Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 21 Transcript

Experiencing Switzerland’s most popular mountain excursions

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Announcer

Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland Travel podcast. Your host is the founder of holidaystoswitzerland.com and the Switzerland Travel Planning Facebook group, Carolyn Schönafinger. On this podcast, Carolyn will be joined by a variety of guests who share their knowledge and love of the country to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Hi, thanks for joining me again on the Holidays to Switzerland Travel podcast. I’m your host, Carolyn Schönafinger. My guest today has been on the show previously. He’s Andy Nef from the Swiss Travel System. And there’s just so much to cover when it comes to the Swiss public transport system that we’ve been dedicating different episodes to different topics. If you haven’t caught any of the previous episodes, you can look them up on the website at holidaystoswitzerland.com/podcast. But what we’ve already covered is, is a general overview of the Swiss Travel System in episode 11, the feeder line trains, which are those that come from other neighbouring countries into Switzerland, and the benefits of the Swiss Travel Pass, which we covered in episode 17, the Grand Train Tour and the premium Panoramic trains, which are always really popular with visitors, were covered in episode 19.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And today we’re going to talk about the Swiss mountain excursions, which I know many of you are planning to enjoy at least one of these amazing mountain excursions when you visit Switzerland. Before I hand over to Andy, I just wanted to say a big thank you to Heidi from the USA, who left a lovely review of our podcast on the Apple app. She wrote, “Love the Ticino episode. They very comprehensively cover their topics. Light-hearted, cheerful, easy to listen to with just the right level of detail to get you interested, cover all the basics, and give you what you need to know to take the next steps.” Thanks, Heidi. I’m really pleased that we’re able to make your trip planning that little bit easier. Now, if you’d like to leave a review as well, I’d be super grateful, and you can do that on your favourite podcast app. Now, let’s get started and hear from Andy and learn all about these beautiful Swiss mountain excursions.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Hi, Andy. Thank you for joining me again.

Andy Nef

Good morning, Carolyn. It’s a great pleasure to be here again.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Thank you. Now, we’ve already covered a number of different aspects of the Swiss Travel System in previous episodes, including an in-depth episode that we did on the Swiss Travel Pass. So it’s great to be able to dedicate this episode to all the wonderful mountain excursions in Switzerland.

Andy Nef

Yeah, and well, coming to Switzerland and not visiting one of the mountain tops, it’s a no go. There are so many mountain peaks in Switzerland. You should at least visit one or two of them.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, That’s right. And I’d say that visiting one or two is definitely on the plans for most people that are coming to Switzerland. So can you tell us about some of the most popular excursions and why they’re popular? And that should help the visitors decide which ones that they should do when they come to Switzerland.

Andy Nef

It’s my great pleasure to do that. There is one thing I want to say first. There is not the mountain excursion here in Switzerland. There is not the best mountain top here in Switzerland. It really depends on which area you’re staying in. It depends on what experience you would like to get to choose the right mountain excursion for yourself.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Great. And so I’m sure you’ll be able to give us a bit of insight into the different experiences that people can have. So let’s start with the Lucerne region.

Andy Nef

Yeah, with great pleasure. I will try my best to give you an insight. So first of all, Lucerne region. There’s one thing you need to know. Lucerne itself, the city, is already, is actually pretty close to the mountains. It’s right at the foot of Mount Pilatus. Mount Pilatus, they call it the house mountain of Lucerne. I think there is no other major city in Switzerland, which is so close to the mountain peaks as Lucerne. It’s the perfect setting or the perfect base to explore more of the Alps and mountain peaks in central Switzerland. The first mountain I would like to introduce is Mount Rigi. Mount Rigi is not the highest mountain of Switzerland. It is below 2,000 metres above sea level. To be precise, it’s 1,798 metres, so it’s not that high up. It’s a peak of the pre-Alps, as we call it. The good thing about Mount Rigi is that it’s included in the Swiss Travel Pass. We have been talking about the Swiss Travel Pass in all our previous episodes. It’s the all-in-one ticket for travelling in Switzerland, covering train, bus, boats, and city transportation. But also there are some savings when going up to the mountain peaks.

