Best Things to Do in Switzerland (2026 Guide)

Carved into a sheer sandstone cliff face, the dying lion of Lucerne gazes downward with quiet resignation, a broken lance in its flank and a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis beneath its paw. Mark Twain once called it the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world, and even stripped of that romantic hyperbole, the monument retains a genuine gravity that distinguishes it from more conventional war memorials.

The sculpture commemorates the Swiss Guards who died defending the Tuileries Palace in Paris during the French Revolution in 1792. Carved in 1820 and 1821 by Lucas Ahorn after a design by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, it measures roughly ten meters in length. A small reflecting pool at its base extends the image in still water on calm days, doubling the effect of the recessed alcove carved into the cliff. The surrounding park is modest and well-kept, with benches arranged for unhurried viewing.

The monument is free to visit and takes only fifteen to twenty minutes for a thorough look. It sits a short walk from the Chapel Bridge and is easily combined with a broader tour of central Lucerne. Midweek mornings are quieter; summer afternoons bring the largest crowds. The natural stone setting means lighting shifts throughout the day, with overcast conditions often producing a more evenly lit and contemplative atmosphere than harsh midday sun.

Within Switzerland’s landscape of alpine spectacle, the Lion Monument stands apart as an exercise in restraint. Lucerne has no shortage of dramatic scenery, but this carved cliff face reminds visitors that some of the city’s most affecting sights are human-scaled and quietly historical rather than panoramic.

The painted wooden bridge stretches across the Reuss River in a gentle diagonal, its triangular roof panels depicting scenes from Lucerne’s history in faded Renaissance hues. Built in 1333, the Chapel Bridge is one of the oldest covered wooden bridges in Europe, and even after a destructive fire in 1993, much of its structure and many of its historic paintings were restored to their original form.

Walking its length reveals a series of ceiling panels painted in the 17th century, illustrating the patron saints of Lucerne and episodes from Swiss history. The octagonal Water Tower beside the bridge, which predates it by several decades, served variously as a treasury, archive, and prison. Together they form a riverside ensemble that anchors the old city’s character and draws visitors into the compact medieval quarter on both banks.

Morning light hits the bridge from the east, making early hours ideal for photography and quieter exploration before tour groups arrive. The bridge is open at all hours, and a full crossing takes only a few minutes, though lingering on the footway to examine the paintings and watch the swans below rewards the unhurried traveler. Spring and autumn offer pleasant temperatures and clearer skies than the humid summer peak.

Lucerne occupies a singular position in central Switzerland, where alpine lakes meet medieval urban fabric. The Chapel Bridge is the clearest expression of that identity — a functional crossing that doubles as a civic gallery, still used daily by locals cutting through the old town, not merely a monument preserved behind barriers.

Curving between the Swiss and French Alps in a broad arc of deep blue, Lake Geneva is the largest lake in Western Europe — a body of water so expansive that the far shore disappears in haze on overcast days, and so deeply embedded in the regional identity that the towns along its banks have shaped their entire character around its presence. The Romans called it Lacus Lemanus, and the settlements that grew along its shores have been in continuous occupation ever since.

The lake’s northern shore, the Swiss Riviera, runs from Geneva in the west through Lausanne, Montreux, and Vevey to the castle of Chillon near the eastern end — a sequence of towns each with its own distinct character and cultural landmarks. The Lavaux vineyard terraces above the lake between Lausanne and Vevey form a UNESCO World Heritage landscape of terraced vines that have been cultivated since the eleventh century. The southern shore belongs to France, with the town of Évian-les-Bains the most prominent settlement. Boat services connect the major lakeside towns, offering a perspective on the surrounding Alps that is simply not available from the roads above.

The lake is most active from late spring through early autumn, when paddleboarding, sailing, and swimming are popular alongside the cultural attractions of the lakeside towns. Winter brings a quieter character, with clear days offering particularly sharp views of the snow-covered Alpine peaks reflected in the water. Day trips by boat between Geneva and Montreux take several hours and allow stops at intermediate towns.

