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The Matterhorn seen down the length of Zermatt, with larch woods on the left, the village street and chalets on the right and the Vispa running between them
Zermatt, looking up the Vispa to the Matterhorn. No car has driven into this village since 1961; the last twelve minutes are by train from Täsch.
Country brief · 46.9480°N 7.4474°E

Switzerland

You can reach almost all of it by train, including 3,454 metres of it. The pass that makes that cheap does not cover the train everyone books.

How long
A weekten days for two regions
Getting around
The train, not a carand the pass does not cover the Jungfraujoch
When
June to Septembermuch of the lift system shuts in May and November
Language
Four national languagesGerman two thirds, French a quarter, English at work
Money
The Swiss francnot the euro, and cards everywhere
Airports
Zurich ZRHGeneva GVA west, Basel BSL north
Getting around

Do you need a car in Switzerland?

No. The rail network reaches almost every village and the postbus covers the rest, and several of the best-known villages, including Zermatt, Wengen, Murren and Saas-Fee, do not admit cars at all

When

When do the Swiss mountain passes open?

The high road passes, including the Furka, Grimsel, Susten and Oberalp, usually open in June and close with the first heavy snow in October or November. May and November are the between-seasons, when a large share of the cable cars and mountain railways shut for maintenance

Language

What language is spoken in Switzerland?

Four are national. German is the main language of about two thirds of residents, French of 23 per cent, Italian of 8 and Romansh of 0.5, on the Federal Statistical Office survey for 2023. English is the main everyday language of 6 per cent and is spoken at work by 23 per cent

Airports

Where do you fly into Switzerland?

Zurich ZRH took 32.5 million passengers in 2025 and has a rail station under the terminal. Geneva GVA took 17.7 million and is the door to the Valais and Lake Geneva. Basel BSL took 9.6 million and serves the northwest. Flying into one and out of another saves a day of backtracking

The pass

Does the Swiss Travel Pass cover the Jungfraujoch?

No, and it is the one excursion most people assume it does. The pass covers trains, buses and boats and puts most mountain railways at half price, with Rigi, Stanserhorn and Stoos free, but the Jungfraujoch is not included at any discount from the pass alone

Why you should visit

Ninety seconds on the country

Switzerland is small and slow, and the second half of that is the part people get wrong. It is 350 kilometres across, and you will not cross it in a day, because the valleys are dead ends and the mountains are in the way.

What you get in exchange is a country where public transport reaches the ice. A train runs to 3,454 metres and a cable car to 3,883, both of them on a timetable that holds.

The mistake is treating it as one destination. The Valais, the Bernese Oberland, the Engadine and Ticino differ in language, climate and food, and moving between two of them is most of a day.

The other mistake is the between-season. A great deal of the lift system shuts for maintenance in May and again in November, and a mountain valley with its cable car closed is just a valley.

Four Ways to Travel It

Pick how you want to travel. The towns, the things to do and the map all change with it.

A turquoise mountain lake below a wall of grey cliffs and snowfields, with a single bare larch standing on the shingle shore in the foreground
Oeschinensee above Kandersteg. The wall behind it is the Blüemlisalp, and the lake is held back by the rubble of a rockfall rather than by anything built.

Nature

The Best Places to Visit for Nature Travel in Switzerland

Lakes take the largest share, then waterfalls, gorges and the roads over the high passes. Grindelwald, Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen hold the most of it, and 32 of Switzerland’s 35 towns carry something: 76 places in all.

Very little of it needs boots. On the panorama railways and the mid-height cable cars the mountain is something to look at rather than climb.

Plan the trip

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