1

There are tons of possibilities.

The airports of Geneva, Zurich and Basel are linked to the Swiss railway network: trains every 30 to 60 min to about everywhere in Switzerland. Bern airport is fine if you want to minimize check in times (less than 1 hr). He is connected by bus to the railway stations of Belp and Rubigen, from where you can reach places like Interlaken, Adelboden, Gstaad, Saas Fee, Riederalp, Crans-Montana in less than 2 hrs. Often cheap flights from London City airport (if you book well ahead).

The most sunny places are in the canton of Valais: Crans-Montana, Riederalp, Bettmeralp, Verbier, Zermatt. St. Moritz is fine too: 3 3/4 hrs by train from Zurich airport, however.

Have a look at http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html
http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/en/ and the many links you find there and make your choice.

I suppose you are aware that 5 star hotels are really expensive in Switzerland.

BTW: there are some places with alpine thermal baths, as an addition or an alternative to hotel pools:
Scuol-Tarasp, Moerel Breiten, Leukerbad, Ovronnaz, Saillon-les-Bains; google for them!

2

Ooh, that sounds like an interesting idea! Thanks, we will look into those.

It's because there seem to be so many possibilities that I'm asking for recommendation, but I suppose I can enjoy the research phase as well!

Will places like Gstaad, Verbier, Zermatt, etc. be overrun by the skiing crowd?

3

The best ski areas of Switzerland are Verbier-Nendaz, Champery-Avoriaz, Zermatt, Klosters-Davos, Samnaun-Ischgl. If you go to these places, you will certainly not be alone.
February is not super high season. Verbier is popular with people from UK and Champery-Avoriaz with people from France. Possible crowds depend on holidays in these countries.
Verbier, Crans-Montana, Nendaz, Gstaad, Lenk, Adelboden, Wengen, Grindelwald, Hasliberg, are day tripper destinations for people living at Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, etc.
Almost all places have a more or less big network of prepared winter hiking trails.

4

Most swiss resorts have struggled in recent years due to the exchange rate so are likely to be less crowded than French, Austrian and Italian resorts but they will still be pretty busy with skiiers. To me the Zermatt is idylic with its traffic free streets, but if you want to avoid skiiers then best to go in the summer. France and the UK have split holiday weeks in February so apart from the first week February can be very busy.

5

That's good information, thanks both of you.

6

It's probably just me but why do you want to go to a small town in the Alps and then stay in a 4 or 5 star resort hotel?

To each his own but I feel like a nice B&B would have a little more "small town" spirit.

Either way, Murren is great and pretty easy to get to.

7

Now we're older and can afford the extravagance, we've found it to be quite pleasant. And you're still allowed to go outside and see what everyone else sees if you behave yourself...