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Zurich
Zurich is a city that offers variety. A city where urban life is never far from nature. The old town can be found alongside the hip district, and luxurious brands alongside trendy labels. Opportunities for sightseeing and enjoyment of art are guaranteed. Parks and laid-back bars can be found by the lake or river. And you can get from A to B in no time at all by tram or by bus.
The city is situated at the northern tip of Lake Zurich and on the Limmat river. Whether for a coffee or beer at a waterfront restaurant or a cruise on Lake Zurich with views of the Alps: the city is virtually unrivalled when it comes to combining cosmopolitan flair, nature and indulgence.
Activities and Tours
Lindt Home of Chocolate
A tour of the Lindt Home of Chocolate covers every aspect of this Swiss cultural asset chocolate, including a chocolate fountain over 9m tall and the biggest Lindt Chocolate Shop in the world, spread over 500m2. In the Chocolateria, you can create your very own masterpieces under the expert guidance of the Lindt Master Chocolatiers while learning many interesting things about the origin, history and manufacture of Swiss chocolate. In the first Lindt café in Switzerland, you can also spoil yourself during your visit with a range of sweet and savoury treats.
3000 square meters of exhibition space form a multimedia and interactive world of experience. 1000 exclusive exhibits and around 500 different videos document the entire breadth of international football and its element that unites people. But it’s not just the big stars that get a look in – fascinating images and impressive stories show how the world’s most popular ball sport excites, influences and inspires people around the world every day. The big highlights are the original FIFA World Cup trophy and the gigantic football pinball, which young and old can compete against. In addition, there is a library, a generous gastronomy offer with sports bar, bistro and café bar as well as various event and seminar areas.
FIFA Museum
Cruise on the Limmat River
During all seasons and on all parts of the lake as well as the river Limmat, Lake Zurich Navigation offers various scheduled boat cruises daily. Passengers can relax on well-maintained steamboats or motor vessels as well as Limmat boats while enjoying the lovely landscapes that roll past.
For a very special experience, passengers may treat themselves to one of the Lake Zurich Navigation company’s boat cruises on various Dream Boats. Among these are the Fondue Cruise, the Steamboat Dinner or the Late Riser’s Brunch (Breakfast Boat). Whether party person, epicurean or families, there is a suitable Dream Boat for everyone.
Lucerne
Complete with gable paintings, the covered, medieval Chapel Bridge forms the centrepiece of Lucerne’s townscape and is considered to be one of the oldest, covered wooden bridges in Europe. A further landmark of the town is the Museggmauer, a wall which, with the exception only of one of its towers, has been preserved in its original, well-fortified state.
Historic houses decorated with frescoes line the picturesque town squares as they do the ‘Weinmarkt’ square in the car-free old town. Lucerne is a city of town squares and churches. The Jesuit church dating from the 17th century is regarded as Switzerland’s first sacral Baroque building and the twin towers of the Hofkirche form an integral part of the townscape. The figure of a dying lion which was hewn from the face of rock in remembrance of the heroic death of Swiss guards killed during an attack on the Tuileries in 1792 is one of the best-known monuments in Switzerland. And with its 112-metre-long Bourbaki panorama, Lucerne possesses one of the world’s few maintained, mammoth circular paintings.
Activities and Tours
Mount Rigi - Queen of the Mountains
In a majestic setting where three lakes meet, easily reached by cog railway or cable car, with a panoramic view of the highest Alpine peaks and a varied range of leisure activities – no wonder the Rigi is one of Switzerland’s most popular mountains.
The Rigi, also known as the Queen of Mountains, towers majestically between Lakes Lucerne, Zug and Lauerz. The highest point on the Rigi-Kulm at 1,797m asl is where visitors can admire a magnificent panorama over Lake Lucerne and the nearby Alps, and to the Swiss Plateau looking north.
