A friend of mine recently asked me for hiking recommendations in Switzerland but, for better or worse, I spent most of my time running along the lake rather than hiking up into the mountains when I lived there. Finding myself woefully unable to advise him, I sought out hiking recommendations from my Swiss friends. Here they are below and many thanks to everyone who contributed!
- Go up the Grammont and you can see the lake (Lac Leman):
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Val d’Anniviers would be my recommendation! Base yourself out of Zinal and there are plenty of beautiful hikes from there:
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Tour des Muverans!!! Faaaabulous! Did it with school, so ideal with kids!
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Check out Saas Fee. Not too far a drive, beautiful village, and lots of good alpine hiking trails!
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A great resource for hiking and climbing routes is hikr.org. You can filter by location. Routes are graded, so you can filter based on the level you’re looking for.
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Zugspitze near Garmisch (near the German-Swiss border)
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Interlaken and the Grindelwald area are definitely worth a try!!
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Mont Joly and Jonction (French Alps near the Swiss border) – both around Chamonix – are incredible! Definitely my favorites nearby Geneva. And Lapaz in Les Houches has awesome views of Mont Blanc on a nice day.
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We are using a tour company, New Experience Holidays. They have hikes in many countries—guided and self-guided. We are taking a self-guided hike called Bernese Highlights West (Hotel to Hotel) 7 nights. Approximately 5 to 7 mile hikes per day (hopefully only half-day hikes).
And there you have it – I hope these recommendations are helpful for my friend and for any other readers who come along. As for me, well now I have new bucket list items for my next Swiss visits!