Swiss alps (Matterhorn) 

Overview: 

Europe’s great Misty Moun­tains, the beau­ty of the Swiss Alps is beyond the stuff of leg­end, with the hun­dreds of tow­er­ing peaks and their accom­pa­ny­ing views rep­re­sent­ing not only quin­tes­sen­tial Switzer­land – as emer­ald lakes, rolling hills and his­tor­i­cal cas­tles lay out before you, but also thanks to the incred­i­ble peaks and view­ing points of the Mat­ter­horn, Pila­tus, Titlis and the stun­ning sights from the Jungfrau­joch – some of the most awe-inspir­ing and breath-tak­ing views, trekking, camp­ing and ski­ing on the plan­et. Eas­i­ly explorable as well on a series of incred­i­bly scenic glacial trains, the sheer beau­ty of the Swiss Alps, com­bined with their ease of access and all year-round avail­abil­i­ty – and of course their mul­ti­ple Hol­ly­wood star­ing roles – makes the tow­er­ing and serene beau­ty of the mighty Swiss Alps an undoubt­ed won­der of the world.  

While the Alps them­selves offi­cial­ly span across sev­en Euro­pean Coun­tries; France, Ger­many, Switzer­land, Liecht­en­stein, Italy, Aus­tria and Slove­nia – it’s in the heart of Switzer­land – where more than 200 hun­dred peaks stretch­ing above 3,000 metres lie – where you can tru­ly enjoy the best of this stun­ning won­der. In fact, record­ed vis­its to the Swiss Alps, which cov­er around 65% of the Coun­try, — and the accom­pa­ny­ing charm­ing Swiss towns and land­scapes by both Moun­taineers and explor­ers are known to have begun cen­turies ago – with recent devel­op­ment in tech­nol­o­gy and tourism infra­struc­ture help­ing to not only open up these tow­er­ing mar­vels to explor­ers, but also ensure that trav­ellers can enjoy scenic Swiss food, cul­ture and of course the incred­i­ble Swiss scenery – includ­ing the daz­zling lakes, hik­ing trails and world class ski­ing – when vis­it­ing the jew­els of Switzer­land in the Swiss Alps.  

Undoubt­ed­ly chief amongst these Jew­els is the mighty Mat­ter­horn peak which lies in the moun­tain town of Zer­matt – whose famed almost pyra­mid like struc­ture makes it not only one of the most scenic moun­tains on the plan­et — which can be viewed from a vari­ety of van­tage points, but as it stands at a mighty 4,478 meters above sea lev­el this incred­i­ble peak – which lies on the bor­der between Switzer­land and Italy – is one of the high­est peaks in Europe and a true chal­lenge to sum­mit for any explor­er.  

Along­side sum­mit­ing the mighty Mat­ter­horn, avid hik­ers have a range of treks to choose from when explor­ing the won­der of the Alps – with the well named Faul­horn­weg trail or Mur­ren Trail both tak­ing explor­ers through idyl­lic Swiss Vil­lages, past tow­er­ing water­falls and treat­ing hik­ers to stun­ning post­card per­fect views of the Swiss Alps.  

For those less keen on hik­ing, or who sim­ply want to enjoy a stress free and easy route to the top of the Alps to enjoy the incred­i­ble panoram­ic and breath-tak­ing views, then the Swiss Alps has a range of cable car and lift options to take you to the sum­mits – with the view from the ‘Top of Europe’ at the Jungfrau­joch – which is reached on a spe­cial train being par­tic­u­lar­ly spec­tac­u­lar at 3,454 metres — and which offers 360-degree views across both the Alps and into neigh­bour­ing coun­tries being tru­ly stun­ning. You’ll also find a range of oth­er cable cars that can take you to the sum­mits and view­ing points across the Alps, includ­ing the tow­er­ing Pila­tus (2119 metres) – where you can spend a night camp­ing on the Alps, the Titlis (at 3032 metres) and the Schilthorn (2970 Metres) – which had a star­ring role in the James Bond Film On Her Majesty’s Secret Ser­vice and there’s a range of eas­i­ly acces­si­bly and sim­ply incred­i­ble ways to expe­ri­ence the full beau­ty and views of the Alps.  

Along­side the hik­ing – and the stun­ning view­points, the Alps has devel­oped, par­tic­u­lar­ly in win­ter, a rep­u­ta­tion as a win­ter play­ground, with the peaks and the slopes of the Alps pro­vid­ing some of the world’s great­est ski­ing – set against a back­drop of stun­ning nat­ur­al Swiss scenery – with the black dia­mond ski runs at Tortin ver­bier, as well as the slopes at the Grindel­wald, Wen­gen, Jungfrau and of course in the pic­turesque vil­lage of Zer­matt all pro­vid­ing world class ski­ing at this incred­i­ble won­der.  

While the Ski­ing sea­son cer­tain­ly dom­i­nates the win­ter at the Alps, you can also find unique and serene expe­ri­ences to admire the beau­ty of the Alps in the sum­mer – with scenic boat yours along the incred­i­ble emer­ald waters of both Lake Thun and Lake Lucerne being tru­ly peace­ful and bliss ways to gaze upon and admire the beau­ty of the Swiss alps. It’s also dur­ing this sea­son that some of the most incred­i­ble train jour­neys on the plan­et oper­ate – with the incred­i­ble cog­wheel trains, includ­ing the mighty Bern­i­na Express and Glac­i­er Express – both of which take explor­ers on a scenic jour­ney through the best of both stun­ning Swiss scenery and the Alps for what is tru­ly an incred­i­ble ride.  

