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Tough question to answer. I am going back ( 3rd time) to ride the trains, visit the Alps and photograpgh all along the way. First Switzerland while not geographically big takes time to navigate if you are on a vacation. So the first question you should answer is how much time do plan to spend in SZ. Then what type of photography do you want to capture, street, landscape, portrait? My guess is Landscape. If that is true I would head straight to the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Both sides offer spectacular views. While most people stay on the east side i.e. Grindelwald, or Wengen the mountain perch on the west side in Murren is pretty awesome. Back to the east side, photographing on the Mannlichen hike to Klein Scheidegg is a must, east hike with head on views the the Eigeralp Mountain Range. In the Grindelwald Area the Cable lift up to First offers some excellent hiking with views down the Eigeralp Monch and Jungfrau. The west side above Murren has a few very good and very scenic hikes. The view from Schilthorn and Birg …pretty amazing. I will stay in Murren again. There are a few Alphuts and abundant floral too. During the summer Herders are busy making cheese the authentic way, in wood burning copper vats, cheesecloth straining and raw milk wheels. . There is also a cool Alp Cheese destination near Bussalp called Eigeralp. You can take a bus from Grindelwald up to Bussalp and either hike or have them pick you up $. It does not get any more authentic. You can stay overnight sleeping in the barn.
I would also suggest renting a 45 minute excursion in a the Swiss Helicopter with the door open. . Make sure to walk Lauterbrunnen, see the Falls and perhaps go up to Jungfraujoch too.
Luzern is beautiful so for street photography with scenic streets and post card vistas it is hard to beat. It also is home to the Transportation Museum, if you like trains it is a great place to take your camera.
For me I prefer the Lauterbrunnen Valley and Upper Engadine areas over Zermatt.
There are destinations all over Switzerland I could suggest but without knowing your interests it is hard to give you sound advice, but wish you all the best and enjoy your vacation.
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Hi MDQ8T
Snowman’s itinerary would be quite interesting and unique. As stated you would get 3 very different aspects of the “big 3”. Also you would see some areas much less traveled by tourists and small enough to give a very authentic Swiss experience. I believe Snowman lives in Switzerland and his general knowledge is expansive, probably more than any other regular contributors including the moderators (well not Arno; forum rule 1A- Arno knows more than anyone else).
That being said you might decide to include some other Swiss icons for variety. After all they are popular for a reason, usually very scenic or interesting. My limited area of knowledge is the Jungfrau area and the Zermatt area with a little of Ticino (Locarno and Lake Maggiore). In May many of the high Alpine walks will be inaccessible. Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg and Eigergletscher to Alpiglen for example aren’t usually passable until late June. Though the walks will be closed you can get to Mannlichen, Kleine Scheidegg, and Eigergletscher by cable car or train for photos. I will include some photos from these sites. For some lake photos you might be able to walk from First to Bachalpsee. That trail is maintained in Winter for hikers and may still be passable, but that’s iffy. Anyway First will be open and it’s very scenic. The nearby Interlaken lakes are very nice as well and although Schynige Platte is closed in May, I think Harder Kulm is likely open and good picks of the lakes are possible.
In Zermatt, the Matterhorn is a Swiss icon. Also the backside of the Gornergrat has expansive views of some of the tallest Swiss mountains (Mt Rosa and Liskamm). Rifflelsee is a small lake but is popular with photographers for the reflection of the Matterhorn on its surface.
Last Lake Maggiore and Locarno are very nice photo ops for a large lake.
I will include some photos to give you a general idea of these areas.
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Thank you so much for the information, beautiful shots
Thank you for the details and attachment
Thanks
Mark,
Thanks for the compliments, but there are surely other excellent contributors, although we lost the best one, Fred “Slowpoke”, who passed away earlier this month. Yes, I am Swiss and live in Geneva.
Snowman
Hi mdq8t,
In the meantime you have received other proposals, from Brown1950 and Mark. These are good proposals for you to consider (well, maybe I should advise against the helicopter flight, for environmental reasons, mainly noise). Other contributors may come up with yet other proposals.
I will stick to my proposal of seeing Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau from various angles and distances. I have reviewed my original proposal and looked at some of my photographs, and now I don’t recommend Dent de Vaulion any more, as it is too far away (things would be different if your target were Mt Blanc). So there is Creux du Van of which I am attaching a few shots. There are a couple of mountain restaurants up there where you can have lunch and possibly stay overnight in a simple 2-bed room without bath: Le Grand Vy is the closest one to your point of view towards the Alps. Another one is Ferme Robert. Reviewing photos from our late forum member and friend Slowpoke, I can suggest another remote point of view, in Ligerz on Lake Biel (Bielersee). Here is Slowpoke’s photo. I can’t manage to find pictures of the Big Three shot from the Männlichen or Kleine Scheidegg area right now, but you can find plenty of that on the web.
I also attach photos of Lago Tremorgio in Ticino.
The major risk with that proposal is bad weather during the time you are in Switzerland. You must be prepared for that and be ready to change your destinations or your photographic genre (I attach some photos shot in cloudy weather). The good news is that in May it should be pretty easy to travel without prior booking of your accommodations.
Let me know if I can provide additional info. I hope you will have an enjoyable stay!
Snowman
PS. Oh, you are the recipient of my 800th post. Isn’t that cool?
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Hi Snowman
We stayed in Geneva for a few days about 7 years ago. It’s a beautiful city. We stayed at The Four Seasons Hotel and I was quite surprised by the number of middle-eastern tourists staying there. I have never seen such a collection of super expensive Italian and German cars parked in one location. Also half the TV stations were in Arabic at the hotel. As we looked around the city at the plethora of high end jewelry and watch stores it began to make more sense. Anyway the city was lovely. But our main objective was hiking around Mont Blanc, so after a short visit to Annecy we based in Megeve and Chamonix. The hiking was spectacular and almost rivaled Wengen and Zermatt. The glacier hike from Aiguille du Midi to the gondola on the Italian side is perhaps the most difficult hike I have ever done
Mark
Thanks for the update
Beautiful shots ..
Thanks
lovely shots ..
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