Switzerland runs on time. Your clear day does not.
Which summit is worth $380 and which one costs $26. What the Pilatus round trip actually includes. Whether Jungfraujoch beats Titlis when you have one fine morning. Reviews of every tour you can book in Switzerland.
Chocolate, a cogwheel train, a paddle steamer, a parachute.
The five bookings a first Swiss week is built around. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The cheap thrillLindt Home of Chocolate Museum Entry TicketThe Lindt museum in Kilchberg, twenty minutes out of Zurich. The tallest chocolate fountain in the world and a tasting room at the end of it.
02The big oneJungfraujoch Day Trip from Zurich: Swiss Alps & Bernese OberlandEleven hours from Zurich to the highest railway station in Europe. Book the fine day, not the day you happen to be free.
03The golden roundLucerne: Mt. Pilatus Cable Car, Cogwheel Train & Lake CruiseCogwheel up the front of Pilatus, cable car down the back, steamer home across the lake. One ticket, three ways to travel.
04The ten minutesInterlaken: Tandem Paragliding Flight with PilotOff the Beatenberg slope and out over Interlaken with a pilot strapped in behind you. Weather calls it, so keep a spare morning.
05The half dayFrom Zurich: Stein am Rhein and Rhine FallsThe Rhine drops over a 150 metre ledge at Neuhausen, and the boat runs right to the rock in the middle of it.
Four summits, four prices. Only one of them needs a whole day.
Every Swiss itinerary comes down to which mountain gets your one reliable morning. The train fare does most of the deciding, so here is what each way up costs before you commit the day to it.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Jungfraujoch Day Trip from Zurich: Swiss Alps & Bernese Oberland
JungfraujochThe Top of Europe. Eleven hours, and the glacier is still there in August.
Mount TitlisRotating gondola, ice cave and a cliff walk, all from Lucerne.
Mount PilatusThe steepest cogwheel railway in the world, with a lake boat home.
Mount RigiThe gentle one. Meadows, cows and both lakes from the top.
Just the ticketNo guide, no coach. Ride the railway on your own schedule.
All 66 days in the mountains →
Zurich, Lucerne, Geneva, Interlaken, Basel, Bern.
Nowhere here is more than four hours from anywhere else, so the base you pick decides the day trips, not the trip. Six towns, and the best day out from each.
Lucerne, Geneva and Zurich are all better seen from a deck.
The lake boats are public transport with a view, and the old paddle steamers still run the Lucerne route daily. An hour on the water costs less than lunch and shows you the shore the road never reaches.
The Swiss days out more travellers take than any other.
Every Swiss tour we have reviewed →A chocolate museum outsells every mountain in the country. After that it is peaks, lakes and one very long day to the Jungfraujoch.
1
Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum Entry Ticket
Review of Lindt Home of Chocolate near Zurich, with factory exhibits, a giant fountain, audio guide, and generous unlimited tastings.
From · $22
Read our review →
2
Zurich: Day Trip to Grindelwald, Interlaken & Lauterbrunnen
from $132
3
Zurich: City Tour, Cruise, and Lindt Home of Chocolate Visit
from $103
4
Award-Winning Geneva Chocolate &Old Town Tour with Boat Ride (3h)
from $131
5
From Zurich: Mount Titlis and Lucerne Day Tour
from $214
6
Geneva: 50-Minute Lake Geneva Cruise
from $23
7
From Zurich: Bus Day Trip to Heidiland and Liechtenstein
from $115
8
Zurich: City Highlights Tour by Bus, Cable Car, and Ferry
from $83
Two Swiss industries you can eat your way through in an afternoon.
Both are half-day trips out of a city you were staying in anyway, and both end with as much as you can eat. The dairy at Gruyères and the factory at Kilchberg are the two that earn the fare.
The Lindt Home of Chocolate
Twenty minutes down the lake from Zurich, in the village where Rodolphe Lindt worked out how to make chocolate melt instead of crumble. The atrium holds a nine metre chocolate fountain, the historical rooms run through conching and tempering, and the tasting at the end is unsupervised and unlimited. Buy the timed slot before you go; the walk-up queue at weekends is long.
- 1Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 9,329 reviews
- 2Zurich: City Tour, Cruise, and Lindt Home of Chocolate Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,624 reviews
- 3Zurich Sights: Cruise, Lindt Chocolate and optional FIFA Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 1,028 reviews
The dairy at Gruyères
The show dairy sits below the castle in the valley that gave the cheese its name, and the morning making sessions are the ones worth timing your visit to. Most trips out of Geneva or Lausanne pair it with the Cailler chocolate factory at Broc, which is fifteen minutes further up the same road. Fondue afterwards is optional and nobody in the room ever seems to skip it.
- 1Gruyères Tour from Geneva With Train, Chocolate and Cheese★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 258 reviews
- 2Zurich eTukTuk Private Tour – with Cheese Fondue and Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 223 reviews
- 3Zurich: Rhine Falls, Chocolate & Cheese Factory Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 212 reviews
The Jungfraujoch costs the same in fog. Save it, and go low.
Summit tickets are the one Swiss purchase weather can ruin outright, and the webcams are public for exactly that reason. Check them at breakfast. If the cloud is sitting on the top station, spend the day at lake level and hold the mountain for a blue morning.
What a day out in Switzerland actually costs.
This is the expensive country and the mountain railways are why. Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs, so the budget decides before the itinerary does.
Old town walks, museum entries, lake cruises and the funiculars that only take fifteen minutes.
The standard day out: Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein, Titlis, Pilatus by cogwheel and boat, Chamonix from Geneva.
Jungfraujoch, the glacier ticket at Zermatt, private drivers and the tandem flights over Interlaken.
By town - and the valleys they open
By kind of day - summit, lake, factory or footpath
Zurich, Lucerne, Interlaken, Zermatt: the loop the trains make easy.
Rhine FallsThe newest Swiss tour reviews.
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Eiger and Jungfrau Panorama Day Trip from Lucerne
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Glacier Express Panoramic Train Round Trip from Zürich With Private Guide
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Geneva By E Bike United Nations Old Town Lake Fountain
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Lucerne: Private Walking Tour with a Local Guide
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1.5-Hour Small-Group Nightwatchman Walk in Medieval Lucerne
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(KTG361) – Interlaken day trip by bus from Geneva
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Beatus Caves, Panoramic Bridge, Nature Park Blue Lake and Lake Thun Cruise
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