Switzerland runs to a timetable. Book the mountain first.
Which summit earns the money when the forecast is borderline. Whether Titlis or Pilatus is the better day out of Lucerne. Reviews of every tour you can book in Switzerland.
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Schilthorn
2,970 m
Revolving restaurant, Eiger opposite
from $264
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Jungfraujoch
3,454 m
Europe’s highest railway station
from $150
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Pilatus
2,128 m
Steepest cogwheel railway in the world
from $84
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Titlis
3,020 m
Rotating cable car onto the glacier
from $101
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Rigi
1,798 m
Europe’s first mountain railway
from $94
Jungfraujoch, Pilatus, a paraglider over Interlaken, chocolate in Geneva.
Four bookings a first Swiss week tends to hang off: one summit, one lake day, one flight, one afternoon indoors. Prices are per head.
01The one everyone comes forJungfraujoch Day Trip from Zurich: Swiss Alps & Bernese OberlandNine hours out of Zurich for the highest railway station in Europe, with the Bernese Oberland through the window both ways.
02Boat, cogwheel, cable carMount Pilatus Summit from Lucerne With Lake CruiseA lake steamer out of Lucerne, the world’s steepest rack railway up the mountain and gondolas back down. One ticket covers all three.
03Twenty minutes off a slopeTandem Paragliding Experience from InterlakenLaunched above Interlaken with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau lined up across the valley, landing beside the lake.
04The indoor afternoonAward-Winning Geneva Chocolate &Old Town Tour with Boat Ride (3h)Three hours through the Geneva old town between chocolate stops, with a lake boat in the middle of it.
Every Swiss summit sells the same sky. Pick the kind of day instead.
The rack railways and cable cars price by how far up they carry you, and they run whatever the cloud is doing. Three ways to spend a day above the valley floor, and what boarding each one costs.
Six bases, and everything each one puts within a day’s reach.
Switzerland is small and the trains are punctual, so where you sleep decides less than it would anywhere else. It still decides something: which summit is an hour away, which lake the boat leaves from, which border you can cross before lunch.
The Swiss days out more travellers take than any others.
Every Swiss tour review →What actually sells here, in order, and the thing that keeps each one selling.
1
Award-Winning Geneva Chocolate &Old Town Tour with Boat Ride (3h)
Taste award-winning Geneva chocolate, explore the Old Town, learn local stories, and cross Lake Geneva by boat in three hours.
From · $131
Read our review →2
Mount Titlis and Lucerne Day Trip from Zurich
from $215
3
Heidiland and Liechtenstein Tour from Zurich
from $120
4
Tandem Paragliding Experience from Interlaken
from $252
5
Jungfraujoch: Top of Europe Day Trip from Zurich
from $380
6
Jungfraujoch Day Trip from Zurich: Swiss Alps & Bernese Oberland
from $386
7
Chamonix & Mont Blanc Panoramic Sky-Glass Bus Guided Day Trip
from $131
8
Mount Pilatus Summit from Lucerne With Lake Cruise
from $223
Switzerland’s two most famous exports both come with a tasting room.
Cailler’s factory at Broc, the chocolate fountain inside Lindt’s home in Zurich, copper vats in the Gruyères dairy. Most of them sit an hour from a city you were already sleeping in, and most of them end with a plate.
Lucerne, Geneva, Brienz, Zurich: here the boat is part of the ticket.
Paddle steamers on Lake Lucerne are written into the mountain passes rather than sold beside them. Brienz turns an improbable turquoise by July and fills with kayaks. Geneva does the sunset hour with a glass of something. On these lakes the boat is transport first and sightseeing second.
Switzerland is expensive, and the old towns are where it is not.
The mountain tickets are most of the reason for the reputation. Grouped by price, the cheap end turns out to be the walled towns, the castles and the lake boats.
Audio walks through the old towns, castle entry, a scavenger hunt, a single ticket on a lake boat.
- 1Chaplin’s World Entrance Ticketfrom $39
- 2Zurich Old Town Walking Tourfrom $33
- 3Zurich City Tour with Audio Commentaryfrom $44
Half-day coach runs to the Rhine Falls, chocolate and cheese walks, a lake pass with a cable car on the end.
The Jungfraujoch and Titlis day trips, a tandem flight, private drivers, a whole day on a panoramic train.
Swiss old towns are small, medieval and covered in an afternoon.
Zurich’s guild houses along the Limmat, four kilometres of arcades in Bern, a painted town hall in Basel, the wooden bridge at Lucerne. An hour or two on foot takes in most of any of them, with a guide or with headphones.
- 1Award-Winning Geneva Chocolate &Old Town Tour with Boat Ride (3h)from $131
- 2Zurich Walking Tour With Cruise and Aerial Cable Carfrom $111
- 3Zurich Old Town Walking Tourfrom $33
In Switzerland the webcam decides the mountain day, not the calendar.
Every top station points a live camera at its own view, and the railways sell tickets whatever it shows. Look the night before. If the peaks are shut in, spend the day at a chocolate factory, a lakeside castle or a museum instead, and take the cable car when it clears.
By town — wherever you are sleeping
By kind of day — summit, lake, tasting room or old town
Just reviewed: the newest Swiss days out.
The rest of this week’s reviews →
Bern Private Tour – Zermatt Village and Gornergrat’s Railway
Read our review →
Bern Private Photoshoot with Optional Picnic by the River
Read our review →
Private helicopter flight to Stockhorn mountain, with view to the Swiss Alps
Read our review →
Bern Private Tour – Gruyères , Cheese, and Lavaux’s UNESCO Wine
Read our review →
BikeBrix Scenic Cycling Tour in Lake Maggiore Ascona Locarno
Read our review →
Jungfrau, Top of Europe & Interlaken Small group from Zurich
Read our review →
Private transfer from Zurich City to Basel Airport
Read our review →