17 Places to Visit in Switzerland and How Long Each Needs

Pick one Swiss region and do it properly, because Switzerland’s distances look short on a map and its valleys are dead ends. A trip that tries to pair Zermatt with St. Moritz spends two days on trains; a trip that pairs Zermatt with Montreux barely spends one. The 17 places below are ordered as most people actually meet them, starting with the cities the flights land in, and each entry says what it is for and how long it needs.

Switzerland uses the Swiss franc and is in neither the European Union nor the eurozone, so any price here is in francs. What everything costs is on our page of prices in Switzerland.

Four regions cover almost every Swiss itinerary, and building a trip around one of them is the single decision that makes the rest easy.

1. Zurich

Zurich is Switzerland’s largest city and the arrival point for most long-haul flights, and it needs two days. Zurich sits at the north end of its own lake with the Limmat running through a medieval old town, and the airport is 10 minutes from the main station by train.

Walk the Niederdorf lanes, see the Chagall windows in the Fraumünster and the Giacometti-painted entrance hall of the Amtshaus, which is a working police station and free to walk into, spend a morning in the Kunsthaus, and swim from one of the public Badis on the lake or the river in summer. The trendier end of the city is Zurich West, in the railway arches under the viaduct.

Go from May to October for the swimming, or in December for the Christmas markets. Our full guide to Zurich has the neighbourhoods and the practicalities.

2. Geneva

Geneva is the international city at the far western tip of Lake Geneva, and it needs one to two days. Geneva is French-speaking, expensive even by Swiss standards and organised around the lake, the Jet d’Eau fountain and a diplomatic quarter that holds the European headquarters of the United Nations.

Climb the tower of St. Pierre Cathedral in the old town, visit the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, walk the Jardin Anglais and its flower clock, and take a lake boat out towards Yvoire or Nyon.

Geneva Airport’s station is under the terminal and reaches the city in about 6 minutes, and every guest in registered Geneva accommodation gets a free city transport card for the whole stay. Read our guide to Geneva for what is worth the money there.

3. Lucerne

Lucerne is the most photographed of the Swiss lake towns and it needs two days. Lucerne sits where the Reuss leaves Lake Lucerne, ringed by mountains, and it is the easiest base in the country for a first trip because three summit railways start within an hour of it.

Cross the Chapel Bridge, a covered wooden footbridge first built in 1333 and rebuilt after a 1993 fire, walk the Musegg Wall towers, see the Lion Monument, and take the lake steamer. Mount Pilatus, Mount Rigi and the Stanserhorn are all day trips from the quay outside the station, and the Rigi and the Stanserhorn are free with a Swiss Travel Pass.

Go from June to August for the boats and the festivals. Read Lucerne for the detail.

4. Thun

Thun is the quieter gateway to the Bernese Oberland and it needs a day. Thun stands where the Aare leaves Lake Thun, about 30 minutes by train south of Bern, with a 12th-century castle above a car-free old town whose shops sit at first-floor level above the arcades.

Climb Thun Castle for the museum and the view down the lake to the Alps, walk the raised pavements of the Obere Hauptgasse, catch the Saturday market on Rathausplatz, and cross to Schadau Park for the Wocher Panorama, the oldest surviving circular panorama painting in the world.

Thun combines naturally with Interlaken, and a lake boat runs between the two in summer. Read Thun.

5. Basel

Basel is Switzerland’s art city, on the Rhine where Switzerland, France and Germany meet, and it needs two days. Basel has around 40 museums for a city of under 180,000 people, and its Kunstmuseum holds what is generally recognised as the world’s oldest public art collection.

Give a morning each to the Kunstmuseum and the Fondation Beyeler out in Riehen, see the Tinguely Fountain beside the theatre and the red sandstone Münster, and in summer copy the local habit of swimming down the Rhine with your clothes in a waterproof bag.

EuroAirport sits across the border in France with no railway station, so bus 50 does the 15-minute run to Basel SBB. Any overnight stay in Basel earns you the BaselCard, which covers city public transport free for the whole stay including that first bus. Read Basel.

6. Interlaken

Interlaken is the adventure-sports base of the Bernese Oberland and it needs two to four days. Interlaken sits on the flat strip between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, under the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, and it exists to send people up mountains rather than to be seen itself.

Ride the funicular up the Harder Kulm for the view over both lakes, take the railway to the Jungfraujoch at 3,454 m (11,332 ft), paraglide over the valley, walk or sail on either lake, and use the town as the overnight base while spending the days elsewhere. Jungfrau Railways quotes Jungfraujoch tickets from CHF 129.60 (about €137, $160, £118) on its own site, and a seat reservation is compulsory in both directions between 1 May and 31 October 2026.

