Switzerland

Switzerland is defined by precision, mountains and the art of living well. Lakes, railways, alpine villages, grand hotels and immaculate landscapes create a country where natural beauty and human order feel inseparable.

Switzerland is a confederation of twenty-six cantons and four national languages, with the Alps covering much of its territory. Its cities sit on lakes: Geneva at the end of Lac Léman, Lausanne and Montreux on its terraced shore, Zurich and Lucerne beneath the mountains of central Switzerland, Lugano under the Italian-speaking sun of Ticino. Bern, the federal city, lies between them.

Modern tourism was largely invented here. Nineteenth-century travellers came for the lakes and the Alps, and Swiss hoteliers built the palace hotels, mountain railways and spa resorts that defined luxury travel. The Glacier Express, the Bernina line and the lakes’ paddle steamers still link these places with remarkable ease and punctuality.

Summer, from June to September, is the season of the lakes and the high Alps: swimming in Lake Zurich, steamers on Lake Lucerne, hiking around Zermatt and the Engadine, and festivals from the Montreux Jazz Festival in July to Lucerne Festival in late summer. Art Basel takes place each June.

Winter runs from December to April in the mountain resorts — St. Moritz, Gstaad, Zermatt, Verbier and Andermatt — with skiing, frozen-lake events and the festive season. Geneva, Zurich and Lucerne remain city destinations all year, and spring and autumn bring quieter lakes and blossom or harvest in Lavaux and Ticino.

In Zurich, the Baur au Lac has stood in its private park by the lake since 1844, and The Dolder Grand looks down over the city from the wooded hillside of the Adlisberg. In Geneva, Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues and the Mandarin Oriental stand a few steps apart on the quays of the Rhône. On Lake Geneva, the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne-Ouchy and the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace keep the belle époque tradition of the Riviera.

LVXVRY books the Geneva and Montreux hotels through Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Mandarin Oriental Fan Club and Accor Preferred — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay — and advises on and arranges stays at the Baur au Lac, The Dolder Grand and the Beau-Rivage Palace, as well as the mountain resorts covered in their own portraits.