Switzerland Halal Travel Guide

Politically, Switzerland is divided into 26 cantons, but the traveler will find the following regions more useful:

Tourist regions of Switzerland (motorways: red, expressways: yellow, waterways: blue)

Western Switzerland From the northern shores of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) and the Alps to the Jura.

Berne Region The core region of traditional Bernese influence

Bernese Highlands The majestic Bernese Alps

Central Switzerland The birthplace of the Swiss Confederation and the legends of Wilhelm Tell

Northwestern Switzerland Culture, arts and home of the Swiss pharmaceutical industry; neighbouring Germany and France

Zürich The country’s largest city with a sprawling metropolitan area

Eastern Switzerland Between the Alps and Lake Constance, Abbey of St Gall, and home to many scenic dairy farms on rolling hills in Appenzell

Valais Switzerland’s highest peaks and Europe’s largest glaciers

Graubünden Officially trilingual, the region is very mountainous, lightly populated and home to many great tourist destinations and includes the ancient Romansh minority language and culture (in English also known as The Grisons)

Ticino Italian-speaking region including famous alpine lakes

The Swiss Alps stretch through the regions of the eastern part of Lake Geneva, Valais, Bernese Highlands, the southern part of Central Switzerland, almost the entirety of Ticino except for the most southern part, the southern part of Northeastern Switzerland, and Graubünden.

• Berne (Bern) — as close as this highly developed nation gets to having a capital with an amazingly well preserved old-town, with arcades along almost every street; great restaurants abound
• Basel — the traveller’s gateway to the German Rhineland and Black Forest and French Alsace with an exceptional medieval centre on a bend of the Rhine river
• Geneva (Genève) — this centre of arts and culture is an international city home to around 200 governmental and non-governmental organisations, birth place of the World-Wide-Web at CERN and the Red Cross organisation (ICRC)
• Interlaken — the outdoor and action sports capital of Switzerland; anything from skydiving, bungee jumping, hiking, white-water rafting, to canyoning
• Lausanne — scenery, dining, dancing, boating and the Swiss wine-country are the draws
• Lucerne (Luzern) — main city of the central region with direct water links to all of the sites of early Swiss history
• Lugano — a gorgeous old-town, a pretty lake; much Italianatà combined with Swiss seriousness
• St. Gallen — main city of north-eastern Switzerland, renowned for its Abbey of St. Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it also functions as the gate to the very special Appenzell region.
• Zurich (Zürich) — Switzerland’s largest city and a major centre of banking with a thriving nightlife

• Davos — large ski resort where the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum takes place
• Grindelwald — the classic resort at the foot of the Eiger
• Lavaux — A region of terraced vineyards on the shore of Lake Geneva and a UNESCO cultural heritage site.
• St. Moritz— glitzy ski resort in the Engadine valley in south-eastern Switzerland
• Jungfrau-Aletsch — A protected area around the largest glaciated area in the Alps. This high alpine park offers stunning views and is also a UNESCO natural heritage site.
• Zermatt — famous mountain resort at the base of the mighty Matterhorn