A stun­ning won­der – the Swiss Alps not only offer mul­ti­ple ways to be explored – from adren­a­line pump­ing hikes and ski runs – to serene boat rides and view­points – but also rep­re­sent a true chance to explore the best of the quaint vil­lages and stun­ning scenery that make up the sim­ply beau­ti­ful coun­try of Switzer­land. With the gor­geous misty moun­tains of the Alps undoubt­ed­ly being the heart and Jew­el of this incred­i­ble coun­try, and thanks to their immense and awe-inspir­ing beau­ty there is no doubt that the Swiss Alps are a tru­ly spe­cial won­der of the world.  

Where:

Europe’s might­i­est moun­tain range, the Alps stretch more than 1,200 kilo­me­tres across eight gor­geous Euro­pean Coun­tries — Aus­tria, France, Ger­many, Italy, Liecht­en­stein, Mona­co Slove­nia and Switzer­land – with it being the west­ern side of the Alps in Switzer­land, that in our view rep­re­sent the best of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world, with the hun­dreds of thou­sand-metre-tall peaks, com­bin­ing with emer­ald lakes, rolling hills, serene coun­try­side and quaint Swiss vil­lages to make a true Alpine Par­adise.  

With the incred­i­ble peaks of the Mat­ter­horn and the view­ing plat­forms at the Pila­tus, Titlis and the Jungfrau­joch found in the areas of the Bernese High­lands, the Graubun­den Alps and even parts of cen­tral Switzer­land, with the best cities to base your­self out of in Switzer­land to explore the Alps being Inter­lak­en, Thun, Lucerne, St. Mor­titz and Davos, with a base in these cities giv­ing the sim­ple task of get­ting to the alp to being your explo­ration of this won­der of the world.  

Getting There: 

Although they com­prise of hun­dreds of tow­er­ing peaks, and see you need­ing to pass through moun­tain pass­es and sum­mit to view points found thou­sands of metres atop the moun­tains, the Alps  of Switzer­land are incred­i­ble easy to access – albeit a lit­tle expen­sive.  

Start­ing off you’ll need to get your­self to Switzer­land, and you’ll find a range of air­lines trav­el­ling inter­na­tion­al­ly, includ­ing Swiss inter­na­tion­al whose routes from across the globe make it easy to direct­ly fly into one of the main towns of Switzer­land – either Bern, Basel, Gene­va or Switzer­land, from where you can either base your­self or get one of the many trains or hire a car to reach the moun­tain towns or head to the Alps direct­ly.  

For those based in Europe, it may also be worth con­sid­er­ing mak­ing use of the many routes found on the Eurostar – as when booked in advance you can grab incred­i­bly cheap fares – and you also have the added bonus of an incred­i­bly scenic train route into both the major cities and the alpine cities for a great way to jour­ney into the Alps to begin your adven­ture – with trains leav­ing direct­ly into Bern, Gena­va and Zurich mul­ti­ple times a day from Paris, Milan, Munich, Vien­na and Venice.  

Sim­i­lar­ly, for those based both in Europe or for those who touch down in Switzer­land or a neigh­bour­ing Euro­pean coun­try, you’ll find incred­i­ble scenic dri­ves that can lead you to the heart of the Alps. With a self-dri­ve jour­ney to the alp being not only a great way to save mon­ey, and giv­ing you the option of de-tours, but giv­ing you the chance to take on some of the most scenic and incred­i­ble roads on the plan­et.  

For those tak­ing on a self-dri­ve, do bear in mind that these roads will test you dri­ving – and hill start abil­i­ties – but if you have the chance we’d real­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing on one of the Bern­i­na Pass, the Great St. Bernard Pass or the Fur­ka Pass to reach the Alps, with each of these three incred­i­ble roads (read more here) see­ing you nav­i­gate mul­ti­ple switch­backs and turns and treat­ing you to stun­ning views as you slow­ly ascend your way over tens of miles to the peaks of each road and make your way into the Alps through what is one of the great­est rides in the plan­et to take you to the incred­i­ble won­der.  

Getting Around:

Hav­ing got your­self to one of the main cities or moun­tain towns with­in the Alps, the next stop will be to make your way to one of the obser­va­tion decks, or take a jour­ney through the serene scenery to get your­self to incred­i­ble van­tage points and to explore this won­der.  

For those set on tak­ing on a boat ride across the Thun Lake, which we’d real­ly rec­om­mend doing in the sum­mer months for full panoram­ic views of the Alps, you’ll find that you can eas­i­ly board a boat in the cities of Inter­lak­en, Thun or Lucerne, mak­ing for an easy day trip across the great lake to cap­ture the best of the Alps.  

For those who fan­cy head­ing to one of the view­ing points atop the sum­mits – and we’d real­ly rec­om­mend putting aside at least one day to sum­mit to a view­point, you’ll find access both incred­i­bly easy and a tru­ly scenic and enjoy­able ride to the view­points at the top. A true buck­et list item, there are mul­ti­ple ways to take a train jour­ney through the Alps, with the most pop­u­lar one being the train jour­ney to the sum­mit of Jungfrau­joch – the high­est sta­tion in Europe, which see’s you depart from Lauter­brun­nen or Grindel­wald to the sta­tion of Schei­degg – itself a scenic jour­ney through rolling hills and with views of great moun­tains. Then from Schei­degg it’s a thrilling ride along the moun­tains of the Alps – with incred­i­ble snow peaked sum­mits laid out before you until you reach the obser­va­tion point and sta­tion of Jungfrau­joch – where awe-inspir­ing views await you.  