Lake Geneva functions simultaneously as a natural landscape, a transport corridor, an agricultural region, and a cultural backdrop for some of the most historically significant towns in Switzerland. Its scale makes it unlike any other lake in the Alps and gives the entire western Swiss region a coherence and identity anchored by the water at its centre.

From the shore of Lake Geneva, a single column of water climbs 140 metres into the air above the harbour, visible from across the city and from the lake itself on clear days, catching the light differently at every hour — white in full sun, silver at dusk, occasionally tinted pink or gold by the angle of morning. Geneva’s Jet d’Eau is one of the most recognisable landmarks in Switzerland, a fountain whose scale is so far beyond conventional expectations that it reads more as a natural phenomenon than an engineered structure.

The current fountain dates in its present form to 1891, when the original hydraulic pressure-relief mechanism that inspired it was relocated to the harbour and redesigned as a public monument. At full pressure, 500 litres of water per second are expelled at a speed of 200 kilometres per hour, reaching the maximum height before dispersing into a fine mist that drifts over the surrounding quay on windy days, soaking unsuspecting pedestrians on the adjacent pier. A walkway extends along the pier to a vantage point close to the base of the column, giving a perspective that emphasises its extraordinary scale from ground level.

The fountain operates during daylight hours from March to October, with an illuminated night display on summer evenings. Wind and weather conditions occasionally cause temporary shutdowns. The surrounding Quai Gustave-Ador is pleasant for walking regardless of whether the fountain is active, with views across the lake to the French Alps. The closest access point is a short walk from the Old Town.

The Jet d’Eau functions as Geneva’s most immediate landmark — the image that appears on postcards, in background shots, and in collective memory of the city. Its presence on the lakeshore ties together the waterfront, the mountains, and the city’s self-presentation as a place of both precision and unexpected grandeur.

The Rhine drops 23 metres at Neuhausen am Rheinfall in a wide curtain of white water, and the noise reaches the viewing platforms before the falls come into view. At around 150 metres wide during high water, the Rhine Falls is the largest waterfall in Europe by volume, and the river’s force — particularly in late spring and early summer when snowmelt from the Alps swells the current — makes the viewing platforms vibrate faintly underfoot.

Two rock outcrops stand in the middle of the falls, accessible by boat from the north bank during operating season. The boats approach close enough to feel the spray and the pull of the current. The main viewing areas are on both the north shore at Schloss Laufen, a castle perched directly above the falls on the south bank, and the Rhineside park area on the north. A series of walkways and stairways descend to platforms at water level, where the scale and force of the falls are most immediate.

The falls are at their highest volume between May and July, when the water is a powerful grey-green and the roar is constant. August and September bring slightly lower water but clearer conditions and fewer tour groups. The site is open year-round; boat services to the central rocks operate from spring through autumn. The journey from Zurich takes about 40 minutes by train to Neuhausen am Rheinfall or Schaffhausen, from which the falls are a short walk.

Switzerland’s landscape is defined by its Alpine peaks and high lakes, but the Rhine Falls represents a different kind of power — horizontal rather than vertical, defined by volume and sound rather than altitude. That difference in character, and the fact that a river of this scale descends this abruptly so far into the lowlands, makes Neuhausen a genuinely surprising destination regardless of prior expectation.

For eight hours the train moves through a landscape that seems assembled from the most demanding requirements of Alpine travel: narrow gorges where the track hugs cliff faces, long viaducts crossing valleys so deep the rivers below are barely visible, and passes where snow lingers into early summer while the villages below are already warm. The Glacier Express has been running this route since 1930, and the scenery has made it one of the most discussed train journeys in Europe.