Stay in Interlaken rather than up the mountain if the budget matters, because everything above the valley floor is carried up a railway and priced accordingly. Read Interlaken.

7. Bern

Bern is the Swiss federal capital and it needs a day and a half. Bern sits inside a loop of the Aare with a sandstone old town of arcades and fountains that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, and it is the easiest Swiss city to see on foot.

Walk the 6 km (3.7 mi) of covered arcades, watch the Zytglogge clock tower perform on the hour, see the bears in the riverside BearPark, visit the Einstein House on Kramgasse where he wrote the special theory of relativity, and climb to the Rosengarten for the classic view back over the loop.

Bern is roughly an hour from Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Lucerne by train, which makes it the natural hinge in a Swiss itinerary. Read Bern.

8. Lausanne

Lausanne is the steep student city on the north shore of Lake Geneva and it needs one to two days. Lausanne has been the home of the International Olympic Committee since 1915 and runs the only metro in Switzerland, two lines that exist because walking the gradient is genuinely hard.

Start at the Olympic Museum above the lake at Ouchy, climb to the Gothic Cathedral of Notre-Dame at the top of the old town, take in the Collection de l’Art Brut and the Plateforme 10 museum quarter beside the station, and end in the Flon district after dark.

Lausanne is the natural base for the Lavaux vineyard terraces, the UNESCO-listed slopes that run east towards Montreux and are walkable in a long afternoon. Read Lausanne.

9. Montreux

Montreux is the Belle Époque lakefront resort at the eastern end of Lake Geneva and it needs one to two days. Montreux has a microclimate mild enough for palm trees on the promenade, a jazz festival that has run since 1967, and the statue of Freddie Mercury, who recorded here for years.

Walk to the Château de Chillon, the island castle a 45-minute lakeside walk south of town and the most visited historic monument in Switzerland, the promenade itself, and the cogwheel railway up to the Rochers-de-Naye for the view back down the lake.

Come in early July for the Montreux Jazz Festival or late November for the lakeside Christmas market. Read Montreux.

10. Gruyères

Gruyères is the medieval cheese town in the Fribourg hills and it needs half a day. Gruyères is a single cobbled street on a rock with a castle at the end, and it is car-free inside the walls, so you park below and walk up.

Tour the 13th-century castle, then the HR Giger Museum and its bar, built by the Swiss artist who designed the creature in Alien, watch cheese being made at the dairy at the foot of the hill, and eat a fondue made with the cheese that takes the town’s name.

Gruyères pairs with the Cailler chocolate factory at Broc, a short train ride away via Bulle, which is why most people do both in one day. Read Gruyères.

11. Zermatt

Zermatt is the car-free village under the Matterhorn and it needs two to four days. Zermatt sits at 1,620 m (5,315 ft) at the head of a dead-end valley, private cars are banned, and you leave yours at Täsch and take the shuttle train up the last 12 minutes.

Ride the Gornergrat cog railway to 3,089 m (10,135 ft) for the Matterhorn head-on, take the cable car to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise at 3,883 m (12,740 ft), the highest cable car station in Europe, walk the Five Lakes trail in summer, and ski between November and April on some of the most snow-sure terrain in the Alps.

The Matterhorn itself is 4,478 m (14,692 ft) and it is the reason anyone comes. Zermatt is about three and a half hours from Geneva and a little over two from Bern by train, all of it on rails.

12. St. Moritz

St. Moritz is the Engadine resort where winter tourism was invented and it needs two to four days. St. Moritz sits at 1,822 m (5,978 ft) beside a lake that freezes hard enough to hold horse races, and it has hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1928 and 1948.

Ski or hike Corvatsch and Diavolezza, walk the Engadine lakes path towards Sils Maria, see the Segantini Museum, and in February watch White Turf, the horse racing held on the frozen lake.

St. Moritz is also the eastern terminus of the Bernina Express and the Glacier Express, which is the real argument for going: the Rhaetian Railway’s Albula and Bernina lines are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the journey is the attraction.

13. Davos

Davos is the highest town in the Alps and it needs two to three days. Davos lies at 1,560 m (5,118 ft) in a broad Graubünden valley, it started as a tuberculosis sanatorium town in the 1860s, and it now hosts the World Economic Forum every January, which is the one week not to book a room there.

Ski or ride the lifts on the Jakobshorn, Parsenn and Rinerhorn, visit the Kirchner Museum for the German expressionist who spent his last twenty years here, and cross-country ski the valley floor, which has one of the largest groomed networks in the country.

Davos and Klosters share one lift system, and Davos is under three hours from Zurich by train.