Sim­i­lar­ly we’d also rec­om­mend a trip on the Pila­tus Rail­way – one of the steep­est in the world that leads to the sum­mit of Mount Pila­tus, with a jour­ney on the Pila­tus Rail­way again being incred­i­bly stun­ning and thank­ful­ly more acces­si­ble than the Jungfrau­joch, with the train leav­ing from the sta­tion of Alp­nach near the town of Lucerne. A great jour­ney that will give you incred­i­ble views of the Alps, rolling green hills of Switzer­land and Emer­ald lakes – expect to be tak­en aback – lit­er­al­ly on a jour­ney on the Pila­tus Rail­way – with the tracks see­ing you ascend at a steep gra­di­ent of almost 50% — for a thrilling jour­ney.  

Final­ly amongst the rail­way jour­neys, there’s one of the clas­sic jour­neys on the plan­et to reach view­points across the Alps – a trip on the 18th cen­tu­ry thrilling Bern­i­na Express  — that rides along­side the high­way and then see’s you pass by bridges, tun­nels and through 25 stops to a view­ing point thou­sands of metres above the Alps, with incred­i­ble view of rolling hills, emer­ald lakes and even glac­i­ers below you.  

A tru­ly spe­cial jour­ney – and one that has been classed as a UNESCO ride – you’ll find the  Bern­i­na Express run­ning all through sum­mer and occa­sion­al­ly in win­ter depend­ing on the weath­er, with the start­ing point being in the city of Chur and a full length jour­ney cost­ing $60 Usd – which is a true bar­gain for this incred­i­ble ride.  

Final­ly for those who do take a train jour­ney up the alps, or for those who fan­cy get­ting to the view­points atop the Mat­ter­horn, you’ll find a series of run­ning cable cars that com­plete your jour­ney to the view­ing points. With the cable cars, which see you del­i­cate­ly hang above the Alps as you ascend­ed to the view­ing points being a tru­ly thrilling expe­ri­ence and one of the best ways to get panoram­ic views of the Alps. For those head­ing to the top of the Mat­ter­horn by cable car you can pick up the car in the town of Zer­matt, and for an extra spe­cial cable car expe­ri­ence we’d encour­age you to take the cable car up to the peak of the Titlis – where you can enjoy incred­i­ble 360 degree panoram­ic views of the Alps laid out before – which is tru­ly spe­cial and a great way to get to the won­der of the Alps to begin your explo­ration.  

Best time to Visit: 

Acces­si­ble all year round, the time of vis­it the Alps of Switzer­land is real­ly depen­dent on what the explor­er wants to expe­ri­ence, with the keen skiers advised to vis­it in the win­ter sea­son between Decem­ber and April and those com­ing to explore the moun­tains advised to vis­it in the pleas­ant sum­mer months of May to Sep­tem­ber.  

For those com­ing for ski­ing in the win­ter months, do be warned that you can expect plen­ty of snow­fall and win­ter sport oppor­tu­ni­ties, but also occa­sion­al harsh and bleak con­di­tions includ­ing down­pours, fog and freez­ing tem­per­a­tures, but you’ll also find plen­ty of chances to ski incred­i­bly black dia­mond runs, snow­shoe and tru­ly scenic scn­ery as the snow cov­ers the alps for a true win­ter par­adise – just be sure to wrap up warm, bring plen­ty of lay­ers and have a hot mug of tea wait­ing for you at the end of each day.  

For those set on explor­ing the beau­ty of the Alps and doing some hik­ing and tak­ing in panoram­ic views then the sum­mer sea­son is your best bet, where tem­per­a­tures hov­er in the mid-twen­ties and when you can expect not only all of the train and cable cars to be run­ning, but also an almost guar­an­tee of stun­ning moun­tain, hill and lake views – all enjoyed in sum­mer cloth­ing, for what is, in our view, the best to expe­ri­ence the full and stun­ning beau­ty of the Alps.  

While we’d advise avoid­ing the Zwis­chen­zeit sea­son, the months in between sum­mer and win­ter, for those on a bud­get it can be great time to vis­it as you’ll find prices drop and if you’re lucky the views on a par with sum­mer, so this rep­re­sents an option for those who want to enjoy this incred­i­ble won­der but are con­cerned about the increase in prices dur­ing the peak sea­sons.  

But if pos­si­ble, we’d advise tai­lor­ing your time of vis­it to the way you wish to explore the Alps, with both the sum­mer and win­ter sea­son being tru­ly an incred­i­ble time to vis­it and giv­ing you the chance to enjoy either some world class ski­ing or a chance to wit­ness this incred­i­ble won­der in full bloom with sim­ply stun­ning views, that under­lines why the Swiss Alps are a true won­der of the world.  

How long to stay

While it would be tru­ly pos­si­ble to spend weeks explor­ing, hik­ing and trav­el­ling across the beau­ty of the Alps, owing to the cost of vis­it­ing Switzer­land and the Alps, we’d instead advise hav­ing an action-packed cou­ple of days explor­ing this won­der – with our rec­om­men­da­tion being to bud­get 6 days explor­ing the Alps and adding an extra day onto your itin­er­ary for those self-dri­ving to com­plete one of the Alpine pass­es.  

Hav­ing arrived in the alps, and con­quered one of the incred­i­ble alpine pass­es if self-dri­ving, six days in the Alps will give you enough time to vis­it some of the major Alpine cities – includ­ing Inter­lak­en, Thun and Lucerne – which are tru­ly quaint and then give you enough time to take on the incred­i­ble cog­wheel trains and cable cars to reach mul­ti­ple view­ing points and sum­mits and even squeeze in a hik­ing adven­ture to the top of the Mat­ter­horn if you desire.  

While it will cer­tain­ly be an action packed six days, the Alps are tru­ly stun­ning but they are also a won­der where you’ll need to keep an eye on your bud­get, so we’d advise mak­ing sure you come pre­pared with a plan for each day – and if you’re lucky you’ll get to expe­ri­ence some of what this incred­i­ble won­der has to offer and cre­ate mem­o­ries of their sheer beau­ty that will stay with you for­ev­er.  

