11 Best Places to Visit in Switzerland
Nowhere is perfect, but let’s face it, Switzerland gets pretty darned close. The Alps ripple across 60% of the country, and the landscapes and towns look like they have been dreamed up by a particularly imaginative child. We’re talking glacier-capped peaks, crash-bang waterfalls, turreted castles of the fairy-tale kind, and lakes in the most surreal shade of turquoise blue. Red trains curl up mountains to improbable heights, and clanging cowbells ring out across hilly meadows that you can skip down with Heidi-like glee.
Even the culture-filled cities have magnificent backdrops of vineyards, lakes, or rivers, and the mountains are never more than a whisper away. As natural beauty goes, Switzerland is off the charts. That makes it a joy to travel around, whether by train, bus, or car. Here are the 11 best places to visit in Switzerland.
1. Jungfrau
Best for Outdoor Activities
The idyllic Jungfrau region is the icing on the Alpine cake of Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland. Sky-high peaks, glaciers, and thundering falls elicit gasps of wonder wherever you go. Grazing the 4,000m (13,123ft) mark are Switzerland’s “big three:” Eiger (Ogre), Mönch (Monk), and Jungfrau (Virgin), enshrined in mountaineering legend.
Take a once-in-a-lifetime ride up to the everlasting snow at Europe’s highest train station, 3,454m (11,332ft) Jungfraujoch. Hike, ski, sled, and zip-line among mountains of myth in Grindelwald, enjoy waterfalls galore in Lauterbrunnen, and tackle every kind of extreme sport imaginable in Interlaken (skydiving, ice climbing, glacial bungee jumping—you name it). The Jungfrau region is the great outdoors on a blockbuster scale.
Planning Tip: Rush this region, and you’ll regret it. Allow a week or more to dive in deep if you have the time; it’s worth it. Great bases for dropping your bags include the astoundingly pretty villages of Wengen and Mürren.
2. Bern
Best for Stepping Back in Time
Bern often pops up in those I-can’t-believe-it’s-the-capital trivia questions, but frankly, Switzerland’s first city deserves more love. The cobbled, flag-bedecked medieval Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage treat with 6km (3.7 miles) of covered arcades, cellar shops, and bars, fantastical folk figures topping 16th-century fountains, and the eye-grabbing Zytglogge. Framed by wooded hills and split in two by the turquoise Aare River, this red-roofed city looks good from pretty much every angle.
Sights-wise, you’ll be drawn to big-hitters like the Einstein-Haus (where the genius and Nobel laureate developed his theory of relativity), the Kunsthaus (with its outstanding fine arts collection), and Renzo Piano’s wavy Zentrum Paul Klee (Bern’s answer to the Guggenheim).
Planning Tip: In summer, the action’s on the water with swimming, tubing, rafting, and paddleboarding along the Aare River, so bring your swimsuit. A classic float takes you from Camping Eichholz to Marzili, with knockout views of the Old Town.
3. Geneva and Lake Geneva
Best for a Cosmopolitan City Experience
In Switzerland’s western crook, crescent-shaped Lake Geneva (Lac Léman to Francophones) is a joy to behold with its mountain backdrop, spirit-lifting views, vineyards, and a shoreline necklaced with handsome cities and castle-crowned towns.
Marked by its rainbow-kissed Jet d’Eau fountain and Mont Blanc peeping up on the horizon, Geneva wraps around the lake’s southern shore. The worldly city makes an excellent launchpad for exploring with big-hitting museums and galleries to absorb, botanical gardens to stroll, lidos to swim, Old Town cafes to hang out in, and bright-yellow mouettes ferrying locals across the water—surely one of the world’s most scenic commutes.
4. Zermatt
Best for Hiking, Skiing, and Rock-climbing
No peak has more pulling power than the 4,478m (14,692ft) Matterhorn, a terrific, gnarled fang of rock that flings up above the seductive, timber-chalet-filled Alpine resort of Zermatt. It’s Switzerland’s mountain icon, so beloved by the nation that it inspired the pyramid shape of Toblerone chocolate.
Zermatt is more than a one-mountain wonder. Climbers have been rocking up here since the mid-19th century, and it’s still a magnet for challenging summit ascents today. Otherwise, come to hike, ski, and gaze over a sea of glaciers and 4,000m (13,123ft) peaks at Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.
