This article was originally published in 2022 and most recently updated on July 21, 2026, with current information.
Travel around Switzerland and you’ll pass one perfectly picturesque village after another. In winter, chalets with scalloped eaves and half-timbered houses plastered in bright pastels are dusted with snow; in spring and summer, plazas ringed by buildings bedecked with flower boxes hum with visitors.
This cheese- and chocolate-rich country has so many pretty places to romp through wildflower-filled meadows, admire storybook buildings, and inhale bracing mountain air. These are five of our favorite charming small towns and villages in Switzerland to visit by train, bike, car, or on foot.
Stein am Rhein
A history of more than a thousand years comes to life in Stein am Rhein. Today it’s a quiet town on Switzerland’s northeastern border with Germany, but it was once a wealthy trading hub and seat of the powerful St. George‘s Abbey, built between the 11th and 16th centuries. The riches accumulated by ambitious merchants and Benedictine monks created a town that dazzles with the color and artistic details on its heritage buildings.
Here, the half-timbered houses are covered in jewel-toned frescoes that depict the rhythms of medieval village life in fascinating detail, from grape harvests to formal banquets. Take a seat at one of the cheerful cafés that surround the Rathausplatz, or main square, and you’ll feel like you’re dining in an open-air museum. The metalwork in Stein am Rhein is equally captivating, with whimsical birds, dragons, griffons, and other mythical creatures adorning doorways, chimneys, and hanging signs.
Dive deeper into history with a visit to St. George’s Abbey, with its Gothic 15th-century cloister and banquet hall, now a museum. Make the 30-minute climb by foot to Hohenklingen Castle, which has been perched on a mountain 660 feet above town since 1200 C.E. Head to the castle’s restaurant for a French-inspired lunch or dinner, or just to admire the expansive view over the red-roofed village. For the best view of the abbey and the riverfront promenade, cross the river from the old town and climb the hill to a small village church.
Stein am Rhein is about 70 minutes from Zurich by train, and a visit to this lovely town is often combined with a trip to Rheinfall, Europe’s largest waterfall. Plan for a late train back to Zurich so you can see the frescoes’ brilliant colors glow in the golden-hour light and enjoy a stroll along the riverfront.
If you have time, add a day for a 2.5-hour Untersee und Rhein river excursion to Lake Constance (Bodensee), where Switzerland, Germany, and Austria meet. The cruise passes a string of medieval villages and stops at the island of Reichenau on the German side of the lake, the entirety of which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. River excursions are also available to Schaffhausen, close to the Rheinfall, but they are impacted by low water levels in the summer. Hop on the train at Konstanz, and you’ll be back in Zurich in 75 minutes.
Where to stay: Hotel Adler
There are 12 contemporary rooms, a rooftop terrace, and a generous buffet breakfast at Hotel Adler, a family-run boutique hotel just off the Rathausplatz in the heart of the medieval town. The rooms on the third floor, beneath the eaves, have cozy dormer ceilings and views of Hohenklingen Castle.
Related: This 240-Mile Trek in the Swiss Alps Is All About Mountain Huts and Cheese Shops in the Clouds
Gimmelwald
Gimmelwald is car-free and can be reached only by hiking or taking a five-minute cable car ride from Stechelberg station.
Courtesy of Jungfrau Region Tourismus AG
Perched on the edge of a cliff overhanging the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Gimmelwald is entirely car-free. The only vehicles you’re likely to see are miniature hay trucks carrying loads so big, it’s hard to fathom how the bales don’t cascade to the ground.
It takes only five minutes to reach Gimmelwald by cable car, which then continues up to Schilthorn, one of the highest peaks in Europe at 9,744 feet. At its top, viewing platforms offer 360-degree views of the entire Jungfrau range, and the revolving Piz Gloria restaurant is one of the highest dining destinations in Europe.
Visit Gimmelwald’s town website or use the QR code provided on local signage to take a guided walking tour of the village, listening to tales of the town’s colorful history, which dates back to at least 1346.
Don’t miss hard, raw-milk Bernese alpine cheese, made only in the summer. Slabs of it produced on nearby farms can be bought from a self-service refrigerated case in the village center (bring cash).
A 1.3-mile walking path connects Gimmelwald with the village of Mürren above in about 35 minutes, providing sweeping views of the Lauterbrunnen Valley as the path switchbacks up the hillside. This mini hike, which climbs about 870 feet, is also a chance to commune with the local belled cows.
Where to stay: Pension Gimmelwald
Hotel Pension Gimmelwald, a 150-year-old chalet-style hotel sitting 4,500 feet above sea level, has 11 pine-paneled rooms and a popular restaurant/biergarten where its own schwarzbier (a dark lager) is served. Beeline for the sunny terrace, which juts out over the valley below and is surrounded by towering peaks.
Spiez
The vineyards outside the Swiss village of Spiez turn golden each autumn.
Photo by Switzerland Tourism/swiss-image.ch/Andreas Gerth
A visit to Spiez in the Bernese Oberland starts and ends with stately Spiez Castle (open daily May through October), which rises above the town from a promontory jutting into Lake Thun. Beneath it, a promenade lines the quiet, horseshoe-shaped harbor with a protected swimming beach and restaurants serving traditional fare on terraces.