Top Tip:

A gor­geous won­der of the world – with not just snow capped peaks, but emer­ald lakes, quaint vil­lages and deli­cious food and choco­late, a vis­it to the Swiss Alps can be tru­ly spe­cial and awe-inspir­ing, but owing to the high cost of vis­it­ing the Alps, the dan­gers involved in moun­tain climb­ing, and the poten­tial­ly treach­er­ous ter­rain and wildlife you may encounter, any jour­ney to the Alps requires care­ful­ly plan­ning, bud­get­ing and an under­stand­ing of the envi­ron­ment you’re about to explore. 

So to help make your trip to the incred­i­ble Alp as enjoy­able, smooth and safe as pos­si­ble, we’ve round­ed out our top tips that will hope­ful­ly make any vis­it to this gor­geous alpine par­adise as spe­cial as pos­si­ble: 

- Plan in Advance – first­ly we’d encour­age any explor­er head­ing to the Alps to plan and book their trip well in advance, to both save mon­ey and ensure you get the trip of your dreams. Con­sid­er­ing the high cost of accom­mo­da­tion in Switzer­land – and the lim­it­ed rooms – we’d strong­ly advise to book accom­mo­da­tion at least a few months in advance to guar­an­tee a room. The same applies for those set on under­tak­ing a trip to the top of the Jungfrau­joch or sum­mit­ing the Mat­ter­horn, with both of these adven­tures known to book up well in advance – so again book­ing in advance is essen­tial – as is com­ing pre­pared with a sched­ule to help you make the most of your time at the Alps.  

- Come pre­pared – With weath­er in Switzer­land fol­low­ing the four sea­sons of Europe, and bear­ing in mind that the Alps are moun­tain­ous and poten­tial­ly treach­er­ous ter­rain, it’s essen­tial that any­one head­ing to the Alps comes with the appro­pri­ate gear – espe­cial­ly if tak­ing on a trek through the Alps.  

As a basic guide for those head­ing to the Alps in the win­ter, we’d advise brin­ing water­proof cloth­ing, mul­ti­ple lay­ers, strong woollen socks, stur­dy hik­ing boots and plen­ty of sun­screen — as well as a good pair of sun­glass­es. Where­as sum­mer gear should con­sist of com­fort­able shorts, a light top, sun­glass­es, boots and an umbrel­la for the occa­sion­al show­er – with tak­ing the right gear real­ly hav­ing the abil­i­ty to make or break your Alps trip.  

- Wildlife – For those tak­ing on treks through the Alps, it’s impor­tant to both be aware of the ter­rain you’re cross­ing and the pos­si­bil­i­ty you may run into both wolves and bears – and know how to react if you do come across these Alpine preda­tors. Occa­sion­al­ly seen on the Alps Wolves were long extinct from Switzer­land, but have thank­ful­ly made a come­back and are known to be tio­mid and shy around humans – so if you do encounter one know not to make any sud­den move­ments or approach it and thank­ful­ly it should leave you be.  

For Bears, you’ll again find dwin­dling num­bers but sighting’s of brown bear in the Alps have been not­ed, so if you hap­pen to be trekking through the Alps and encounter a bear be sure to slow­ly walk back­wards, remain calm and avoid eye con­tact – with any sight­ings of a Bear Cub being an imme­di­ate cause to return on the path from which you came.  

 - Bud­get­ing: For those on a bud­get, we’d also advise to not only come pre­pared, book in advance but con­sid­er util­is­ing a cou­ple of bud­get help­ing trav­el hacks, includ­ing com­ing with a water bot­tle to make use of Switzerland’s clean tap water to save on water, mak­ing use of camp­ing or hos­tels to save mon­ey, avoid­ing the pri­cy alco­hol, mak­ing use of Switzerland’s free pub­lic trans­port and con­sid­er get­ting the Eurostar to avoid pricey flights and final­ly mak­ing sure you book well in advance to take advan­tage of those ear­ly bird dis­counts – with all of these tips poten­tial­ly hav­ing the abil­i­ty to make your trip to the Alps afford­able and more com­fort­able. 

- Safe­ty: Final­ly, while Switzer­land is a very safe coun­try, with mul­ti­ple alarm sys­tems set-up for Alpine hik­ing inci­dents do be wary of occa­sion­al pick­pock­ets and be sure to keep your valu­ables safe, as if you take sen­si­ble pre­cau­tions, you’ll find this incred­i­ble coun­try a warm and wel­com­ing one and one safe for solo trav­ellers and for explor­ers from all back­grounds.  

Cost:  

A tru­ly spe­cial won­der – the Alps of Switzer­land, and Switzer­land as a whole has a well earned rep­u­ta­tion as being an expen­sive des­ti­na­tion, so we’d encour­age any explor­er – and par­tic­u­lar­ly those on a bud­get to plan well in advance.  

Start­ing off with the flights and Switzer­land is well served by three air­ports, Gene­va, Basel and Zurich – as well as being eas­i­ly reached by Eurostar or by dri­ving when in Europe. For those with­in Europe we’d encour­age you to bud­get $100 Usd for a flight to Europe, with this price going down the fur­ther in advance you book, and for those trav­el­ling inter­na­tion­al­ly flights can cost between $500 — $1000 Usd depend­ing on your start­ing loca­tion.  

For those trav­el­ling with­in Europe we’d encour­age you to con­sid­er mak­ing use of the trains across the con­ti­nent to reach Switzer­land, as not only are they cheap­er – with an aver­age of $30 usd across the con­ti­nent when booked in advance — but you also get the added bonus of enjoy­ing some tru­ly stun­ning scenery trav­el­ling across the con­ti­nent. While trav­el­ling by road – either by coach or self-dri­ve– and poten­tial­ly mak­ing use of one of the Alpine roads for those self-dri­ving is also anoth­er great way to reach the Alps on a bud­get, do be warned that dri­ving across Europe will see you main­ly on motor­ways and will require advanced dri­ving skills to nav­i­gate the Alpine pass­es – with the cost of self-dri­ving depen­dent on where you start, the car you use and the price of petrol.  