5. Swiss National Park
Best for Wildlife (and Wildflowers) Spotting
Switzerland has just one national park, and yes, we know it’s a shock, but trust us, it’s a good one. Snuggled away in a remote corner of the country’s southeast on the border with Italy, the 172 sq km (66 square mile) Swiss National Park is the Alps in overdrive: a nature-gone-wild spectacle of high moors, forests, wildflower-freckled pastures, waterfalls, jewel-colored lakes, and mountains as high as the sky, where ibex, chamois, marmots, deer, and golden eagles roam and fly free.
Here, wildlife rules, and human intervention is kept to a conservation-driven minimum. This mountainscape is so pristine, ancient, and unaltered that dinosaur tracks are still regularly found here.
6. Bellinzona
Best for Piazza Dining
With a trio of medieval castles plonked on hilltops with dress-circle views of the Alps rearing beyond, Bellinzona in Ticino is like an espresso shot of Italy in southern Switzerland. You’ll find a generous splash of Italian flair, food, and culture in its historic center, woven with flower-draped alleys, Renaissance churches, and café-rimmed piazzas that brim with life, laughter, clinking glasses, and the out-of-tune toll of countless campaniles.
Detour: Top of any wish list is seeing the castles, among them the medieval stronghold of Castelgrande, which can be drawn out into a full day’s activity. From the ramparts, views reach out across vine-streaked, castle-studded hills.
7. Jura Mountains and Lac de Neuchâtel
Best for Road Tripping
In the dark forested hills along the French–Swiss border, the Jura Mountains are a natural wonder. This peaceful region has a beauty all its own: meadows of green, ancient forests, rocky outcrops overlooking a trio of lakes against an Alpine backdrop and slow-paced villages and valleys little changed in centuries.
Kick off at the Jura Vaudois Nature Park for hikes with stunning views of Lake Geneva and Gruyère cheese tastings at rustic Alpine huts. Swing north to Lac de Joux, the watchmaking village of Le Sentier, and Vallorbe, honeycombed with Switzerland’s biggest and most impressive limestone caves.
8. Lake Lucerne
Best for Sunset Promenades
Reclining on the shores of its glittering namesake lake, Lucerne is a walkable, medieval dream of a city that has a magic you can’t quite put your finger on. It will grab you when you are strolling along the promenade as the sun sets in a blaze of gold and pinks or as you cruise across its waters to mountains of myth: 2,132m (6,995ft) Mt Pilatus and 1,797m (5,896ft) Rigi.
The little city punches far above its weight culturally with its iconic medieval Kapellbrücke bridge leaping across the Reuss River and the Jean Nouvel-designed KKL arts center harboring a prized private collection of Picassos.
9. Appenzell and Northeastern Switzerland
Best for a Bucolic Swiss Experience
Northeastern Switzerland delights in its serene, rural way with dairy country leading to the mountains and half-timbered, gaily muralled towns suitable for a postcard. This region is perfect for a family vacation with a hit of culture and gentle adventure.
Begin in St Gallen, exploring its World Heritage Stiftsbibliothek (Abbey Library), a literary marvel and a feast of rococo art and architecture. Move on to folksy Appenzell, sampling regional cheeses. Factor in a visit to nearby Vaduz, Liechtenstein’s princely, castle-topped capital on the banks of the Rhine.
10. Basel
Best Under-the-Radar City Experience
Popularity-wise, poor old Basel barely gets a look. However, that’s a mistake. Straddling the Rhine, this city has everything going for it: world-class art in some of the country’s best galleries, a hot food scene, avant-garde buildings, and an upbeat café culture.
Allow several days for a satisfying exploration of the center, where must-sees include the Kunstmuseum and its fine arts collection and the Renzo Piano-designed Fondation Beyeler. Basel endears itself most to those who look beyond the trophy sights, with sundown drinks by the river or a wild swim in the Rhine.
11. Zürich
Best Place to Live
Regularly landing at the top of quality-of-living surveys, urban dynamo Zürich never seems to miss a beat: from cool waterside bars on the banks of the Limmat River to its alley-woven Old Town, where the twin-spired Romanesque Grossmünster shines with Augusto Giacometti’s stained glass.
Old Masters hanging in the outstanding Kunsthaus gallery and Le Corbusier’s boldly colored architectural creations notch Zürich’s cultural cred up even further.
Planning Tip: In mid-August, Zürich throws one of Switzerland’s wildest parties: the techno-pumping Street Parade. Hot summer days see locals swapping business suits for swim suits at the city’s lakeside and riverfront pool bars.