Switzerland
Travel Guide

• Zermatt
• Interlaken
• Montreux
• St. Moritz
• Lucerne
• Geneva
• Zurich
• Berne
• Lugano
• Mountain Resorts
  • Arosa
  • Crans-Montana
  • Davos
  • Engelberg
  • Flims
  • Grindelwald
  • Gstaad
  • Laax
  • Lenzerheide
  • Leukerbad
  • Muerren
  • Saas Fee
  • Verbier
  • Wengen
• Lakeside Cities
  • Ascona
  • Lausanne
  • Locarno
  • Murten
  • Neuchatel
  • Thun
• Other Cities
  • Basel
  • St. Gallen
• Regions
  • Engadin
  • Graubunden
  • Bernese Oberland
  • Appenzellerland
  • Ticino
  • Valais
  • Baselbiet

Traveling in Switzerland - how to get around by train or car

Switzerland offers the most comprehensive public transport system in the world. It incorporates trains, buses, boats, lake steamers, funiculars and cable cars. Roads and highways are well maintained and signposted. Internal flights are not of great interest to the visitor due to the excellent ground transportation.
Trains are a popular and convenient way to travel to Switzerland, and Swiss and European rail passes make train travel affordable. The public transportation network covers more than 5000km. It's hard to overstate just how good this network is: you can get anywhere you want quickly, easily and relatively cheaply and everybody relies on it as a matter of course. The Swiss are run by SBB and the trains are clean, reliable and frequent. The yellow post buses are supplementing the rail network and their stations are next to railway stations. Major hubs like Zurich and Geneva, with train stations right at the airports, are less than four hours apart. Simple and many times direct connections to the main resorts such as Interlaken, Montreux, Zermatt and St. Moritz and to scenic sites such as the Jungfraujoch make train travel fun, exhilarating and rewarding.

There are car-rental agencies in most sizeable towns and at the airports. Driving in Switzerland is easy with the roads are well maintained, well signposted and generally not too congested, though you may find it hard to concentrate with such wonderful scenery unfolding around you! Getting to Switzerland by road is simple, since there are fast highways through all surrounding countries.

Lake steamers service all the larger lakes, and the Swiss rail passes are valid on most steamer routes.

Bicycles can be hired from most railway stations and returned to any station with a rental office.

The main entry points for international flights are Zurich-Kloten and Geneva-Cointrin. The cities of Basel, Bern and Lugarno also have airports that receive international flights, but on a much smaller level.

If you have time and money, it's possible to get to Switzerland by boat along the Rhine all the way from Amsterdam. Switzerland can also be reached by lake steamer ferries from Germany via Lake Constance, from Italy via Lake Maggiore and from France via Lake Geneva.

Switzerland
Reservation
Services