The 14 most beautiful villages in Switzerland

Zermatt, in the Upper Valais, is the village of the Matterhorn (4,478 m), the pyramid-shaped peak visible from the main street. Combustion-engine cars are banned: you arrive by train, from Visp or on the shuttle from the Täsch terminal.

The Gornergrat rack railway, running since 1898, climbs to 3,089 m in 33 minutes, facing the Matterhorn and the Gorner glacier. In winter, the ski area links up with Cervinia in Italy. In the old quarter, larch-wood granaries raised on stilts recall the farming village that existed before tourism.

Lauterbrunnen lies in a deep glacial valley in the Bernese Oberland, framed by sheer cliffs and ribbons of falling water. The Jungfrau Region tourism board calls it the "valley of 72 waterfalls", and its most famous, the Staubbach Falls, drops about 297 metres, among the highest free-falling waterfalls in Switzerland.

The village is also a gateway to the car-free resorts of Wengen and Mürren and to the Schilthorn, and a starting point for some of the best-known hikes in the Alps.

Grindelwald spreads out below the north face of the Eiger, one of the most famous walls in the Alps. Unlike Wengen and Mürren, the village can be reached by car as well as by direct train from Interlaken Ost, which makes it a handy base for the Jungfrau region.

Two lifts shape a visit. The First gondola leads to high trails, including the walk to Bachalpsee lake, where the peaks are reflected. The Eiger Express reaches Eigergletscher, from where the Jungfrau railway climbs to the Jungfraujoch at 3,454 m.

Mürren sits on a terrace above the Lauterbrunnen valley, facing the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. No road climbs up here: the chalet village is reached by cable car and narrow-gauge train, which keeps it unusually quiet.

Above it, the Schilthorn cable car climbs to Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant made famous by the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). On foot, the trail to the neighbouring hamlet of Gimmelwald runs down between meadows and farms.

Interlaken sits on the alluvial plain between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, hence its Latin name, "between the lakes". It is a small town rather than a village, but it is the rail hub of the Jungfrau region: trains to Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen and the Jungfraujoch leave from Interlaken Ost station.

In the centre, the large Höhematte meadow stays open towards the Jungfrau and doubles as the landing field for paragliders. For the overview of both lakes, the Harder Kulm funicular climbs to the viewpoint above the town.

Wengen sits on a sunny terrace above Lauterbrunnen, below the Jungfrau. Like Mürren, the village has no access road: the Wengernalpbahn rack railway is the only way up, and the streets stay pedestrian.

Every January, Wengen hosts the Lauberhorn races, a ski World Cup event held since 1930. The rest of the year, the Männlichen cable car leads to a viewpoint over the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the start of a panoramic trail to Kleine Scheidegg.

Gruyères is a medieval town on a hilltop in the canton of Fribourg, ringed by ramparts and closed to cars. A cobbled main street leads up to the castle, built in the 13th century, which is open to visitors and overlooks the Gruyère meadows.

In the town, the HR Giger Museum shows the work of the visual creator of Alien, a deliberate contrast with the old façades. At the foot of the hill, in Pringy, La Maison du Gruyère shows how the PDO cheese is made, and the Maison Cailler chocolate factory is a few minutes away in Broc.

Lucerne nestles at the northern tip of Lake Lucerne, where the Reuss leaves the lake, between Mount Pilatus and the Rigi. It is a cantonal capital of about 80,000 people: a town rather than a village, but the natural base for Engelberg, Weggis or Vitznau.

Its emblem is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a covered wooden footbridge from the 14th century, the oldest covered wooden bridge in Europe, lined with painted panels and flanked by an octagonal water tower. The lake steamers leave right opposite, from the quays by the station.

St. Moritz, at about 1,800 m in the Upper Engadine, overlooks a lake that freezes every winter. In 1864 the hotelier Badrutt bet some English guests that they would enjoy winter here: the wager launched winter tourism in the Alps. The resort hosted the Winter Olympics in 1928 and 1948.

From that era come the St. Moritz-Celerina bobsleigh run, 1.72 km of natural ice rebuilt every winter, and the Cresta Run, a historic skeleton track. In summer, the Engadine lakes and high trails take over from the luxury of the grand hotels.

Engelberg grew up around its Benedictine abbey, founded in 1120, whose baroque church still dominates the village in central Switzerland. The village is an hour by train from Lucerne, at the end of a valley closed off by the walls of the Titlis.

The cable cars climb to 3,020 m in about thirty minutes. The last section, the TITLIS Rotair, was the world's first revolving cable car: the cabin turns on itself during the ascent. At the top, the Cliff Walk, a suspension bridge about a hundred metres long, crosses the void above the glacier.

Brienz stretches along the eastern shore of Lake Brienz, whose turquoise water comes from the Aare glaciers. The village is the Swiss centre of woodcarving: workshops, shop windows and a carving school keep the craft alive.

Two excursions start here. The Brienz Rothorn Bahn, a steam rack railway opened in 1892, climbs 7.6 km to 2,244 m, with views over the lake and the Oberland peaks. A few kilometres away, the Ballenberg open-air museum brings together more than 100 historic buildings from all over Switzerland.

Morcote clings to the southern shore of Lake Lugano, in Ticino, with its arcades, stepped lanes and ochre-toned houses. It was voted the most beautiful village in Switzerland in 2016.

A way of the cross of 400 steps climbs to the baroque church of Santa Maria del Sasso, with views down over the lake and the Italian mountains. By the lake, Parco Scherrer, a garden created by the textile merchant Arthur Scherrer, mixes subtropical plants with follies inspired by Italy and the East.

Champéry is a village of wooden chalets in the Valais Chablais, at the end of the Val d'Illiez, facing the seven peaks of the Dents du Midi. Its main street keeps old façades and a church with an onion-domed bell tower.

In winter, the Croix de Culet cable car links the village to the Portes du Soleil, a French-Swiss area of about 600 km of slopes shared with Avoriaz and Morzine. In summer, the same lifts serve hikers and mountain bikers, who are numerous on the region's downhill trails.

Ascona lines the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, in Italian-speaking Ticino, next to Locarno. Its lungolago promenade is a row of coloured houses, terraces and palm trees: this is Mediterranean Switzerland, under 200 m above sea level, where the country's lowest point lies.

Behind the town, the Monte Verità hill hosted a colony of artists and reformers in the early 20th century, and the site can be visited. In late June the JazzAscona festival, held here since 1985, takes over the lakefront.