BINN, SWITZERLAND

Life moves slowly in the village of Binn--and that's by design. Years ago, the residents of this tiny Alpine town (pop. 150, two and a half hours from Bern) decided to stave off development by preserving the surrounding valley as a park. Today, instead of the posh ski resorts and multilane highways in much of southwestern Switzerland, Binn remains a time capsule of village life. Gravel lanes wind between neat pine chalets. Flower boxes filled with geraniums hang from every window. The town's 16th-century bridge is traversed by hikers and goats instead of cars. Up the Binna River, visitors will find even smaller hamlets and picture-perfect meadows, where they can spread out a picnic of local wine and raclette cheese and listen to the cowbells ring down from the high pastures. About a mile from Binn along mountain trails, the riverside Restaurant Imfeld is a timber chalet at 4,983 feet with a terrace overlooking the Alps. Hikers can stop in for fresh trout and Valais air-dried beef--prepared by rubbing salt, herbs, and spices into raw beef and leaving it to dry in a wooden barn for at least six weeks (011-41/27-971-4596, entrées from $9).


How to Get There: Because of Binn's remote location, it's not exactly an easy trip to get to the town from major cities. On PostBus Switzerland, you can get from Zurich to Binn in a little over three hours with two bus transfers--not a terrible trek to reach total untouched seclusion (postbus.ch, one way from $56).


Reference: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/0...mp=sem_outloud

Thanks Peter. I've never binn there but it's now on my list.

And when you do go there remember not to litter.....use the binn please.

Are Fox News also going to report on how it has now been spoiled by a sudden increase in tourism in a couple of years time?

For that, I can go one way to Paris. Why would any tourist invest into that, when you can get the same backwards feel in many other more accessible little towns?

ftfy

I went there once, it's rubbish.

It depends if you're interested standing in the river for hours sifting through the water to find filters of gold.