14. Lauterbrunnen

Lauterbrunnen is the waterfall valley and it needs two to four days. Lauterbrunnen is a flat-bottomed U-shaped valley with sheer walls on both sides, 72 waterfalls falling off them, and the car-free villages of Wengen and Mürren on the shelves above.

Stand under the Staubbach Falls, which drop 297 m (974 ft) straight off the cliff behind the village, walk or take the cable car to Mürren, ride the Schilthorn cable car to the revolving restaurant at the top, and use the valley as the access route to the Jungfraujoch.

Lauterbrunnen sits inside the Jungfrau region, next to the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage site, and the trains from Interlaken Ost take about 20 minutes. Come between May and October for the walking.

15. Locarno

Locarno is the Italian-speaking lakeside town on Lake Maggiore and it needs two to three days. Locarno sits at 205 m (673 ft), which makes it the lowest-lying town in Switzerland and gives it palm trees, a Mediterranean climate and a completely different feel from anywhere north of the Alps.

Sit out on the Piazza Grande, which hosts the Locarno Film Festival every August on a screen the size of a building, ride the funicular up to the Madonna del Sasso sanctuary, visit the Visconti Castle, and take a boat out to the Brissago Islands and their botanical garden.

Locarno is under three hours from Zurich by train through the Gotthard base tunnel and about two hours from Milan.

16. St. Gallen

St. Gallen is the abbey town of north-eastern Switzerland and it needs two days. St. Gallen grew around a hermitage founded in the seventh century and made its money from embroidered textiles, and its Abbey Precinct has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.

Start with the Abbey Library, a rococo hall holding one of the oldest monastic libraries in the world, where you wear felt overshoes to walk on the floor, then the Baroque Abbey Cathedral and the Textile Museum, and climb to the Drei Weieren ponds above town for the view.

St. Gallen is about an hour from Zurich by direct train and a short hop from Lake Constance.

17. Lugano

Lugano is the largest town in Italian-speaking Ticino and it needs two days. Lugano sits on its own lake at 273 m (896 ft) with mountains on three sides, and it is the most Italian place in Switzerland in food, language and architecture.

Walk the lakefront promenade and Parco Ciani, look in at the LAC arts centre, ride the funiculars up Monte Brè and Monte San Salvatore, and take the boat to Gandria, a car-free village further along the shore.

Lugano is about two hours from Zurich through the Gotthard base tunnel and a little over an hour from Milan, which makes it an easy add-on to an Italian trip. The food here is northern Italian rather than Swiss; our guide to Swiss food to eat in Switzerland covers the difference.

Where should you go in Switzerland for the first time?

Go to Lucerne first, because it puts a lake town, three summit railways and an hour-long train ride to every other major city inside one base. Lucerne is the least demanding introduction to Switzerland and the one that needs the fewest changes of hotel.

Three itineraries work without wasting days on transfers.

1. Five days, one region. Lucerne for two nights, Interlaken for three, with the Jungfraujoch and one lake boat in between.
2. Ten days, two regions. Add Lausanne or Montreux for three nights and a day in Gruyères, travelling west along the Lake Geneva shore.
3. Ten days, mountains first. Zermatt for three nights, Bern for two, Lucerne for three, using the Golden Pass and Glacier Express routes as the journeys rather than the filler.

Which pass makes those itineraries cheapest is covered on our page about transportation in Switzerland, and if you would rather drive, driving in Switzerland has the 2026 vignette and speed rules and renting a car in Switzerland covers the desks. You can also compare rental car prices for Switzerland here or look up European train and coach routes here.

What is the best place to visit in Switzerland in summer?

Lucerne is the best place to visit in Switzerland in summer, because the lake, the boats and three summit railways are all in use at once and the town is less crowded than Zurich or Geneva. Lucerne’s lake steamers run their full timetable from June, the Rigi and the Stanserhorn are free with a Swiss Travel Pass, and you can swim from the shore.

Summer is also when the high passes and the walking routes open, which changes what the rest of the country is for. In 2026 the Furka, Grimsel and Nufenen passes reopened on 29 May and the Susten on 12 June, so a driving itinerary through the Alps is not realistic before late spring.

What is the best place to visit in Switzerland in winter?

Zermatt is the best place to visit in Switzerland in winter, because the skiing runs high enough to be snow-sure and the village is car-free, which changes the feel of a resort completely. Zermatt’s lifts reach 3,883 m (12,740 ft) at the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, and the terrain carries on over the ridge into Italy.

Non-skiers get the same mountain for less effort. The Gornergrat railway runs all winter to 3,089 m (10,135 ft), and sledging, snowshoeing and winter walking trails all operate from the village.