Hav­ing got your­self to Switzer­land you’ll need to brace your­self for the cost of liv­ing, with the coun­try fre­quent­ly ranked as one of the most expen­sive places to live in the world – with every­thing from food to accom­mo­da­tion to explo­ration com­ing at a price – although as part of our top tips there is a chance to reduce the cost with a few clever hacks. 

Con­sid­er­ing the cost of accom­mo­da­tion first and you can expect to pay $35 Usd a night for a bed in a shared dorm in one of the major cities (Basel, Inter­lak­en, Zurich etc) with the price of pri­vate room in basic hotel start­ing from $70 Usd and ris­ing to $150Usd for an aver­age hotel. Sim­i­lar­ly Switzer­land isn’t a coun­try that allows free camp­ing despite the open lands and rolling hills, so for those set on camp­ing expect to bud­get between $20 — $30 Usd a night for a spot on a camp site.  

Giv­en the high cost of accom­mo­da­tion, we’d encour­age explor­ers to not only book in advance, but con­sid­er the use of sights such as Airbnb where you may be able to pick up a deal or two to save mon­ey, with anoth­er option for those on a bud­get being to base your­self on the out­skirts on the major city and accept you might have a long com­mute to reach the Alps.   

For those on a bud­get, we’d also encour­age you to bud­get on food where nec­es­sary, with Switzer­land hav­ing many super­mar­kets to allow explor­ers to cook their own food if they are watch­ing their bud­get – with it being pos­si­ble to eat for the night on a cou­ple of dol­lars. For those hap­py to indulge you’ll find some incred­i­ble food options in Swiss restau­rants, with the local del­i­ca­cies being a mix of the best of Ger­man and French food and the cheese and choco­late being sta­ples of Switzer­land – and bars and cafes serv­ing up great meals for around $15 Usd and meals at more high-end restau­rants start­ing from $60 Usd.  

Regard­less of your food bud­get, we’d encour­age you to bring a water bot­tle and take advan­tage of the great tap water across Switzer­land. Fed by the Alps it’s some of the purest and clean­est water on the coun­try and a great way to save a few dol­lars on your trip to the Alps.  

For the Alps them­selves, there’s no doubt that the best way to see them is by tak­ing a cog­wheel train or cable car to one of the incred­i­ble sum­mits, and again this is some­thing you’ll have to bud­get for, with a trip to Jungfrau­joch typ­i­cal­ly com­ing in at $200 Usd all in (cable car, view­ing point and a spot to eat) and cable car trips to the view­ing points of Pila­tus, Titlis and Schilthorn all begin­ning in price from $130 Usd and ris­ing based on the sea­son, route you take and snacks and sou­venirs you par­take in – although do bear in mind that for those on a tight bud­get it is pos­si­ble to walk to the sum­mit of Pila­tus on foot for free – giv­ing a poten­tial­ly afford­able if car­dio test­ing option to see the Alps.  

You’ll also find a sim­i­lar pric­ing struc­ture when it comes to boat trip on Lake Thun – with tick­ets start­ing from $65 Usd and ris­ing to $100 Usd based on the class you under­take the boat jour­ney on – while we’d real­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing a boat ride to see the Alps – with a jour­ney on the daz­zling waters of Lake Thun giv­ing you incred­i­ble full panoram­ic views of the Alps – do bear in mind for those on a bud­get you can still snap lake pho­tos from the shores of Inter­lak­en and Lucerne for sim­i­lar­ly great views and shots of the Alps.  

For those set on a spot of adren­a­line at the Alps, a hike up to the top of the Mat­ter­horn should come in at around $1500 Usd, and you can also bud­get $100 Usd a day for ski­ing, $150 Usd for sky­div­ing and for those that dare it $100 Usd for paraglid­ing – all of which give you an incred­i­ble and thrill-seek­ing expe­ri­ence on the Alps.  

So, with the exclu­sion of flights or the train or car to get to Switzer­land we’d rec­om­mend set­ting aside at least $175 Usd per day for Switzer­land, account­ing for a bud­get hos­tel, super­mar­ket food and a trip to the top of the Alps  — with our rec­om­men­da­tion being to bud­get between $300 — $400 Usd a day to explore all that this incred­i­ble won­der of the world has to offer.  

Fun Fact:

Span­ning 1,200 kilo­me­tres across eight beau­ti­ful Euro­pean Coun­tries – Aus­tria, France, Ger­many, Italy, Liecht­en­stein, Mona­co Slove­nia and Switzer­land, along­side being Europe’s high­est and arguably most famous moun­tain ranges, the Alps are con­sid­ered young by glob­al moun­tain range stan­dards, hav­ing been formed at a very youth­ful 65 mil­lion years ago.  

It’s this youth­ful appear­ance, com­bined with the stun­ning alpine scenery and ease of access that has helped make the Alps a cho­sen set­ting for many a Hol­ly­wood film, with Franken­stein, climb­ing films and a num­ber of James Bond films includ­ing the recent Spec­tre and On Her Majesty’s Secret Ser­vice all hav­ing been filmed in the serene Alps. 

In fact the film­ing of On Her Majesty’s Secret Ser­vice in 1969 at the Alps helped pro­pel the Piz Glo­ria found at the sum­mit of the Schilthorn peak to inter­na­tion­al fame, with the moun­tain top being a cho­sen place for the Vil­lain Blofeld to plot world dom­i­na­tion and fund­ing from the film help­ing to shape and carve the restau­rant and view­ing plat­form that lies atop the sum­mit of the 2,970 metre peak.  