Andy Nef

And one of the biggest savings is for Mount Rihi. You don’t pay any money for going up there.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Great.

Andy Nef

So what I suggest is actually a round trip out of Lucerne. What you can do is you can take the boat out of Lucerne. They are running on almost an hourly base, and it’s about one hour, maybe a little more to a place called Vitznau. So that’s a beautiful boat ride across Lake Lucerne. From Vitznau, you have the cogwheel train going up to Mount Rigi. And the big advantage of the height of Mount Rigi is that you don’t feel any… How to say? It doesn’t have any impact on your well-being up there. When you go to the very high peaks, you can already feel the lack of oxygen up there, but you wouldn’t feel anything on Mount Rigi. So it’s a mountain peak suitable for people of any age.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay.

Andy Nef

Yeah, that’s good to know. You can either do a half-day excursion going up there, or you can easily make it a one-day excursion because there are quite a few things you can do up there. First of all, there is a hotel on the mountaintop, so you could you can spend the night up there. Should you not want to do that, though it’s a very special experience, you can at least have maybe lunch up there or have some coffee or snack there. Should you want to do some hiking, this is the perfect place. There is some very easy hiking for maybe half an hour to the railway station, which is just a little bit below the peak. Or you can even do some extensive hiking, let’s say two, three hours. It’s all possible up there. And then what’s one of the options and how to say, one of the advantages of Rigi, you don’t have to go down the same way.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay, yeah.

Andy Nef

You can take the other cogwheel down the other side to a place called Arth Goldau. And then from Arth Goldau, you take the regular train back to Lucerne. So it’s the perfect round trip. You don’t have to do one of the ways twice. And there is lots of fun on Mount Rigi and totally free of charge.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Wonderful.

Andy Nef

Yes. Have you been to Rigi?

Carolyn Schönafinger

No, I haven’t been to Rigi. In fact, I haven’t been to any of the mountains near Lucerne, which is shocking. I was planning actually to stay in Weggis in 2019 and go up to Rigi, but of course, in 2020 rather. But yeah, of course, that didn’t happen.

Andy Nef

So next time. Very good point. From Weggis, Rigi is accessible by a cable car, a gondola. So there are actually even three ways going up there, just to be precise on the information.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Sure.

Andy Nef

But there is another marvellous mountain close to Lucerne, and it’s called Stanzserhorn. Yeah, well, it’s not one of the most famous mountains, probably, but I like it very much because it’s the perfect mountain for individual travellers. Okay. You wouldn’t find the big groups up there, like another mountain peaks. And again, the Stanserhorn is a peak of the pre-Alps, so not too high. And the good thing is it’s the perfect combination of tradition and high tech. The first part of the way up is a very old, historic wooden cable car on wheels. And the second part is on the very futuristic cabrio. And the cabrio, well, the name says it already, is an open air aerial cable car, meaning you can enjoy the ride up on the rooftop of the gondola. So you shouldn’t be afraid of heights.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, that’s not for me then.

Andy Nef

Don’t worry. Don’t worry. There is also space in the cabin available in the gondola itself for the ones who are not very keen of travelling on the roof. On the peak, again, how to say, the station of the gondola is not at the very peak. It’s just a little bit below. So there is some easy hike going up to the real peak of the Stanserhorn. And what I like very much are the rangers, which you can find up there. So these are some volunteers doing volunteer work up there, and they act as rangers. They explain you about the views you get, about the nature, the animals, et cetera, you find up there. They look actively for conversation with you, or you can approach them. This is really something special you can experience up there. And well, I think there is hardly any accessible mountain peak in Switzerland without a restaurant. So you find a revolving restaurant on Stanserhorn, meaning when you sit, you’re on a turning table, right? And it goes around. So you have different views all the time.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah. Lovely. Yeah.

