Switzerland Travel Guide

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Top Things to See

Zürich
Explore Zürich (www.zuerich.com), Switzerland's largest city. The old town, Altstadt, is especially picturesque. See the gothic Fraumünster, with its stained-glass windows by Chagall; the imposing twin-towered Grossmünster cathedral; the Swiss National Museum; and the modern art collections at the Kunsthaus Zürich.

Lausanne
Lausanne's highlights include the Cathédrale Notre-Dame and the Musée Olympic (Olympic Museum). A stroll along the promenade of the old Port d'Ouchy reveals a slower pace of life.

Bern
Visit the capital city of Bern on the Aare River, with its medieval heart of unique 11th-century arcaded streets, its famous 13th-century clocktower, and ancient medieval bear pits, a reminder of the city's ursine emblem seen throughout Bern on flags, statues, stained-glass windows and souvenirs.

Beutiful architecture
The elegant ancient city cenre of St Gallen features the baroque cathedral and famous Abbey Library (www.stiftsbibliothek.ch) in the old Benedictine monastery, named a World Heritage Treasure by UNESCO. Go to the historic town of Brig for the most important baroque castle in Switzerland. See one of the country's most important historic buildings in Vaud; head for the small town of Romainmotier (www.romainmotier.ch) to discover its 11th-century Benedictine monastery.

Berner Oberland
Explore the Berner Oberland (www.berneroberland.ch), a major tourist area that includes spectacular scenery including famous peaks (Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger), mountain lakes, alpine streams and wild flowers, as well as Europe's highest railway and such celebrated resorts as Adelboden, Grindelwald and Interlaken.

Basel
Discover the ancient university and trading city of Basel. Straddling the Rhine between the Jura region, Alsace in France and Germany's Black Forest, it is a center of art and research. Don't miss the Art Museum or the ancient red sandstone Münster.

Ticino
Explore the lovely, Italian-speaking, southernmost tip of Switzerland, the region of Ticino. Follow the road from the Alpine valleys through Bellinzona with its three medieval castles to the Locarno and Lugano, the celebrated lake resorts of Southern Ticino.

Peaks
In the Valais (www.valaistourism.ch) region ('the valley') see such lofty glacial peaks as the Dufourspitze (4,634m/15,217ft), Dom (4,545m/14,917ft), Weisshorn (4,509m/14,793ft) and the Matterhorn (4,478m/14,698ft). Popular resorts here include Saas Fee, Verbier and Zermatt.

Gruyères
Visit one of Switzerland's most photogenic villages, Gruyères, home to the nation's most famous cheese, to explore its castle and various cheese factories.

Appenzell
Drive through rustic Appenzell, the most traditional canton, with its picturesque villages of ornately painted houses set in lush, rolling landscapes. Säntis (www.saentisbahn.ch) is Appenzell's most famous peak, with memorable views over six nations - Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Top Things to Do

Hiking
Join the Swiss in their favorite pastime: hiking. There are over 50,000km (31,070 miles) of marked trails to explore, with hiking times are given on the signposts, and color-coding according to difficulty (www.swisshiking.ch).

Cycling
Cycling is not necessarily as strenuous as the mountainous terrain might indicate. There are 3,300km (2,046 miles) of well-marked interlinked trails, and most of them offer easy cycling. Many railway stations offer bike hire (www.veloland.ch/en/welcome.cfm).

Get sporty
The mountains are the perfect place to get active, with ice climbing, ski touring, snowboarding, deep-snow skiing, heli-skiing and glacier walking close at hand. Top ski areas include Portes du Soleil, Davos, Klosters, Zermatt, Verbier, Saas Fee and glamorous St Moritz, which also offers snow-polo, the Olympic Bob run and the Cresta run.

Scenic trains
Travel by train through stunning Alpine scenery on the Glacier Express (www.glacierexpress.ch), one of Europe's greatest rail journeys, from St Moritz to Zermatt (or vice versa) at the very heart of Switzerland.

Take to the water
Enjoy a lake cruise or ferry trip on the likes of Lake Zürich, Lake Geneva, Lake Constance (with visits to towns in Germany and Austria) and the picturesque Vierwaltstättersee at Luzern, where paddlesteamers link up with various mountain railways and cableways.

Join in the carnival
Go to Basel for the Basler Fasnacht (a pre-Lenten carnival), with three days of grand masked parties and street parades with fancy costumes. There is even a Fasnacht Fountain in front of the City Theater (www.fasnacht.ch).

Cable car highs
Take Europe's highest aerial cablecar up the Little Matterhorn at Zermatt, then ski back to the car-free village of Zermatt on one of the longest ski runs in Europe (www.klein-matterhorn.ch). Or, head to the small town and popular ski resort of Engelberg, where the world's first revolving cable car ascends Mount Titlis, the highest lookout-point in central Switzerland (www.titlis.ch).

Absorb some jazz
Listen to the world's greatest jazz, blues and rhythm 'n' blues artists at the prestigious Montreux International Jazz Festival (www.montreuxjazz.com) in July.

Detox and revive
For a virtuous holiday health kick, of Switzerland's many climatic health resorts. The Graubünden resorts of Arosa, Davos, Klosters and St Moritz are renowned the world over. Interlaken, near Bern, is another celebrated health resort and the gateway to the Berner Oberland.

Explore Geneva
Discover Geneva's ancient city center on foot, especially its crowning glory, the Cathédrale de St Pierre - a magnificent example of Romanesque architecture. Near Lake Geneva, the flower clock in the Jardin Anglais, with over 6,500 blooms, pays homage to Geneva's watch industry (www.geneva-tourism.ch).