|
||
|
|
||
|
|
• Join the Swiss in their favourite pastime - hiking. There are over 50,000km (31,070 miles) of marked trails. Hiking times are given on the signposts, and trails are colour-coded according to difficulty (website: www.swisshiking.ch).
• Participate in various mountain sports (including climbing, ice climbing, ski touring, snowboarding, deep-snow skiing, heli-skiing and glacier walking). Top ski areas include Portes du Soleil, Davos, Klosters, Zermatt, Verbier, Saas Fee and glamorous St Moritz, which also offers snow-polo, the Olympic Bob run and the Cresta run).
• Cycling is not necessarily as strenuous as the mountainous terrain might indicate. There are 3,300km (2,046 miles) of well-marked interlinked trails, and most of them offer easy cycling. Many railway stations offer bike hire (return it to any other station at the end of the tour) (website: www.cycling-in-swtizerland.ch).
• Travel by train through stunning Alpine scenery on the Glacier Express, one of Europe's greatest rail journeys from St Moritz to Zermatt (or vice versa) at the very heart of Switzerland (website: www.glacierexpress.ch).
• Go on a lake cruise or ferry trip, including Lake Zürich, Lake Geneva, Lake Constance (with visits to towns in Germany and Austria) and the picturesque Vierwaltstättersee at Luzern, where paddlesteamers link up with various mountain railways and cableways.
• Enjoy a theatre production at the Zürcher Schauspielhaus, which is considered one of the most prestigious German-speaking theatres in the country (website: www.schauspielhaus.ch).
• Go to Basel for the Basler Fasnacht (a pre-Lenten carnival), with three days of grand masked parties and street parades with fancy costumes. There is even a Fasnacht Fountain in front of the City Theatre (website: www.fasnacht.ch).
• Take Europe's highest aerial cablecar up the Little Matterhorn at Zermatt. Then ski back to the car-free village of Zermatt on one of the longest ski runs in Europe (website: www.klein-matterhorn.ch).
• Head to the small town and popular ski resort of Engelberg, where the world's first revolving cable car ascends Mount Titlis, the highest lookout-point in central Switzerland (website: www.titlis.ch).
• Listen to the world's greatest jazz, blues and rhythm 'n' blues artists at the prestigious Montreux International Jazz Festival in July (website: www.montreuxjazz.com).
• Visit one of Switzerland's many climatic health resorts. The Graubünden resorts of Arosa, Davos, Klosters and St Moritz are renowned the world over. Interlaken, near Bern, is another celebrated health resort and the gateway to the Berner Oberland.
See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.
• Participate in various mountain sports (including climbing, ice climbing, ski touring, snowboarding, deep-snow skiing, heli-skiing and glacier walking). Top ski areas include Portes du Soleil, Davos, Klosters, Zermatt, Verbier, Saas Fee and glamorous St Moritz, which also offers snow-polo, the Olympic Bob run and the Cresta run).
• Cycling is not necessarily as strenuous as the mountainous terrain might indicate. There are 3,300km (2,046 miles) of well-marked interlinked trails, and most of them offer easy cycling. Many railway stations offer bike hire (return it to any other station at the end of the tour) (website: www.cycling-in-swtizerland.ch).
• Travel by train through stunning Alpine scenery on the Glacier Express, one of Europe's greatest rail journeys from St Moritz to Zermatt (or vice versa) at the very heart of Switzerland (website: www.glacierexpress.ch).
• Go on a lake cruise or ferry trip, including Lake Zürich, Lake Geneva, Lake Constance (with visits to towns in Germany and Austria) and the picturesque Vierwaltstättersee at Luzern, where paddlesteamers link up with various mountain railways and cableways.
• Enjoy a theatre production at the Zürcher Schauspielhaus, which is considered one of the most prestigious German-speaking theatres in the country (website: www.schauspielhaus.ch).
• Go to Basel for the Basler Fasnacht (a pre-Lenten carnival), with three days of grand masked parties and street parades with fancy costumes. There is even a Fasnacht Fountain in front of the City Theatre (website: www.fasnacht.ch).
• Take Europe's highest aerial cablecar up the Little Matterhorn at Zermatt. Then ski back to the car-free village of Zermatt on one of the longest ski runs in Europe (website: www.klein-matterhorn.ch).
• Head to the small town and popular ski resort of Engelberg, where the world's first revolving cable car ascends Mount Titlis, the highest lookout-point in central Switzerland (website: www.titlis.ch).
• Listen to the world's greatest jazz, blues and rhythm 'n' blues artists at the prestigious Montreux International Jazz Festival in July (website: www.montreuxjazz.com).
• Visit one of Switzerland's many climatic health resorts. The Graubünden resorts of Arosa, Davos, Klosters and St Moritz are renowned the world over. Interlaken, near Bern, is another celebrated health resort and the gateway to the Berner Oberland.
See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.