Andy Nef

So this is Stanserhorn. And the good thing about Stanserhorn, it’s another of the mountain peaks, which are free of charge with the Swiss Travel Pass. Then there are some more famous or more well-known mountain peaks like the Titlis in the area of Stanserhorn. And now we talk about 3,000 metres of height, so you can feel the height up there. Titlis, you can reach out of Engelberg. It’s a beautiful train ride from Luzern to Engelberg with the Lucerne-Engelberg Express. Takes about an hour. And then a short walk from the station, you get access to the cable car going up there. It’s where it’s two sections. First section is a small gondola. I think there are six or eight passengers in one of these gondolas. And then they take you up to Trubsee, and Trubsee is actually a mountain lodge. Again, you can spend the night in the mountains if you wish to. Or Trubsee, say means lake in German, right? So there is a small mountain lake up there where you can easily walk around. There are some activities in summer and in winter before you go farther on. And at the next stop, you actually change.

Andy Nef

You change from the small gondolas to the peak to the Rotair, as they call it. And this was the first revolving gondola in the world, meaning while you take the ride up to the peak of Titlis, the gondola turns 360 degrees. So again, you get the views all around.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Wonderful.

Andy Nef

And on top of Titlis, you can enjoy the ice flyer. You may have heard that on Mount Titlis, you have eternal snow. There is a glacier, also a glacier cave, and you can ride on a chairlift across the glacier. There is snow activities throughout the year. Well, if you are a little bit more into adventure, Titlis is the place to go.

Carolyn Schönafinger

It sounds like you could definitely spend a full day doing that excursion.

Andy Nef

Absolutely, yeah. If you do a little bit of hiking around the lake, have some lunch up there, do the activities. It’s definitely, out of Lucerne anyway, it’s a full day experience, yes. Then, well, to finish up with central Switzerland or the Lucerne area, Mount Pilatus. It’s then, as I said, the house mountain or the dragon mountain, as they call it. Well, the fun fact about going up there, it’s not a cable car taking you up there. It’s actually a cogwheel train. It’s the steepest cogwheel train in the world, taking you up there from Alpnachstad. That’s the place you are taking the cogwheel train up. It’s a few minutes out of Lucerne with the Zentralbahn. From there, you reach the peak called Pilatus, Pilatus Kulm. Again, up there is a beautiful hotel dating back to the Belle Époque. So again, a beautiful place to spend the night up there. Or if you don’t have that much time, have lunch up there. There is a little bit of hiking. You can go to the very peak of Pilatus. You can explore quite a few things up there. And of course, the views over Lucerne are just stunning.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Sounds wonderful. What, what’s the height of Pilatus?

Andy Nef

Pilates is just a little bit above 2000s. I can just give you the correct height. Hang on.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Sorry to put you on the spot.

Andy Nef

No worries. But with the heights, yeah, just about a little bit above 2000, 2128. That’s the peak of the Pilatus. The good thing is, again, here, you don’t have to go down the same way. There is also an aerial cable car taking you down on the other side, down to Frakmuntegg. At Frakmuntegg, you have, again, some activities. There is a rope park, as we call it, meaning you can check your climbing skills between some trees. It’s great fun, but if you’re not experienced, you feel it in your arms and legs in the evening. And there is some more activities there. Finally, the cable car is taking you down all the way to Kriens. And then the bus of the local transportation of Lucerne can take you back to the city of Lucerne and the main station there. Half day excursion might even be a little bit too tight. Make it a full day excursion to experience the most of it.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, definitely. So there’s four fantastic different excursions that we can try from, if we’re staying in Lucerne. What about in the Jungfrau region? What are the two biggies, I guess, that most people have heard of?

Andy Nef

Yes. Well, I think one of the most well-known peaks in Switzerland is the Jungfraujoch.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, for sure.

