Insight Guides Pocket Switzerland (Travel Guide eBook)

By Insight Guides

Insight Guides Pocket Switzerland

Travel made easy. Ask local experts.
The definitive pocket-sized travel guide, now with free eBook and handy pull-out map.

Compact, concise and packed full of essential information about where to go and what to do, this is the ideal on-the-move travel guide for exploring Switzerland. From top tourist attractions like the Jet d'Eau in Geneva, the imperious Matterhorn and the Bernese Oberland, to cultural gems, like taking part in the colourful Basel Carnival, admiring the oldest painted ceiling in Europe at a 12th century church in Zillis, or hiking and listening out for corn horns in the mountains, plan your perfect trip with this practical, all-in-one travel guide. 

Features of this travel guide to Switzerland:
- Inspirational itineraries: discover the best destinations, sights and excursions, highlighted with stunning photography
- Historical and cultural insights: delve into the country's rich history and culture, and learn all about its people, art and traditions
- Practical full-colour maps: with every major attraction highlighted, the maps make on-the-ground navigation easy
- Key tips and essential information: from transport to tipping, we've got you covered
- The ultimate travel tool: download the free app and eBook to access all this and more from your phone or tablet
- Covers: Zurich; Winterthur; Schaffhausen; St-Gallen, Appenzell; Basel; Solothurn; Baden; Bern; Biel; The Emmental; Bernese Oberland; Thun; Interlaken; Lucerne; Chur; The Vorderrhein; The Hinterrhein; Engadine; Ticino; Bellinzona; Locarno; Lugano; Valais; Geneva; Vaud; Lausanne; Fribourg; Neuchatel; The Jura

Looking for a more comprehensive guide to Switzerland? Check out Insight Guides Switzerland for a detailed and entertaining look at all the country has to offer.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Feb 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839052286

Insight Guides

Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

Getting Around the e-Book

This Pocket Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration and planning advice for your visit to Switzerland, and is also the perfect on-the-ground companion for your trip.

The guide begins with our selection of Top 10 Attractions, plus a Perfect Itinerary feature to help you plan unmissable experiences. The Introduction and History chapters paint a vivid cultural portrait of Switzerland, and the Where to Go chapter gives a complete guide to all the sights worth visiting. You will find ideas for activities in the What to Do section, while the Eating Out chapter describes the local cuisine and gives listings of the best restaurants. The Travel Tips offer practical information to help you plan your trip. Finally, there are carefully selected hotel listings.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in Switzerland are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map], tap once to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Switzerland. Simply double-tap an image to see it in full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

© 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Switzerland’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction #1

Top Attraction #2

Top Attraction #3

Top Attraction #4

Top Attraction #5

Top Attraction #6

Top Attraction #7

Top Attraction #8

Top Attraction #9

Top Attraction #10

A Perfect Day In Zurich

Introduction

Grassroots government

City and country

A Brief History

The Middle Ages

Turn of the tide

Religious strife

Neutral but caring

Historical landmarks

Where To Go

Zurich and vicinity

Discovering Zurich

Zurich’s museums

Excursions

Winterthur

Northeast Switzerland

Schaffhausen

St-Gallen

Appenzell

Northwest Switzerland

Basel

Exploring the city

Basel’s museums

Excursion from Basel

Solothurn

Baden

Bern and vicinity

Bern

The Old Town

Bern’s museums

Biel

The Emmental

Bernese Oberland

Around Lake Thun

Interlaken

Towards the peaks

Brienz Lake

Lucerne and Central Switzerland

Lucerne

The Old Town

Lake Lucerne

Three Mountains

East of Lucerne

Grisons

Chur

The Vorderrhein

The Hinterrhein

Engadine

Ticino

Bellinzona

Locarno and Lake Maggiore

Lugano and its Lake

Valais

Lower Valais

Sion and environs

Upper Valais

Geneva

A stroll through the city

The Old City

International city

Parks and gardens

Geneva’s museums

Vaud and Lake Geneva

La Côte

Lausanne

The Vaud Riviera

Four resorts in Vaud

Fribourg, Neuchâtel and the Jura

Fribourg

Around Fribourg

Neuchâtel

Around Neuchâtel Lake

The Jura

What To Do

Sports

Shopping

Where to shop

What to buy

Entertainment

Children’s Switzerland

Calendar of events

Eating Out

Fondues and cheeses

Specialities of French Switzerland

Specialities of Italian Switzerland

Specialities of German Switzerland

Swiss wine

Other Drinks

Coffee

Reading the Menu

To help you order

…and read the menu in French

…and in German

…and in Italian

Restaurants

Basel

Bern

Chur

Davos

Geneva

Gruyères

Gstaad

Interlaken

Lausanne

Locarno

Lucerne

Lugano

Neuchâtel

St-Gallen

St Moritz

Schaffhausen

Zermatt

Zurich

A–Z Travel Tips

A

Accommodation (see also Camping and Youth hostels)