Explore & Best photo spots: 

The post­card per­fect image of serene Switzer­land and a won­der filled with tow­er­ing beau­ti­ful and impos­ing peaks, emer­ald glis­ten­ing lakes, beau­ti­ful cas­tles and rolling hills and peace­ful Swiss vil­lages the incred­i­ble Alps of Switzer­land are not only a stun­ning won­der of the world but a true pho­tog­ra­phers dream.  

Rep­re­sent­ing the best of nat­ur­al beau­ty, the Swiss Alps are also blessed with a range of easy to access sights and view­ing plat­forms – with the Jungfrau­joch peak and view­ing plat­form being one of the most scenic, easy to access and sim­ply stun­ning way to cap­ture not only the beau­ty of the Swiss Alps, but being one of the most breath-tak­ing view­ing plat­forms on the plan­et. 

Com­bined also with incred­i­ble scenic treks, moun­tain pass­es and some of the best and most scenic train jour­neys and dri­ves on the plan­et, the Swiss Alps will not only leave you breath­less, but also spoiled for choice when it comes to grab­bing the best pho­tos and decid­ing on the best places to snap this incred­i­ble won­der. So to make things as easy as pos­si­ble, we’ve round­ed out our top picks for the best places to snap the incred­i­ble Swiss Alps to hope­ful­ly give any explor­er the best chance to cap­ture the sheer beau­ty of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world: 

The Jungfraujoch —  Stand atop Europe  

Start­ing with undoubt­ed­ly the most scenic and most famed view­ing spot in the alps, the view from the top of the Jungfrau­joch – which is Europe’s high­est train sta­tion – is sim­ply incred­i­ble and offers the absolute best views of the Alps.  

Tak­ing you to a peak of 3454 metres, after the jour­ney to the sum­mit you can expect to see awe-inspir­ing and breath-tak­ing views out over the mighty alps, with views of the Mat­ter­horn, Pila­tus and the incred­i­ble Gross­er Aletsch Glac­i­er laid out before you, with views below stretch­ing across rolling hills, emer­ald lakes and quaint Swiss vil­lages – mak­ing the view from the sum­mit one of the most spe­cial ways to cap­ture the full panoram­ic beau­ty of the won­der of the world that is the Swiss Alps.  

On top of the stun­ning view – that will leave you breath­less, you can expect to find a restau­rant, mul­ti­ple view­ing plat­forms, an Ice Palace and an inter­ac­tive ‘ice walk­way’ which is a great enter­tain­ment option for fam­i­ly and which can help you under­stand the mul­ti­ple peaks laid out before you.  

You’ll also find anoth­er one of our favourite view­ing spots at the sum­mit of Jungfrau­joch – the Sphinx Obser­va­to­ry which lies just over 100 metres below that of the Jungfrau­joch plat­form and which can be a lit­tle less crowd­ed dur­ing the peak sea­son – but still offer the incred­i­ble views of the high­er obser­va­tion deck.  

While we’d high­ly rec­om­mend head­ing to the Jungfrau­joch – do be warned that it is a full day expe­ri­ence and does come at a cost – with the jour­ney to the sum­mit being achieved through one of three main ways – either direct on the train to Jungfrau­joch when stay­ing with­in the Alps – or for those stay­ing in one of the stun­ning Swiss cities of Inter­lak­en or Grindel­wald there’s the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make the jour­ney to the sum­mit of Jungfrau­joch a true scenic adven­ture across mul­ti­ple time zones and beau­ti­ful Swiss regions as you take the Cog­wheel train and then a cable car and final­ly the train to the sum­mit of Jungfrau­joch – pass­ing through the stun­ning scenic Swiss moun­tains and vil­lages as you head to this incred­i­ble sum­mit.  

A tru­ly spe­cial place – and one that should be on every explorer’s itin­er­ary when explor­ing the great Swiss Alps, the views from the sum­mit of Jungfrau­joch are tru­ly breath-tak­ing and rep­re­sent an incred­i­ble – and arguably the best way to snap this stun­ning won­der. As an added bonus as well for those who fan­cy stretch­ing their legs and tak­ing on one of Switzerland’s breath-tak­ing hikes and hap­pen to be for­tu­nate enough to vis­it dur­ing the sum­mer months you can tak­en on the trek from the Jungfrau­joch to the Mönch­sjoch hut – which is incred­i­bly scenic and gives you the added bonus of a more close up pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of the amaz­ing Alps laid out before you.  

The Matterhorn:

From the eas­i­ly acces­si­ble sum­mit of the Jungfrau­joch – to the sum­mit of the mighty Mat­ter­horn there are two incred­i­ble ways to take in and pho­to­graph the view from the sum­mit – by cable car or through a chal­leng­ing 1‑day hike to the sum­mit of the Mat­ter­horn – with both routes giv­ing you breath-tak­ing views above the clouds and from the peak of one of the great­est moun­tains on the plan­et.  

For those tak­ing on the hike and who wish to scale the Mat­ter­horn, it’s a chal­leng­ing 1 – 2‑day hike and you’ll find your­self scram­bling over dif­fi­cult ter­rain, don­ning cram­pons to tack­le the ice and find­ing your climb­ing abil­i­ties and men­tal strength pushed to the lim­it, as with a guide you slow­ly ascend to the sum­mit of the 4,478 meter jew­el of the Alps in what is undoubt­ed­ly one of the great hikes on the plan­et. From the sum­mit you can expect to be both breath­less and greet­ed with breath-tak­ing views as you stare out hav­ing con­quered the Alps at the beau­ty of the peak below you and out across the glo­ri­ous alps for what is guar­an­teed to be one of the great­est pho­tographs of your life.  

