Nature takes center stage in Switzerland in the summer — whether you’re hiking through wildflower meadows with the tinkle of cowbells in the air, stand-up paddleboarding across a startlingly blue lake, or letting a cable car wing you up to one sky-high Alpine peak after the next. Switzerland’s size means you can see a lot in one trip — you don’t have to limit yourself to just one city.
From Zurich and Geneva to Bern and Lucerne, Switzerland comes with a generous spritz of outdoor adventure, open-air festivals, and lakeshore restaurants serving up local delights.
As always, check for travel guidelines and closures before planning your trip.
Wildlife and Wild Festivals: Hitting Switzerland’s Summer Heights
When the snow melts, the Swiss Alps combine beauty with easy accessibility, offering mile after spirit-lifting mile of waymarked trails past jewel-colored lakes, through larch forests, and up to summits grazing the 4,000-meter mark, where you’re at one with eagles and ibex (though the first 3,000 meters are the most accessible). There’s nearly always a handy mountain hut en route where you can rest over a sharing platter of farm-fresh cheese and air-dried ham.
Switzerland’s greatest peaks ripple across the Valais region in the country’s southwest. Here you’ll find the chic resort village of Verbier, which hits its high notes at the Verbier Festival, a celebration of classical music held each year in late July and early August.
While in Verbier, take a predawn cable car up to Mont Fort’s peak to take in 360-degree views just as the sun’s first golden rays creep over the Alps. For a serene experience in the mountains at any time, the spa team at W Verbier organizes mountain yoga and pilates sessions.
Or dust off your hiking boots to experience trails twisting into the peaks, such as the challenging Chamois Trail, with a trailhead accessible by cable car, with lakeside views, and occasional ibex and chamois encounters. To ramp up the adventure further still, head up to Les Ruinettes for paragliding or downhill thrills in the world-class bike park.
Perched at 1,531 meters (5,023 feet), W Verbier captures a stylishly contemporary Alpine style, with the peak-gazing LE SPA, a W Living Room lounge serving handcrafted cocktails, and Brasserie 1519, a tapas bar led by MICHELIN-Starred chef Sergi Arola.
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A ravishing road trip leads east through Valais to Zermatt, where the country’s highest peaks punch above the Swiss-Italian border, the 4,478-meter (14,692-foot) fang of Matterhorn among them.
Here you can hike, climb, bike, and summer ski on the Klein Matterhorn glacier. Plus, the Matterhorn Alpine Crossing cable car whisks you right over to Cervinia in Italy.
New Experiences and Old Masters: Enjoying Summer in the City
Culture in Switzerland peaks in summer, too, with festivals bringing a buzz to the cities. In the country’s northeast, Zurich is in particularly high spirits, with a first-class line-up of open-air concerts, performances, fireworks, and wild parties like the Street Parade and the Zurich Pride Festival.
But come any time and you’ll find Zurich pulsing with creative energy, with a raft of high-caliber museums like the Kunsthaus Zürich, with its Old Masters and Monet paintings.Zurich West, a formerly industrial area, holds many murals and artisan shops worth checking out.
For some alfresco art, make for the lakefront Zürichhorn pavilion’ Chinese Garden to picnic under the cherry trees in this vibrant temple garden. Stroll to Le Corbusier’s boldly colorful pavilion and Jean Tinguely’s astonishing kinetic sculpture Heureka nearby.
When the sun’s out, everyone flocks to the vivid blue expanse of Lake Zurich to sail, stand-up paddleboard, or take casual dips at a badi (lakefront pool). By night, many badis become chill hangouts for drinks and dancing to DJ beats.
An intimate base for a summer stay is Neues Schloss Privat Hotel Zurich, Autograph Collection, with its hint of art deco style, an enticing lakeview terrace, and ingredient-led Mediterranean restaurant, Castellan’s.
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An hour’s journey west, Basel is one of Switzerland’s cultural powerhouses, with some 40 museums, including the phenomenal fine arts Kunstmuseum Basel and the Renzo Piano–designed Fondation Beyeler in nearby Riehen.
In June, the city makes serious creative waves at Art Basel. Break up museum and gallery visits by taking a gentle swim down the River Rhine with an inflatable Wickelfisch (a fish-shaped waterproof bag) on your back, pausing at a riverside snack bar, or buvette, for drinks.
Beyond Rösti and Raclette: Savoring Gourmet Switzerland
Cheese and chocolate are just the start. Up and down Switzerland, restaurants and cafés are putting creative riffs on lovingly sourced farm-to-fork ingredients that sing boldly of the seasons.
Spilling into France, Lake Geneva is where the country really dips its toes into gourmet waters. Here there’s abundant produce, vines producing outstanding small-batch wines, and alfresco fine dining with the first summer rays. Some of the world’s most inventive chefs create culinary marvels here, often with a pinch of French finesse.
This region abounds with award-winning restaurants. An opulent 19th-century palais with a whisper of 21st-century simplicity, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel de la Paix, Geneva is home to MICHELIN-recognized Fiskebar, with stunning views of the lake and modern, seasonal, locally sourced fare.
On the Avenue des Alpes in Montreux, the Belle-Époque Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic, Autograph Collection offers sleekly designed rooms and a terrace bar with ravishing Lake Geneva and Alp views for an expertly mixed cocktail.
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Offering lake and alpine panoramas, the steeply terraced, UNESCO World Heritage vineyards of Lavaux are heavenly in the summer. Combine the experience with a stroll on the trail that runs from St-Saphorin to Lutry, twisting through the vines as it goes.
Pause at cellars for degustations of flinty Chasselas white wines and stop for seasonally presented dishes featuring perche (perch) fresh from the lake.
A Waterside Adventure: Romance by Lake Lucerne
Lounging on the shores of its namesake lake, Lucerne has real sparkle in the summertime. The city’s café terraces hum with life and the sunsets recall watercolor paintings. There’s August and September’s unmissable Lucerne Festival to enjoy, which sees internationally lauded orchestras and classical music acts perform at the Jean Nouvel–designed KKL Luzern arts center right on the lakeshore.
The romance of Lucerne wowed Queen Victoria, composer Richard Wagner, and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the 19th century. You’ll feel it still today, whether you’re sauntering past Belle Époque buildings on the flowery lakefront promenade or feeling the pulse of the past in the Old Town, where the medieval Kapellbrücke bridge leaps across the Reuss River.
Across the way from Sammlung Rosengart, which houses a private Picasso collection, Renaissance Lucerne Hotel subtly brings together the period flair of a century-old palais with understated modern interiors. The Pacifico, a Mexican cantina and bar in the hotel, meanwhile, rustles up excellent margaritas.
On the other side of Vögeligärtli Park is The Hotel Lucerne, Autograph Collection, an architecturally striking property bearing the hallmark of Jean Nouvel, whose film projections lend an artistic touch to rooms and suites.
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One look at Lucerne’s backdrop and you’ll be eager to venture further. For on-high views, ride up to Mont Rigi, which J.M.W. Turner painted in 1842, or take the world’s steepest cog-wheel railway up to Mont Pilatus for high-level hiking and adventure courses.
For more romance, board a paddle steamer to cruise the glassy green waters of the fjordlike Lake Uri, the southern basin of Lake Lucerne, swirling in William Tell legend.
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