The standard programme — Zurich, Lucerne, Interlaken, Zermatt — concentrates most visitors on a few per cent of the country. These twelve places are accessible, served by public transport, and mostly almost empty.
Ticino and Mesolcina
- Val Bavona. The stoniest valley in the Alps, where most hamlets still have no mains electricity. Twelve granite settlements called terre, with waterfalls dropping straight off the walls between them.
- Lavertezzo, Verzasca valley. The double-arched stone Ponte dei Salti over emerald water. Come early; from eleven it is crowded, and the water stays at twelve degrees even in August.
- Soglio, Val Bregaglia. A stone village above the valley floor facing the Sciora group. Segantini called it the threshold of paradise; the Giacometti family came from this valley.
Grisons
- St John's Abbey at Müstair, founded around 775 under Charlemagne, with the largest body of Carolingian frescoes in Europe. World Heritage and practically without visitors.
- Val Fex and the Swiss National Park: ibex, bearded vultures and the strictest protection regime in the Alps — leaving the paths is prohibited.
- Bergün and the Albula line with its spiral tunnels; in winter the pass road becomes a floodlit toboggan run.
Jura and western Switzerland
- Creux du Van, a natural rock amphitheatre 160 metres high and a kilometre wide above the Neuchâtel Jura, with chamois and ibex. Two hours on foot from Noiraigue.
- La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, World Heritage as purpose-planned watchmaking towns; Le Corbusier grew up here.
- Gruyères, a car-free small town with a castle, a cheese dairy and — unexpectedly — the H. R. Giger museum, honouring the creator of the Alien design.
Central and eastern Switzerland
- Braunwald, a car-free village in Glarus reached only by funicular, facing the Tödi.
- Abbey Library of St Gallen, a rococo hall of 1767 with 170,000 volumes and manuscripts from the eighth century. You enter in felt slippers.
- Appenzell Alps and the Seealpsee, with the Aescher guesthouse built into the cliff — famous from photographs, but on the ground a quiet day's walk.
And two more
The Aletsch forest with stone pines over a thousand years old, above Riederalp. And the Morteratsch glacier with its interpretive trail where signs mark the year the ice reached that point — walking from the first sign to today's snout takes half an hour and explains climate change better than any graph.
How to get there
- Almost all of it is served by postbus, though often with only a few departures a day. Check the timetable and note the last return
- In Val Bavona and Val Verzasca buses run from Locarno in summer; by car the parking is full from ten o'clock
- Sleep locally rather than visiting for the day: in Müstair, Soglio and Braunwald the appeal begins after the last bus
- Take cash. Alpine dairies and self-service stands work on an honesty box