Switzerland eSIM

Mobile Networks & Coverage in Switzerland

e1sim Switzerland plans run on Salt — one of Switzerland's three national mobile networks, with 4G LTE coverage across all major cities, valleys, lakeshores and the main Alpine resort villages. You get a strong signal in Zurich, Geneva, Bern, Basel, Lucerne and Lausanne, as well as in Interlaken, Grindelwald, Zermatt, St. Moritz, Davos and the other mountain towns that sit at the base of the great peaks.

Switzerland has some of the best mobile infrastructure in the world, and coverage extends well into the Alpine terrain: most established hiking trails at valley level and mid-mountain have solid LTE. On very high passes, exposed ridge routes and the summits above 3,000 metres, signal can be intermittent — though the famous viewpoints (Jungfraujoch, Gornergrat, Rigi, Pilatus) all have coverage. Download offline maps before long high-altitude hikes in the backcountry.

The Alps in Summer — Hiking, Crystal Lakes & Cool Mountain Air

Switzerland in summer is one of Europe's great travel secrets — not because it is undiscovered, but because many travellers still associate it primarily with skiing. While southern Europe bakes in 38–42°C heat from June to August, Switzerland's valleys enjoy a temperate 22–28°C and its mountain trails are crisp, clear and green with wildflowers. No humidity, no air-conditioning queues, no burnt-sand beaches: just meadows of Edelweiss and Alpenrosen, waterfalls fed by snowmelt, and 65,000 kilometres of marked hiking paths threading through some of the most spectacular mountain scenery on earth.

The Bernese Oberland — the Alpine region around Interlaken, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen — is Switzerland's hiking heartland. The Lauterbrunnen valley, with its 72 waterfalls (including the 297-metre Staubbachfall plunging from sheer cliffs), inspired Tolkien's Rivendell; the car-free village of Mürren perches above the clouds on a terrace accessible only by cable car and train. The Eiger Trail runs along the base of the notorious 1,800-metre North Face — you can touch the rock that has defeated and claimed the greatest climbers in history while enjoying a cheese toastie and a cold Appenzeller beer at the trailside bench. The First Cliff Walk, a steel walkway cantilevered over a 2,000-metre drop near Grindelwald, is not for those who dislike heights — and irresistible to everyone else.

Switzerland's lakes are the equal of its mountains. Lake Geneva — the largest Alpine lake — stretches 73 kilometres along the French border, its northern shore lined with UNESCO-listed Lavaux vineyards that terrace the hillsides from Lausanne to Montreux. The Montreux Jazz Festival (July) has attracted everyone from Miles Davis to Prince; the Chillon Castle, rising from the lake's edge on a rocky island near Montreux, is one of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in Europe. Lake Lucerne winds between forested limestone mountains; the wooden Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), dated 1333 and decorated with painted panels, is Europe's oldest covered wooden bridge. Lake Brienz, near Interlaken, is an almost improbable shade of turquoise blue, fed by glacial meltwater of exceptional purity. Lake Zurich, Lake Constance, Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano — Switzerland has 1,500 lakes in a country the size of the Netherlands, and virtually every one is clean enough to swim in.

Jungfraujoch, the Matterhorn & Lucerne

The Jungfraujoch — marketed as the "Top of Europe" — is the highest railway station on the continent at 3,454 metres above sea level, reached by a rack-and-pinion cogwheel railway that tunnels through the Eiger and Mönch on its final climb. At the top: a permanent research station, an ice palace carved into the Aletsch Glacier (the longest glacier in the Alps, a UNESCO World Heritage Site), a plateau of permanent snow even in August, and on a clear day a view south to the Italian Alps that covers 200 kilometres. The return journey from Interlaken takes around five hours; book tickets weeks ahead in peak summer.

Zermatt, at the end of a valley accessible only by electric train (no combustion engines allowed), is the base village for the Matterhorn — the 4,478-metre pyramid that has appeared on Swiss chocolate boxes, chocolate bars, maps and travel posters since the 19th century, and that somehow manages to be even more imposing in reality than in every photograph. The Gornergrat rack railway climbs to 3,089 metres for a close-up panorama of the Matterhorn and 28 other peaks above 4,000 metres. In summer, the hiking above Zermatt is world-class: the Five Lakes Walk is a moderate half-day route linking mountain tarns that each reflect the Matterhorn from a different angle.

Lucerne (Luzern) is the classic Swiss city — a medieval old town of painted facades and oriel windows on a lakeside so perfect it looks painted. The Kapellbrücke leads you across the river into the Altstadt; the Lion Monument, carved directly into a sandstone cliff, commemorates the Swiss Guards who died defending Louis XVI in 1792 and moved Mark Twain to call it "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world." A short excursion from Lucerne leads to the Rhine Falls (Rheinfalls) near Schaffhausen — the largest waterfall in Europe by volume, where the Rhine crashes 23 metres over a ledge of rocks at up to 700 cubic metres per second, throwing spray 30 metres into the air.