Destinations
We plan the places we can pick up the phone about. In Switzerland that means most of the country and the people who run it; in Canada it means the routes that start where our office does. We would rather do these properly than thirty we have only read about.
Switzerland
Eight journeys in a country we know from the inside — most of them built on relationships we have held for years. Ask about a valley that is not here; the odds are good we know someone in it.
Bernese Oberland · SwitzerlandUp the rack railway to the Jungfraujoch, then out to Mürren — a village with no through road, on a shelf above the Lauterbrunnen waterfalls. Piz Gloria on the Schilthorn is the turn most itineraries miss.
May – October · winter sports December – March
Central SwitzerlandThe easiest first stop in the country: a medieval town on the water with two mountains either side of it. Cogwheel up the Rigi, a walk along the ridge, and the boat back across the lake instead of the train.
Year-round · best April – October
Ticino · SwitzerlandItalian-speaking, palm-lined, and on the far side of the Alps from everything above — which is exactly why it surprises people. Monte Brè for the sunset, and the lake boats for the day.
April – October
Vaud · SwitzerlandFrench-speaking Switzerland, where the Lavaux vineyards are terraced right down to the shore and almost none of the wine ever leaves the country. Montreux and Chillon are along the same water.
April – October · harvest in September
Graubünden · SwitzerlandHigh, dry and bright — the valley holds its sun when the rest of the Alps are under cloud. Famous for the winter, and quietly better in the larch-gold weeks of October.
December – March · June – October
Valais to Graubünden · SwitzerlandEight hours across the country at the speed of a bicycle, and a second line that climbs to the Italian border without a single cog railway. We book the seats that face the right way.
Year-round · Glacier Express mid-December – mid-October
Valais · SwitzerlandThe mountain everyone can draw from memory, in a village that kept the cars out long before it was fashionable. Up on the glacier the skiing lasts into summer.
Year-round · skiing December – April and July – August
Appenzellerland · SwitzerlandPainted farmhouses, cheese made at altitude, and in September the herds coming down decorated — not for visitors, but because they always have been. The answer for anyone who says they want the real thing.
June – October · the Alpabfahrt in September
Canada
We live in Vancouver, which is the only reason these are on the page: they are the other country we can plan without looking anything up.
Alberta · CanadaThe Rockies at their most photographed, and still worth every frame. We time the valley for early light, before the coaches arrive.
June – September
British Columbia · CanadaA city with mountains at the end of the street. Our home, which means the version you get is the one locals actually walk.
Year-round
British Columbia · CanadaTwo mountains, one valley, and the gondola strung between them. Snow in winter, alpine meadow and bike park by July.
December – March · June – September
British Columbia · CanadaOld-growth rainforest on one side, open Pacific on the other. Storm-watching season is the one most visitors never hear about.
May – October · storm season November – February
Yukon · CanadaFar enough north that the sky does the work. Cold, quiet, and the one trip travellers describe rather than photograph.
Late August – April
Québec · Ontario · CanadaFour hundred years of stone streets, and a language the rest of the country only half speaks. Best under snow.
September – February
Somewhere else?