Glorious Switzerland

With glaciers, flower-filled meadows and deep green valleys still ahead, you meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers for the short walk to a dinner of Swiss specialities. Inside, you take your seat amid cosy décor as the rich scent of warm cheese fondue drifts across the table. Tear off a piece of bread, dip it into the silky cheese and share your first meal together as your time in Switzerland begins.

Beside Geneva’s gardens, you hear the rush of the Jet d’Eau and pause at the flower-petalled face of the Floral Clock. The road continues along Lake Geneva to Montreux, where free time invites you to explore the lakeside promenade and watch boats cut across the water. At Chillon Castle, your host leads you through thick-walled chambers once occupied by the Dukes of Savoy, their voice echoing between the stone walls. Look for the mark Lord Byron is rumoured to have left after immortalising the castle in ‘The Prisoner of Chillon’. Vineyards and fruit trees cover the Rhône Valley before you climb by cogwheel train to traffic-free Zermatt. During an orientation with your Travel Director, pause beneath the Matterhorn’s unmistakable triangular peak before sharing dinner in a local restaurant.

With Zermatt yours for the day, you can slip into cool water or follow a hiking trail between deep-green slopes and pale rock. Or rise into a world of snow and ice on the Optional Experience to Klein Matterhorn. A cable car carries you above dark ridges and blue-white glaciers to Europe’s highest mountain station at 3,883 metres. At the summit, snowfields stretch towards Switzerland, Italy and France. Your gaze traces the glaciers far below as they wind between dark ridges, their crevasses cutting long, jagged lines through the ice.

Leaving Zermatt, you’ll descend to Täsch and rejoin your coach for the ascent over the Simplon Pass. Stone closes around the road in galleries cut through the rock, then falls away at bridges along Napoleon’s 63-kilometre route between Switzerland and Italy. At the 2,000-metre summit, you pause above the pass before continuing towards Lake Maggiore for lunch. Choose the Optional Experience by boat to Isola Bella and listen to water brush the hull as the wake fans out behind you. Ahead, terraces of formal gardens climb towards the island’s Baroque palace, layer upon layer above the lake. Then continue to Lugano in Ticino, Switzerland’s only canton where Italian is the sole official language.

Across the San Bernardino and Julier Passes, you gaze out at high pastures spreading between stretches of bare rock as the road curls through the Grison Alps. In St. Moritz, your Travel Director leads you through the spa quarter to the glacial lake, where you pause at the shore and watch white sails drift across deep green water, with pine-clad slopes beyond and pointed hotel turrets along the shoreline. Afterwards, you can explore the resort at your own pace or travel by train over the Bernina Pass. Aboard the train, you feel the carriage lean into broad curves while Swiss stone pines stream past and Lago Bianco runs milky-white beside the rails.

On the Glacier Express route, you'll cross high stone viaducts above green meadows and stone-built villages, with ice-capped peaks beyond. At Chur, you rejoin your coach and follow the Upper Rhine Valley to Vaduz, where you explore the streets below its princely castle, high on a wooded slope. You continue beside Walensee and Lake Zürich to Lucerne, pausing before the wounded lion carved directly into a rocky grotto, its immense body seeming almost alive in the stone. With your Travel Director, you gaze up at the Jesuit Church’s twin green domes piercing the horizon before stopping at Chapel Bridge, where painted panels sit beneath the dark timber roof.

Along Lucerne’s promenade, you may pass the landing stages and music pavilion before browsing the city’s fine watch boutiques. On your MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience, you ride the solar-powered CabriO towards Stanserhorn, stepping onto the open upper deck as the wind tugs at your sleeves and the valley lies far below. Along the summit path, you pause beside alpine flowers, listening for a marmot’s sharp whistle, with a chance to meet a Stanserhorn ranger pointing out an eagle circling overhead. At the foot of Stanserhorn, you sit down to dinner and raise a glass to the miles shared across Switzerland.

You leave Lucerne with one last look towards the lake and Alpine peaks, then travel to Zurich to say goodbye to your Travel Director and fellow travellers.