Top 10 reasons to love Switzerland

The Sheet — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:37:52 +0000

From lofty mountains to high-end hotels and cutting-edge architecture – 10 reasons for falling for Switzerland, your Favourite European Country in our Travel Awards 2011

Zermatt rebooted

This Matterhorn-cuddling meta-village has such a standing among skiers and mountain climbers that it could have rested on its laurels till the end of time. But Zermatt has added a cool, contemporary edge to its chocolate-box charms. Last December saw the opening of the Backstage Hotel (+41 27 966 6970, backstagehotel.ch, rooms from €250), a boutique inn with rich-kitsch suites designed to within an inch of their lives – beds are on transparent boxes in the centre of the rooms. It has a super-stylish little cinema (with chandeliers) and bar, and the spa is themed not on Buddhism like so many, but on the Christian story of creation. All over town, ultra-luxury designer chalets – fronted with glass and chrome rather than pine and cutesy balconies – are springing up, while the traditional Hotel Europe (+41 27 966 2700, europe-zermatt.ch, rooms from €225) has unveiled an airy new modern wing, complete with bijou spa. Come dinnertime in the resort, the big story is Restaurant Heimberg (+41 27 967 8484, heimberg-zermatt.ch, three-course dinner from CHF74 – £52), a menu-free high-end restaurant where supermodel-esque staff interview guests about their tastes before serving personalised multiple-course feasts. Or opt for gourmet mountain hut Chez Vrony (+41 27 967 2552, chezvrony.ch).

Fresh Basel

The oldest and most important contemporary art fair in the world, Art Basel (artbasel.com, 13-17 June 2012) is the tip of the iceberg in Switzerland's third-largest city. The permanent collection at Fondation Beyeler (fondationbeyeler.ch) bristles with Giacomettis, Picassos, Monets and Bacons, while the Kunstmuseum (kunstmuseumbasel.ch) houses the world's oldest public art collection, and its largest collection of Holbeins. A 30-minute bus ride takes you across the German border to Riehen and the Vitra Design Museum (design-museum.de) home to buildings by Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando, or take a tram to the Gotheanum (goetheanum.org) in neighbouring Dornach. The centre of Rudolph Steiner's anthroposophy movement, this vast, visionary 1928 structure in cast concrete is built without a single right angle and is rich in sculptural forms, murals and stained glass.

Master strokes

You're never more than 20km from a lake or river in Switzerland, and the Swiss keep their H₂O extraordinarily clean, so even in the centre of its busiest cities, pretty much any river or lake is ripe for the dipping. Zurich tops the lido tables, with 18 outdoor bathing areas (zuerich.com), many of which morph into funky, artsy bars by night, but Geneva also has its posh pontoons, complete with sauna and hammams, in the form of Bains des Paquis (bains-des-paquis.ch). And both Basel's Rhine and Bern's Aare rivers throng with paddling punters in summer, some even commute to work this way.

Oases with oomph

There's nothing much you can teach the Swiss about water-based wellness. They have a 2,000-year history of tapping the country's abundant thermal springs, but never stop reinventing the idea. Among the most sumptuous spas are those of Hotel Therme in Vals (+41 81 926 8961, therme-vals.ch, admission €31), an austere-glam grotto carved into the rock by Peter Zumthor, the Swiss architect behind this year's Serpentine Pavilion in Hyde Park, and Tschuggen Bergoase (+41 81 378 9999, tschuggen.ch, half-day £46) in Arosa, whose spooky glass spinnakers shooting from the mountainside flood the space with light. New kid on the block since last spring is the huge spa at the Eden Roc (+41 91 785 7171, edenroc.ch, half-day £35) in Ascona, whose mosaic- and stone-covered walls in shades of blue and grey reflect the colours of Lake Maggiore, a loofah's throw away.

La dolce Helvetia

Switzerland's Italian-speaking region is its sunniest, and the cantons that border Lake Maggiore in the south-east boast balmy climes, lush sub-tropical flora and a laid-back riviera lifestyle fuelled by Italia-tinged cuisine. Home to lotus blossoms and giant sequoias, the stunning botanical garden on San Pancrazio, one of the lake's two Brissago Islands (isolebrissago.ch) is a must-see, as is the vibrant city of Lugano (lugano-tourism.ch). And while no self-respecting adrenalinista would miss the chance to recreate 007's Goldeneye bungee jump at the Verzasca dam, the tranquil, hamlet-studded and largely hotel-free valleys of Verzasca (verzasca.ch) and Maggia (vallemaggia.ch) are the real finds here. There is just a sprinkling of unpretentious, reasonably priced lodgings in villages such as Brione and Gerra – you may just be the only visitors in the valley.

