So, please let us know which Swiss cities you think are the loveliest and why.
Was recently in Geneva and it paled a bit in comparison with Bern, Zurich and Lucerne. Maybe it's overrated, you think? The prettiest thing is that high-shooting fountain in the lake. After a couple of days in Geneva I came away slightly disappointed. Did I miss something?
Poll time...!
(I choose Bern)
Thanks for setting up the poll, Paul. But can you please take out the two dots before the question mark in the poll question? Thanks.
P.S. I choose Bern, too.
I love Bern.
It's partly that river curving around the charming ancient quarter and those open drains full of rushing clean water that threaten to drown any tipsy pedestrian who doesn't watch his or her step, right?
If you'd asked about towns, it would be a huge list, as some of the regional small towns are very pretty indeed. Bremgarten, for example, is lovely; Olten too. Rapperswil... I could go on and hey, I often do...
Yeah, can you at least put Olten on the list too? Thanks!
And the most gorgeous lake parks? Cham's would win hands down.
And
of course there is Freibourg Old Town which is beautiful. Gruyere is also lovely, the list is endless
I wonder who else voted for Basel
Could you also add Zug please?
Oh, the jet d'eau, that's just a tourist attraction like the flower clock.
Unfortunately, the centre of Geneva is becoming deader and deader - apart from the ever increasing traffic jams and bottle necks due to the road works because of constructing new tram lines which have been going on for years and will go on for I don’t know how long.
The traditional restaurants and tearooms in town close one after the other because they can’t afford the rents any more and are replaced by yet another bank or another jeweller or another watchshop.
The old town is pretty but what I really regard as an advantage in Geneva is the international flair (UN, international organizations and agencies, social and religious activieties of all the English-speaking churches).
Another advantage is that Geneva is an ideal place from where to take day trips both within Switzerland and to neighbouring France: e.g. the medieval town of Ivoire on the French side of Lac Leman, Annecy with its lake and picturesque old town and its canals, the Jura mountains, the Salève (although in France you might call it the ‘house mountain’ of the Geneve), the Chateau de Chillon, the Migros adventure parc at Signal de Bougy).
And I am not going to vote because I don’t know the other towns well enough to form a judgment.
The list left out some gems, as has been mentioned: Rapperswil, Zug, Stein am Rhein, Murten, Ascona, Freiburg. Lucern is a pretty difficult queen to dethrone, though, tourists and all.
My vote goes to Luzern for its overall setting: backdrop of mountains, lakes and historic architecture together with modern buildings plus, of course, the Dying Lion statue.
As others have mentioned there are many other towns and cities with beautiful areas: The Cathedral area and oriel windows of St. Gallen, the old city of Bern set on the bend in the river, Lugano, Fribourg and Gruyere are all contenders in their own way.
Definitely Lugano, It's the most beautiful city that I've seen so far and I've seen them all.
.. it's got to be Luzern
Would be fun though to have another list with small towns, as mentioned above, Stein am Rhein would surely be a contender. On second thought, truly too many beautiful historical old towns and lovely villages around, so probably makes better sense to stick to the cities
Sums it up well, and throw in Pilatus as well
If we're talking canton capitals then in the Romande, I'd vote for Neuchâtel and Sion over Lausanne and Geneva. Further north, Solothurn's a bit of a gem.
I did, because there's nothing more beautiful than the Muttenzerkurve in all it's glory
Solothurn definitely gets my vote - just beautiful.