The route connects Zermatt and St. Moritz, passing through Andermatt and crossing the Oberalp Pass at 2,033 metres. The journey covers 291 kilometres with 91 tunnels and 291 bridges. Panoramic windows in the dedicated carriages angle upward to capture the full height of surrounding peaks. The train passes through the Rhone valley, along the Rhine gorge near Flims, and across the wide plateau of the Engadine before descending into St. Moritz. A full meal service is available on board, served at the seat.

The full journey takes approximately eight hours, though it is possible to board or disembark at intermediate stops including Andermatt, Disentis, and Chur. The most visually dramatic section is generally considered to be the Oberalp Pass crossing and the Rhine Gorge. Reservations are required and seats are assigned. The journey runs in both directions daily. Winter travel adds a snow-laden dimension to the scenery; summer offers greener valleys and better visibility of wildflower meadows.

Switzerland has many scenic rail lines, but the Glacier Express occupies a specific category: it is slow by design, conceived as an experience rather than transportation. That deliberateness — the long hours, the seated meals, the unhurried pace through terrain that would otherwise require days of hiking — is precisely what gives the journey its distinct character among European rail travel.

The cable car from Engelberg rises steeply through forest, then pine scrub, then bare rock and snow, gaining altitude so quickly that the valley floor shrinks to a toy version of itself within minutes. At the summit station, the air is thin and cold even in summer, and the panorama of Alpine peaks extending into the distance carries the particular clarity that comes with elevation rather than effort.

At 3,238 metres, Mt. Titlis is the highest point in central Switzerland accessible by cable car. The Rotair gondola, which rotates 360 degrees during the final ascent, gives riders views in every direction as they rise over the glacier. The summit area includes a glacier cave carved into the ice, an outdoor cliff walk along a metal walkway fixed to the mountain face, and a suspension bridge. On clear days, visitors can see from the Bernese Alps across to the Black Forest in Germany.

The mountain draws visitors year-round, with winter skiing on the upper slopes and summer glacier walks. The busiest periods are summer weekends and Chinese public holidays, when tour groups from Asia arrive in large numbers. Arriving before 10am significantly reduces wait times for the gondolas. The summit is cold and windy regardless of season; bringing an extra layer even in July is not overcaution but necessity. The round trip from Engelberg, including time at the summit, typically takes three to four hours.

Within the cluster of accessible Swiss mountain summits, Titlis holds a particular appeal for visitors based in Lucerne or Zurich, as Engelberg is reachable in under two hours. It offers glacier access and high-alpine scenery without requiring the longer journey to Zermatt or Grindelwald, making it a practical choice for travellers with limited time in central Switzerland.

Lucerne sits at the point where the Reuss river flows out of Lake Lucerne, flanked by wooded hills and with a clear view south toward the snow-capped peaks of the central Swiss Alps. The medieval covered bridges crossing the river, the painted facades of the old town, and the surrounding mountain panorama combine to create one of the most immediately striking urban landscapes in Switzerland — a city whose setting does much of the work before a visitor has stepped inside a single building.

The Kapellbrucke, a covered wooden bridge rebuilt after a fire in 1993 but dating from the fourteenth century, is the defining landmark of the city, its interior decorated with painted panels depicting Lucerne’s history. The old town on the north bank contains guild houses, fountains, and churches within a compact, walkable area. The Swiss Museum of Transport on the lake shore is the most visited museum in Switzerland, covering rail, road, water, and air transport with an extensive collection of vehicles and interactive exhibits.

Lucerne serves as the primary gateway to the Swiss Alps for visitors arriving from Zurich, and boat services on the lake connect to mountain destinations including the base stations for Mount Pilatus and Mount Rigi. Summer brings the highest visitor numbers; late spring and early autumn offer better conditions for mountain excursions and a more relaxed atmosphere in the city. Most central attractions are reachable on foot from the main railway station.

Lucerne holds a position in Swiss tourism that is both central and slightly paradoxical — it is among the most visited cities in the country yet retains the character of a medium-sized market town. Its appeal rests almost entirely on geography: the lake, the mountains, and the river have shaped everything around them, and the city’s role has always been to provide a comfortable base from which to encounter the larger landscape.

