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Switzerland · 7–12 days

Switzerland by train: Lucerne, the Jungfrau Region, Zermatt and Lake Geneva

An honest guide to a first proper trip through the Swiss Alps — when the trails and cable cars are actually open, whether the Swiss Travel Pass pays for itself, which expensive summit is worth it and which to skip, where to base yourself in the Bernese Oberland, the truth about the Glacier Express, what it all costs, and a 10-night rail route that needs no car.

Switzerland is the easiest spectacular country in the world to travel through. The trains leave on the minute, the bus is waiting when you step off, the boat is waiting when you step off the bus, and a cable car at the end of the line lifts you to a terrace at three thousand metres with a view that would be a two-day trek anywhere else. Nothing about the logistics is hard. That is exactly why people plan it badly: because every place is reachable, they try to reach all of them.

The four mistakes that spoil a Swiss trip are consistent: coming in May or November and finding the mountains shut, changing hotel every night because the map makes it look possible, pre-booking an expensive summit for a fixed date and going up into cloud, and buying a rail pass without doing the sum. Get those four right and the country more or less runs itself.

When to go

Switzerland has two proper seasons and two gaps between them, and the gaps are what catch people out. Cities and lakes work all year; the mountains do not.

• Mid-June to mid-September — the walking season. High paths are clear of snow, every lift is running, the lake steamers are on full timetable and the alpine meadows flower in late June and July. Early July and September are the best of it: long days, settled spells, and fewer people than August. Afternoon thunderstorms are normal in high summer, so mountain days start early.
• Late September to mid-October — quietly excellent. Clear, still air, the larches turning gold in the Engadine and the Valais, harvest in the Lavaux vineyards. Days are shorter and the first lifts start closing from early or mid-October, so check each one.
• Mid-December to early April — winter. Skiing, toboggan runs, winter walking paths and Christmas markets. January outside the holiday weeks is the quietest and best value; Christmas, New Year and the February half-terms are the most expensive weeks of the Swiss year.
• 🔴 Late April to late May, and late October to early December — the between-seasons gaps. Many cable cars and mountain railways close for annual maintenance, mountain hotels and restaurants shut, and the high trails are under snow. Lower walks, the lakes and the cities are lovely and cheap, but if your picture of the trip involves standing on a ridge, these are the wrong weeks. Every lift publishes its dates; check them before you book flights.

One thing most people do not expect: snow lingers on the high trails well into June. The famous panorama walk from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg, for instance, usually opens only around mid-June. A sunny valley in late May tells you nothing about the path 1,500 metres above it.

The rule that shapes the whole trip: plan around the weather, not the calendar

The mountains are the reason you came, and they are only worth going up on a clear day. A summit in cloud is an expensive ride into a white room. So the single most useful piece of planning advice for Switzerland is this: stay three or four nights in each mountain base, keep the summit days unassigned, and decide each morning from the webcams.

• Every major summit has a live webcam. Look at it over breakfast, not the forecast from last week.
• Go up on the first clear morning of your stay, not the last. Never save the big one for the final day.
• Have a cloudy-day list ready for each base: a gorge, a lake boat, a low valley walk, a town, a spa. In Switzerland these are good days, not consolation prizes.
• Do not pre-buy dated summit tickets months ahead to "secure" them. With rare exceptions you can buy on the day or the evening before.

Getting around: the trains, and the pass question

Swiss public transport is a single national system. Trains, yellow postbuses, lake boats and most city trams run to one coordinated timetable, and a connection of four or five minutes is not a risk — it is designed, and the next train is usually across the platform. Download the SBB Mobile app; it plans, tickets and tracks everything, including the boats.

Swiss Travel Pass or Half Fare Card?

This is the question everyone asks, and the honest answer is that it depends on the shape of your trip rather than on which is "better".