Airports (aéroport/Flughafen/aeroporto)

B

Bicycle rental

Budgeting for your trip

C

Camping

Car hire

Climate

Clothing

Crime and safety (see also Emergencies)

D

Travellers with disabilities

Driving (see also Car hire)

E

Electricity

Embassies and consulates (Ambassade, Consulat/ Botschaft, Konsulate/Ambasciata, Consolato)

Emergencies (urgences/Notfall /emergenza)

G

Getting there

Guides and tours

H

Health and medical care

L

LGBTQ travellers

Language

M

Maps

Media

Money

O

Opening hours (see also Public holidays)

P

Police (police/Polizei/polizia)

Post offices (bureau de poste/ Post/ufficio postale)

Public holidays (jours fériés/gesetzliche Feiertage/feste)

Public transport

T

Telephones (téléphone/Telefon/telefono)

Time zone

Tipping (pourboire/Trinkgeld /mancia)

Toilets

Tourist information

V

Visas and entry requirements

W

Websites and WiFi

Y

Youth hostels (auberge de jeunesse/Jugendherberge/ostello della gioventù)

Recommended Hotels

Appenzell

Basel

Bern

Biel

Crans-Montana

Davos

Geneva

Gstaad

Interlaken

Lausanne

Leukerbad

Locarno

Lucerne

Lugano

Montreux

Mürren

Murten

Neuchâtel

Pontresina

St-Gallen

St Moritz

Schaffhausen

Solothurn

Wengen

Zermatt

Zurich

Switzerland’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction #1

swiss-image.ch

The Matterhorn

A challenge to mountaineers from around the world. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #2

iStock

Engadine

Zernez is the main gateway to the Swiss National Park. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #3

Getty Images

Basels Carnival

This popular three-day cultural event takes place during Lent. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #4

swiss-image.ch

Lucerne and its lake

Picturesque city at the heart of William Tell country. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #5

swiss-image.ch

Château de Chillon

Austerely beautiful, the old stronghold of Château de Chillon looks out over Lake Geneva. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #6

swiss-image.ch

The Jet d’Eau

The tallest monument in Geneva reaches the height of a 40-storey building. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #7

swiss-image.ch

Bern

The capital is listed by Unesco as one of the world’s cultural treasures. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #8

swiss-image.ch

The Bernese Oberland

This spectacular region of mountains, lakes and glaciers works a special magic on visitors. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #9

Getty Images

Zillis

Where the oldest painted ceiling in Europe can be seen. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #10

Shutterstock

Ticino

Its valleys and lakes have an Italian feel. For more information, click here.

A Perfect Day In Zurich

9.00am

Breakfast

Start your day in Zurich by following in the footsteps of Lenin, Trotsky, James Joyce, Herman Hesse and Mati Hari and breakfasting in the Jugendstil Café Odeon at Limmatquai 2, which opened in 1911. Einstein gave lectures there.

10.00am

Retail therapy

You are well placed to explore the warren of pedestrianised streets north of Rämistrasse where most of the city’s interesting shops and galleries can be found. Pick up paintings and prints, antiques, books, toys, musical instruments, collector’s comics, and fashion items.

11.00am

Coffee break

Head across the River Limmat to browse Zürich’s most opulent shopping street, Bahnhofstrasse. Head to Sprüngli at No. 21 for tasty cakes and coffee.

Noon

Lunchtime cruise

Trams 2, 8, 9 or 11 from the adjacent Paradeplatz stop will take you to Bürkliplatz (or walk – it’s just two stops). The Züurich Card entitles holders to a short round trip on the lake from the pier at Bürkliplatz. Disembark at any pier and take a later boat back, but many have lunch on the boat.