Davos and St. Moritz are the alternatives, and both are better value for cross-country skiing than Zermatt is. Davos has the larger groomed network; St. Moritz has the Engadin Ski Marathon and a frozen lake with horses on it.

Where should you go in Switzerland at Christmas?

Go to Basel at Christmas, because its market fills two connected squares and the city’s tram network gets you between them without a car. Basel’s Christmas market runs from late November to just before Christmas Eve, and Basel is the one Swiss city where the market is the reason to come rather than a bonus.

The other three worth planning around are Bern, whose Christkindlimarkt sits under the arcades of a UNESCO old town, Montreux, whose market runs along the lakeshore under the Alps, and Lucerne, whose chalet market sits by the old town walls. Zurich’s markets are the largest in the country and the busiest.

Market dates and opening times change every year, so check the city’s own tourist board before booking flights. The rest of the Swiss calendar, from Carnival to the alpine cattle descents, is on our page of top festivals to attend in Switzerland.

What should you know before travelling to Switzerland?

Know that Switzerland is expensive, that it uses the franc and that its mountain transport runs to a season, because those three facts shape a Swiss trip more than anything else. Eurostat’s 2025 comparison puts Swiss household prices at 171 against a European Union average of 100, second in Europe only to Iceland.

• Money. The Swiss franc, not the euro. Shops near the borders take euro notes at their own rate and give change in francs, so you lose twice. Cards work almost everywhere.
• Language. German, French, Italian and Romansh are all national languages, and which one you meet depends entirely on where you are. English is widely spoken in cities and resorts.
• Seasons. Mountain railways, cable cars and passes close between seasons, some of them for months. Check the specific lift you are travelling for.
• Weather. Altitude beats the calendar. A warm July afternoon in Lugano is below freezing at 3,000 m, so layers and a windproof shell go in the bag in every month.
• Tap water. Drinkable nationwide, including from public fountains unless one is signed “Kein Trinkwasser”.
• Tipping. Not obligatory. Service and tax are in the menu price, and rounding up is the local habit.

More of the background, from the cantons to the four languages to what the country invented, is on our page of facts about Switzerland. For hotels and apartments in any of the towns above, compare Switzerland stays here.

Frequently asked questions

How many days do you need in Switzerland?

Five days covers one Swiss region properly, ten days covers two. Three days covers one city and one mountain excursion. Trying to cross the country in under a week means seeing railway stations, because the valleys are dead ends and crossing between them takes hours.

What is the prettiest town in Switzerland?

Lucerne and Lauterbrunnen are the two most photographed places in Switzerland, and they are photogenic for opposite reasons: Lucerne for its medieval bridge and painted old town, Lauterbrunnen for a valley with 72 waterfalls coming off vertical walls. Gruyères and Thun are the quieter alternatives.

Which Swiss airport should you fly into?

Zurich has the widest range of long-haul and European flights and the most direct onward rail connections, with trains from under the terminal reaching Bern, Lucerne and Basel without changing in the city. Geneva is better for the Valais and the French-speaking west, and EuroAirport Basel serves the north.

Is Zermatt or St. Moritz better?

Zermatt is better for mountains and St. Moritz is better for the Engadine and the railways. Zermatt is car-free, sits under the Matterhorn and has the higher, more snow-sure skiing. St. Moritz is the terminus of the Bernina and Glacier Express lines, has the frozen-lake events and is easier to combine with eastern Switzerland.

Can you see Switzerland without a car?

Yes, Switzerland is the easiest country in Europe to see without a car. Trains, PostBuses, lake boats and mountain railways run on one timetable and one ticket, several of the places on this list are car-free by law, and a car is a liability in every Swiss city centre.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

Four things about choosing where to go in Switzerland are listed below.

1. Pick the region before the towns. Zermatt and St. Moritz look close on the map and the Glacier Express between them takes about eight hours, because every route has to go round the mountains rather than through them. One region plus one city is the itinerary that works.
2. Sleep in the valley, visit the mountain. Interlaken costs less than Wengen or Mürren, Täsch costs less than Zermatt, and the train up takes minutes. Everything above the valley floor is carried there by rail and priced accordingly.
3. Reserve the Jungfraujoch and nothing else. Domestic Swiss trains need no reservation at all, but a Jungfraujoch seat reservation is compulsory in both directions between 1 May and 31 October 2026.
4. Check the season for the specific lift you are going for. Swiss mountain railways and cable cars close individually for maintenance between the ski and hiking seasons, often for weeks in late spring and late autumn, and a valley that is open does not mean the summit above it is.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team has spent years working out which European countries reward one base and which reward moving. We cover Switzerland for independent travellers, including the trains, mountain excursions, rental cars, tours and places to stay worth booking, and we update this page when routes, prices and opening seasons change.