• The Swiss Travel Pass covers trains, buses, boats and city transport nationwide for a set run of consecutive days, plus entry to several hundred museums. A few mountains are included outright — the Rigi, Stanserhorn and Stoos — and most other mountain railways and cable cars are discounted, typically by half (the Jungfraujoch by less). You never queue for a ticket. It suits trips that move between regions on most days.
• The Half Fare Card costs a fraction of the pass, lasts a month, and halves nearly every ticket in the country — including the expensive mountain lifts. On a trip with three- and four-night stays and several summit days, it very often comes out cheaper.
• Regional passes — the Berner Oberland Pass, the Jungfrau Travel Pass and others — can beat both if you spend most of a week in one area.
• Children under 16 travel free with a parent holding either, using the free Swiss Family Card. Ask for it when you buy.

How to decide: put your real journeys into the SBB app, add the mountain excursions you actually intend to do, halve the total and add the cost of the Half Fare Card. Compare with the pass. It takes fifteen minutes and regularly saves a couple of hundred francs per person. Also look for Supersaver tickets and Saver Day Passes in the app — advance-purchase fares on specific trains that can undercut everything if your dates are fixed.

Luggage, and why you still want to pack light

Trains have space for cases but mountain villages have steps, cobbles and cable cars. SBB runs a luggage forwarding service between stations, and a door-to-door version between hotels, which lets you travel a scenic line with a day bag and find your case at the other end. For a group it is worth every franc on the long transfer days.

Do you want a car?

For this route, no. Zermatt, Wengen and Mürren are car-free — you leave the car in a paid car park in the valley and take the train up regardless — and parking in Lucerne or Montreux is expensive. A car makes sense for rural touring off the main lines, or a pass-driving trip in high summer (the big passes such as the Furka, Grimsel and Susten are closed by snow from roughly late autumn to late May or June). Motorways require a vignette, sold per calendar year; Swiss hire cars come with one, cars hired across the border may not.

Lucerne and its lake

Lucerne is the gentlest possible start: under an hour from Zurich Airport by direct train, a compact medieval centre on a lake, mountains on every side, and enough to do if the weather is poor. Two nights is right; three if you arrive tired.

• The old town — the covered wooden Chapel Bridge and its water tower, the painted squares, the Musegg wall and its towers (free to climb in summer), and the Lion Monument. Half a day, on foot.
• The Rigi — the classic first mountain and the right one to start with. Take the steamer across the lake to Vitznau, the cogwheel railway to the top (Europe's first, opened in 1871), walk along the ridge, and come down the other side to Weggis or Goldau. It is fully covered by the Swiss Travel Pass, it is open all year, and the 360° view over lakes and the wall of the Alps tells you what you are in for.
• Pilatus — steeper, rockier and more dramatic, reached by the world's steepest cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad (it runs roughly May to November) or by gondola from Kriens all year. Do Rigi or Pilatus on a short stay, not both.
• A lake steamer for its own sake. The paddle steamers on Lake Lucerne are a hundred years old and beautifully kept, and the long run down to Flüelen through the fjord-like Urnersee is one of the best boat trips in Europe. Covered by the pass.
• If it rains: the Swiss Museum of Transport is far better than it sounds, particularly with children, and the Rosengart Collection has an excellent room of Picassos and Klees.

The Jungfrau Region — the heart of the trip

South of Interlaken, two valleys run up to the foot of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. Lauterbrunnen is the sheer-sided one — a flat green floor between 300-metre cliffs with waterfalls coming off the rim, the Staubbach Falls dropping straight past the village. Grindelwald is the wide, open one under the Eiger's north face. On shelves above Lauterbrunnen sit two car-free villages: Wengen on the east side and Mürren on the west. This is the Switzerland on the chocolate box, and it deserves four nights.

