The official route assumes starting in Zurich – a great choice! Wander through the old town, consider swimming in the lake, see the famous stained glass in the Fraumunster and Grossmunster churches.

Food Options

• ***Didi’s Frieden, Stampfenbachstrasse 32: excellent, one of the best wine lists in Zurich. Near the city center.
• **Fischerstube Zurihorn: If it’s nice weather, this is a lovely, high end experience on a patio over the lake. It’s about a 15 minute walk south of the Opernhaus along a nice promenade on the lake. If it’s a clear evening you’ll have a beautiful view of the Alps. Reserve well in advance.
• **Raclette Stube: maybe a little touristy, but this is THE place for raclette in Zurich. They have salad, fondue, raclette, and rosti – that’s about it. Very classic.

Hotels

All of these lean more on the affordable side; if budget allows there are many more high end options.

• **25hours Hotel Zurich: A hip choice, there are two locations (East and West). The spaces are  filled with contemporary art and the restaurants/food are quite good. Rooms range from bunk beds to suites, and they have a sauna and bikes. The ‘Langstrasse’ location is closer to the old town of Zurich.
• **Scheuble Hotel: https://www.scheuble.ch/en/hotel: we liked this. Clean, friendly, very central, reasonable prices.
• **Hotel Seehof: in a quieter part of town but still accessible. Nice beds, clean, good breakfast.

Zurich

Day 2: Zurich to Appenzell

Covers Stage 1 : Zurich to Appenzell Official Route

The official route takes about 2:30 hours – I’d recommend a shorter 1:40 minute route with more time for sightseeing. Skip Schaffhausen and make your way due east from Zurich to St. Gallen, with an optional stop at **Castle Kyburg along the way.

You’ll be in St. Gallen before lunch – just in time for the wonderful Abbey district! Leave time for lunch, and 2-3 hours to tour the library and church complex.

Continue on to adorable Appenzell, your stop for the night. There are two choices for lodging – a famous hostel, or a classic hotel. You may be able to do an early dinner at the hostel if you time it right and return back to the village for sleeping. 

Option 1: ***Aescher-Wildkirchli: The hostel of Instagram fame – Loved it! Amazing setting, fun getting there, good dinner, entertaining company. Be sure to hike down (not up) – it’s a steep vertical climb, takes about an hour, lovely scenery. Why you wouldn’t choose this: shared bathrooms, dorm-style sleeping (including shared beds; big platform sleeping areas).

Option 2: ***Romantik Hotel Säntis: This is super Swiss and right on the main square. It’s cute – ask for a room on a higher floor. Pretty loud, food isn’t great, decor is very on point for 1970s Swiss Style. You’ll likely be woken at 6 as the local farmers walk their cows through the central square to the surrounding pasture (a plus in our book). Reserve dinner at the excellent ***Café-Hotel Appenzell (book well in advance).

Variations

If you do decide Schaffhausen is key, do also add on nearby ***Rheinau Monastery Church.

St. Gallen

Appenzell

Kyburg

Covers Stage 2 : Appenzell to St. Moritz, and parts of Stage 3: St. Moritz to Bellinzona

Recommended Route: about 4 hours.

Make this a driving day, covering several of Switzerland’s most dramatic passes through Graubunden, wrapping for the night in charming Chur. Stretch your legs in cute Klosters if you need a break (skip Davos). From Klosters, the ***Fluela Pass is stunning, very steep, above tree line.Leave time for shopping the high-end boutiques of St. Moritz before returning on the busy, scenic, and well graded **Julier Pass.

Skip the motorway and drive the final stretch to Chur through Lenzerheide and Churwalden – which has the world’s longest Toboggan Run. Because, well, why not (and it’s a lovely valley). 

Chur itself is a cute, walkable old town ( the oldest town in Switzerland), with good restaurants and darling historical hotels. Stay at **Zunfthaus zur Rebleuten, which has an excellent location, small rooms as you’d expect for a historic building.

Top Sites

• **Domschatzmuseum Chur: small but notable. There’s the normal (and rather fine) collection of church reliquaries and the like. Below ground, there’s a remarkable, and historically important, series of paintings. The cycle of death images from 1543 consist of 25 painted picture fields on a half-timbered wall, based on the woodcut series with the Images of Death by Hans Holbein the Younger – the first large-format copies of those small prints known. Apart from the two depictions of death from around 1520 to 1530 in the charnel house in Leuk (also worth a visit!), this is the oldest surviving cycle in the tradition of death dances in Switzerland.
• The adjacent Chur Cathedral, otherwise known as the **Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, is impressive and exuberantly decorated, very unusual for Switzerland. Late Romanesque, twelfth to thirteenth century, with a raised choir over a crypt and a set of capitals carved with beasts, grotesques, and struggling figures that are some of the best architectural sculptures in Switzerland.

