - or - from Geneva and up through Munich hitting various cities along the route.
Top Places
Murren - stay several nights
Montreaux - a day trip - Château de Chillon
Lucerne - a day trip
Bern - a day or two
Additional Details
If you are starting from Geneva take the train up to Interlaken and ultimately to Murren and on to Zurich or any other city that looks amazing. Another option is to start from the top down - from Munich and head down.
Geneva, Switzerland - a significant world city with lots of history along Lake Geneva
Montreaux - to see the Château de Chillon one of the most authentic castles I have ever been through
Make sure to take the Golden Pass rail cars from this city all the way Zweismmen and on to Lucern where you get a panoramic view of the countryside
Bern, Switzerland - where you can walk the streets that Einstein did and visit his house and museum
I suggest Bern as a day trip
Lucerne, Switzerland - one of the most beautiful cities and so much to see
Interlaken, Switzerland - at the base of an amazing set of mountains where you take the train to:
Lauterbrunnen
Murren, Switzerland - stay in the remote mountain village where you can hike and take a series of gondolas up to the Schilthorn where you can stand on the top of a mountain
Schilthorn - a gondola ride up is breathtaking and there are two. After you've been to the top take the gondola down to the next mountain and if it is safe - hike down it. What a spectacular hike!
So many amazing hikes here!
Via Ferrata - MÜRREN-GIMMELWALD - The craziest hike I wish I had known about!
You can stay in town - and - if you're adventurous you can go to a remote cabin for a couple of days where they furnish you with everything
Take an afternoon hike down to Gimmelwald which is truly an authentic Swiss village where there are "honest shops" for real Swiss Cheese and other local fares and where you interact with the locals
There is also a hostel - Mountain Hostel - that is very nice and a great restaurant you can eat at while in the village of where you hike down from Murren - a great afternoon hike to do
You could stay at Kleine Scheidegg, the Hotels are so beautiful! You find the Information on the myswitzerland website. Every mountain town and village around the Bernese Alps is just adorable, so you can't go wrong. Kleine Scheidegg is one of the best. You can hike to the Eiger North Face and make a romantic picnic there if you like. It’s a very easy hike! And there is a small Restaurant just below the Eiger, where you can rest before the final climb (which is very easy).
Going from Grund to Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch is a day trip! It takes really the whole day to explore everything and enjoy the fullest. You could start from Mürren with the train, these locations are connected. But I suggest to start at Grund with the train.
Zermatt where the Matterhorn is - prioritize Murren over this busy city though if you have time take a look. There are several gondolas and Trains in Zermatt. Please take all if you can! Especially to Gornergrat and Matterhorn Glacier Paradise!! Zermatt is Auto free, so you can take a train from Visp directly to Zermatt, it should take about 1.40 hour.
Zurich - is a beautiful city full of culture
Visp - details of a previous trip - not a destination city but very beautiful
Please look at the following links about Visp and brilliant hike to can go on there!
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/visp.html
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/chapel-trail-to-the-forest-chapel-of-maria-heimsuchung.html
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/vineyard-trail-visperterminen.html
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/suonen-hike-in-the-rock-fall-region-of-the-varner-alp.html
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/bus-alpin-in-der-region-moosalp.html
Italy so Close to Visp, you can take day trips there as well
Charmonix Mont Blanc
And I’m suggesting it also for Chamonix Mont Blanc (France). It totally makes sense to do even two days at Chamonix because there are SO many incredible Things to see!
Locarno (Switzerland) / Lago Maggiore (Italy)
For Locarno (Switzerland) and Lago Maggiore (Italy) I suggest you take a hotel at least for one night to be able to enjoy the Region to the fullest.
I suggest you take the multipass for two days and the family rate, all the fabulous spots are included. Don't Forget to visit Courmayeur (Italy) as well, it's just 14km from Mont Blanc and i think it's included in the multipass as well!
https://www.chamonix.com/multipass-summer-pass,79,en.html
Canton Wallis, Valais (Swiss French)
Here you find a lot of the canton Wallis, Valais (in Swiss French):
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/search/index.cfm?phrase=wallis
How to Get There
Fly into a major city and take the train from one great city to another. Find a suitable airport (Zurich, Munich, Geneva and even Amsterdam is an option if you don't mind a long rail ride).
With the Swiss Pass (or Europass for multi-countries) you can take ferries / boat rides across large lakes such as Lake Geneva - an unforgettable experience especially at sunrise / sunset
Boats from Interlaken to Thun - or Spiez - or any two points along the way
The Swiss Pass can also get you on to the gondolas to the top of the mountains either for free or a sizable discount.
The pass can also provide discounts to museums and other sight seeing places.