Where to base yourself

• Wengen — car-free, sunny, on the railway line up to Kleine Scheidegg and the Jungfraujoch, with a direct cable car to Männlichen. The best all-round base for a first visit.
• Mürren — smaller, quieter, perched on a cliff edge with the best view of the three peaks from any village. Slightly more awkward to reach (cable car plus a little mountain train) and more romantic for it. The honeymoon choice.
• Grindelwald — a proper small town with the most restaurants, shops and accommodation, road access, and the terminal for the fast Eiger Express gondola. Best for groups, families and anyone arriving by car.
• Lauterbrunnen — on the valley floor, good value, superbly placed between both sides. It loses the sun early and has become very busy with day visitors in summer.
• Interlaken — the transport hub between its two lakes. Convenient, cheaper and perfectly pleasant, but it is a town in the valley looking at the mountains. If you came for the Alps, sleep up in them.

Which summit: Jungfraujoch, Schilthorn or neither

The Jungfraujoch ("Top of Europe") is a railway station at 3,454 metres on the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau — the highest in Europe. On a clear day you look down the Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps, and walk on snow in August. It is also one of the most expensive excursions on the continent, crowded from mid-morning, and useless in cloud. Go only on a clear morning, take the first train or the Eiger Express gondola from Grindelwald Terminal (which cut the journey substantially when it opened), reserve a seat in high summer, and take it slowly up there: the altitude is noticeable and some people feel lightheaded.

The Schilthorn (2,970 metres), above Mürren, costs much less and gives you something the Jungfraujoch cannot: the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau lined up in front of you rather than underfoot. The revolving restaurant at the top was Blofeld's lair in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the cableway has recently been rebuilt. The intermediate station at Birg has a cliff-face walkway for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

The honest verdict: if the budget stretches to one, and the morning is flawless, the Jungfraujoch is a genuine once-in-a-lifetime. If you would rather spend the money on a very good dinner, do the Schilthorn or simply walk the Männlichen trail below, and you will not have missed the best view in the region.

The walks that are the real point

• Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg — the "Panorama Trail". About an hour and a half, gently downhill, wide and easy, walking straight at the Eiger north face the whole way. If you do one walk in Switzerland, do this. Open roughly mid-June to mid-October.
• First to Bachalpsee — gondola from Grindelwald to First, then an easy hour each way to a lake that reflects the Schreckhorn on a still morning. Go early; it is deservedly popular.
• Mürren to Gimmelwald, or the Northface Trail above Mürren — meadows, barns and the whole Jungfrau wall across the valley.
• The Lauterbrunnen valley floor to Stechelberg — flat, an hour and a half, waterfalls on both sides. The cloudy-day walk, along with the Trümmelbach Falls, a glacial torrent corkscrewing inside the mountain (open roughly April to early November).
• Schynige Platte — a rattling 19th-century cogwheel train from Wilderswil to an alpine garden and a ridge walk above both lakes. Summer only, and the least crowded of the classics.

Zermatt and the Matterhorn

Zermatt sits at the dead end of a long valley in the Valais, car-free, with the most recognisable mountain on earth standing alone at the head of the village. It is more expensive than the Bernese Oberland and more of a resort, but when the Matterhorn comes out of the cloud at breakfast nobody at the table is thinking about the bill. Give it two nights at the very least and three if you can — the mountain hides often, and you want more than one morning's chance.

• Getting in. Trains run right into the village (about two and a quarter hours from Interlaken with changes at Spiez and Visp; a little over three from Zurich). Drivers must stop at Täsch, park in the large paid terminal and take the shuttle train for the last twelve minutes. In the village, transport is on foot or by small electric taxis.
• Gornergrat — the cogwheel railway from the village to 3,089 metres, open all year. The best all-round viewpoint: the Matterhorn to one side, Monte Rosa and the Gorner Glacier to the other. Get off at Rotenboden on the way down and walk ten minutes to the Riffelsee, the little lake with the famous reflection — early morning, before the wind gets up.
• Matterhorn Glacier Paradise — cable cars to 3,883 metres on the Klein Matterhorn, the highest lift station in Europe, with year-round snow and a link over to Italy. Higher and starker than Gornergrat; pricier, and the altitude is real.
• The Five Lakes Walk (5-Seenweg) from Blauherd — about two and a half hours past five small lakes, three of which mirror the Matterhorn. The classic Zermatt day in summer.
• The village itself — the old quarter of blackened larch barns on stone stilts in the Hinterdorf, and the mountaineers' cemetery by the church, which is a sobering and rather moving ten minutes.

