Destination overview

Magnificent alpine regions combine with chic cities for a unique holiday experience.

Switzerland is known as a summer and winter sports paradise – you only have to look at the glistening white 4,000 metre-plus Alpine peaks and glittering lakes to know that you’re in a country that is something special. In fact, Switzerland is where people first skied for fun. You will find romance and glamour in the mountain high life in places such as Zermatt, St Moritz, Interlaken, Gstaad, the Jungfrau, Verbier and many more. Cities like Geneva is the most cosmopolitan, Zürich is supposedly the most outrageous, while Basel and Lausanne heave with artistic activity.

Beyond the après-ski chic and edelweiss lies a complex country of cohabiting cultures. It not only has four languages (Swiss German, French, Italian and Romansch), but the cultural variety to match. You could be eating sausages and drinking beer in an oom-pah-pah Stübli one day and pasta over a glass of merlot in a granite grotto the next. And if over-indulgence becomes a problem, the country has many thermal baths, from Yverdon-les-Bains to Scuol.