With castles, lakes, views and perfect weather, this is a wonderful destination
These days the wealthy are tired of the Med’s summer crowds and are opting for ‘coolcations’ in the Alps.
In the shadow of Switzerland’s jagged-toothed Matterhorn, having morphed into full Heidi mode, I tuck into roasted pork belly and sip a glass of crisp white wine.
Like plenty of others in my 20-strong tour group, I’d chosen not to partake of a high alpine hike (albeit one with Instagram-worthy views) starting at the Gornergrat Railway hub, which is overlooked by the Matterhorn, and leads down a dirt pathway through alpine forests to the swish ski township of Zermatt.
Instead, I eat at Alphitta restaurant, three stops down from the Gornergrat Railway station hub, followed by a 15-minute walk through the green pine forests.
As we relax in the lee of the Matterhorn, 222m above sea level, coy alpine chamois graze on the hillside with the July summer silence broken only by the clashing bells of Brown Swiss cows loitering about the buttercup-strewn grass. In a land of cheese and chocolate, these cows are favoured for their milk-producing qualities.
Switzerland in summer is an altogether different experience than the landlocked country’s snowy alpine winters when jetsetters flock to Zermatt and St Moritz for the glitz and glamour (and skiing).
These days the wealthy are tired of the Med’s summer crowds and are opting for “coolcations” in the Alps.
We arrived by rail into Zermatt’s car-less streets to a cavalcade of 70 Valais Blackneck goats, parading down the Bahnhofstrasse on their daily “goat’s tour”. The Bahnhofstrasse is home to every designer label under the sun, like a small, more perfectly formed version of Double Bay or Toorak.
This Tauck tour of Switzerland and the Italian Lakes, beginning in Lausanne, takes in the “Top of Europe” – the 3454m Jungfraujoch mountain – plus the Italian-speaking city of Lugano, famed for its bewitchingly beautiful cobblestone streets.
It includes a wine-tasting lake cruise on a glacial lake, as we steam towards a waterfront restaurant for an Italian lunch.
Tauck’s tour covers the Swiss capital Bern, and Interlaken, as well as idyllic northern Italian lake cities such as Stresa on Lake Maggiore and Bellagio and Menaggio, both fronting Lake Como, home to opulent retreats and mansions.
Most of the moneyed, highly-educated Americans on tour (think hedge fund managers, retired emergency department surgeons and Cornell-educated lawyers) are repeat guests, who come from Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Florida.
Starting in the grand Lausanne Palace Hotel, a carousel of turquoise lakes, snow-iced mountains, storybook wooden cabins dotting grassy wildflower meadows and the spectacular Landwasser viaduct play out like computer-generated images. But it’s real.
First stop is the medieval castle of Chateau Chillon en route to Gruyeres, where guests are handed 70 Swiss francs ($135) lunch money to choose from a bevy of traditional restaurants. Of course ordering a fondue or raclette is de rigueur in this cobblestoned town named for the popular Swiss cheese.
We bus and then shuttle train it to Zermatt to be greeted by the goats, as we walk to our home for the next two nights: the Mont Cervin Palace in the heart of town, with many rooms sporting views of the Matterhorn.
Our room sports a view of the conference centre (rather than the Matterhorn) but who is complaining when we meet our new American friends for dinner in the Le Grill Restaurant, which is big on prime wagyu cuts followed by calorie-loaded desserts. Over dinner we learn that Americans like Switzerland for three reasons: beauty, safety and chocolate; indeed, US arrivals to Switzerland spiked 11 per cent this summer. We can’t disagree.
We take the rack railway, the highest open-air railway in Europe, to Gornergrat, due to its magnificent views of the Matterhorn, armed with privilege passes pre-organised by Tauck taking in paragliders, glacial skiers and hikers on the way.
From Zermatt we head through the Rhone Valley, climbing towards the 6591m Simplon Pass, and later lunching in the Italian town of Stresa on Lake Maggiore where we choose between a tour of the summer palace or roaming the streets for luxe shopping – appealing as Italy is much easier on the purse than Switzerland.
