Switzerland

Think of Switzerland, and it’s hard not to have a flood of images fill your mind: magnificent glacier-coated peaks, sprawling green valleys soundtracked by cowbells, alphorns, and maybe a yodel or two. You may also conjure a sense of Swiss dignity and elegance, encouraged maybe by some knowledge of the country’s longstanding neutrality, sleek global cities like Geneva—perhaps even the thought of Roger Federer, a Basel boy now regarded by many as the greatest male tennis player in history. The full story of Switzerland is, of course, more nuanced than all that, but there’s no question you can easily—and enjoyably—find the quintessential package of mountains, cheese, and chocolate in this rugged European heartland.

Give a few exceptions (as when Napoleon invaded the country and Swiss troops were mustered to the cause of France), Switzerland has been militarily neutral since the Middle Ages. But the modern image of a peaceful, well-ordered country belies a long succession of partitioning overlords—Romans, Burgundians, Franks, Habsburgs—and internal strife. The modern nation formally arose in 1848 after a short civil war, but has its roots in the Swiss Confederacy, formed in the 12th century when several cantons allied against Habsburg control.

Historical sights are many and varied: the prehistoric stilt houses of the Alps, the astonishing Roman ruins of Augusta Raurica on the Rhine, the medieval Chillon Castle on the banks of Lake Geneva, and the Abbey of Saint Gall with its magnificent 1,300-year-old library, to name but a few.

But it’s really Switzerland’s natural beauty that steals the show. As heartily as their praises have been sung over the centuries, the Swiss Alps truly are one of the planet's most sublime mountain ranges—and one of the best destinations anywhere for skiers and snowboarders. Some of the mightiest landmarks of the entire Alpine realm lie in Switzerland, including the unmistakable 14,691-foot spire of the Matterhorn; the regal (and ritzy) Lake Geneva; the enormous massif of Monte Rosa, whose crowning summit, 15,203-foot Dufourspitze, is Switzerland’s high point and the second-loftiest of any Alpine peak; and one of Europe’s great hydrological apexes, 9,120-foot Piz Lunghin, from which rivers drain to the North, Adriatic, and Black seas. The Gotthard Pass, meanwhile, serves as something of a threshold between Northern and Southern Europe, bridging as it does the cantons of Italian-inflected Ticino and German-inflected Uri. The lower but snow-socked Jura on the border with France, meanwhile, are famed for their cross-country skiing.

Swiss cities may be tidy but they’re far from bland: Consider the world-famous jazz festival of Montreux, the Kunsthaus Zurich art museum, the bear park of Bern, and all the illustrious international buildings of Geneva. Whether sought out in urban cafes or pastoral hamlets, the cheese and the chocolate are as delectable as you’ve heard—as is the fondue—but how about Swiss whisky or Swiss wine?

From the grand glaciers of the Alps to the pastoral lowlands of the Rhine, Switzerland presents a European landscape of almost dreamlike stature. In this neutral and reserved country that nonetheless exerts quite the influence on the global stage, you’ll discover a special culture that proudly straddles past and present.