MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial A good hiking base when coming from Geneva
-
Hello! I’ve found a lot of useful information on this forum, thank you so much for sharing it!
This time I thought I could directly ask for your help. We need to find a base for a six day hiking holiday in Swiss Alps in the end of June. I’ve done some hiking in Swiss Alps before, previously coming by train to Interlaken. This far I’ve been based in Grindelwald, Zermatt, Lauterbrunnen and Wengen, all of which I found great.
This time we’re starting from Geneva and it would make sense to find something closer to there.
I am looking for:
– a nice scenic place, not too big and as quiet as possible given the next point…
– we need good public transport as we will have no car and would like to explore the area and see as many beautiful places as possible
– access to cable cars to be able to do not too challenging circular hikes with panoramic views.
Any tips & ideas will be appreciated! Even just the names of places to consider would be of great help, I’m happy to do the research myself 🙂
Best,
Ina
-
Hello Ina Sm,
Welcome to MySwissAlps! I am happy to read that you find the information on this forum useful.
I would suggest looking into which train pass to get. You can download the excel chart and make the calculations from there. I would suggest the 4 day Swiss Travel Pass because it is very convenient along with the Saver Day Pass for the remaining 2 days. If you don’t think you will do much train travels but more hiking, the Swiss Half Fare Card is good too: http://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard
Take a look at these links to help get you started:
- http://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass
- http://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses
- http://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass
- http://www.myswissalps.com/saverdaypass
I would recommend going to Valais region, which is about 1 hour away from Geneva.
Geneva: http://www.myswissalps.com/geneva
Please take a look at this link regarding hiking:
Get familiar with reading the train timetable. I have attached the link below:
I hope this helps!
Best regards,
Suzanne
Dear Suzanne, thank you so much for the very useful information about the available train passes, this will be of great help. It would be so great if someone could also give some tips on concrete places… I have been looking at Les Diablerets, Villars-sur-Ollon, Gstaad. Anybody been to those or any other villages around there? Any experience to share?
Hi Ina Sm–
Six days is a good amount of hiking– lucky you! I would personally set up two bases, spending 2-3 days at each, unless you can make it as far as Zermatt, in which case even a week isn’t enough. Assuming you can’t get to Zermatt, I’d favor Gsteig as one base, and perhaps Lenk as the other (both a bit beyond Gstaad). Gstaad is fine, but perhaps a bit glitzier than you want. Les Diablerets is also nice, but would not be at the top of my list. Villars sur Ollon I would say has pleasant, but not dramatic hiking.
For sheer drama, these places won’t rival the scenery you saw on your last trip, but there are still wonderful places to explore and challenging passes to climb. Zermatt would match (and maybe surpass, some might say) the BO, but end of June can be a bit early there, depending on your choice of routes and that winter’s snowpack.
NTL
Hi Ina Sm,
I also recommend Zermatt there are plenty of options for wonderful hiking routes there: http://www.myswissalps.com/zermatt/activities. (Scroll down a bit to see the hiking options).
We have been hiking also near Leysin, it was nice too if you are lucky with the weather you can see Lake Geneva (http://www.myswissalps.com/lakegeneva). But there are fewer hiking options than from Zermatt and also not that diverse.
Ildiko
Also see:
- How to prepare for hiking in the Swiss Alps: http://www.myswissalps.com/hiking/preparation
- Hiking etiquette: http://www.myswissalps.com/hiking/etiquette
- Weather: http://www.myswissalps.com/weather and http://www.myswissalps.com/weather/forecast
Thanks a lot for your replies! Zermatt is a bit far but the main thing is that I have already spent a whole week in Zermatt some years ago. It was indeed fantastic!
Choosing more than just one base sounds tempting – I will think about it! I would usually stay in one village and explore everything around but then of course you see less.
And I will consider Gsteig, Lenk and Leysin. This is why it is so important that someone who has been over comes up with tips – when you try to figure out what could be interesting by searching on the map it is places like Les Diablerets which attract your attention and you don’t even notice one like Gsteig.
- The thread ‘A good hiking base when coming from Geneva’ is closed to new replies.