Andy Nef

And Jungfraujoch is also called Top of Europe because it’s the highest railway station in Europe. Again, the heights is really high. Now we are in the Alps. 3,463 metres. That’s the height of the Jungfraujoch. You feel the height up there. You shouldn’t run anymore up there, walking and talking. You feel it. You’re short of breath. The one thing is when all the people go down, everybody’s sleeping on the train. You can’t avoid it. Yeah, that’s great. But it’s really funny to observe. On the way down, everybody’s sleeping. Now, going up to Jungfraujoch, as I said, it’s the highest railway station, so it’s a cogwheel train taking you up. There are actually quite a few possibilities to go up there. Initially, there was a train from Interlaken to Grindelwald. That’s the Bernese Oberland Bahn. And then you take the cogwheel train up to Kleine Scheidegg, where you change again to the Jungfrau railway all the way up to the peak. And the train, they are stopping in between. You might have heard of the Eiger North face, which is pretty famous, one of the most difficult climbing routes all over the world. And the tunnel of the Jungfrau Railway is going through this Eiger North face.

Andy Nef

And there are some holes in the wall, meaning you have a great look out into this Eiger North face and you see how steep it is actually there. Going down, you can take the other way down through Wengen and Lauterbrunnen. So again, you only do the upper part of the trip twice. And since late last year, there is now another option. They have introduced the Eiger Express, which is a brand new gondola taking you from Grindelwald up. And the good thing about this is you save a lot of time. It’s much faster with this Eiger Express. You change then only for for the very last part of the trip to the cogwheel train taking you up. Well, on Jungfraujoch, we have the option between various restaurants. There are lookout places like the Sphinx, as they call it, and you have the perfect view over the Aletsch Glacier. That’s the biggest glacier in the Alps. So again, full day excursion. Take your time. Don’t rush. You will be pretty tired in the evening. But well, it’s a once in a lifetime experience going up there.

Carolyn Schönafinger

With the Swiss Travel Pass, what discount do the pathholders receive for the Jungfraujoch?

Andy Nef

The Swiss Travel Pass includes the trip from Interlaken all the way up to Grindelwald and to Wengen. Then for the cogwheel train going up or the gondola, you get a reduction of 25% only. But still the saving is enough for having lunch up there on top. Yeah, definitely. Facing Jungfraujoch is actually the other famous mountain peak, which is called the Schilthorn. Schilthorn is on the other side of the valley, of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. The Lauterbrunnen Valley itself is already very beautiful. There is water coming down all the cliffs, the waterfalls, they are very steep cliffs. I think we all know Lord of the Rings, the movies. The author, Mr. Tolkien, he was actually inspired by the Lauterbrunnen Valley. This inspired him and created the place Riverdale, the elves place. That’s Lauterbrunnen Valley, so that you can imagine water coming down all the way. Then you have two options going up to Schilthorn. One is with the postal bus through Stechelberg, and then you take the aerial gondola up through Murren. The other option is from Lauterbrunnen. You take a short aerial gondola up and take a mountain railway all along the cliff, which is pretty It’s beautiful in terms of views.

Andy Nef

Now, what’s Schilthorn famous for? They made a James Bond movie up there. Well, it’s not one of the recent ones. It’s one of the first movies up there. It’s the one with George Lazenby featuring James Bond. For the Australians, it’s a must going up there, I’d say. And well, there’s a revolving restaurant up there again with 360 degrees views. There’s the James Bond world. What I like very much is Murren on the way up, this beautiful Alpine village. It’s car-free. So just enjoy the fresh air up there, the views. There are various hotels, restaurants there. Beautiful place to spend in the day or even more.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, no, I agree. It’s a lovely place to visit. Right, so let’s move on to Zermatt. There’s a couple of really good excursions that you can take up to the mountains there to get even closer views of the Matterhorn.

Andy Nef

Yes, and Zermatt is actually not that far from Interlaken. Do you have any idea how long it takes?

Carolyn Schönafinger

Well, I have driven between the two and we went on a… Put our car on the train and went through the Lötschberg Tunnel, which took a lot of time off the trip from driving right around. I think that only took two and a half hours, something like that, from Zermatt all the way into Interlaken. So it’s quite quick.