Which side of the village you sleep on matters: ask for a Matterhorn-view room and check it is the room, not "the hotel", that has it. This is one of the few places where paying for the view is plainly worth it.

Lake Geneva and the French-speaking west

After a week of altitude, the north shore of Lake Geneva is a change of country: French, vineyards, palm trees on the promenade and the Savoy Alps across the water. It is the right place to finish — warm, level and unhurried — and it puts you an hour from Geneva Airport.

• Montreux — the belle-époque resort on the lake, with a flower-lined promenade that leads in forty-five minutes on foot to Chillon Castle, the island fortress that is the most visited historic building in the country and worth its reputation.
• Lavaux — eight hundred hectares of terraced vineyards dropping to the lake between Vevey and Lausanne, a UNESCO site. Take the train to Chexbres or Grandvaux and walk down through the villages to Cully or Lutry, stopping at a cellar. Swiss wine is very good and almost none is exported, so this is where you find out.
• Gruyères — a hilltop medieval village with its castle, a working cheese dairy at the bottom of the hill, and the Cailler chocolate factory at Broc nearby. An easy day trip by train, and a strong candidate for a cloudy day.
• Lausanne — steep, young and lively, with a fine Gothic cathedral and the Olympic Museum on the waterfront.
• The lake steamers — another belle-époque paddle fleet, covered by the pass, linking Montreux, Vevey, Chillon and Lausanne.

The scenic trains — an honest assessment

Switzerland markets several named panoramic trains heavily. They are good. They are also running on ordinary railway lines that ordinary trains use all day, which is worth knowing before you build a trip around a seat reservation.

• The Glacier Express — Zermatt to St Moritz in about eight hours, over the Oberalp Pass and the Landwasser Viaduct, with lunch served at your seat. A compulsory reservation fee applies on top of your ticket or pass, and it sells out in summer. Glorious, but eight hours is a long time, and the sealed panoramic windows reflect in every photograph. Regional trains run the same route with windows that open and no reservation — you change two or three times and it costs nothing extra with a pass. A sensible middle path is one section only: Zermatt or Brig to Andermatt, or Andermatt to Chur through the Rhine Gorge.
• The Bernina Express — Chur or St Moritz over the Bernina Pass to Tirano in Italy, about four hours from Chur. For our money the best of them: glaciers, the open spiral viaduct at Brusio, and a descent from ice to palm trees, all on a UNESCO-listed line. Reservation required on the panoramic train; again, the hourly regional trains on the same track need none.
• The GoldenPass Express — Montreux to Interlaken direct, climbing out of the vineyards above Lake Geneva and through Gstaad. Useful as well as scenic, because it is a journey you would be making anyway on the route below.
• The Luzern–Interlaken Express — not marketed as a premium train and needs no reservation, but the run over the Brünig Pass past four lakes is as pretty as any of them. You will ride it on this itinerary without paying a centime extra.
• The Gotthard Panorama Express — a steamer from Lucerne to Flüelen, then a train over the old Gotthard mountain line to Lugano. Seasonal, roughly spring to autumn, and the natural route if you are adding Ticino.

A sensible 10-night shape

Four bases, all by train, flying into Zurich and out of Geneva so you never retrace your steps. The longest transfer is about three hours.

