Escorted Switzerland Holidays and Guided Tours
Switzerland rewards the traveller who is not driving. The roads are good but the gradients are relentless, the parking in the lake towns is awkward, and the best views are the ones you get from a coach seat or a train window rather than from behind a wheel.
Our Swiss travel comes at the country from the south and the east: the camellia parks and arcaded squares of Locarno at the head of Lake Maggiore, and the dairy country around Appenzell, where the cheese is still washed in a herb brine nobody will write down. Both holidays fly from the UK, use a private coach once you have landed, and include breakfast and evening meals.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Switzerland Tours
The main flowering in Ticino runs from late February into April, usually peaking in the second half of March, and the camellia show at Locarno is timed to catch it. Azaleas, magnolias and citrus blossom overlap with the tail end of it. Flowering shifts by a week or two depending on the winter, so ask us how the season is running when you enquire about a departure date.
Sightseeing in Switzerland involves more walking on uneven ground than people expect: cobbled lanes in the old towns, lakeside promenades, gardens on terraces, and funiculars or cable cars with steps at either end. Nothing is strenuous and the coach takes the strain between places, but you should be comfortable on your feet for an hour or so at a time. Tell us about any difficulty before you book and we will be straight with you about a particular itinerary.
Yes, noticeably more than Italy or France, particularly for coffee, lunch and drinks. The currency is the Swiss franc; cards are accepted almost everywhere and euros are sometimes taken in Ticino, though at a rate that does not favour you. Breakfast and evening meals are included on our holidays, so your own spending is largely lunches, drinks and anything you bring home.
It works well, and solo travellers are a normal part of an escorted group. Our prices are quoted per person sharing a double or twin room, so a single supplement applies if you want a room to yourself. The amount varies by hotel and departure, so ask us for the current figure on the holiday you are considering rather than assuming a standard rate.
Locarno, camellias and the Ticino spring
Ticino is Italian-speaking Switzerland, and it does not look or feel like the rest of the country. The lake shore around Locarno and Ascona is the lowest ground in Switzerland, under 200 metres, sheltered by mountains and warmed by Lake Maggiore. Palms, magnolias, citrus and camellias all grow here happily.
The camellia park sits between the old town and the water, laid out in terraces with hundreds of named varieties, and a camellia show is held there each spring when the flowering is at its height. Locarno itself is built round the Piazza Grande, a long arcaded square of shuttered houses; above it, reached by funicular, the pilgrimage church of Madonna del Sasso looks down the whole length of the lake.
The Brissago Islands, a short boat ride out, hold a botanic garden of subtropical planting that would not survive a mile further north.
Appenzell and the eastern dairy country
Appenzell is the Switzerland of the picture books, and it comes by it honestly. The two half-cantons of Appenzell sit below the limestone wall of the Alpstein, in a landscape of steep green pasture, scattered farms and villages of painted timber houses.
Appenzeller cheese is made here in small dairies and matured with a herb brine whose recipe has been kept between a handful of people for generations. A dairy visit and a tasting tells you more about the place than any museum would: the pastures are small, the herds are small, and the whole system depends on cattle spending summer high up and coming down again in autumn.
Appenzell Innerrhoden is also one of the last cantons where citizens still vote in the open air, gathering in the village square each spring to decide matters by a show of hands.
Swiss trains and mountain railways
The Swiss railway is the reason people come back. Trains run to the minute, connect with lake steamers and postbuses, and climb gradients that look impossible from the valley floor.
Several lines are worth a day of anybody's holiday:
- The Centovalli line from Locarno to Domodossola, two hours on a narrow-gauge track across a string of bridges and gorges.
- The Bernina line from the Engadine down to Tirano, a UNESCO World Heritage railway that crosses a glacier pass without a rack.
- The Glacier Express, most of a day between Zermatt and St Moritz in panoramic carriages.
- The Pilatus and Rigi cogwheel railways above Lucerne, the former the steepest of its kind anywhere.
Whether a rail excursion forms part of a particular holiday depends on the itinerary, so do ask us before you assume it.