Ski crowd-free

If you like your pistes crowd-free and your powder plentiful, the undercelebrated resorts of Adelboden (adelboden.ch), Andermatt (andermatt.ch) and Val D'Anniviers (sierre-anniviers.ch) are where you should point your ski tips. Quaint weathered chalets and barns are the norm here, rather than shiny hotels and busy bars, and while the marked runs are mainly in the intermediate range, there's a wealth of off-piste action in trees, powder fields and long, north-facing valleys which hold their snow beautifully. Andermatt – where Elvis learned to ski, fact fans – recently caught the eye of Egyptian tycoon Samih Sawiris. He has very commercial plans for its future, so don't delay – get there while it's, er, cold.

Arty architecture

For all their yodelling, alpenhorns and cowbells, the Swiss are no slouches when it comes to pushing the boundaries of design and architecture. Barely a year has passed of late without some ultramodern landmark building springing up – whether on an idyllic mountainside, as in the case of Mario Botta's tiny but striking 1996 church of San Giovanni Battistta in Mogno, or in the heart of a city, such as Frank Gehry's Novartis Campus building, which opened in Basel in 2009, and Renzo Piano's seductively undulating Zentrum Paul Klee (paulkleezentrum.ch) of 2005 in Bern. Most recently, the Rolex Learning Centre (rolexlearningcenter.ch) in Lausanne, a spaceship of a building by Japanese architects SANAA won Wallpaper* magazine's Best New Public Building award 2011.

Diamond digs

Switzerland's diversity is reflected as much in the range of accommodation as anywhere else. Where do you fancy hanging your hat? In Lausanne's 19th-century Château d'Ouchy (+41 21 331 3232, chateaudouchy.ch, rooms from £235), in a Mongolian yurt high above Lake Geneva on the edge of Rochers de Naye (goldenpass.ch) 2,000m above sea level, or in the unique La Claustra, (+41 91 880 5055, schau-mal.com), a luxury hotel in a converted artillery bunker bored deep into the San Gottardo mountain. At the other end of the scale, and a comfort to those fearing the all-slaying power of today's Swiss franc, the country's hostels are among the world's best – take a bow Grindelwald (youthhostel.ch), recently voted the world's cleanest. And stays in the haylofts of working farms (bauernhof-ferien.ch), starting at as little as £7 a night, are proof that for all its banking muscle and corporate polish, Switzerland is still more than happy to share its rustic roots.

Life in the slow lane

While tour operators such as Black Tomato (blacktomato.co.uk) and Swiss Safari (swisssafari.com) offer sports cars to rent if you want to cruise some great driving roads in millionaire style, those who prefer their transport low-carbon also qualify for superstar treatment. SwitzerlandMobility (schweizmobil.ch), an organisation promoting non-motorised traffic, has created local, regional and national networks of signposted routes for hikers, cyclists, mountain bikers, roller skaters and canoeists. Many routes are integrated with public transport so you can cover plenty of ground, there are options for bike rental, overnight accommodation and transport of luggage, and you can plan your next move on the go with an iPhone app.

Express yourself

"Sorry I'm late – my train was delayed," is a not an excuse you tend to hear in Switzerland. And apart from being the centrepiece of the country's mind-bogglingly efficient integrated transport system, the Swiss rail network includes some of the most dazzling routes on the planet. Linking Chur with Tirano, just over the border in Italy, and fitted with panoramic windows, the Bernina Express (rhb.ch/Bernina-Express) rises on an old stone viaduct to pass forests, plunging cliffs and the Morteratsch glacier, taking in 55 tunnels, 196 bridges and a peak altitude of 2253m. It's only the third railway route in the world to have Unesco world heritage status.

• This article was amended on 11 October 2011 to correct the original version which stated the ski resort of Val d'Anniviers was in the Bernese Oberland. It is in Valais

Panorama: Rolex Learning Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland

The Sheet — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:00:48 +0000

Andy Hall's 360-degree image takes you right inside SANAA's spectacular new campus building at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, with commentary by Observer architecture critic Rowan Moore

Jim Powell

Rowan Moore

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