Hi,

I hope someone can help me.
I am trying to find a good walking/hiking book for Switzerland, I live in Zurich and have a toddler, I want to buy my husband a book for Christmas, and have seen the Lonely planet book (but I think it is for the serious hiker) and wondered what people can recommend?
We love the countryside here and want to get out and explore more, but never really know where the paths are/go.
Thank you

I have a book a bought in Orell Füesli that has a collection of walks all within easy reach of the Zürichsee. It has approximately 20 walks in it ranging from very easy to relatively challenging ones that take two days. I am sorry that I can't remember the name, but it was from Orell Füesli, has a red cover and is written in German. OF should have a good selection of others too.

It's probably this:



Here

I didn't mention it because it's written in German but to be honest, it's still easy to use with topo and normal maps etc. Most of the walks are around 4 hours long which may be too long for the OP's requirements, especially if the toddler wants to walk a lot!

Yes, exactly - many thanks!

anybody know of an english book?

Cheers guys,
I ideally wanted one in English, but that sounds pretty good otherwise, and with my basic German dn the maps etc, I am sure we will be able to battle on.
I will pop into OF and see what they have, until now I have been looking on line and I find it hard to judge from the internet without the book in front of me.
Have you seen the Lonely planet book?
cheers

I've got that too. It describes much more serious hikes, often multi-day ones so probably isn't what you are looking for.

Hi,

The very best book, in my experience, and enjoyable to read, is "Walking Switzerland the Swiss Way" by Marcia and Philip Lieberman. It's seriously out of date, but the basic descriptions of what makes each region interesting are good and should suggest places you might enjoy. You can put that together with something like this:

http://www.wandersite.ch/def_english.html

which I've found to be a wonderful resource. You can specify walks by area, duration, and level of difficulty, and even specify walks with kids. I've done several of them in the Basel region, on my own, and only got lost once (my fault).

Most of the pages are in German, but there is so much information you won't have trouble figuring it out. And the English page provides links to other English-language sites.

A walking map might be a nice gift. Or see what books the tourist office has.

Have a look at www.cicerone.co.uk. They are a specialist walking book publisher and have several excellent guidebooks covering different parts of Switzerland, in English.

They stock them at Stauffacher in Bern, I would imagine Orrel Füssli in Zürich might also have them.

In addition to the wandersite link posted above, www.hikr.org is another good online resource - mostly in German.

For another online list of easier walks (not all though), you could always have a look at our very own LongByt's list of GPS-tagged hikes here.

The GPS bit isn't important (I don't use one) but I've done a lot of the hikes with my family including toddlers and they've been a great source of inspiration.

You just need to buy your husband a good map or two instead of a guidebook.