Sitting directly on the surface of Lake Geneva, its stone walls rising from the water as though grown there rather than built, Chillon Castle presents one of the most immediately striking medieval silhouettes in Europe. The Alps of Savoy form a backdrop to the south, the lake stretches north toward Lausanne, and the castle occupies its narrow rocky island with an authority that seven centuries of history have done nothing to diminish.

The interior is remarkably complete — a succession of courtyards, towers, halls, and dungeons that chart the castle’s evolution from a toll-collecting fortress to a residence of the Counts of Savoy. The underground prison cells gained literary fame when Lord Byron visited in 1816 and inscribed his name on a pillar, later writing The Prisoner of Chillon based on the story of François Bonivard, who was chained here for four years. The great hall, chapel with its medieval frescoes, and the camera domini all survive in good condition and are open to self-guided exploration.

The castle is open year-round, with longer hours in summer. Spring and autumn offer the best combination of manageable crowds and pleasant weather for the lakeside approach on foot or by boat from Montreux or Villeneuve. The walk along the lake path from Montreux takes around 45 minutes and is one of the most scenic approaches. Budget two hours inside the castle itself.

Along the Swiss Riviera, Chillon is the anchor attraction — older than the Belle Époque hotels and the Freddie Mercury statue and everything else that draws visitors to the Montreux shore, and still the place that gives this stretch of lakeshore its historical depth.

The rack railway climbs from Zermatt station through mountain pastures and over exposed ridges, gaining nearly 1,500 metres of elevation in a journey that takes about 35 minutes. By the time the train pulls into Gornergrat station at 3,089 metres, the Matterhorn has been visible from the window for much of the ascent, and the panorama from the summit terrace extends across one of the most concentrated gatherings of high peaks in the Alps.

The Gornergrat offers views of 29 peaks above 4,000 metres, including the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa — the highest summit in Switzerland — and the Gorner Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the Alps. The railway itself, opened in 1898, was the first electric rack railway in Switzerland. At the top, the Kulmhotel Gornergrat provides restaurant facilities and overnight accommodation, allowing guests to experience the mountain at dawn and after the day-trip crowds have descended.

The railway runs year-round. Summer mornings offer the clearest views before afternoon cloud builds; arriving on the first or second train of the day is the most reliable strategy for good visibility and fewer people. Winter brings skiers and the additional spectacle of snow-covered peaks in full light. The return journey by train takes about the same time as the ascent, though many visitors choose to hike partway down on the trails that connect the intermediate stations.

Zermatt sits at the centre of one of the Alps’ densest concentrations of high mountains, and the Gornergrat railway is the most direct way for non-mountaineers to enter that high terrain. The combination of effortless access, genuine altitude, and an unobstructed 360-degree view makes it a reference point against which other Swiss mountain excursions tend to be measured.

The Pilatus massif rises directly above Lucerne, close enough that its summit ridges are visible from the city’s old town squares and the lake promenade, and distant enough to look properly Alpine. The mountain’s jagged profile gave rise to persistent legends about weather and spirits, and the name itself may derive from the Latin word for cloud-covered. On overcast days, when the summit disappears into grey cloud while Lucerne remains bright, the connection between the mountain and its mythology becomes obvious.

Mt. Pilatus reaches 2,132 metres at the Tomlishorn peak. The steepest cogwheel railway in the world, operating on a maximum gradient of 48 percent, climbs from Alpnachstad on Lake Lucerne to the summit station during the snow-free months from May to November. In other seasons, a gondola from Kriens provides year-round access. The summit area includes two hotels, viewing terraces, short walking trails along the ridge, and a ropes course. The panorama on clear days takes in a wide sweep of the Swiss Plateau, the Bernese Alps, and the Jura ridge to the north.