Discover the art of chocolate making and create your own Bar in our tastefully appointed workshop room. Our experienced chocolate experts will guide you as you make your own chocolate Bar and enjoy a guided tour of the workshop. We provide you with all the necessary utensils and a selection of our natural ingredients. You’ll be able to give free rein to your creativity and make a truly unique and exceptional chocolate creation. Our chocolate experts will reveal the secrets of our natural Swiss chocolate and share with you interesting information about artisan chocolate production. You’ll also taste some of our favourite seasonal creations, each more delicious than the last!
Chocolating tasting...and making !
Mount Pilatus
Maker of weather, dragon’s lair, home to giants and grave of rulers: Lucerne’s very own mountain, Pilatus, is one of the most legendary places in Central Switzerland. And one of the most beautiful. On a clear day the mountain offers a panoramic view of 73 Alpine peaks.
A dragon rock supposedly fell from the sky in the year 1420. The Roman governor Pontius Pilatus might have been buried in Lake Pilatus. Legend has it that a petrified man stands guard in front of a cave. The mountain massif of Pilatus, which towers above the region with its 2,128 meters in height, indubitably captures the imagination.
Switzerland’s most visited museum showcases the past, present and future of mobility with interactive and varied exhibits. In addition to the museum, unique attractions found nowhere else in Switzerland, such as the film theatre, planetarium, Swiss Chocolate Adventure and Media World, are just waiting to be discovered.
The Museum of Transport, opened in 1959, is Switzerland’s most popular museum and features numerous exhibitions, theme parks and simulations. The collection of more than 3,000 items is presented in more than 20,000m2 of exhibition space. With its exhibition areas of road transport, rail, navigation (water) and aviation, the Museum of Transport is one of the most extensive museums for mobility in Europe.
Swiss Museum of Transportation
Mount Titlis - Engelberg
The journey to the Titlis is truly an adventure in itself. First take the TITLIS Xpress gondola to the middle station, then continue your journey in the TITLIS Rotair, the world’s first revolving cable car, all the way to the top.
At 3,062 metres, the summit offers not only a breathtaking 360° panorama of the wide Engelberg valley but also a view straight down into the abyss, with countless crevasses carved into the glacial ice.
Things get really cool at the upper station, where a 150-metre-long artificial glacier cave cuts straight into the heart of the Titlis Glacier. The ceiling is covered in ice crystals, the glacial ice shimmers a mysterious blue, and crevasses open up in the roof. If you’re thinking of stepping inside the ice, be sure to wrap up warm, as the temperature under the 20-metre-thick glacier never gets above -1°C!
Basel
Basel is Switzerland’s oldest university city. Historic landmarks of the city include the large market square with its richly decorated red sandstone town hall and the late Romanesque-Gothic cathedral. During a walk through the old town, past small boutiques, antique book shops but also shops of modern designers, a visit to the “Läckerli Huus” to try the traditional Basel honey cake is well worth your while. Basel is tradition-conscious and open-minded at the same time, a fact born out by several modern buildings designed by renowned architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Mario Botta, Diener & Diener and Richard Meyer.
Activities and Tours
Year after year, people flock to Riehen from near and far to immerse in the art world of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler. They come to view the collection of works from classical modernism or one of the sensational exhibitions. However, the building designed by Renzo Piano and its park is worth the journey too.
An uplifting experience right from the start. The aesthetically pleasing construction by the Italian architect Renzo Piano surrounded by an idyllic park with trees and sculptures on the green carpet of grass exude a contagious, peaceful mood.
Fondation Beyeler
Urban Art Tour
Walking around Basel and letting your eyes wander to the right and left (and sometimes upwards) from time to time, you will be rewarded: you will discover impressive street art and graffiti everywhere in the city centre. National and international artists are also constantly creating new, colourful artworks on the outskirts of the city.
Urban art has become an integral part of the art scene in recent years and is now an indispensable element of urban tourism in major cultural metropolitan centres. This is also true of Basel. By the 1980s, the city had already become a graffiti hotspot in Switzerland.
