Every Swiss mountain has a train up it.
Jungfraujoch or Titlis. Pilatus or Rigi. Which summit earns your one clear day, what a lake steamer really costs, and whether the chocolate queue is worth standing in. Reviews of every tour in Switzerland.
Switzerland gives you one clear day. Spend it on the right mountain.
All 50 Jungfraujoch tours →
Cloud decides everything above 2,000 metres, and the four big lift-and-rail mountains are not interchangeable. Jungfraujoch is the long haul to a glacier saddle. Titlis is the fast one with an ice cave at the top. Pilatus is the loop with a boat in it. Rigi is the cheap seat with the best lake view.
Jungfraujoch, and the last train is a cogwheel
Two changes and a tunnel bored through the Eiger, then a glacier saddle with a snow field on it. Leaves from Zurich, Lucerne or Interlaken; the Interlaken start buys you two extra hours up top.
Titlis: rotating cabin, ice cave, cliff walk
The cable car turns a full circle on the way up so nobody gets the wrong side. At the summit: a tunnel cut into the glacier, a suspension bridge over the drop, and Lucerne on the road home.
Pilatus by boat, cogwheel and cable car
The golden round trip: paddle steamer across the lake, the steepest cogwheel railway in the world up the far side, gondolas back down to Kriens. No leg repeats itself.
The days people fly to Switzerland for.
Glacier saddles, red trains through the snow, a lake you can cross by paddle steamer, and cheese aged in a mountain cellar. The handful of days most Swiss trips are built around, and the best way to book each.
Zurich is where the Swiss day trip starts.
Almost nobody comes for Zurich alone, and the city knows it. Coaches leave the Sihlquai terminal every morning for the Rhine Falls, Titlis, Jungfraujoch and Liechtenstein — and the old town on the far bank is worth the evening you get back.
Switzerland is expensive. Not every day out is.
The whole catalogue sorted by what it costs. A boat across the Rhine Falls basin runs less than lunch; a seat on the Glacier Express runs more than a night in the hotel.
Old-town walks, lake ferries, the falls by boat, museum entry and the chocolate counters.
- 1Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum Entry Ticketfrom $22
- 250-Minute Lake Geneva Cruisefrom $24
- 3Rhine Falls Boat Tourfrom $13
The standard full day: Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein, Pilatus by steamer, city tour plus cruise.
Jungfraujoch, tandem paragliding, the panorama trains and the private guides who chase the weather for you.
What travellers in Switzerland actually book.
Every review →The tours more people take than anything else in the country — and what each one gets you for the money.
1
Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum Entry Ticket
Self-paced Lindt Home of Chocolate near Zurich with 9 m fountain, factory views, audio guide, and unlimited Swiss chocolate tastings in a day.
From · $22
Read our review →2
Grindelwald, Interlaken & Lauterbrunnen Day Trip
from $140
3
City Tour, Cruise, and Lindt Home of Chocolate Visit
from $103
4
50-Minute Lake Geneva Cruise
from $24
5
Mount Titlis with Ice Flyer & Lucerne Day Tour
from $204
6
Award-Winning Geneva Chocolate &Old Town Tour with Boat Ride (3h)
from $131
7
Rhine Falls Boat Tour
from $13
8
Bus Day Trip to Heidiland and Liechtenstein
from $115
Lucerne keeps its bridge, its lake and three mountains.
A covered wooden bridge from 1333, a lake that still runs paddle steamers, and Rigi, Pilatus and Titlis all inside a morning of the quay. If you only sleep one night outside Zurich, sleep here.
Geneva looks at France and books its day trips there.
The fountain throws water 140 metres up and the old town is small enough to cross twice before lunch, so the good Geneva days lean on the lake and the border. Chamonix and Mont Blanc are ninety minutes out; Annecy is a half day; the vineyard terraces above Lausanne are a boat ride.
