Bern

Switzerland’s tallest cathedral spire (100.6 meters) pierces the Bernese sky, a Late Gothic sentinel overlooking the UNESCO-listed Old Town. The Münster’s crowning glory is its monumental Last Judgment portal — 234 sculpted figures depicting salvation and damnation with startling realism — spared from Reformation destruction. Inside, slender columns draw the eye to luminous 15th-century stained glass and a magnificent organ. The tower climb (312 steps) unveils a 360° panorama of the Aare River’s turquoise loops and the Bernese Alps.

Encircled by the turquoise waters of the Aare River, the Old Town of Bern is a UNESCO World Heritage site that feels like a living museum. Founded in the 12th century, the city’s layout has remained largely unchanged, characterized by its iconic arcaded walkways—over 6 kilometers of them—which shelter high-end boutiques and cozy cafés. The Zytglogge, a medieval clock tower with an intricate astronomical clock, is the city’s most famous landmark, performing a mechanical show every hour. The atmosphere is one of relaxed sophistication, where bears still roam in the Bear Park above the city and the Gothic Münster cathedral reaches for the sky. It is a city that perfectly blends medieval heritage with modern Swiss efficiency.

Nestled between the shimmering turquoise waters of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, Interlaken is the quintessential Alpine gateway, a place where the air hums with the promise of adventure. This is not merely a transit hub but a destination that embodies the Swiss spirit of the outdoors, framed by the imposing north faces of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. The town’s center, the Höhematte, is a vast, manicured meadow that serves as a stage for paragliders drifting like colorful leaves against the rock walls, while the Höheweg boulevard invites leisurely strolls past grand Belle Époque hotels and artisan chocolatiers. Here, the rhythm is set by the cogwheel trains departing for the “Top of Europe” and the roar of the Lütschine River carving through the Unspunnen gorge. Interlaken offers a rare alchemy: the refinement of a Victorian resort town fused with the raw, untamed energy of the high Alps.

Perched at 1,000 metres in the Jura mountains, La Chaux-de-Fonds is a horological masterpiece — an entire city engineered around the watchmaking industry and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its unique urban grid. Rebuilt after a devastating 1794 fire, its chequerboard layout maximises daylight for the ateliers where master watchmakers once assembled complications by hand. Today, the town’s Art Nouveau villas, the soaring Espacité tower, and the Musée International d’Horlogerie — home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of timekeeping artefacts — form an open-air museum of precision and craft. The spirit of “horlogerie” permeates every façade, from the carved sundials on Rue du Parc to the monumental carillon that chimes from the theatre roof.

A nostalgic cogwheel railway clatters from Wilderswil through forests and alpine meadows to the Schynige Platte, a high-altitude terrace that feels like a balcony suspended over the Bernese Alps. Since 1893, the journey itself has been part of the spectacle — vintage wooden carriages creak past cascading streams and grazing Simmental cattle before breaching the treeline at 1,967 metres. The reward is one of Switzerland’s most celebrated vistas: the north faces of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau rise in a sheer wall of ice and rock, framed by the turquoise lakes of Thun and Brienz far below. Uniquely, the summit hosts the Alpine Garden, a living museum of over 700 high-altitude plant species arranged in ecological communities — a botanical treasure best visited in June and July when gentians, edelweiss and alpine roses bloom in profusion.

Renzo Piano’s sinuous steel-and-glass ‘wave’ rolls across the Bernese countryside, housing the world’s most significant collection of works by Paul Klee—over 4,000 paintings, watercolours, and drawings that trace the artist’s journey from satirical etchings to the luminous colour fields of his Tunisian awakening. The building itself is a masterpiece: three undulating hills that blur architecture into landscape, flooded with northern light calibrated to protect fragile pigments. Rotating thematic exhibitions draw from the deep archive, while the ‘Kindermuseum Creaviva’ invites young visitors to wield brush and chisel in studio workshops. A short tram ride from Bern’s medieval core, the centre feels like a pilgrimage into the mind of a poet-painter who taught the Bauhaus to dream in colour.

The Zytglogge is far more than Bern’s most famous landmark; it is the city’s beating heart and a marvel of medieval engineering. This 13th-century clock tower, with its intricate astronomical clock and animated figures, has kept time for the city for over 700 years. Every hour, a captivating mechanical performance unfolds as bears, a jester, and a rooster parade before the clock face, a tradition dating back to the 15th century. The tower’s interior, accessible via guided tour, reveals the original clock mechanism and offers a unique perspective on Bern’s history as a UNESCO World Heritage city. It is a symbol of precision, tradition, and the enduring charm of Bern’s medieval old town.

Known as the ‘Top of Interlaken’, Harder Kulm is a panoramic viewpoint that delivers one of the most iconic vistas in the Swiss Alps. A historic funicular railway whisks visitors from the town center to the summit in just eight minutes, where a striking two-story observation platform awaits. From this vantage point, the entire Interlaken region unfolds in a breathtaking panorama: the twin lakes of Thun and Brienz shimmer below, while the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau peaks dominate the horizon. It is the quintessential Alpine viewpoint, perfect for photographers, romantics, and anyone seeking a moment of awe-inspiring clarity amidst the grandeur of nature.

Cradled by the soaring peaks of the Bernese Oberland, Lake Thun unfurls like a sapphire ribbon between Interlaken and the historic town of Thun. Its crystalline waters reflect the pyramidal silhouette of the Niesen and the jagged crown of the Stockhorn, offering a quintessential Swiss tableau that feels both grand and intimate. A fleet of elegant vintage paddle steamers plies the fjord-like basin, granting access to storybook villages such as Spiez, where a medieval castle guards vineyards that tumble to the shore, and Sigriswil, perched above a dramatic suspension bridge. The lake’s microclimate nurtures chestnut groves and Mediterranean flora, lending the promenades a surprising subtropical whisper. Whether you choose a sunrise kayak to the hidden coves of the Aare delta or a sunset dinner cruise beneath the floodlit ramparts of Thun Castle, the experience is a masterclass in Alpine serenity.

Encircled by one of Switzerland’s best-preserved medieval ramparts, Murten rises from the southern shore of Lake Murten like a vision from a Grimm tale. The town’s bilingual soul — German Murten, French Morat — echoes in its arcaded Hauptgasse, where ochre and rose façades shelter boutiques, cafés, and a 15th-century town hall crowned with a painted astronomical clock. Walk the full 1.5-kilometre wall circuit for panoramic vistas across the lake to the vineyards of Vully and the distant Alps. History weighs heavily here: in 1476, the Swiss Confederates crushed Charles the Bold’s Burgundian army on these shores, a victory celebrated each June with the Solennität, a centuries-old pageant of costumed processions and cannon salutes.