The ultimate doable Swiss bucket list

October 2, 2017, 5 Comments

Hike the Eiger Trail. Make your own Swiss Army Knife. Watch the sunrise from on top of Rigi. Switzerland has more than enough amazing experiences to fill the biggest of buckets let alone one list. In fact the challenge isn’t how to find time to do them all but how to reduce the list to something achievable.

So I’ve created a bucket list of the best things to see and do in Switzerland, but ones that anyone can enjoy: no impossible goals like climbing the Matterhorn or owning a $50,000 dollar watch. Maybe you’ve done some already, maybe not but with 52 to choose from there is one for every week of the year.

The question is not what’s stopping you but which will be your first?

1. Take a train over the Landwasser viaduct then hike down underneath its arches
2. Walk alongside the mighty Aletsch glacier
3. Get goosebumps during Morgestraich at Basel’s Fasnacht
4. Sail across Lake Lucerne in a paddle-steamer
5. Eat a meringue in its birthplace, Meiringen
6. Soak up the atmosphere of St Gallen’s Abbey and Library
7. Drive the Four Passes in a day: Susten, Gotthard, Furka and Grimsel
8. Wait for the Böögg’s head to explode at Sechseläuten in Zurich
9. Ride in an open-air carriage on the Bernina Express
10. Journey through Tolkein’s Rivendell, aka the Lauterbrunnen valley
11. Watch the cows come home at a traditional Alpabzug or désalpe
12. Assemble your own Swiss Army Knife at Victorinox in Schwyz
13. Relax in an open-air thermal pool in Leukerbad

1. Brave the flames of Chienbäse fire festival in Liestal
2. Puff up Brienzer Rothorn in the last steam mountain train
3. Greet a new day with the sunrise from on top of Rigi
4. Step back in time at Chateau de Chillon
5. Slide down Europe’s longest toboggan run above Grindelwald
6. Devour a fondue in Gruyères
7. Cool off with a swim in the Aare at Bern
8. Chug up the world’s steepest railway to the top of Pilatus
9. Hike the Eiger Trail at the foot of that mighty mountain
10. Unwrap your inner onion at Bern’s Zibelemärit festival
11. Feel the adrenalin rush of a tandem paragliding trip
12. Lick a gelato while sitting beside Lake Lugano
13. Experience politics in action at the Appenzell Landsgemeinde or open-air parliament

1. See the Matterhorn reflected in the Riffelalpsee
2. Hop on a little boat right up to the base of the Rhine Falls
3. Witness man’s best and worst at the Red Cross Museum in Geneva
4. Taste the cheese freshly made in an Alpine dairy
5. Hit the heights of Jungfraujoch, Europe’s highest train station
6. Make time for a watch factory tour
7. Enjoy a plate of Älplermakkaroni in a mountain top restaurant
8. Catch a film outdoors at the Locarno Film Festival
9. Glide over the foothills of the Alps in a hot air balloon
10. Hear the roar and feel the spray of the Trümmelbach Falls
11. View the wonderful Engadine from Muottas Muragl
12. Stand at the geographic centre of Switzerland
13. Float in a boat across Europe’s largest underground lake at St Léonard

1. Discover the small-town charm of walled St Ursanne
2. Stay overnight in a historic Grand Hotel
3. Ride a bike through the hills and fields of Emmental
4. Relive Geneva’s medieval moments at the Escalade
5. Go to the spot where it all began, Rütli meadow
6. Speed through the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world’s longest tunnel
7. Celebrate National Day with rösti and wurst at a local brunch
8. Stroll through the vineyards of the Lavaux
9. Learn to make birchermuesli the Swiss way
10. Pay your respects at the graves of Chaplin, Joyce and Hepburn
11. Hum the William Tell Overture on a Postbus through the mountains
12. Indulge in a chocolate workshop at Cailler or Lindt
13. Blow an Alphorn until you make a note

If you’ve done all those already, perhaps you have your own ideas to add. What experiences would be on your Swiss bucket list?