There are many reasons to take a self-guided tour to the Alps. Perhaps you don't want to be part of a group, maybe you have your own family or group, or just prefer to explore on your own. Many people have restrictive travel dates that don't match up with our guided tours, and a self-guided tour becomes the best option for your schedule. Plus, self-guided tours are more flexible (in the planning stages) and affordable than guided tours, generally running about 2/3 the cost of a comparable guided tour. We've designed self-guided tours as short as 2 days or as long as 3 weeks, and take pride in finding just the right itinerary for your needs. We can arrange quiet, intimate tours for two or larger getaways for groups of friends, work collegues, or family reunions. You can stay in absolute luxury of 4 or 5-star hotels or take in the rustic ambiance of remote mountain inns or alpine club huts. The choice is yours!

We offer a variety of well-tested self-guided packages - self-guided versions of many of our guided tours that have proven to be very popular with our clients. We can also customize any of these tours to lengthen or shorten them, add inn-to-inn stretches or extended village stays, and upgrade or downgrade accommodations and railpasses. We only arrange self-guided tours in the areas we know and love best, and you'll benefit from the experience and expertise accumulated as a former year-round resident of Switzerland and long-time hiking guide. We know the inns and the locations, and will direct you to the best options Switzerland has to offer.

Consider adding nights in Lucerne, Zürich, or Geneva at the end of your trip. We have comfortable, clean 3-star hotels and luxurious 4-star hotels all in great locations, or simple, affordable airport hotels can be arranged.

Choose from these suggested self-guided options:

Prices are per person based on 2-4 people sharing double rooms. There is a small single supplement for single travelers, and we can arrange discounted prices for larger groups.

Our self-guided tours typically include prepaid hotels with breakfast and dinner, a Swiss transfer ticket or appropriate railpass for travel to and from the airport or border, carefully detailed route descriptions (including longer, shorter, and rainy day options), hiking maps with highlighted routes, instructions for independently sending luggage ahead, and lots of useful information that will help your trip run smoothly.

Not included are lunches, drinks with your meals, extras (such as laundry, phone calls from the room, etc), transportation not covered by your rail pass, or the cost of luggage transport. Exact details vary slightly from tour to tour, so see the individual tour descriptions for complete details.

Our route descriptions are detailed and descriptive, with elevation guides, longer and shorter options, ideas for rainy days, and are customized to fit your trip. View a sample route description.
We use maps from the Swiss Topographic Office, works of art that are the best available, and include a larger fold-out map of the region as well as page-size maps for daily use with your route highlighted. View part of a sample hiking map.

Many of our tours feature different options to fit the level of comfort you're looking for. Mountain inns are usually located a bit outside of villages, and are run like rustic B&B's, with simple, private rooms and a bathroom/shower down the hall. Our standard inns are usually 3-star hotels, always in great locations, with comfortable rooms and private bathrooms, and with view rooms if at all possible. Both of these options include 2nd class railpasses. Our deluxe tours feature standard rooms (superior rooms and suites available upon request) at some of the finest 4 and 5-star hotels at each location, and 1st class railpasses. The standard-deluxe tours fall somewhere in between - a mix of top 3-star hotels and distinctive inns, with 4-star upgrades in select locations, and 1st or 2nd class railpasses, depending on the tour.

The 8-day Sampler tour is designed to minimize travel times, so that you can see as much as possible on a quick trip, spending maximum time at each destination. The 13-day Sampler tour adds layover days at each stop for a more relaxed pace, and has generally longer travel times, enjoying Switzerland's most scenic train journeys, such as the Glacier Express, Bernina Express, and Goldenpass train trips.

Both of our Swiss Sampler self-guided itineraries are easy, enjoyable ways to see the wonderful diversity that Switzerland has to offer, and can be done by car as well as train. As always, these itineraries can be customized to fit your travel plans.

13-day Sampler tours also include Goldenpass, Glacier Express, Bernina Express, and optional Chocolate train reservations. For deluxe tours, 5-star hotels and room upgrades are available at many locations.

You should also consider adding a night or two in the cities of Zurich, Geneva, or Lucerne. Swiss cities are clean and walkable, and these three are all very interesting for a day or two. Most people will need to spend a night in their departure city before flying home the next day, and we have great 3 and 4-star hotel options in each of these cities. Ask about it when we're discussing your tour.

Private guided tours can also be arranged for itineraries that might be more complicated on a self-guided basis, such as the Haute Route, inn-to-inn tours through the Dolomites, or the Tour of Mont Blanc. Give us a call or email to start working on the right itinerary for your family or group.