When you clock the time on a train you may wonder how a person could sit that long (there are 5-7 hour stretches), however, you are so enthralled with the countryside and getting on / off the train to see things that the time passes very quickly.
Make sure to take the Golden Pass rail cars from this city all the way Zweismmen and on to Lucern where you get a panoramic view of the countryside
Routes I Have Taken
First Trip Route
Flew into Amsterdam and did a long layover - Aug 26, 2010
Geneva for work - August 27 - September 4, 2010
Murren - September 4 - 5, 2010
Lucerne, Bern - September 5 - 6, 2010
Bern, Paris - September 7, 2010
Paris - September 7 - 9, 2010
Direct flight back to Minneapolis
Second Trip Route
Flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta and on to Munich - June 25, 2015
Munich - sightseeing - June 26, 2015
Munich - went out to Dachau - June 27, 2015
Schwangau - took the train down and stayed overnight here for the Neuschwanstein castle - which - with limited time - we toured the other castle and took a ride up the hill to see the castle from the Mary's Bridge - June 28, 2015
Lucerne - took the train to this city and toured around and visited various historic places including the Lion Monument - June 29, 2015
Interlaken - took the train, The Golden Pass, down to this city and stayed overnight - very touristy but very beautiful - June 30, 2015
Murren - took the train to the cable car to the cog wheel train up the mountain and stayed at Blumental, Mürren - July 1 - 2, 2015
Murren - took the gondola up to Schilthorn and hiked back down from the first stop; took a hike down to Gimmelwald the authentic Swiss village; took "Sound of Music" shots from here - July 2, 2015
Murren - went on several more hikes then headed back down the mountain and took the train to Montreaux for the amazing Chillon Castle (it was 100F, no AC in the bus). From there we took the ferry from Montreaux to Lausanne across Lake Geneva because it was sunset and it was a part of the Eurorail pass and we then took the rail down to Geneva - July 3, 2015
Geneva - we had half a day in Geneva so didn't do much other than head to Amsterdam - July 4, 2015
Amsterdam - the plan was to head to Anne Frank's house early to catch the tour but we got a late start and the line was hours long. If you want to see her house - get tickets weeks in advance! We had to head to the airport and fly back to Minneapolis - July 5, 2015
Third Trip Route
Flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam (no layover this time) and on to Zurich - June 5, 2018
Zurich - We purchased Swiss Rail passes and headed down to St Niklaus to our friend's place - I think it took us 19 hours door to door - it was an amazing feeling to get off the train in St Niklaus after that amazing train ride. It was so quiet! - June 6, 2018
St Niklaus - it is a small village near Zermatt. We hung out and took an excellent hike along the ridge line. So beautiful with the summer flowers! - June 7, 2018
Murren - back on the train and headed up to Murren for a couple of nights. We stayed at a hotel that was literally on the edge of the mountain - Panoramahotel & Restaurant Alpina - June 8, 2018
Murren - we hung around town and did some hiking - June 9, 2018
Murren - we went up on top of Schilthorn and it was amazing. Couldn't hike back down the mountain due to too much snowfall - June 10, 2018
Murren - it was a bit rainy so instead of hiking down to Gimmelwald we took the cable car and then walked around, had lunch at the restaurant and headed back. We packed up and headed back to St Niklaus on the train - June 11, 2018
Zermatt - our friend drove us to a train station and we all headed to Zermatt for the day. We took the train all the way up to the Matterhorn which was a spectacular ride except it was so cloudy we couldn't see the mountain! We had lunch up there and took a few photos and headed back down. We found this amazing pizza place, Pizzeria Ristorante Molino, and I walked up to see if the Matterhorn was visible - one last time - and it was - so I took a few shots - June 12, 2018
Domodossola - we took a day trip to Italy and had pizza, gelato and it was SO good! The best part was missing the train by literally three seconds :(. The Swiss Rail pass can get you fairly deep into Italy as part of the rail pass. Eventually we caught the next train back to St Niklaus - June 13, 2018
Bern - our plan was to try and take the boat across the water - just because - rather than the train. It would have taken too long so we opted for the train. In Bern we visited the Einstein house. From there we realized that we needed to catch the next train in twenty minutes so we ran and took the train out to a quaint remote town called Murten so we could take a boat ride along a beautiful lake. We then trained it back to Bern, started to have dinner and realized we needed to grab the next train in minutes or we would miss an optimized route to Zurich so we boxed everything up and ran. It was one of the best dinners on the train, ever - June 14, 2018
Zurich - we stayed overnight in a quaint cost effective hotel near the airport and took the local train to the airport to fly back to Amsterdam and back to Minneapolis - June 15, 2018