2.30pm

Culture fix

Take tram 11 to Bahnhofquai for a visit to the Swiss National Museum at Museumstrasse 2 which offers an insight into Switzerland and the Swiss people from pre-history to banking. There are themed exhibitions on home design, clothing, arms and armour, and reconstructed rooms from the 15th to 19th centuries.

4.30pm

Indulge

Take tram 13 to Waffenplatzstrasse for the short walk to Brandschenkestrasse 150 for one of the latest additions to the Zürich scene, the Thermalbad & Spa, in a brilliantly converted brewery. Besides a series of cavernous pools, hot rooms and showers and a great hydro-massage, it offers fantastic views of the city from the rooftop infinity pool.

6.00pm

An aperitif

Take tram 13 back to Stockerstrasse and hop on tram 8 to Römerhof for the cog-wheel Dolderbahn and the terrace of the Dolder Grand Hotel. From there you can watch the sun set over the lake and the Alps.

7.30pm

Dinner

Return on the Dolderbahn and take tram 3 to Neumarkt for an alfresco dinner (if the weather permits) at Restaurant Neumarkt at No. 5. In its quiet tree-shaded garden, you can enjoy imaginatively reworked Swiss dishes.

10.00pm

On the town

Take tram 3 one stop to Kunsthaus and tram 9 to Sihlstrasse, which will take you to the stylish club Jade at Pelikanplatz.

Introduction

A country of contrasts and of great natural and cultural resources, Switzerland may be located in the heart of Western Europe, but possesses a unique identity. Two decades into the 21st century, past and future coexist, confronting and complementing each other in a present that many Swiss see as less perfect than that of a few years ago, with the hint of further socio-political changes to come.

In this small country at the heart of old Europe, larch trees climb the mountainsides of the Alps, whose peaks are cloaked in eternal snows; fierce torrents hurl their icy waters into mirrored lakes; verdant valleys resonate with the tinkling of heavy bells hung from the necks of plump, well-kept cows. Here and there, a castle gives the landscape a fairy-tale look. And everywhere, during the summer, geraniums cascade from windows and balconies.

No map can recreate the geographic reality of Switzerland. Nearly two-thirds of the country is mountainous. Some summits are more than 4,500m (14,750ft) high; no one can resist the myths surrounding the Matterhorn (Mont Cervin) or the imposing trio formed by the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau. To the east, beneath the slopes of the Grisons, lie the prestigious ski slopes of Arosa, Davos and St Moritz. Fertile lowlands, situated between the Alps to the southeast and the rocky green range of the Jura to the northeast, spread in a circle between Lake Geneva and Lake Constance. At once pastoral and industrialised, this narrow band contains all the big cities and the majority of the 8.5 million inhabitants that make up the Confederation.

The diversity of Switzerland, however, goes beyond its landscape and climate, which is Alpine in the mountainous regions and nearly Mediterranean in southernmost Ticino. Cultural currents converge at this linguistic crossroads wedged between powerful neighbours. Three major languages have official status: in fact, some 65 percent of the population speaks Schwyzerdütsch, an Alemannic German dialect, while almost 23 percent claims French as their major language, and 8 percent Italian. A fourth national language, Romansh (0.5 percent), spoken in some Grisons mountain valleys, owes its survival to the fierce determination of its speakers. Each group has its own traditions, literature, gastronomy and way of life, but there are cultural interchanges – some of them institutional, others more hidden, none of them easy – that make Switzerland a vibrant patchwork of individuals and ideas.

What’s in a name?

Suisse, Schweiz, Svizzera, Svizra… the country has so many official names that its stamps and coins cannot contain them all. So they carry its Latin name instead: Helvetia.

Grassroots government

Politically, a grassroots democratic system takes account of regional aspirations. Each of the 26 cantons and demi-cantons that make up Switzerland enjoys considerable autonomy, as do some 3,000 communes, both rural and urban. Popular initiatives and referenda are used on the local and national level to propose new laws or to abolish contested regulations. All of these mechanisms make the political apparatus somewhat cumbersome, slowing the decision-making process.

As Switzerland has chosen to have a grassroots parliament, so it has also chosen to have a grassroots, militia-based army: all eligible men between the ages of 20 and 34 are enrolled in the army and required to do regular military service. For, strange as it seems, neutral, peaceable Switzerland is ready to respond to any attack: anti-tank traps, bunkers and landing strips are hidden in the most