The classic excursion from Lucerne combines the cogwheel railway ascent with a gondola descent and a boat return across the lake, creating a circular journey that uses three forms of transport. This requires dry weather for the full experience; the mountain is frequently in cloud. Morning departures from Lucerne give the best visibility before afternoon weather develops. The full round trip takes four to five hours.

Pilatus occupies a particular position among Switzerland’s accessible mountains because its relationship with Lucerne is so direct. Unlike more distant excursion peaks, it is a genuine part of the city’s visual and civic identity, and that proximity — the summit always visible or conspicuously absent — gives the excursion a quality of claiming rather than visiting something already known.

Mt. Rigi rises as an isolated massif above the junction of Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug, and Lake Lauerz, its summit visible from a wide arc of the Swiss Plateau. The mountain’s isolation — surrounded by water on three sides — gives it a clarity of profile that more embedded peaks lack, and the views from the summit extend across an unusually wide radius without obstruction.

The Rigi was among the earliest destinations in European Alpine tourism, attracting visitors from the early 19th century and inspiring writers including Victor Hugo and Mark Twain. The cogwheel railways from Vitznau and from Arth-Goldau, both dating from the 1870s, were among the first mountain railways in Europe. The summit at Rigi Kulm reaches 1,797 metres with a panorama taking in the Bernese, Glarus, and Uri Alps to the south and the Swiss Plateau stretching northward. Sunrise and sunset from the summit have been a specific tradition since the earliest tourist era.

The mountain is accessible from Lucerne by boat to Vitznau then cogwheel railway, or by train to Arth-Goldau. Both routes operate year-round. Summer weekends are busiest; arriving on the first morning train or staying overnight at the summit hotel for sunrise gives the best conditions. The short ridge walk from Rigi Kulm to Rigi Staffel extends the panorama across different aspects without significant effort.

Among accessible summits near Lucerne, Rigi holds a different position from Pilatus or Titlis. It is lower and less dramatic individually, but its multi-directional panorama of water and mountains, and the depth of its tourist history, make it a reference point for understanding how Alpine tourism developed and why this location captured the European imagination for two centuries.

Cobblestone lanes climb steeply through Geneva’s Old Town past medieval guild houses, Reformation-era churches, and eighteenth-century townhouses whose ground floors now contain bookshops, galleries, and quiet cafes. The Vieille Ville occupies the elevated left bank of the Rhône, the oldest continuously inhabited part of a city whose recorded history stretches back to Roman times, and it remains the densest concentration of historical architecture and cultural institutions in Geneva.

The neighbourhood is anchored by the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre, a twelfth-century Romanesque structure modified in Gothic and Neoclassical styles over subsequent centuries, where John Calvin preached during the Reformation and which retains his chair in the nave. The adjacent archaeological site beneath the cathedral reveals Roman and early Christian remains. The Place du Bourg-de-Four, Geneva’s oldest square, dates to Roman times and now functions as a lively gathering point surrounded by restaurants and cafes. The Maison Tavel, the oldest private house in Geneva dating to the fourteenth century, operates as a museum of the city’s history. The Parc des Bastions below the Old Town holds the Reformation Wall, a monumental bas-relief commemorating the key figures of the Protestant Reformation.

The Old Town is compact and best explored on foot, with the main sites concentrated within a fifteen-minute walking radius. Early mornings offer the quietest conditions on the cobblestone streets, while afternoons bring more visitors to the cathedral and museum. The area is reached easily on foot from the central train station.

Geneva’s Old Town carries an outsized significance in European cultural history as the site where Calvinist theology reshaped the Protestant Reformation and influenced the development of modern democratic and legal thought. For a city better known today for international diplomacy and finance, the Vieille Ville offers a necessary deeper historical perspective.

Above the village of Les Diablerets, a cable car ascends to a high Alpine plateau where glacial ice meets exposed rock at an elevation of 3,000 metres and the views extend across an arc of peaks that spans three cantons. Glacier 3000 is the Vaud Alps’ most accessible high-altitude destination, a mountain station that combines serious glacial terrain with facilities designed to make the experience available to visitors of all ages and fitness levels.