• Nights 1–2 · Lucerne. Train direct from Zurich Airport. Old town on arrival; the Rigi by boat and cogwheel on the first full day, or Pilatus if you prefer rock to meadow.
• Nights 3–6 · The Jungfrau Region (Wengen, Mürren or Grindelwald). The Luzern–Interlaken Express over the Brünig Pass, then up the valley. Four nights and three full days, deliberately unassigned: one for the big summit on the clearest morning, one for the Männlichen trail and Kleine Scheidegg, one for First and Bachalpsee or the Schilthorn — with the valley floor and Trümmelbach held back for cloud.
• Nights 7–8 · Zermatt. Via Spiez and Visp. Gornergrat and the Riffelsee on the first clear morning; the Five Lakes Walk or Glacier Paradise on the other.
• Nights 9–10 · Montreux or Vevey. Down the Rhône valley to the lake. Chillon and the promenade, a walk through Lavaux with a tasting, and a steamer at dusk. Train to Geneva Airport, about an hour and a quarter.

To cut it to seven nights: drop either Zermatt or Lake Geneva and fly home from Zurich. Lucerne two nights, the Jungfrau Region four, plus one more wherever your flight suits, is a complete trip. Do not trim the Jungfrau Region to two nights to fit everything in — that is the stay the weather needs.

To stretch it to twelve or fourteen: after Zermatt, take the Glacier Express route east to St Moritz for two nights in the Engadine — a high, bright valley of lakes and painted villages — ride the Bernina line to Tirano and back, and return via Chur to Zurich. That turns the trip into a loop and trades the lake for a second great railway.

In winter: the same route works, with changes. The lifts to the Jungfraujoch, Gornergrat and the Rigi run all year, but the summer hiking trails are closed; in their place are prepared winter walking paths, toboggan runs and, of course, skiing. Pick one mountain base for a week rather than touring.

What it costs — and how to soften it

Switzerland is expensive, and there is no point pretending otherwise: it is consistently among the two or three priciest countries in Europe to travel in, and restaurants and mountain lifts are where it bites hardest. But it is expensive in a predictable way, and a few habits take a great deal off the total.

• Eat your main meal at lunch. Most restaurants offer a fixed-price dish of the day (Tagesteller, plat du jour) at a fraction of the evening menu.
• Use Coop and Migros. The two big supermarket chains are in every town, sell excellent bread, cheese, salads and picnic food, and many branches have a self-service restaurant that is the cheapest hot meal around. A picnic on a mountain bench is not a compromise.
• Self-cater for part of the trip. Apartments and chalets are common, well equipped and far cheaper per head than hotel rooms for families and groups.
• Drink the water. Tap water is excellent and village fountains are drinkable unless signed otherwise (kein Trinkwasser / eau non potable). Carry a bottle and never buy water.
• Claim your guest card. Many towns and regions give overnight guests a free card on check-in covering local buses and trains and discounts on lifts — Interlaken, Lucerne, Montreux, Bern and the whole of Ticino among them. Ask at reception; it is not always offered.
• Budget the mountains honestly. A major summit return can cost as much as a night's accommodation even at half fare. Decide in advance which one or two matter, and take the free views for the rest.

The currency is the Swiss franc (CHF). Cards and contactless are accepted virtually everywhere, including mountain huts and ticket machines. Euros are taken in tourist areas at a poor rate with change in francs; don't bother.

Honeymoons, groups and celebrations

Honeymoons. Switzerland's particular gift is drama without stress: nobody drives, nothing runs late, and the scenery arrives at the train window. The classic shape is a car-free village in the Jungfrau Region — Mürren or Wengen — then Zermatt in a room facing the Matterhorn, finishing on the lake at Montreux or Vevey. Go in early July or September, and resist adding a fifth base.

Groups and milestone birthdays. One valley, one big chalet or a cluster of apartments, and day trips from there. Grindelwald is the easiest base for a mixed-ability group: walkers, non-walkers, children and grandparents can all go up the same mountain by lift and meet for lunch. Self-catering transforms the cost, group tickets are available on the railways for ten or more, and the luggage service spares everyone the station stairs. In winter most chalets are let Saturday to Saturday, and the good ones for February and the Christmas weeks are taken most of a year ahead.