The Kunstmuseum Basel is internationally one of the most renowned museums of its kind. Its world-famous collection, the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, today comprises around 4,000 paintings, sculptures, installations and videos, as well as 300,000 drawings and prints from seven centuries. The historical core of the collection is the cabinet of Basel collector Basilius Amerbach. In 1661, it was purchased by the city and the university and made accessible to the public from 1671. The collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel is therefore considered the oldest public art collection of a commonwealth.
Kunstmuseum Basel (Art Museum)
Interlaken
By the beginning of the 19th century Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland had already become renowned for its impressive mountain scenery. Famous contemporaries such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Felix Mendelssohn traveled in these mountains. Interlaken’s success as a tourist destination was further enhanced by the completion of the Bernese Oberland Railway in 1890 and the Jungfrau Railway in 1912.
As a vacation destination and convention location of international importance, Interlaken is an ideal starting point for countless excursions. Over 45 mountain railways, cable cars, chair lifts and ski lifts lead to 200 kilometers of pistes and a dense network of hiking trails. Excursion ships, including historic paddle steamers, ply the waters of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.
Activities and Tours
For more than 100 years, the Jungfrau railway has been making its journey to Europe’s highest-altitude railway station at 3454 metres a.s.l. – right at the heart of the UNESCO heritage site “Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch”. All through the year, the cog railway runs steeply up through a tunnel to the Jungfraujoch from Kleine Scheidegg.
The tunnel leading up from the station Eigergletscher is seven kilometres in length and was built between 1896 and 1912. One stop within the tunnel offers spectacular views onto the glacier world outside through windows in the Eiger North Face. On the summit, visitors are greeted by a high-Alpine wonder world made of ice, snow and rocks. All of this can be marvelled at from the viewing platforms “Sphinx” and “Plateau” on the Aletsch glacier or from the “Ice Palace”.
Jungfraujoch
Lauterbrunnen
The very name ‘Lauter Brunnen’ (‘many fountains’) suggests the magnificence of this landscape. There are 72 waterfalls in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, the most famous being the Staubbach Falls. Plunging almost 300 metres from an overhanging rock face, they are one of the highest free-falling waterfalls in Europe. In 1779, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the valley, and was inspired by the roaring waters to write his well-known poem ‘Spirit song over the waters’
A cable car runs every half hour from Stechelberg in the Lauterbrunnen valley in four stages up to the summit. Once at the top, spectacular views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau await you.
The Schilthorn became famous as a location for the 1969 James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. The revolving restaurant at the summit, which rotates around its own axis once every 45 minutes, owes its current name Piz Gloria to the film production. Interested visitors can follow in James Bond’s footsteps in the interactive Bond World exhibition or on the 007 Walk of Fame.
Schilthorn - Piz Gloria
Zermatt
The location of Zermatt at the foot of the Matterhorn and in the middle of an enormous hiking and ski region makes it one of the world’s most attractive vacation villages. The ski region encompasses 54 mountain railways and lifts as well as 360 kilometers of pistes. The region called “Matterhorn glacier paradise” is Europe’s largest and highest lying summer skiing region. Numerous national ski teams train here in the summer.
The region is legendary amongst mountaineers: the Haute Route, a challenging international route that takes several days to complete, leads from Mont Blanc to Zermatt. Over 400 kilometers of hiking trails lead through and out of the Matter Valley, including the mule traders’ trails, which date back to the 13th century (a part of these paths is paved).
Activities and Tours
Enjoy an unforgettable view. Breathe in the purest mountain air from the glacier. Feel the winter chill in your face. At an altitude of 3883 metres, the Klein Matterhorn really does stimulate the senses in this Alpine wonderland, aptly named the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. This is the peak on which the highest mountain station in Europe is located. Surrounded by 38 four-thousanders and 14 glaciers in three countries, the Klein Matterhorn holds all in its sway.
