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
Seven journeys in a country we know from the inside — every one of them somewhere we have actually been, most built on relationships going back 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 tell you which side of the train to sit on, and when the seats need reserving.
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
Canada
We live in Vancouver, which is the only reason these are on the page. We have been to all of them but the Yukon — that one we plan on research and good operators rather than our own boots.
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 · CanadaThe ferry from the mainland, Victoria's harbour and gardens, Nanaimo in the middle, and then across to Tofino — old-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 · CanadaFour hundred years of stone streets, and a language the rest of the country only half speaks. Best under snow.
September – February
Ontario · CanadaThe circuit most first visits to eastern Canada come for: a city that speaks a hundred languages, the falls from the Canadian side where the view actually is, and a capital small enough to walk across. Ottawa's canal freezes into a skating rink by January.
May – October · Ottawa in winter for the canal
Somewhere else?