Weddings. A legal marriage in Switzerland for two non-residents is possible but paperwork-heavy and slow, so most couples marry at home and hold a ceremony and celebration here — on a hotel terrace above a lake, or at a mountain restaurant reached by cable car, which makes for an unforgettable arrival and a hard deadline on the last lift down.

In every case the difficulty is not the travel, which is effortless, but holding the flexible parts and the fixed parts together. A Swiss trip has summit days that cannot be assigned until the morning, a rail pass that either does or does not cover each lift, seat reservations on the panoramic trains that sell out, a last cable car down that will not wait, luggage travelling separately, and a between-seasons calendar where each lift keeps its own dates. For two people that is a few notes. For ten, across three generations, it is exactly the sort of thing that lives in six different chat threads until somebody misses the last gondola.

Good to know

• Entry. Switzerland is in the Schengen area but not in the EU. Nights here count towards the 90-in-180-day Schengen allowance, and the EU's entry systems for non-EU visitors apply at the Swiss border as well — check the current requirements for your passport before you travel.
• 🔴 Phone roaming. Because Switzerland is outside the EU, many UK and EU mobile plans that include "Europe" roaming exclude it, and data charges can be startling. Check your plan before you land; an eSIM for the trip is cheap and takes five minutes.
• Plugs. Swiss sockets are the three-pin Type J. Slim two-pin European plugs fit; the chunky round earthed European plugs and all UK plugs do not. Bring a Swiss-specific adapter rather than a generic European one.
• Languages. German in Lucerne, the Bernese Oberland and Zermatt (the spoken dialect is Swiss German, but everyone switches to standard German or English); French around Lake Geneva; Italian in Ticino. English is very widely spoken. Grüezi, merci and bonjour get you a long way.
• Getting there. Zurich and Geneva are each under two hours from London, and both airports have a railway station inside the terminal. Switzerland is one hour ahead of the UK.
• Altitude. The Jungfraujoch and Matterhorn Glacier Paradise are high enough to cause headaches and breathlessness. Go up slowly, drink water, don't rush about at the top, and take medical advice first if you are pregnant, have a heart or lung condition, or are travelling with a baby.
• Sun and weather. The sun at altitude is fierce even on cool days, and reflected off snow it burns in under an hour — sunglasses and high-factor cream are not optional. Carry a warm layer and a waterproof on every mountain day, including in August; it can be 25°C in the valley and near freezing at the top.
• Trail signs. Yellow signs mark ordinary walking paths; white-red-white marks mountain trails needing proper footwear and a head for heights; white-blue-white marks alpine routes for the experienced and equipped. Times on the signs are walking time without stops, and they are accurate.
• Sundays. Most shops are closed on Sundays, including supermarkets, except at larger railway stations and airports. Buy the picnic on Saturday.
• Quiet hours. The Swiss take them seriously: roughly ten at night to six or seven in the morning, and much of Sunday. Worth knowing before a group takes an apartment.
• Tipping. Service is included by law. Rounding up or leaving a few francs for good service is appreciated and entirely optional.
• The last lift. Every cable car posts its final descent. Miss it and you are walking down or paying for a room. Photograph the timetable at the bottom station.
• Food to seek out: fondue and raclette (properly winter dishes, but served year-round in the mountains); Rösti; Älplermagronen, the alpine macaroni with potato, cheese and apple sauce; perch fillets by the lakes; Bündner Nusstorte in the Engadine; and a glass of Chasselas in Lavaux.
• 1 August is Swiss National Day — bonfires on the hillsides, fireworks over the lakes, and most shops shut.

Common questions

When is the best time to visit Switzerland?