Andy Nef

Yeah, by train, it’s just about two hours, a little bit more than two hours. The good thing is that by train, you don’t have to do the on and offloading of the car, and you are travelling through the Lötschberg base tunnel. The Lötschberg base tunnel is 37 kilometres long. And the trains can run very fast. They’re the intercity trains. That makes you much faster than driving up by car. And then you go down to Visp, which is the connection point in the valley. From there, and the Matterhorn Gotthard Railway is taking you all the way up to Zermatt, which you couldn’t do by car because Zermatt, again, is car-free. You’d need to leave your car behind at Tasch and take the train up anyway. There are no cars allowed in Zermatt, which again makes a very special atmosphere in this mountain resort. And Zermatt is surrounded by various 4,000-metre peaks. So now we are in the highest parts of the Alps. And there are two mountain excursions I would like to share with you. One is Gornergrat. Gornergrat, that’s a cogwheel train taking you up there. 50% reduction with the Swiss Travel Pass. And on Gornergrat, you wouldn’t believe there is a hotel, there is an old observatory, including a hotel and restaurant.

Andy Nef

And this is the place where you get the most stunning views of Matterhorn. And definitely a place once in a lifetime experience to stay a night up there, enjoy the views. It’s pretty high. It’s more than 3,000 metres above sea level, but still okay.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And there’s a glacier there, too, the Gorner glacier that you get wonderful views of as well.

Andy Nef

That’s correct. And you are very close to the highest peak of Switzerland. Matterhorn is not the highest peak of Switzerland. It’s the most photographed peak of Switzerland. The highest peak is actually the Dufourspitz of Monte Rosa, which is visible from Gornergrat. And the other option you have out of Zermatt is a trip up to the Klein Matterhorn, which is the Matterhorn Glacier Express. This is the highest accessible peak in Switzerland. It’s more than 3,800 metres above sea level. You really feel the height up there. It’s really very high, but they have this very, there’s a fast cable car taking you up there. You don’t spend too much time for going up there. There’s a restaurant up there. There’s Glacier Cave up there. There are things to do. And of course, you have to see the Matterhorn from there. As you know, the Materhorn itself is not accessible by transportation. This is really the peak you have to climb up. Yeah, for sure. But of course, the beautiful views you can get from the peak around Zermatt of the Matterhorn.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay. And 50 % off on the Matterhorn Glacier Express as well for Swiss Travel Pass holders.

Andy Nef

Absolutely correct. Yes. And this 50 % doesn’t sound very much. But believe me, those mountain peak excursions are not cheap. So you save quite a lot of money. With this money, you can easily buy lunch on the top.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, for sure. Okay, so let’s go a bit further south to the Italian-speaking region of Ticino. There’s a lot of people probably find it hard to believe that in such a Mediterranean style climate and part of Switzerland, that there’s actually mountain peaks that they can go and visit there.

Andy Nef

Yes, absolutely. And I have to say the special thing about the peaks in Ticino is they look different to the high peaks of the Alps, the rock cliffs, etc. It’s more like rolling hills down in the Southern part of the Ticino, which are forest tree covered. And this give really I would say you already get the Mediterranean flair down there. And one of my favourite peaks is the San Salvatore.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Okay.

Andy Nef

Yeah. This is close to Lugano. There’s a cable car going up there from a place called Paradiso. It seems like you’re in paradise already. A short ride going up to the peak from where you have beautiful 360-degree view over Lugano, the Lake Lugano, and the valleys in the Ticino. There is some hiking you can do up there. Since everything is connected, you can hike down, take a postal bus back, take even the boat back. All is possible. Well, it’s, how to say the nature is different to the one in the northern part of Switzerland. For example, you find the chestnut there, the chestnut trees. And one of the local specialities are the maroni, which are, how to say, how would you call it? It’s grilled chestnut. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Very. Have you tried that?

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yes. And I’ve had them well, roasted, as well. But yeah, I have- Absolutely.

