Switzerland

Switzerland is small. Zurich to Geneva is under three hours by train; the whole country is roughly the size of the Netherlands, or half of Scotland. You can base yourself in one city and see a surprising amount of it on day trips.

It is also more varied per kilometre than anywhere else in Europe. In an hour you can go from a German-speaking banking city to an Italian-speaking piazza with palm trees, or from a French-speaking lakefront to a glacier.

How the country is put together

Four languages. German in the centre, north and east — though what people actually speak is Swiss German, which written German will not entirely prepare you for. French in the west, around Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel. Italian in Ticino, south of the Alps. And Romansh, still spoken by a few tens of thousands in Graubünden.

Twenty-six cantons, which behave less like provinces and more like small states: their own taxes, schools, police and holidays. This is why opening hours, shop closures and public holidays change as you cross an invisible line.

No single capital in the usual sense. Bern is the seat of government, but it is deliberately modest — Zurich is bigger and richer, Geneva is more international, and neither is the capital.

Where to go

The cities

Each is small enough to walk and different enough to be worth the trip.

• Zurich — the largest, on a lake and a river, with the best museums and the swimming
• Geneva — at the far west end of the lake, international and expensive
• Bern — the UNESCO old town, six kilometres of arcades, and the bears
• Basel — on the Rhine at the German and French corners, and the best art city in the country
• Lucerne — the covered bridge and the mountains straight behind it
• Lugano — Italian-speaking, palm trees, and a different country in every way that matters

The mountains

The Bernese Oberland, around Interlaken, is the classic first trip: Lauterbrunnen in its valley of waterfalls, Grindelwald under the north face, and the railway up to the Jungfraujoch. The Valais, around Zermatt, has the Matterhorn and no cars. Graubünden, in the east, has St. Moritz, the Bernina railway and the only national park.

The lakes

Lake Geneva in the west, with the Lavaux terraces along its northern shore. Lake Lucerne in the middle, the most theatrical of them. Lake Constance in the north-east, shared with Germany and Austria. Lugano and Maggiore in the south, which look and feel Italian because they nearly are.

Getting around

The railway is the reason to come here without a car.

• Everything connects. Trains, buses, boats and mountain railways run to a single timetable, and connections are built to work rather than to look good on paper. A four-minute change is a real four minutes.
• Punctuality is genuine and is quietly assumed by everyone. A train described as leaving at 09:34 leaves at 09:34.
• Post buses reach the rest. The yellow buses go where the railway does not, on the same ticket and the same timetable.
• The scenic routes are ordinary trains too. The Glacier Express and the Bernina Express are famous, but the regular service runs the same track for a fraction of the price and no reservation.

Passes are worth doing arithmetic on rather than buying by reputation — the Swiss Travel Pass covers trains, buses, boats and most museums, and pays off quickly if you keep moving, but not if you are staying in one place. Prices change yearly; check the current ones on sbb.ch before deciding.

What it costs

Expensive, and there is no clever way around it. Some things help:

• Supermarkets are excellent — Coop and Migros, with hot food counters, and branches inside the main stations that open late and on Sundays.
• Tap water everywhere. Public fountains run drinking water continuously in almost every town. Fill a bottle rather than buying one.
• Lunch menus cost a fraction of the same kitchen’s dinner.
• Half-price hotel schemes and off-season rates make a real difference outside July, August and the ski weeks.

When to go

June to September for the mountains: the passes are open, the high trails are clear, and the lakes are warm enough to swim.

December to March for skiing, and for the Christmas markets in the cities.

April, May, October and November are the shoulder — cheaper and quieter, but many mountain railways and passes close, and the weather is a lottery. Check whether the specific thing you want to see is running before you commit to a date.

One rule that saves whole days: the mountains are only worth it in clear weather, and the tickets are expensive. Swiss forecasts and mountain webcams are reliable — look at them the evening before, and swap a city day for a mountain day when the sky is right.