Matterhorn Glacier Paradise
Gornergrat
Surrounded by no fewer than 29 peaks above 4,000 meters, such as the majestic Matterhorn and the Dufourspitze as well as the third-longest glacier of the Alps, Gornergrat rewards visitors with unparalleled views.
In summer, marvel at the reflection of the Matterhorn on the surface of the Riffelsee and enjoy great hiking trails and cycling routes on this adventure mountain. In winter, the beautiful tobogganing run from Rotenboden to Riffelberg is just one of the experiences on offer, with sunny pistes, a children’s ski park and snowball fights on the winter hiking trail all sure to delight both young and old.
Bern
Not many cities have managed to retain their historic features quite as successfully as Bern, the capital of Switzerland. The old town of Bern is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and thanks to its 6 kilometres of arcades – the locals refer to them as ‘Lauben’ – boasts on of the longest weather-sheltered shopping promenades in Europe.
The medieval air of this city with its many fountains, sandstone facades, narrow streets and historic towers is unique. The elevated Rose Garden above the Bear Park and the platform of the 101-metre-high cathedral tower offer the best views of the old town round which the River Aare flows. The former entrenchments and bastions drop down steeply to the river. The boutiques, bars and cabaret stages of the old town, some of which are located in vaulted cellars, and the small street cafes attract locals as well as a lot of tourists.
Activities and Tours
The Bern bear pit is an attraction that is known far beyond the borders of Switzerland. Since 2009 the bears of Bern also have a modern 6,000 square meters park at their disposal – which they can reach via a tunnel.
Guests can go on a tour of the old bear pit as well as the new bear park. They get to see the new park with its green hilly terrain, which includes caves and the “Bear Bath” in the Aare River. Guided tours can also be booked during which you learn plenty of interesting things concerning the history of the bear park – a peek behind the scenes.
Bear Park
Rose Garden
The Rose Garden is a large park with a wonderful view of the Old Town and Aare Loop. The park is home to 220 different types of roses, 200 types of irises and moor beds with 28 different types of rhododendrons.
From 1765 to 1877 the Rose Garden served as a cemetery. Since 1913 the Rose Garden has been a public park resplendent with the rich beauty of flowers and a pond. From 1956 to 1962 the park was redesigned, introducing rhododendrons and azaleas as well as an iris garden.
St. Moritz
St. Moritz, which is in the Upper Engadine, at an elevation of 1,856 m, boasts plenty of sunny days. It was exactly this sun that was legally protected as the emblem of St. Moritz in 1930. St. Moritz was often ahead of the times – for example, the first electric light went on at Christmastime in 1878, the first golf tournament in the Alps took place here, in 1889 and one of the first ski lifts in Switzerland began running in 1935.
Guests from all over the world appreciate the modern Alpine lifestyle, characterised by top-class restaurants that can satisfy gourmet demands even by the side of the slopes, hotels that set standards in every category, and events of international calibre. The Via Serlas guarantees great shopping in a small space, though you can also find local specialities like the famous Engadine nut tart just around the corner.
Activities and Tours
The Glacier Express offers a journey for the senses – from Engadine right to the Matterhorn. On its relaxing drive from dazzling St. Moritz to equally sophisticated Zermatt, the Glacier Express delights travellers with scenic attractions and technical state-of-the-art achievements. With its overhight panoramic windows, the Glacier Express opens up unobstructed views of unique landscapes.
The journey in what has been dubbed the world’s slowest express train takes travellers across the Alps within roughly eight hours, passing through 91 tunnels and over 291 bridges.
Glacier Express
Piz Nair
The Chantarella-Corviglia funicular railway takes you from the centre of St. Moritz up to the top of the resort’s local mountain. The Signal cable car from St. Moritz Bad also takes you in the direction of Corviglia. Another cable car then takes summiteers even closer to heaven and the Piz Nair upper station at exactly 3,056 metres above sea level. Without breaking a sweat or exerting yourself, you can enjoy an unforgettable view of St. Moritz, the Upper Engadin lake region and the mountains.