Andy Nef

That’s what I mean, roasted. Sorry. Yeah. That’s one of the snacks we normally eat in wintertime. Yes. So here we go. This is the San Salvatore, again, 50 % off with the Swiss Travel Pass. I’m taking you down a little bit farther south now to Mendrisio, which is almost at the southern tip of Switzerland, close to the border to Italy. There is a cogwheel train going up to the Ceneroso, which again is 50% off with the Swiss Travel Pass. I want to introduce that mountain to you because of architecture. Right. Okay. On top of this Monte Ceneroso, you found a building which was, how to say, the architect is Botta, Mario Botta. It’s one of the very famous Swiss architects, which is well known all over the world. And he has created this Fiora di Pietra, the stone flower. I have been there a few years ago, and it’s really a masterpiece of architecture going up there. And again, you have beautiful views. So you have views, you have a beautiful train ride, and you have some architectural highlights up there.

Carolyn Schönafinger

In that building, does that house a restaurant or a museum?

Andy Nef

It’s a restaurant.

Carolyn Schönafinger

A restaurant. Okay.

Andy Nef

Lovely. Yeah, the restaurant, souvenir shop, that things. Yeah, beautiful.

Carolyn Schönafinger

And Mendrisio, where you catch that cogwheel train from, is that on the shores? Is that on Lake Lugano?

Andy Nef

It’s again on Lake Lugano and very easily accessible by train from Lugano. It’s only a short ride. Okay, good.

Carolyn Schönafinger

So that makes it easy to reach.

Andy Nef

Absolutely. It’s really not a big deal to go there. Well, beautiful just going up there and enjoy the views.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Great. So all of the mountain excursions that we’ve just talked about are quite well known. But what are some of the off the beaten track routes or excursions in Switzerland that we should know about?

Andy Nef

Now you got me.

Carolyn Schönafinger

You might not want to share them, but I’d love to know what they are.

Andy Nef

Yeah, well, there are two mountain peaks which I would like to introduce. If there are some colleagues listening to me, they would be laughing now. One of these mountain peaks I would like to introduce is the Santis. Have you ever heard of Santis? This is the peak in Appenzellerland? Yeah, that’s in the Eastern part of Switzerland. I have mentioned that before. I’m originally from that area. This is my house mountain. I was climbing it on foot when I was a child already. It’s really steep up there. The last part you have even to climb. But the reward is very high. You get up there. But of course, you can do it in a more easy way. There is a cable car going up there. It’s off the beaten track still. There are not too many international tourists going up there. You You can reach this, the Santis from two sides. One site is from the Toggenburg Valley. That’s the area I was brought up. It’s a postal bus taking you up to Schwagalp. Schwagalp, that’s the place where the cable car station is. And then you can take again the bus on the other side down towards Urnäsch and Appenzell.

Andy Nef

So we could easily do a round trip. There is on the peak on the Santis, which is 2,500 metres above sea level, you have beautiful views over Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, because it’s right in the northeastern corner of the country. And well, it’s not too high. You can walk around a little bit, enjoy the views, and there are some restaurants up there, and then some exhibitions also. Well, it can be perfectly a one-day excursion, including Appenzell, which is anyway very picturesque. Half-price with the Swiss Travel Pass, going up to Schwagalp, with the postal bus is even free of charge, so you pay for the last bit, half-price.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah, that sounds great. All right. And what else have you got for us?

Andy Nef

Now, here we go. As you know, I’m very fond of trains. Yeah, not because… Well, maybe I have chosen my job because I like trains very much.

Carolyn Schönafinger

The perfect combination.

Andy Nef

Yeah, perfect combination.

Carolyn Schönafinger

I wouldn’t call myself a train nerd, but I like trains, yes, to be honest.

Andy Nef

The train enthusiast, yes. And there is one mountain peak I like very much is the Brianzer Rothorn. And this is, again, in the Bernese Oberlands at Lake Brienz. You may have heard of Lake Brienz. That’s one of the two lakes where Interlaken is in between. From Brienz, you actually take a steam train up to the mountain peak, and that’s why I like it very much. So you get the steam train experience. It’s a steam cogwheel train taking you up to the peak of. And up there, of course, you have a restaurant. You can do some hiking, you can enjoy the views. But the trip itself is an experience already. And again, with the Swiss Travel Pass, you only pay half the price going up there. Beautiful one day or half day excursion out of Interlaken. You can do the trip from Interlaken to Brienz in 20 minutes by train, taking the train up and down and then go back by boat, for example, on Lake Brienz, enjoying a sundowner while riding the boat back to Interlaken. This is maybe the perfect day excursion. Yeah.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Well, you’ve given us the whole overview there because as we now know with the mountain excursions, you’ve got so. There’s many options. There’s cable car, there’s cogwheel railways, there’s even steam railways. So there’s really something for everyone to get up the mountains, isn’t there?

