4 days to see Swiss Alps, Bernese Oberland or elsewhere ?

Hi,

Your plans are fine apart from Geneva; unless there for business or family reasons you'll find you've knocked it off in a max of 2 days. There's not that much to it for the tourist - the flower clock, big fountain (doesn't run if it's windy) and the Musée International de la Croix Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge (which I found to be excellent and really thought provoking). CERN has been built since I was in Geneva and might appeal although I've read you need to book at least a month in advance for the free tour.

Don't bother with a car. Everywhere you want to go will be easily accessible by train (or failing that the post bus). Consider getting a rail pass though as point to point tickets can be expensive and the tourist passes can give discounts on attractions (for example in the Bernese Oberland area there's the Schilthorn cable car or the Jungfraujoch train).

As for hiking, Switzerland is well set up for it, you'll find hiking trails going everywhere, they're well signposted (including suggestions on how "hard" the route is) and finding the "quaint" villages definitely won't be hard. Consider getting a hiking map - I like 1:25000 myself but 1:50000 are also available.

I would rent a car.

-drive to Gruyeres-Gstaad-Interlaken

-go to the mountains Schilthorn or Jungfraujoch

-do a full drive day with a first visit to Ballenberg then via Sustenpass-Furkapass to Blatten in Lötschental

-do a 2 hours easy walk to Faffleralp and drive back to Geneva and stop before in Cully or Lutry.

Places in the Alps close to Geneva:
Vallée de Chamonix
Verbier
Haute Nendaz
Crans-Montana
Leukerbad
Zermatt
Saas Grund/Saas Fee
Riederalp/Bettmeralp
Excellent (short and long) hiking trails at all these places
Cableways into snow and ice up to 3800m of altitude at Chamonix, Zermatt, Saas Fee, to about 3000m only at the other places (except Leukerbad).
http://www.chamonix.net/english/transport/
http://www.chamonix.com
http://www.compagniedumontblanc.fr/
http://www.zermatt.ch/en/
http://www.saas-fee.ch/en/page.cfm/bergerlebnis/tarife-fahrplaene-sommer
http://www.saas-fee.ch/en/page.cfm/WillkommenSommer
http://www.riederalp.ch/fr/index.php
http://www.bettmeralp.ch/
http://www.leukerbad.ch/en/welcome.cfm?
http://www.tourism-crans-montana.co.uk/
http://www.nendaz.ch/tourism/welcome-nendaz.html
http://www.verbier.ch/en/
Have a look at http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html and the many links you will find there

Thanks for the advice - now need to follow the links. Interesting that I got one vote for a car and one for a train. Anyone else have an opinion?

Geneva is mainly for visiting a friend but we will be going to CERN (already booked) and I would presume the Red Cross museum because that is where my friend works.

not a vote train vs car

only a spectacular way to see Swiss mountains and the Swiss Alps in 4 days

I do part of this routing many times a year on my motorbike...(or waking on skis in wintertime when back from Thailand/Indonesia--Furkapass..). have an empty memory card for your camera