The train goes from Bern to Spiez in 30 minutes, but it’s more fun arriving on the Lake Thun ferry, which connects Spiez with Thun at the west end of the lake and Interlaken at the east end.
Touring Spiez Castle is an interactive experience, with exhibits that include a costume room featuring garb fit for a Renaissance fair. The jousting setup will teach anyone who mounts the practice steed that riding while holding an unbelievably heavy lance is harder than it looks. Next to the castle, the Romanesque castle church remains much as it was a thousand years ago and features frescoes dating from the 13th century.
The Museum of Local History and Viticulture, in a 1728 barn and farmhouse just outside town, is open weekend afternoons and showcases the history and traditional techniques of local winemaking.
Where to stay: Hotel Eden Spiez
Keep watch on the bustling harbor at the Hotel Eden Spiez, a circa-1903 lakeside resort with a saltwater pool, hydrotherapy spa, and waterfront restaurant and bistro-bar.
Related: The Best Way to See Switzerland? Jump Into a River
Chur
St. Martin’s Church in Chur was originally built in the 8th century, then destroyed by fire in 1464 and rebuilt in 1491.
Courtesy of Andreas Gerth/Switzerland Tourism
The fountain-bedecked plazas, skyscraping church towers, and cobblestone streets of Chur’s Old Town date to the Middle Ages, but Switzerland’s oldest city has been around since at least 280 C.E.
Among Chur’s remarkably well-preserved buildings is the 12th-century Cathedral of the Assumption on the hill above town, and the late 15th-century St. Martin’s Church with its spare Gothic tower and pretty sheltered plaza. The church also has three stained windows by Augusto Giacometti, added in 1919, which feature the artist’s characteristic elongated forms and forbidding expressions to give an overall sense of gloom.
Chur honors its history as a market town with plenty of regular events, including a Saturday farmers’ market with produce, cheese, and all manner of sausage from the surrounding Graubünden region; a monthly Gänggelimarkt flea market; and a traditional Christmas market with colorful crafts that opens in November.
Visitors also come to Chur to board the narrow-gauge Glacier Express, which has been making the epic journey across the Alps from Zermatt to St. Moritz since 1930. Spring for the Excellence Class, and savor the ride in the reclining seats of a glass-roofed dining car where a five-course meal of Alpine fare is served.
Where to stay: Hotel Stern Chur
Pink-walled Hotel Stern Chur, located in the heart of the old town, has welcomed weary travelers with its fluffy feather beds and chalet-style knotty pine dining room for nearly 360 years.
Related: Feel Like You’re in a Snow Globe on These Scenic Train Rides
Romainmôtier
Romainmôtier is home to what is believed to be Switzerland’s oldest monastery, parts of which date to the 5th century C.E.
Courtesy of André Meier/Switzerland Tourism
The medieval village of Romainmôtier (population 540) is tucked deep in the Nozon River valley at the foot of the Jura Mountains and has long drawn day-trippers.
Visitors come from Geneva (90 minutes by train) to see the village’s Romanesque 10th-century monastery, thought to be the oldest in Switzerland. Much of the current building was constructed between 990 and 1028, but walls remain from the original 5th-century church, and the imposing turreted church and peaceful stone-walled cloister feel unchanged from the days that Cluny monks walked the halls in meditation.
History isn’t the only draw here; several of the town’s medieval buildings house galleries showcasing contemporary art, such as dAM | Espace de Andrés-Missirlian, and musical events take place throughout the summer. A meal at Maison du Prieur in the original prior’s house is a must; order the charcuterie board to sample the hearty local sausage and country-style pork-and-chicken pâté with some regional cheeses and finish with the crispy puff pastry fruit tart.
Romainmôtier is also a convenient base from which to explore the nature-rich canton of Vaud, starting with a trek through the Nozon Gorge to the Cascade du Dard waterfall just outside town. Take the train 35 minutes to the medieval village of Vallorbe, where the river Orbe plunges through a series of stalactite-studded caves and underground passages accessible via ladders and stairs.
And then there’s one of the highlights of the Jura range, the 360-degree views from 4,865-foot Dent de Vaulion, which encompass eight lakes and extends all the way to Mont Blanc. Several hiking trails lead here, the easiest of which is a moderate-level 4.5-mile hike with 1,200 feet of elevation. If you’re not up for a trek, drive the windy road to the Dent de Vaulion Chalet, from which it’s a 15-minute walk to the top. Try the house specialty, fondue, or visit equally rustic Auberge du Morez, another starting point for the walk to the top, for more fondue and cute sheep.
Where to Stay: Maison Junod
Sleep in a wrought-iron four-poster bed, meet other guests in a convivial common room with a grand piano, and wake to a picnic basket of flaky pastries and preserves delivered to your room at Maison Junod. Housed in a 16th-century building updated for modern comfort, the six-room guesthouse is in the center of tiny Romainmôtier.