Restaurant Options

• **Zunfthaus zur Rebleuten: in the recommended hotel, famous for its Cordon Bleu
• **La Meridiana: Don’t be distracted by the appearance – there’s a roof garden on the 5th floor! Great views of the city, Italian food.
• **Veltiner Weinstube in the Hotel Stern is classic Swiss, wooden walls and traditionally dressed staff. It’s cozy and charming.

Variations

The route misses misses two famous spots, which you could add on as extensions (1 day per):

Val Sinestra, Valposchiavo

Klosters & Davos

St. Moritz

Chur

Arosa Lenzerheide

Covers Stage 3: St. Moritz to Bellinzona and the spur down to the Italian lakes.

Driving time: about two hours, or three if you go over the pass rather than through the tunnel.

Going off script here, why visit Lugano when you can go to Lago Maggiore? I owe Lugano another visit, but for now I’ll recommend what we know is worth it – the Borromean Islands.

The drive from Chur includes several notable stops:

• ***Kirche St Martin, in Zillis. A painted wooden ceiling of about 1160: beautiful, quite different from the rest of the churches we’ve seen, wooden carved scenes from the bible, with mythical beasts around the edges. Only a handful of Romanesque painted ceilings survive anywhere, and this is the finest and most complete. Important source for dating the spread of Christianity in Switzerland.
• ***Viamala Schlucht: Excellent! Short hike down into a gorge, very scenic. Go early to skip the crowds.
• ***San Bernardino Pass (closed in winter).  It’s worth it, not a fast run at all, but it’s an engineering marvel and fun to drive. There’s a tunnel underneath, so you can zip back north easily.

Coming out of the pass, you’ll find the lovely background of the Castelgrande, Castello Montebello and Castello Sasso Corbaro protecting the city of the Bellinzona – a well-preserved example of late-medieval defensive structures located at a key strategic point on the Alpine pass. Each castle is worth a visit by its own right, but together with their defensive walls they offer a fascinatingly beautiful step back in time. A great place to stop for lunch – two hours is plenty. We ate at **Il Fermento in the old town, which is a brewery with vaguely Italian food. Quite good.

Now on to Lago Maggiore – most people stay in Stresa, and ferry around to the islands. This is a completely fine strategy, though on our second trip we discovered you can actually stay on Isola Bella, which was a rather lovely experience. The Borromean Islands are a group of small, landscaped islands: a major local tourist attraction for their picturesque setting, as well as part of a larger Unesco site. Each island is unique, with Isola Bella being the most famous for its summer palace, terraced gardens, and quite impressive art collection. 

Another option to the north, on the Swiss side of the lake, is ***Isola Brissago: a perfect romantic getaway, with a hotel & a great restaurant, and after the ferries stop in the early evening you have the entire island to yourself.

Either way, spend your afternoon cruising the Isola Bella Cluster. It’s worth considering getting a private taxi if visiting the Isola Bella area as a group. Ferries work but you’re a bit captive to the schedules and the wait can be very long.

VARIATIONS

If you have extra time, do try Lugano, and potentially nearby Gondria, which gets rave reviews.

Another gorgeous overnight (especially for hikers) is nearby Valle Maggia.

Furstenau

Lago Maggiore

Lake Lugano

Bellinzona

Covers Stage 4: Bellinzona to Zermatt

Driving Time: 4.5 hours

Heading north towards Andermatt, you’ll reach one of the richest areas of passes in Switzerland. You’ll go through (or over) the **Gotthard (2,106 m.) and then the Furka Pass (2,436 m.) to the west. If that’s not enough, add on the Grimsel to the peak, and then backtrack. This day involves a lot of driving and makes for a fairly cramped visit to Zermatt. Add a second night in Zermatt if you have the time to spare.

• The **Furka Pass (Valais) is famous from a James Bond (Goldfinger) perspective, with dramatic turns. Above the treeline. Bumpy from the top of the pass going from the East side down to Realp (where you get the train). The rest is in good condition. It’s also the home of the now-abandoned Hotel Gletscher Restaurant of not-Wes-Anderson fame.
• Gotthard Pass: There are three ways to get over or through: 1. Old pass – cobbles (slow); 2. New pass – big semi-boring high-speed sweepers; 3. Tunnel – super boring.
• The ***Grimsel Pass is technically in Bern/Valais, but conceptually I think of it as the pass to Andermatt. In great shape, lovely smooth driving conditions over dramatic vistas. Arguably Galen’s favorite pass in Switzerland. Don’t miss the turnoff to the older cobblestone stretch of the road. Opens late – limited summer only.

Zermatt is only accessible by train – a pretty 30 minute final journey. While definitely a big deal production and requiring advance planning and a decent amount of money, Zermatt is lots of fun and has the best skiing terrain we’ve found in Switzerland. It’s pretty busy year round – we found lots of crowds, and good hiking, during the ‘slow season’ of late fall. Make reservations for everything (hotels, food) in advance.

Hotels have been a struggle for us in the area – plan on limited value for the often jaw-dropping prices. We’re still searching for the ideal place.

