Gornergrat views of the Matterhorn
Why this is the first thing I do every time I land in Switzerland.
Read MoreGlacier Express, Zermatt to St. Moritz
A closer look at one of Switzerland's most rewarding experiences.
Read MoreGruyère's alpine dairies
Where to go next once you have seen the headline sights of Switzerland.
Read MoreSwitzerland treats punctuality and mountain views as related civic achievements, and having ridden its trains along routes carved into cliff faces, arriving to the minute beside glaciers, I understand the connection. The country has no single dominant culture, splitting into German, French, Italian, and Romansh-speaking regions that somehow cohere into one of the most stable nations in Europe. I've stood on the Gornergrat above Zermatt with the Matterhorn's improbable pyramid filling the entire horizon, and I've eaten fondue in a Gruyère village where the cheese comes from cows grazing visibly on the slope above the restaurant. Switzerland is expensive by design and reputation, but the returns, mountain air of a clarity that's hard to describe, trains that run like clockwork, chocolate made by people who take it as seriously as watchmaking, are considerable.
Chapter One
The Glacier Express earns its name
The Glacier Express runs between Zermatt and St. Moritz over roughly eight hours, crossing 291 bridges and 91 tunnels, including the Landwasser Viaduct's dramatic curved stone arches, without ever exceeding much more than 30 miles an hour, a deliberate slowness that turns transit into the actual destination. I watched the Matterhorn recede from Zermatt's window and, hours later, the Rhine Gorge's badlands unfold below Chur, a landscape locals call the Swiss Grand Canyon. Panoramic windows curve up into the roofline so nothing is missed, and a dining car serves regional wine paired to whichever canton the train happens to be crossing at the time, a small, precise touch typical of how Switzerland treats travel as worth doing properly.
“Switzerland runs its trains and its cheese-making with the same exacting, unhurried patience.”
Chapter Two
Gruyère, where the cheese has a passport
In the town of Gruyères, the cheese that shares its name is protected by strict appellation rules dictating exactly which alpine pastures the milk can come from and how the wheels must be aged, typically five months to over a year in humid cellars. I toured a working dairy just outside town where cows still graze the slopes visible from the production floor's windows, their milk turned into wheels the same day. The medieval walled town above, with its castle and cobbled main street, somehow escapes feeling like a theme park despite the volume of visitors, partly because the fondue served in its restaurants is made with cheese produced literally within sight of where you're eating it.
The Short List
Do not miss in Switzerland
At a glance
Switzerland in numbers
- Capital
- Bern
- Language
- German, French, Italian, Romansh
- Currency
- Swiss franc (CHF)
- Best time
- June to September, or December to March for skiing
Did you know
Switzerland has four official national languages, and its trains are famous for running so precisely on time that even minor delays make local news.