- 150-Minute Lake Geneva Cruisefrom $24
- 2Award-Winning Geneva Chocolate &Old Town Tour with Boat Ride (3h)from $131
- 3Scenic Lake Cruise with Snacks and Winefrom $37
Three things Switzerland does that nowhere else bothers to.
Mountains and lakes are shared out across the Alps. Panorama trains on a hundred-year timetable, a cellar of thirty-kilo cheese wheels and a paragliding valley with its own air-traffic rhythm are Swiss alone.
The Panorama Train
The Glacier Express crosses 291 bridges between Zermatt and St Moritz and is proud of averaging under 40 km/h. Every seat is under curved glass, every seat has to be reserved on top of the ticket, and lunch arrives at your table somewhere around the Oberalp Pass. The Bernina line does the same trick south into Italy on an open red viaduct.
- 1Mt. Pilatus Cable Car, Cogwheel Train & Lake Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,338 reviews
- 2Milan to St. Moritz: Scenic Bernina Train Tour with Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,840 reviews
- 3Swiss Travel Pass: Unlimited Travel on Train, Bus & Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,631 reviews
The Cheese Cellar
Gruyère is still made in copper vats in the village it is named after, then stacked in cellars where the wheels are turned and brushed for months. The dairy tours run on the morning make, so an early start is the difference between watching cheese being made and watching a video about it. Fondue afterwards is not optional.
- 1Gruyères Tour from Geneva With Train, Chocolate and Cheese★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 258 reviews
- 2Chocolate and Cheese Tour in Appenzell★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 224 reviews
- 3Zurich eTukTuk Private Tour – with Cheese Fondue and Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 223 reviews
The Interlaken Flight
Interlaken sits in a flat gap between two lakes with high grass slopes on both sides, which is close to a perfect paragliding machine. You run three steps off Beatenberg and land in a field by the river twenty minutes later. Flights go on the morning air; an afternoon booking is the one most likely to be moved.
- 1Tandem Paragliding Flight with Pilot★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,117 reviews
- 2Tandem Paragliding Experience from Interlaken★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,655 reviews
- 3Tandem Paragliding Experience with Transport from Interlaken★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 767 reviews
Swiss winter starts at the top of a cable car.
All winter days →
Titlis Beginner Ski day snow experience & Lucerne
Read our review →
Full-Day Trip to Riviera Col du Pillon & Glacier 3000
Read our review →Book these before you fly to Switzerland.
Most of Switzerland can be booked from the hotel the night before, because the trains run whatever happens. These four cannot: they run on compulsory reservations, activation dates and a morning weather window that does not care about your itinerary.
- 01Glacier Express, Swiss Alps & Lucerne Tour | From ZurichA seat reservation is compulsory on top of the ticket, and the panorama coaches go months ahead for the summer runs.
- 02Swiss Travel Pass: Unlimited Travel on Train, Bus & BoatThe pass runs from a start date you choose when you buy it — sort it before you land, not at the station counter.
- 03Day Trip to Jungfraujoch – Top of EuropeThe last leg is a cogwheel railway with a fixed seat count, and the clear-weather departures are the first to go.
- 04Tandem Paragliding Flight with PilotFlights launch on the morning air. Book the early slot and keep the afternoon free in case the wind moves you.
A grey day in Switzerland is a day for cellars and counters.
The summits close in for days at a time, and paying $200 to stand inside a cloud is the classic Swiss mistake. The answers are all indoors and all local: the chocolate factory floor, a fondue table, a Gruyère cellar, the museum with the trains in it. None of them care about the forecast.
The Swiss circuit, reviewed stop by stop.
MontreuxBy region — stop by stop
Zurich361 tours
Lucerne167 tours
Geneva141 tours
Interlaken118 tours
Basel88 tours
Zermatt39 tours
Bern44 tours
Lugano33 tours- Every region →
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Private tour to Interlaken, Grindelwald & Jungfrau
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