Heard of Swisstainable? It’s Switzerland’s answer to sustainability
21.07.2023 - 07:50
/ roughguides.com
/ Lake Geneva
/ London St Pancras
Rough Guides writer Lucy Pierce travels around Switzerland sustainably by rail, visiting thermal spas, alpine villages and world-renowned ski resorts.
Toblerone-shaped peaks, chocolate box villages and thermal spa towns are all connected by Switzerland's incredibly efficient train network. Sitting back in a plump chair, I watched tranquil lakeside locations, towering peaks and wild gorges pass by.
Rough Guides readers have voted Switzerland in the top four most beautiful countries in the world, and I have to say, deservedly so.
If you’re tempted by Switzerland, why not opt to travel more consciously by rail? Trains leave London St Pancras from 5.40 am until 8 pm, arriving in 6-8 hours via the London-Paris Eurostar and Paris-Geneva TGV and you’d omit five times less carbon.
Striving to live in a climate-neutral nation by 2050, the Swiss have a specific sustainability strategy: Swisstainable. Home to one of the most closely-knit and densest rail networks in the world, 9,600 trains travel each day, and they are on time over 90% of the time. British transport could learn a thing or two.
Impressively, SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) generates the electricity for its trains, stations and offices from hydropower, and is already 100% carbon neutral. These trains link up the 19 Swiss national parks, which offer a vast 65,000km of hiking trails.
Sticking to the trails is so important, as they are often through sensitive areas of flora and fauna and you never know where a furry marmot may be hiding.
«Swisstainable» — policies for sustainable tourism in Switzerland © Swiss Tourism
As Geneva is encompassed by the French border, onward travel is on the scenic train that hugs the northern side of Lake Geneva. It passes Lausanne, Vevey, Montreux – known for its summer Jazz festival – and the impressive 11th-century Chillon Castle that juts out on the lake on its own island.
On one side, the dazzling Lake Geneva lies beneath the Alps and Jura mountains, on the other side vines sprawl up the hillside. These vineyards mostly produce crisp and fruity white wine from the chasselas grape, known as perlan around Geneva, but once I reached the Alps, it goes by the name of fendant.
I continued into the canton of Valais, renowned for its wine – the region alone has 52 grape varieties – making it the largest wine region in Switzerland. Just 1% of Swiss wines are exported, so oenophiles will find plenty of grape varieties to taste. My particular favourite was a Valais speciality called Petite Arvine, a dry white wine that is crisp with citrus notes.
Château de Chillon on Lake Geneva © Shuttertock / Natheepat Kiatpaphaphong
I awoke at Hotel Quellenhof to the faint clunk of cowbells and pitter-patter of rain. Leukerbad is a typical Swiss