The Grand Tour of Switzerland

From the Rhine Falls to Lake Geneva, from the Alpine passes to the lakes of Ticino, Switzerland in a single loop. Twelve days from Zurich, through the country’s four language regions.

Switzerland· Italy

The terraced vineyards of Lavaux above Lake Geneva.

A loop over the passes and past the lakes

The Grand Tour of Switzerland is a driving route created by Switzerland Tourism in 2015: 1,643 signposted kilometres, five passes above 2,000 metres and 22 lakes. This trip covers the heart of it in twelve days, on a loop from Zurich, from the Rhine Falls to Lake Geneva.

Over the Flüela Pass, the road enters the Engadine, a high valley of lakes and larches. From the Maloja, the road winds down to the Val Bregaglia and Soglio, then crosses a corner of Italy to Lake Lugano. In a single day, you go from larches to chestnut trees, then to palm trees. For Zermatt, at the foot of the Matterhorn, you leave the car in Täsch and go up by train.

On the shores of Lake Geneva, you visit Chillon, walk among the terraced vineyards of Lavaux and swim in the lake.

Gruyères castle on its hill, seen from Broc.

Four languages on one road

Switzerland has four national languages, and the loop passes through all of them. German is spoken in Zurich, Romansh in part of the Engadine, Italian in Ticino and French on the shores of Lake Geneva. Gruyères is a French-speaking little town, built on a hill around a 13th-century castle. A little further east, Jaun is the only German-speaking municipality in the Gruyère district: the language border runs very close by.

Half an hour’s drive away, Fribourg spreads across both banks of the Sarine, on the line between French- and German-speaking Switzerland. Officially French-speaking, the town is bilingual in practice. The Swiss call this line the Röstigraben, the ‘rösti ditch’.

Romansh is the smallest of the four languages: about half a per cent of the Swiss speak it as their main language. In Guarda, in the Lower Engadine, the houses are decorated with sgraffito, patterns scratched into the plaster. The village’s houses served as the model for the illustrations in the children’s book ‘A Bell for Ursli’, published in 1945.

Legend has it that the devil built the first bridge.

The Gotthard, at the heart of the Alps

The Rhine, the Rhône, the Reuss and the Ticino all rise around the Gotthard massif. On the south side, the old pass road, the Tremola, climbs above Airolo in 24 hairpin bends. It was paved with granite setts between 1937 and 1941, and most of them are still there. To the north, the road runs down to Andermatt. Just downstream lies the Schöllenen gorge. Legend has it that the devil built the first bridge. In return, he wanted the first soul to cross it: the locals sent a goat over.

Further west, the Furka climbs to 2,429 metres. James Bond drives over it in the film ‘Goldfinger’, released in 1964. On the Valais side, you see the Rhône Glacier, which retreats a little further every year.

Eggishorn

Fieschertal, Valais · 10 minutes from Ernen, then the cable car from Fiesch

From the top station, at 2,869 metres, you see the great curve of the Aletsch Glacier, the largest in the Alps, on Unesco’s World Heritage list since 2001. The last section of the cable car is due to be replaced from 2027 to the end of 2028: check that it is running. Otherwise, you can also see the glacier on a walk from Fiescheralp.

Practical notes

When to go: June to early October. The Furka and the Gotthard Pass are only open from about June to October; the dates change every year with the snow.
Getting there: Zurich is about six hours’ drive from Paris.
Access: All the roads are tarmac; the Tremola is cobbled. In Soglio, Guarda and Gandria, the road is narrow: park at the entrance to the village. After the Maloja, the road runs through Italy: keep your ID with you.
Sleeping in a van: Wild camping depends on the canton and the municipality; it is banned in protected areas. There are plenty of campsites and aires along the lakes.
Worth knowing: A vignette is required on motorways, as a sticker or electronic; above 3.5 tonnes, a flat-rate charge replaces it. Zermatt, Wengen and Mürren are closed to cars.
Allow: Twelve days for the loop, with Geneva as a day trip; thirteen to spend a night there.

The Grand Tour photo frame on the Furka Pass, facing the Valais Alps.

What not to miss

1The Rhine Falls150 metres wide, and a boat that drops visitors on the central rock.
2The Abbey Library of St GallenA Baroque hall completed in 1767, and manuscripts copied from the 8th century onwards.
3Chillon CastleOn a rock in Lake Geneva, the castle that inspired Byron’s ‘The Prisoner of Chillon’.
4The Lauterbrunnen valleyThe Staubbach Falls drop 297 metres; the Trümmelbach Falls flow inside the rock.
5BernThe Zytglogge clock tower, and the flat where Einstein wrote his 1905 papers.
6LucerneThe Chapel Bridge, one of the oldest covered wooden bridges in Europe, and the Lion carved into the rock.

The Grand Tour of Switzerland in pictures

Staubbach Falls down its golden cliff, at Lauterbrunnen.

The hairpins of the Tremola, on the old Gotthard road.

The Rhine Falls and Laufen Castle.

The Swiss table

In the canton of Fribourg, moitié-moitié fondue mixes Gruyère and vacherin fribourgeois; you can watch Gruyère being made at La Maison du Gruyère, in Pringy. In Valais, raclette is eaten with potatoes in their skins, and the vineyards produce petite arvine and cornalin.

On Lake Geneva, you drink chasselas from Lavaux. In Ticino, you eat in grotti, simple inns that grew out of old cellars, with risotto, polenta and merlot. Take home an Engadine nut tart and an Appenzeller, a cheese rubbed with a brine made to a secret recipe.

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