For walking and mountain scenery, mid-June to mid-September is the reliable window: the high trails are clear of snow, every cable car and mountain railway is running, and the lake steamers are on their full timetable. Early July and September are the best of it, with August the busiest and most expensive. For skiing, mid-December to early April, with January the quietest and best value outside the holiday weeks. The periods to be careful with are late April to late May and late October to early December, the between-seasons gaps when many cable cars close for maintenance, mountain hotels shut, and high paths are either still under snow or already under it. Cities and lakes are pleasant in those weeks, but a trip built around the mountains will find many of them closed.

Is the Swiss Travel Pass worth it?

It is worth it if you move between regions most days and value simplicity; it is often not the cheapest option if you settle in one or two mountain bases. The Swiss Travel Pass covers trains, buses, lake boats and city transport across the country for a set number of consecutive days, includes a few mountains outright such as the Rigi, and gives a discount, typically half price, on most other mountain railways and cable cars. The Half Fare Card costs far less and halves almost every ticket, including the expensive mountain lifts, so it usually wins on a trip with long stays and several summit days. The honest method is to list your actual journeys in the SBB app, price them at half fare plus the card, and compare with the pass. Children under 16 travel free with a parent on either, using the free Swiss Family Card.

Is the Jungfraujoch worth the money?

On a clear day it is a genuinely remarkable place: a railway station at 3,454 metres, a view down the longest glacier in the Alps, and snow underfoot in August. It is also one of the most expensive excursions in Europe, busy from mid-morning, and worthless in cloud, when you pay the full fare to stand inside a white-out. So never buy it in advance for a fixed date. Check the summit webcam on the morning, go on the first clear day of your stay, and take the earliest train you can. If the price is hard to justify, the Schilthorn above Mürren and the walk from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg both give you the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau from the outside, which is arguably the better view, for much less.

Do you need a car in Switzerland?

No, and for the classic route a car is a disadvantage. Switzerland's public transport is one integrated system: trains, postbuses, boats and cable cars run to a single coordinated timetable, connections of a few minutes are designed to work, and one ticket or pass covers the lot. The best mountain villages, including Zermatt, Wengen and Mürren, are car-free, so a car has to be left in a paid car park in the valley and you take the train up anyway. A car earns its place only for rural touring off the main lines, such as the Jura, parts of Graubünden or a pass-driving trip in high summer, and it needs a motorway vignette, which Swiss hire cars include.

How many days do you need in Switzerland?

Seven nights is enough for two regions done properly, and ten to twelve is the comfortable length for the classic first trip of Lucerne, the Jungfrau Region, Zermatt and Lake Geneva. The country is small and the trains are fast, so the limit is not distance but weather: the mountains are the point of the trip and they are only worth going up on clear days. Three or four nights in each mountain base, rather than two, gives you a spare day to wait for the cloud to lift, and that buffer matters more than adding another place.

Is the Glacier Express worth it?

It depends on how you feel about eight hours in a seat. The Glacier Express runs between Zermatt and St Moritz across the Oberalp Pass and the Landwasser Viaduct, with panoramic windows and lunch served at your seat, and for many people it is a highlight. But it requires a compulsory seat reservation on top of your ticket or pass, the sealed panoramic windows reflect in photographs, and the same tracks are used by ordinary regional trains that need no reservation, cost nothing extra with a pass, and have windows that open. A good compromise is to ride one section, such as Zermatt or Brig to Andermatt or Chur, or to choose the shorter Bernina Express route from Chur or St Moritz to Tirano, which packs more scenery into four hours.

Is Switzerland good for a honeymoon or a group trip?

It suits both, with different cautions. For a honeymoon it offers something rare: dramatic scenery with almost no logistics stress, because the trains simply work, plus car-free villages, lake steamers and some of the best mountain hotels in the world, a short flight from the UK. For groups, a shared chalet or a block of apartments in one valley is far better value than hotel rooms, self-catering from Coop and Migros takes the sting out of Swiss restaurant prices, and the integrated transport means nobody has to drive. The caution in both cases is the weather and the booking order: summit days cannot be fixed in advance, winter chalets usually run Saturday to Saturday, and the good ones go most of a year ahead.

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