For those less keen on tak­ing on the risky and chal­leng­ing hike to the sum­mit of the Mat­ter­horn, then you’ll also find a relax­ing and enjoy­able cable car that can you take to Klein Matterhorn’s view­ing sum­mit at 3883 Metres atop this incred­i­ble peak. Offi­cial­ly the worlds most pho­tographed moun­tain on the plan­et, the view from the peak of the Mat­ter­horn view­ing plat­form – which is right­ly named the Glac­i­er Par­adise – is incred­i­ble, with a trip, which leaves from the already impres­sive peak of Zer­matt, dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son tak­ing you between rolling green moun­tains to the snow-capped peak – and win­ter pro­vid­ing you with a Win­ter won­der­land when you can enjoy incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties as you slow­ly ascend in the cable car up and onto the mighty Mat­ter­horn.  

Undoubt­ed­ly the Jew­el of the Alps – the views from the sum­mit and from the obser­va­tion deck at Glac­i­er Par­adise – as well as on the jour­ney up and along the peak  by both routes are tru­ly incred­i­ble, and while you’ll need to be sure to plan your routes on both the climb and the Glac­i­er Par­adise well in advance – for those who make the joruneys you can expect awe-inspir­ing and idyl­lic views and some of the best pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties across this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

The Pilatus:

Views and pho­tographs of the best of the Swiss lakes, moun­tains, rolling hills and snow capped moun­tains await you at the 2119 metre sum­mit of the Pila­tus, with this often over­looked sum­mit – which can be reached on foot, by cog train or by cable car – offer­ing some of the most scenic views out of the Alps and as an added bonus being often devoid of crowds.  

Fea­tur­ing four main view­points – the stun­ning Pila­tus, the Esel, the Ober­haupt and the Tom­lishorn – the views from the Pila­tus are eas­i­ly reached from the beau­ti­ful town of Lucerne (where for those hik­ing we’d advise pick­ing up some choco­late sup­plies) and you’ll find good and well marked hik­ing trails from Lucerne all the way to the sum­mit, with the route and hike on a clear day being not only incred­i­bly reward­ing but offer­ing mul­ti­ple van­tage points up the moun­tain – giv­ing pho­tog­ra­phers the chance to cap­ture the stun­ning alps at dif­fer­ent angles and with dif­fer­ent illu­mi­na­tion.  

For those who don’t fan­cy a hike or who are short on time, the jour­ney to the sum­mit of the Pila­tus can be done in a mat­ter of hours, as you take a scenic cable car from Kriens in Lucerne or cog­wheel train from Alp­nach­stad to the sum­mit from where you can stroll around the mul­ti­ple view­ing points and enjoy the sim­ply stun­ning emer­ald lake views – which stretch to the hori­zon before you for a sim­ply mag­i­cal pho­to­graph.  

Regard­less of the way you reach the sum­mit of the Pila­tus you’re not only guar­an­teed stun­ning views, but also an oppor­tu­ni­ty to take on one of the great Alp expe­ri­ences at the Pila­tus – the chance to spend a night sleep­ing on the Alps, with there being two lush hotels at the sum­mit where trav­ellers can enjoy not only a series of bars and restau­rants with great food set against the stun­ning views from the Pila­tus sum­mit – but get the chance to wit­ness sun­rise and sun­set atop the Alps for yet anoth­er stun­ning and spe­cial pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty atop the great sum­mit of Pila­tus.  

Titlis:

The moun­tain with its famed revolv­ing cable car, the jour­ney to the peak of Titlis – which lies about an hour out­side of Lucerne is tru­ly spe­cial as you expe­ri­ence a slow and peace­ful revolv­ing jour­ney – enjoy­ing 360 degree panoram­ic views of the Alps before you — to the top of the 3000 metre peak of Titlis where a view­ing plat­form of stun­ning rocks and alpine peaks awaits you – as well as an adren­a­line pump­ing 100 metre long cliff walk sus­pen­sion bridge – which lets you walk above the Alps and helps you cap­ture mag­nif­i­cent shots of the true beau­ty of the Alps below you.  

A great way to great stun­ning views of the Alps, Titlis is also par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son – where an ‘Ice fly­er’ chair­lift from the sum­mit allows you to fly over the Glac­i­er Park – for more stun­ning views and great pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties, with there also being a Glac­i­er Cave at the sum­mit – giv­ing explor­ers the unique chance to walk with­in a Glac­i­er and again grab a spe­cial pho­to of them­selves walk­ing with­in the Alps.  

Win­ter sea­son see’s the bridge and fly­er often closed, but the moun­tain trans­formed into a win­ter won­der­land – where you can enjoy ski­ing and sledg­ing against the back­drop of stun­ning Alpine views – which makes the Titlis moun­tain, sum­mit and view­ing point a great place to enjoy some of the most adren­a­line pump­ing and fun activ­i­ties on the Alps – as well as snap tru­ly mem­o­rable pho­tos of the full beau­ty of the snow capped moun­tains of the won­der of the world that is the Swiss Alps.  

Schilthorn Lookout:

Anoth­er incred­i­ble place to enjoy the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau moun­tain ranges, the look­out from the point of Schilthorn shot to fame as the secret hide­out of the British Spy James Bond’s Arch ene­my Blofeld in the 1969 film ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Ser­vice’ – and along­side the inter­ac­tive exhibits that detail the star­ring role of the Schilthorn in the film, you can also find incred­i­ble views out over the snow capped Alps as you stand atop the almost 3000 metre van­tage point and stare out over a ful­ly panoram­ic view of the stun­ning Bernese Ober­land moun­tain ranges.  