In Lugarno for two nights, we check into the dowager Hotel Splendide Royal, where rooms start at $2000 a night, and are gifted with a fabulous balcony overlooking Lake Lugarno. While some in our tour group insist on an afternoon dip in the icy lake, others plump for the joy of one of Lugarno’s gelato shops, the Vittorio Vanini, near Via Nassa, devouring the hazelnut gelato out in the hot plaza.
Lake Como is nearby and we indulge in a surprise voyage to Bellagio, a jewel of an Italian Lakes town, famous for its gelato, coffee and shopping. We lunch on caprese salads at the Grand Hotel Victoria in Menaggio, which has a daddy of a spa, featuring tropical waterfall showers, a Himalayan Salt Room, and an Ice Room to invigorate the muscles.
Sadly, we only have time for lunch at the Grand Hotel Victoria, overhauled in 2021, where rooms start from $3855 a night for a double with park view. We climb the 1815m Maloja Pass for St Moritz, taking in the spectacular Landwasser viaduct to spend the night at the Kempinski Grand Hotel Des Bains, in a junior suite.
We dine in Les Saisons; a highlight is a caesar salad served from a huge cheese gourd. The next morning we get fruit juice booster shots while waiters ply us with treats such as hazelnut financiers, a classic French bite-sized cake.
A scenic train ride from St Moritz Railway Station is followed by a coach to Interlaken where we indulge in another fondue lunch before arriving at the Victoria Jungfrau Grand Hotel and Spa, a sprawling property occupying Interlaken’s main street. Later that afternoon we depart from our airy, modern room in the Victoria, which is well positioned for watching hang gliders coming off the surrounding mountains, for a funicular train ride up to Interlaken’s local mountain, Harder Kulm for a spectacular alpine dinner. Harder Kulm, 1322m above sea level, is famed for its views over the town with the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains above.
The next day we tackle Jungfraujoch, a breathtaking landscape of snow, ice and rock attracting 6000 tourists a day. Local guides steer us through the minus-3C ice palace to a private reception where the bar, and even the large bowls housing bountiful bottles of champagne, are carved from ice. The hot canapes go down a treat in this icy haven hewn from a system of corridors dug deep into the glacier in the 1930s.
On my way to the high alpine research station where wind speeds can sometimes reach 260km an hour, I note Europe’s highest watch shop selling brands including Chopard, Longines, and Hublot. On the way down our Tauck guides organise hot chocolate which is welcome particularly for those hardy souls who ventured outside onto the Aletsch glacier.
On the return journey to Interlaken we take the Eiger Express, a glass-walled cable car that sails past the north face of the Eiger Mountain.
Come winter, the farmers put their fences down for the skiers to enjoy 211km of perfectly groomed slopes. Finally we reach the historic, medieval capital of Bern where we have a Swiss-style lunch in the Bellevue Palace Hotel, which is the state’s guesthouse for visiting heads of state.
Our visit to Bern takes in the Barengraben, or Bear Pit, enclosure housing three brown bears, on the eastern edge of the old city, near the park with a sculpture of a young Albert Einstein.
We land in the Kempinski Palace Engelberg for our last two nights, taking a one-hour boat ride to the German-speaking Lucerne in central Switzerland the following day.
After touring Lucerne on foot, we farewell our 20 tour friends.
It’s a trip where one is surrounded by green pines and larch forests. The views are priceless, which is lucky because Switzerland isn’t a cheap destination for Australians – in fact even the cashed-up Americans whinge about the prices. But the high cost of Switzerland is well reflected in the impeccable food, the great service and the on-time running of the railways.
So it’s time to stop thinking about Switzerland as a winter parka, snowboard and helmet
destination. As Europe heats up, Swiss alpine summers are only likely to grow more popular.
Checklist
Getting there: Fly Qantas from Sydney to Geneva via Singapore and London. Emirates has a quicker return flight from Zurich via Dubai to Sydney.
Stay: Tauck’s “Switzerland: Europe’s Crown Jewel’’ tour stays in five and six-star hotels, with guests travelling by train, coach and luxury launch. The tour includes a huge amount of inclusions such as transfers and many meals – even access to the in-room mini bar at some hotels. Entrance fees and railway tickets are included, as is porterage. From $18,190 per person twin share in 2026. Singles from $21,153.
Lisa Allen was a guest of Tauck.
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