The summit plateau offers a range of activities across the seasons. In winter the area serves as a ski and snowboard terrain with reliable snow conditions due to the elevation. Summer brings glacier hiking, a suspension bridge connecting two peaks above 3,000 metres, and a snow bus that traverses the glacier surface. A dog sled track operates in winter. The Peak Walk by Tissot, a suspension bridge linking two rocky summits, provides panoramic views of the surrounding Alpine landscape including Mont Blanc on clear days. The restaurant at the summit station offers the practical convenience of a warm refuge whatever the weather.

The cable car departs from Col du Pillon, accessible by PostBus from Gstaad and other valley towns. Weather at this altitude is highly variable and checking conditions before departure is essential — cloud cover can eliminate the views that justify the journey. A full visit including a glacier walk and the suspension bridge takes around three to four hours. The site operates year-round with seasonal activity variations.

Glacier 3000 occupies a niche between a purely recreational ski area and a serious mountain experience, making it one of the most versatile high-altitude destinations in the Swiss Prealps. For visitors based in the lake towns of western Switzerland, it represents the most straightforward introduction to genuine glacial mountain terrain without requiring specialist equipment or alpine experience.

Lucerne’s old town is organized around the Reuss River, which exits Lake Lucerne here and carries clear Alpine water through a series of bridges that are old enough to have accumulated histories of their own. The most famous, the Kapellbrücke, is a covered wooden bridge from the 14th century with a series of painted panels inside depicting scenes from local and Swiss history. A fire in 1993 destroyed a large portion of the bridge and most of the original paintings; the restoration is faithful but the damage is worth knowing before you arrive.

The old town occupies the north bank of the Reuss and the hillside behind it, where the Museggmauer, a largely intact section of medieval city wall, runs along the ridge with nine towers dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. Several towers are open to visitors in summer, providing views over the rooftops to the lake and the surrounding mountains. The squares around Weinmarkt and Kornmarkt in the old town centre are lined with painted facades and house the regional market on weekday mornings. The Rosengart Collection, a short walk from the old town, holds a significant concentration of Picasso works alongside Swiss modernist painting.

Lucerne is one of Switzerland’s busiest tourist destinations, and the Kapellbrücke area is crowded throughout summer. Arriving before 8:30am or after 6pm avoids the peak tour group hours. The old town is manageable in two to three hours; adding the Museggmauer walk and a museum extends that comfortably to a full day.

Lucerne’s setting — lake, river, mountains, and a compact medieval centre — assembles the classic Swiss landscape elements more conveniently than almost anywhere else in the country. That concentration is precisely what drives the crowds, but it also means the city delivers a coherent visual experience that more dispersed Swiss landscapes require much longer journeys to accumulate.

The towers of Saint-Pierre rise above Geneva’s rooftops with a layered quality that tells its own architectural history — Romanesque base, Gothic additions, Neoclassical facade — the visible result of a building constructed and reconstructed over eight centuries while remaining the spiritual centre of a city that placed itself at the heart of the Protestant Reformation. It was here that John Calvin established his ministry in 1536 and preached for decades, making Geneva a model for Reformed Christianity that spread across Europe and beyond.

The cathedral’s interior is deliberately austere, stripped of ornament during the Reformation to focus attention on scripture and preaching rather than visual devotion. Calvin’s original chair remains in the nave, a simple wooden seat that has become one of the most historically significant pieces of furniture in Protestant Christianity. Beneath the cathedral, an extensive archaeological site excavated in the twentieth century reveals Roman, early Christian, and medieval remains, accessible via a separate entrance and representing one of the richest urban archaeological sites in Switzerland. The cathedral towers can be climbed for a panoramic view over the Old Town and the lake.