Accessed by anoth­er thrilling jour­ney on a cable car, the Schilthorn’s obser­va­tion deck is tru­ly spe­cial – with the sum­mer months pro­vid­ing incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of snow capped moun­tains set against green rolling hills and more than 200 alpine peaks, and the win­ter months see­ing the view from the top trans­form into a blan­ket of pure white snow stretch­ing to the hori­zon – which makes for an almost mag­i­cal pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty – and one of the best ele­vat­ed peak shots over the won­der of the Swiss Alps.  

The Roads through the Swiss Alps 

For a more adren­a­line rush­ing – but equal­ly stun­ning way to cap­ture the beau­ty of the Alps, and for a van­tage point unlike any oth­er that’s been the star of the sil­ver screen, you’ll find, along­side the Cog Trains and Cable Cars, a series of wind­ing, bend­ing and death defy­ing roads that twist across the Alps – which can make for a great expe­ri­ence, a true test of your dri­ving abil­i­ties and reward you with incred­i­ble pho­tos of the won­der of the Swiss Alps.  

Although there are many routes that can be tak­en – we’d advise pick­ing one of the ‘Big Three’ – the Bern­i­na Pass, the Great St. Bernard Pass or the Fur­ka Pass – with all three of these roads hav­ing a well-earned rep­u­ta­tion for pro­vid­ing stun­ning views. For those that take on the Great St. Bernard Pass you can expect to dri­ve for around 90 min­utes (not allow­ing for mul­ti­ple pho­to stops) across more than 50 miles of bends and switch­backs – all of which take you high­er and high­er through the moun­tains with tru­ly incred­i­ble views and through one of the most well-con­struct­ed tun­nels across Europe.  

The Fur­ka pass is equal­ly impres­sive – and sees you dri­ve through and past incred­i­ble glac­i­ers all the way to a snow capped peak where you can look out over and cap­ture incred­i­ble views of the alps – and the road below you. A route that will test your hand­brake and hill start­ing abil­i­ties, the Fur­ka pass extends for just under 30- miles – but again we’d advise bud­get­ing at least 90 min­utes if not all so you can cap­ture the incred­i­ble sights on the way.  

Final­ly the Bern­i­na Pass – a route that has been used since the mid­dle ages, will see you sum­mit the side of the Alps and slow­ly twist and turn your way towards a sum­mit from where incred­i­ble views out over a train line and the Alps await you – for a mag­i­cal shot. While each route is tru­ly spe­cial and an undoubt­ed high­light of any alps trip – we would just cau­tion that advanced dri­ving skills are need­ed, and that the roads and routes may be closed in win­ter – so any dri­ve along the alpine pass­es required care­ful and advanced plan­ning – but for those who do take the dri­ve you can expect an adren­a­line pump­ing ride along some of the most scenic roads on the plane – and of course a chance to snap some incred­i­ble and tru­ly spe­cial pho­tographs of the won­der of the Alps.  

Lake Thun:

As well as trekking and ski­ing on the mighty Alps and tak­ing the cable cars and cog­wheels to the view­ing points to cap­ture the best angles and van­tage points to shoot incred­i­ble pho­tos of this spec­tac­u­lar won­der and the rolling hills and quaint vil­lages that sur­round the Alps, there’s also the option to take a peace­ful boat ride across Switzerland’s most majes­tic lakes – the beau­ti­ful Thun lake – where you can snap incred­i­ble pho­tos of the Alp’s, the sur­round­ing Swiss scenery and best of all a mir­ror reflec­tion of the Alps in the lakes them­selves.  

Eas­i­ly found near the beau­ti­ful town of Inter­lak­en, there are three main ways to grab incred­i­ble pho­tos of the Alps on Lake Thun, with the first being that you can take both a boat trip across the entire lake from Inter­lak­en to Thun (2 hours) in one of the mod­ern and com­fort­able boats in either first or sec­ond class – with the ride tak­ing you across the gor­geous Lake where you can snap incred­i­ble pho­tos of the Alps and the lakes before you as you make your way across Switzer­land.  

The sec­ond option is to snap the Alps from the shores of Inter­lak­en or at the near­by town of Lucerne, whose famed Kapell­brucke bridge makes for an incred­i­ble addi­tion to any pho­to of the Alps, with the right van­tage point at the bridge giv­ing you a chance to not only snap the old­est wood­en bridge in Europe – but to do so against the back­drop of the Alps and the shin­ing waters of the soft Lake Thun. The same great pho­tos can be found in Inter­lak­en – where we’d encour­age you to sum­mit one of the many hills – either by foot or by car – and from there take a tru­ly spe­cial pho­to  

Final­ly – and in what is our pre­ferred and rec­om­mend option for those want­i­ng to enjoy the true tran­quil­li­ty of the lake and get extra spe­cial pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties – you can take on a mul­ti-hour tour of Lake Thun on a boat, with this boat tour which is eas­i­ly under­tak­en from Inter­lak­en or Thun see­ing you drift gen­tly across the lake towards the shad­ows of the Alps and giv­ing you mul­ti­ple oppor­tu­ni­ties to snap the best of the won­ders of the Alps against the back­drop of Lake Thun – mak­ing for an awe-inspir­ing and sim­ply stun­ning pho­to.  

A fan­tas­tic, relax­ing and serene way to get up close to the Alps, and a way that allows you to snap a full panoram­ic pho­to of the Alps them­selves as opposed to look­ing down upon them from the van­tage points, we’d rec­om­mend under­tak­ing a boat ride on Lake Thun dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son, when the weath­er is sta­ble and the sun­light offers a glow­ing reflec­tion – which can make for not only a real­ly enjoy­able ride across this sparkling lake – but give you a chance to snap stun­ning, unique and panoram­ic pho­tos of the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the mighty Swiss Alps.