by Swiss Summers used to be a well -groomed secret among the country’s residents. In cities, the workers caused lidos during their lunch breaks and spent mild evenings on bar terraces, while weekends meant paths across the agricultural meadow in the landscape to the Meadow end landscape.
Nowadays, however, the country is experiencing a dose of sport and social media. Switzerland is host of the UEFA women -Euro in Zurich, with the lioness defending their champion title. And Tikkok is obsessed with Basel’s brilliant river spendula – a swimmer along the Rhine – while beautiful places such as Lauterbrunnen can be a magnet for Instagrammer.
Don’t worry: there is still plenty of space for summer fun, regardless of whether it is late nights in living cities or days on the country’s 65,000 km (40,000 miles) hiking trails.
And the best news? Flights and accommodation prices do not yet have to catch up with the seasonal boom in Switzerland, so the country is generally cheaper in July and August than in the ski season.
Choose from gentle walks between empty villages and idyllic pastures, city days with boat trips and restaurants at the lake or adventures in full rays up and down canyons. Better, combine them: Excellent rail services and streets make it one of the simplest countries in Europe to move away.
Where to go
North: for Slick cities
Zurich is a brilliant fun in the summer months. During the day, the residents take dips at baths on the lake such as leaf beach pool Tiefenbrunnen or have coffee in the chic cafés of the city center.
At night open in the Alfresco bar for long nights of cocktails (try Ms. Gerold’s garden in the shadow of Friday tower) or, if you have children in tow, the bedtime in Josefwiese, a park with a playground, a bar and a variety of Buzz, which are against the background of the post-industrial architecture of district 5.
Rent a car and the wider region is opened: join the grannies who in the lake in the sleepy village of Gätzee Baden, a Bukolian explosion of the Swiss, which is about 20 minutes away from the middle. Go north to hear the thunder of the Rhine Falls, the most powerful in Europe. Or take a ferry in medieval Rapperswil, where an atmospheric old town leads to the newly opened castle from the 13th century.
From Zurich it is about an hour by train to Basel, the sensation of the social media in Switzerland. Although Bern’s charm or Zurich’s sums are missing, this is what makes museums, shops and galleries (they could lose days if they hike the oldest public art collection in the world in Basel Art Museum).
And for those who were drawn from the Rhine, there are swimming for competent swimmers every Tuesday evening from the beginning of July to mid -September.
Where is staying
In Zurich, Romantik Seehotel has a double of £ 281, or Marktgasse Hotel in the old town has the double of £ 428. In Basel, Art House Basel only has a room of £ 161.
South: To get outside
In summer, car-free Zermatt fills with tourists who were pulled by the Matterhorn, which is pushing the local hiking and bike paths (including the Five Lakes Trail with its view of the mountain).
The Italian -speaking region of Ticino is one of the sunniest places in the country, a metaphorical world (less than three hours by car). This is an ideal place for boat trips in the direction of the grotto restaurants of the Lake Lugano, in lazy paths along the slopes of Monte San Giorgio or Aperitivi covered with waves in an Assonfront bar in Ascona, which drinks with a view of the Lake Maggiore, as a palm dancing shadow on the pavement.
Where is staying
In Zermatt, the luxurious Cervo Mountain Resort has doubles from £ 680. Or 3100 Kulmhotel Gornergrat, the highest hotel in the Swiss Alps, has double of £ 408. The Hotel Eden Roc in Ascona has the double of £ 552 B & BB & B Bertazzi has two nights apartment from £ 184 for two people.
East: To kick and excursion into the past
Eastern Switzerland has expensive ski areas and a small piece of Lake Constance. However, the main draw in hot weather is the series of hiking trails around Appenzell.
This is Switzerland from the Story Books, the successive facades of the city center in rolling green landscapes, in which everything is silent for bird song and cowbells. Summer brings that “Stobrete“, Parties of Yodelling and folk dancing, if they pass clearly marked routes nearby nearby on the way to the remote Mountain Inns.
Cyclists should take care of 330 km (205 miles) bike paths, including one to the muscle-sooting glacier baths at Alp Mora. The oldest city in Switzerland, Chur (from the village where the train enthusiasts can climb into the Glacier Express to Zermatt) is worth a detour. In the meantime, Posh San Moritz has a kind of summer season with jazz, film and classic cars festivals.
Where is staying
The flims’ me and the entire hotel have doubles from £ 185 or in St. Moritz has Badrutt’s Palace dual of £ 714 B & Berggasthaus Aescher is from £ 59 B & B. Back in Appenzell has doubled Hotel Traube from £ 185 b & B.
West: For strolls and beaches on the lake
The living is easy for the Montreux Riviera, which extends from the Château de Chillon (inspiration for Byon’s poems and Prince Erics Castle in Disney’s The little mermaid) and goes through the naming tourist name names in the direction of the paving stones and lakeside cafés from Vevey. Among the vineyards protected by UNESCO, the cities of the winegrowers of Cully and Lutry are equipped with sea nachels and proper lanes of taverns.
Further west on the lake, Geneva is less neglected than Lausanne with correspondingly less excitement. However, the café culture of the pretty district of Carouge feels profitably summer. There is also a chic food in the city (L’Apparté is the place, which is awarded with a Michelin star, to book).
Where is staying
In Lausanne, the Beau-Rivage Palace has twice from £ 598. In Geneva, 9 Hotel Paquis has twice as much as £ 148.
Central: for old towns and extreme activities
Small and Cutesy, the capital of the country, Bern, is a place where the colonnades of streets in a bend in the Aare River and in the cytgloggge Clock Tower Animal machines shows directly from a fairy tale from the line.
In the Jungfrau region (including Interlaken and Insta-famous Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald), the Swiss adventure capital is located in the influencer pictures of two-sea-bar (two second bridges) with the Waters of Brienz and Thun. The lakes are good for paddle boarding and there are also Whitewater Rafting, Canyoning and Paragliding.
The villas of multimillionaires line the banks of Lucernsee for about an hour to the east. The city of the same name is swish, lined with watch shops and noble restaurants, and the riverside buzzes with bus core that serve perfectly classic concerts. From here you can reach the top of Mount Pilatus with cable car.
Where is staying
In Bern, the Schweizerhof Hotel has from £ 520. On the banks of Lake Brienz, a week begins in Camping Aaregg at £ 1,603 for a family of four, self -sufficiency. Or Hotel Eiger has doubles from £ 360. In Lucerne, Pickwick Lucerne has only a double of £ 208 rooms.
Go
Swiss summer weather is a pleasant surprise, with the temperatures reaching the 20s by May. Be careful that there are sometimes unexpected snow in the mountains at this point: the season opened for a high hiking at the end of June. By the end of September, changing leaves and falling temperatures will signal the coming winter.
To book what
Discover that the two-week Grand tour of the world through Switzerland contains four of its best train trips (Gotthard Panorama Express, Bernina Express, Glacier Express and The Golden Pass). From £ 3,898pp B&B, including train trips from London (01737 428520).
Or the two-week self-led Swiss Alps from Inntravel on the Bernese Oberland attack-from Eiger to the Matterhorn trip. From £ 3.400pp, including most meals, but with the exception of international travel (01653 617001).
