Bern

Bern is Switzerland's federal city, and its old town, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1983, sits in a loop of the green-turquoise River Aare.

You walk under long stone arcades on both sides of the streets to the Zytglogge clock tower, whose astronomical clock sets its figures moving every hour. From the Rose Garden you look over the old town's roofs and its cathedral.

Bern is calm and sits halfway between Geneva and Zurich, about an hour from Lucerne, Interlaken and Lausanne, which makes it a good base for a multi-city trip.