The cathedral is open daily with no admission charge for the main nave, though the archaeological site and tower access carry a small fee. Morning visits before the main flow of tourists offer the most contemplative atmosphere inside. The surrounding Cours de Saint-Pierre provides a pleasant space to pause and take in the exterior before or after entering.

Saint-Pierre’s significance extends far beyond Geneva. As the church from which Calvinist theology radiated outward to shape the Reformed Protestant tradition across Scotland, the Netherlands, France, and the Americas, it occupies a position in the history of Western Christianity that few buildings anywhere in Europe can match.

The old town of Zurich occupies both banks of the Limmat River where it leaves the lake, and the two halves have distinct characters that a short walk across any of the central bridges makes immediately legible. The Lindenhügel on the west bank, where the Grossmünster’s twin towers rise above the rooftops, carries the weight of the Reformation; the Niederdorf on the east bank is narrower, more vertical, and fills with restaurants and small bars from mid-afternoon onward.

The Grossmünster, where Ulrich Zwingli preached the Swiss Reformation in the 16th century, can be climbed for views over the city and lake. The Fraumünster across the river holds stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall in the choir. The Guild Houses along the Limmat promenade, originally built by Zurich’s medieval trade associations, have been restored and now serve largely as restaurants. The Kunsthaus Zurich, on the edge of the old town, holds one of the more comprehensive fine art collections in Switzerland, including works from the 19th century through contemporary art.

The old town is compact and most rewarding on foot. The Niederdorf’s narrow lanes between Marktgasse and the river are liveliest in the evening but walkable quietly in the morning. The Grossmünster tower and Fraumünster are the most time-efficient stops for visitors with limited time. Weekends bring significant foot traffic along the Limmatquai; weekday mornings offer more space.

Zurich’s old town is not a museum district preserved apart from the city’s daily life. The streets mix medieval buildings with working offices, the churches hold regular services, and the Guild Houses remain in active use. That continuity — the old town as a functioning part of one of Europe’s most expensive cities — gives the Altstadt a coherence that more comprehensively touristic historic centres often sacrifice.

The Kunsthaus Zürich has grown across more than a century from a modest art society collection to one of the largest art museums in Switzerland, its holdings covering European painting from the Middle Ages to the present day, with particular strength in Swiss art, Impressionism, Expressionism, and Dadaism — a movement that was born in Zurich in 1916 and is represented here with unusual depth.

A major expansion opened in 2021, nearly doubling the museum’s footprint with a new building by architect David Chipperfield connected to the historic main building by an underground passage. The new wing holds significant collections of photography, post-war international art, and works from the Bührle Collection, a major gift that brought with it both important Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and ongoing debate about the provenance of works acquired during the Second World War. The combination of historic and new buildings makes a full visit to both wings a substantial half-day engagement.

The Kunsthaus is open Tuesday through Sunday, with extended evening hours on certain days. A combined ticket covers both buildings. The museum is located on Heimplatz, a short tram ride from the main train station, with good access from the old town on foot. Weekday mornings are significantly quieter than weekends. The permanent collection alone rewards repeated visits; special exhibitions are scheduled throughout the year and typically require advance ticket booking.

Within German-speaking Switzerland, the Kunsthaus Zürich holds a position comparable to what the Kunsthistorisches Museum holds in Vienna — the dominant institutional repository for art in the region, its collection large enough to be genuinely representative and strong enough in specific areas to draw specialist visitors from across Europe.

Few railway stations in Europe sit in a more exposed position: Kleine Scheidegg occupies a high col between the Lauberhorn and the Eiger’s north face, where wind funnels through even on calm valley days and the limestone walls of the Eiger loom close enough to study with the naked eye. Trains from both Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen arrive here before the rack railway continues upward through the mountain to Jungfraujoch.

The col itself is a destination distinct from the Jungfraujoch above it. At 2,061 metres, Kleine Scheidegg offers direct views across to the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau without the crowds concentrated at the summit station. Several hiking trails cross the area, including routes that traverse the Lauberhorn ridge used by the famous ski race of the same name each January. The terrace restaurants around the station provide a reliable stopping point on longer walks connecting Grindelwald and Wengen.

