All guides

The guides hub is a library of essential-reading articles built around the questions that trip up first-time visitors. A Jet d'Eau guide covers the fountain's 140-metre plume on the Geneva lakefront and the best vantage points for photographing it. A Mont Blanc guide is direct about logistics: the Aiguille du Midi cable car from Chamonix reaches 3,842 metres, the Mer de Glace is reached separately by the Montenvers train, and Mont Blanc itself, at 4,806 metres, is the highest peak in the Alps rather than something climbed casually.

A Getting Around guide compares tpg trams and buses within Geneva, covered by the free hotel-issued Geneva Transport Card, against the CFF rail network and the Swiss Travel Pass for longer trips to Lausanne, Montreux or Gruyères. A Lavaux guide covers the UNESCO-listed terraced vineyards between Lausanne and Montreux and corrects the idea that they can be seen properly from a moving train alone. A Zermatt guide explains that the village bans combustion-engine cars entirely, that the Matterhorn rises to 4,478 metres above it, and that the trip from Geneva runs about 4 hours by train.

A currency and border guide is direct about the Swiss franc used in Geneva and across Switzerland, the switch to euros just across the French border at Annecy, Chamonix or the French Lakeshore towns, and the fact that Switzerland sits in Schengen but outside the European Union. A Château de Chillon guide covers the castle's lakeshore setting at Veytaux, near Montreux, and how it's reached by CGN boat or train.