Eating up on the mountain can make for a fun adventure (take the lifts) – our favorites are:

• ***Bontadini: loved this. On the Italian side, excellent food. (This is quite a journey, check the logistics first to see if it’s feasible in the time you have in summer.)
• ***Chez Vrony: also loved. Slightly more touristy, but an older/more charming building, traditional Swiss/French food.

In town favorites:

• ***Le Gitan: nice, just off the main drag. High end, good food, good service, weird 1970s Spanish interior that kind of works. 
• ***Hexen Bar: good for a reasonably quiet but festive apre cocktail. Lots of wood, clean interior, feels pretty local, where the old folks hang out.

VARIATIONS

If you have extra time, add a night in the Belalp and take a long hike.

Andermatt

Zermatt

Covers Stage 5: Zermatt to Lausanne

Driving Time: 2.5 hours

A beautiful drive through the dramatic Sion valley – and into French-speaking Switzerland – through historic hillside vineyards (the “postcard favorite” for the Grand Tour), onto charming Lausanne – the town no one seems to know about, but loves. There’s a LOT to do along this drive, see the full notes in each section for more in-depth options.

Stop 1: Raron. Raron has existed for at least 1100 years, and features a striking hilltop church/castle with very explicit murals – the Unesco designated ***Felsenkirche. The views are excellent, and the poet Rilke is buried in the attached graveyard.

Stop 2: Leuk. Leuk has been around a very long time – controlling access to the Gemmi Pass, which passes over to Adelboden. This valley has had some importance from the time of the Romans, going back at least to the 5th century, if not sooner. 

Leuk is worth a stop to explore the historic well-preserved collection of medieval buildings, the historically & artistically important ***Leuk Charnel House, and the Mario Botta dome. 

The first church was built around the 6th century out of a preexisting Roman building. This was torn down and reconstructed several times before the gothic St. Stephan’s Church was erected in 1494. According to Atlas Obscura, “In 1981 the church undertook a restoration project. The restorers pulled up the floorboards with the intention of building a basement community center, but soon found that would be impossible. A hidden cellar had been housing a 9-foot-tall, 65-foot-long wall of skulls for centuries. During archaeological excavation the very next year, 26 statues were discovered hidden beneath three feet of bones. They were dated between the 13th and the 16th centuries, around the time the current church building was constructed. The artworks found in the charnel house included a remarkable Pièta and a well-preserved Danse Macabre fresco (the oldest in Switzerland), still on view in the charnel house.

In 1999, the Leuk Castle Foundation was established to restore and maintain the Bishop’s Castle in Leuk. As part of the restoration, one of the medieval towers was topped with a glass cupola by the architect Mario Botta – it’s very pretty. 

Stop 3: ***Abbaye de Saint Maurice: Very, very good. As tours of churches go this is top notch, well curated, excellent archaeology site, important historically.

At this point, you’ll need to pick up the pace to have any time leftover for Lausanne. Wave at Montreux and appreciate the gorgeous views of Lavaux as you pass by.

We have yet to have a visitor who isn’t surprised by how pretty Lausanne is, and wonder why it’s not more on the tourist radar. To make the most of an afternoon, I’d recommend staying in Ouchy, taking the metro up to the Centre Ville for a walking tour. Make sure to stop in the **Cathedral of Notre Dame, considered the finest Gothic building in the entire country (it’s really impressive). Try to leave time for a visit to the **Olympic Museum and a swim in the lake before dinner with a view – or leave this for the next morning.

There are a lot of very expensive restaurants – Brasserie Grand-Chêne in the Lausanne Palace is my favorite. For a more affordable option and a break from all of the Swiss-German food, try La Crêperie d’Ouchy, which is very well situated by the lake.

VARIATIONS

Into hiking? This would be the ideal spot to add an extra day to explore the Bisses of Valais.

Have kids? **Thermalquellen Brigerbad is arguably the largest spa in Valais, and famous for its 184m-long water slide. We had a blast – the slide is terrifying (awesome), there’s a lazy river that turns into a crazy inferno once an hour, there’s plenty of room to spread out, and there are indeed hot pools. We stuck to the outdoor, kid friendly areas, but there’s an adult indoor section as well. Very popular with families.

There’s no time on this route for Montreux, but if you added a day or two it’s worth a few hours to visit Chateau Chillon and walk along the waterfront.

Upper Valais

Leuk & Leukerbad

Martigny Valley

Lavaux

Lausanne

Covers Stage 6: Lausanne to Neuchâtel

Driving Time: XX hours

Save some driving time and head by the most direct route to ***The Romainmôtier Priory: a former Cluniac priory in the foothills of the Jura. The current buildings date to the tenth century, modeled on Cluny Abbey. It’s a lovely town, quite small, big with hikers. The abbey itself is beautiful, worth a detour to see the interior.

From there, take the direct route to Neuchâtel (no need for a stop in Yverdon-les-Bains).

Variations:

If you have the time, before heading north add a day in Geneva, one of the optional stages on the grand tour route.

Yverdon-les-Bains

Neuchâtel & Surrounds