The col is accessible by train from both sides from spring through autumn, with reduced winter service depending on conditions. Arriving in the morning before the Jungfraujoch excursion crowds pass through gives the best chance of a quieter experience. Cloud typically builds in the afternoon; clear mornings are the norm in settled weather. Even those not continuing to Jungfraujoch benefit from spending an hour or two walking the immediate area rather than simply changing trains.

Within the Bernese Oberland, Kleine Scheidegg occupies a specific niche: it is neither the dramatic summit destination of Jungfraujoch nor the comfortable valley base of Grindelwald or Wengen, but rather the junction where the scale of the landscape becomes fully apparent. The closeness of the Eiger’s north face here, the subject of so much Alpine history, gives the stop a gravity that goes beyond its function as a transfer point.

At 2,168 meters, the First plateau above Grindelwald opens onto one of the most expansive views in the Bernese Oberland — the Eiger’s north face looming close enough to study its detail, the Wetterhorn and Schreckhorn filling the southern skyline, and the green patchwork of the Grindelwald valley floor far below. The gondola ride from the village takes around 25 minutes and deposits visitors into a landscape that functions as a genuine year-round mountain destination rather than a simple viewpoint.

Grindelwald First has developed an ambitious set of activities built around its elevated terrain. The First Cliff Walk is a steel walkway bolted into the rock face above the gondola station, leading to a viewing platform that extends over the void. The First Flyer is a zipline that drops riders at speed back toward the valley. Trottibike — a kind of oversized scooter — lets visitors roll down a designated mountain track without pedaling. In summer, well-marked hiking trails fan out across the plateau, including the popular route to Bachalpsee, a high lake that reflects the surrounding peaks on calm days.

The gondola from Grindelwald runs throughout most of the year, with brief closures for maintenance in spring and autumn. Summer mornings offer the clearest skies and fewest crowds; by midday the cable cars can have queues. Winter transforms the area into ski terrain connecting with the broader Jungfrau ski region. Warm clothing is advisable regardless of season — the plateau sits well above the valley and temperatures drop accordingly.

What distinguishes First from other Oberland summits is its combination of accessibility and genuine alpine character. Unlike the Jungfraujoch, which sits above any trace of vegetation, First occupies the middle-Alpine zone where wildflowers, marmots, and open trails give the place a living quality that purely glacial environments cannot offer.

The cable car to Schilthorn climbs through four stages from the Lauterbrunnen valley floor to a summit at 2,970 meters, where a revolving restaurant completes a full rotation every 45 minutes above a panorama that takes in more than 200 Alpine peaks. On clear days the view extends from Mont Blanc in the west to as far as the Black Forest in Germany. The Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau fill the eastern skyline in a wall of rock and ice that seems improbably close.

Schilthorn is perhaps best known internationally as the location used for the Piz Gloria sequences in the 1969 James Bond film, and a small exhibition at the summit documents the filming. But the mountain’s draw runs deeper than cinema history. The Thrill Walk — a steel pathway bolted into the cliff face below the main station at Birg — offers exposed traversing above sheer drops, with mesh sections underfoot that reveal the void below. The intermediate stations of Stechelberg, Gimmelwald, and Mürren each offer their own hiking access and views.

The cable car operates year-round, with the exception of maintenance periods. Winter brings skiers to the off-piste terrain and the annual Inferno race, one of the world’s longest downhill ski competitions. Summer mornings offer the clearest visibility — clouds frequently build around the summit by early afternoon. The village of Mürren, car-free and perched on a terrace above the valley, is worth at least a few hours before or after the summit ascent.

Among the Bernese Oberland’s major summit destinations, Schilthorn stands out for its western orientation — it faces the Jungfrau massif directly, which means the view of Switzerland’s most famous peaks from here is arguably the most complete available from any single high point in the region.