Andy Nef

Yeah. So you see there is a mountain peak for everyone’s taste. There are mountain peaks in almost every area of Switzerland. There is even an accessible peak out of Zurich. It’s called the Uetliberg, which is the local mountain we call it. Well, it’s rather hill, but you got beautiful views from this peak over the Zurich City, and it’s accessible within half an hour from Zurich City. So you see there are peaks and views and accessible mountains all over the country. So as I said in the beginning, there is not the mountain excursions. It really depends on what you like, where you stay, et cetera, how much time you have, et cetera.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah. And one Another thing we didn’t touch on either is some of the funicular rides. So for instance, Harder Kulm out of Interlaken, there’s one out of Locarno up to Orselina. So there’s funiculars as well. If people don’t have a lot of time, they can still do some short trips that will take them up to smaller mountains that will give them wonderful views as well.

Andy Nef

Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I could go on and on and on, and we could talk for a day about mountain excursions in Switzerland.

Carolyn Schönafinger

I’m up for that.

Andy Nef

But I think we have tried to give a good selection of mountain peaks in this episode. Yeah.

Carolyn Schönafinger

So before we let you go, Andy, you’ve said that there’s no best mountain, but what are your tips for people who are coming to Switzerland and they want to do a mountain excursion? What things should they consider before choosing which one or which couple of excursions they should do? 

Andy Nef

It really depends, first of all, on the places you stay. Plan your itinerary, whether it’s following the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland or to I mean, here in Switzerland, you can even base yourself in one of the cities, for example, in Zurich. It’s absolutely possible. And do day excursions to the mountain peaks out of there because everything is so close in Switzerland. So really make sure that you know where you want to stay. And once you have defined that, see what mountain peaks are around there and what experience you would like to get. Would you like to do some hiking I mean, there is not much hiking on Jungfraujoch. That’s a place you go for the views and to experience the heights for hiking. There are other mountain peaks, for example, Mount Rigi. So it really depends on what experience you’re looking for.

Carolyn Schönafinger

That’s right. And if you’re looking for, if someone’s coming from a country where they don’t get to see snow, if they’re visiting in summer but want to see snow, obviously, there’s a few mountains, including Jungfraujoch, that you can see and feel the snow all year round. So that’s another consideration as well.

Andy Nef

Absolutely. Yes, absolutely right.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yes. Wonderful. Well, I’ve really enjoyed chatting to you and learning some more about all the mountain excursions. I’ve been lucky enough to tick off a few of those that we chatted about, but there’s still plenty more that I need to experience for myself. So I’m sure our listeners have got plenty of great tips from you, and I I really appreciate your time again.

Andy Nef

Thanks a lot. And well, let’s hope travelling will be soon possible again. And well, your listeners can experience Switzerland pretty soon.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Yeah. Thanks a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Andy, and we’ll chat again soon.

Andy Nef

I hope so. Thanks a lot, Carolyn, and have a wonderful evening.

Carolyn Schönafinger

Thank you so much for listening. For more great resources on planning a trip to Switzerland, make sure you visit holidaystoswitzerland.com, where you will find trip planning tips, destination guides, information on transport, including Swiss rail passes, and much more. You’re also encouraged to join the Switzerland Travel Planning Group on Facebook, where you can ask questions and chat to other past and future travellers to Switzerland. You’ll find show notes from today’s episode at holidaystoswitzerland.com/podcast, and be sure to subscribe to the Holidays to Switzerland Travel podcast so you never miss an episode.

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