Behind the Scenes

   THANKS
   OUR READERS
   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS BOOK

The 6th edition of Switzerland was written and researched by Nicola Williams, Damien Simonis and Kerry Walker. Damien and Nicola also wrote the 5th edition with some contributions from Sarah Johnstone. This guidebook was commissioned in Lonely Planet’s London office, and produced by the following:

Commissioning Editors Paula Hardy, Sally Schafer
Coordinating Editor Robyn Loughnane
Coordinating Cartographer Ross Butler
Coordinating Layout Designers Carlos Solarte, Clara Monitto
Managing Editor Bruce Evans
Managing Cartographers Mark Griffiths, Herman So, Shahara Ahmed
Managing Layout Designers Sally Darmody, Laura Jane
Assisting Editors Sally O’Brien, Diana Saad, Cathryn Game
Assisting Cartographers Andy Rojas
Cover Designer Marika Mercer
Project Manager Glenn van der Knijff
Language Content Coordinator Quentin Frayne, Branislava Vladisavljevic

Thanks to Jessica Boland, Melanie Dankel, Jennifer Garrett, James Hardy, Alex Leung, Trent Paton, Darren O’Connell, Amanda Rogerson, Lyahna Spencer

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THANKS

NICOLA WILLIAMS

Several friends and acquaintances recommended places to eat, things to do, places to go, not least my efficient army of Geneva-savvy volunteers from the World Economic Forum in Cologne: Carine Benetti, Danielle Boiston, Lena Hagelstein, Sophie Lux, Stéphanie Nassenstein, Juraj Ondrejkovic and Tessema Tesfachew. Special thanks in Geneva to party gal Ciara Browne for opening her address book to me and to man-around-town Alan Turner for his sterling drinking-’n-dancing-till-dawn pointers. Appreciation in equal measure to Sarah Garner for putting me in touch; temporary New Yorker Claudia Rosiny for Bern talk; Elizabeth and Nicolas at Ferme Montavon for Jurassic farm pleasures; all the Messery gals and guys (Lee, Michael et al) for keeping me posted on their Geneva sorties; the ever dependable Nana and Omi for domestic reinforcement; and last but far from least the lovely Lüfkens boys Niko, Mischa and Matthias for always travelling with so much relish and gusto.

DAMIEN SIMONIS

Thanks in general go to tourist office staff in Vaud, Basel, Aargau, Zürich, Schaffhausen, Thurgau, St Gallen, Glarus and Ticino.

THE LONELY PLANET STORY

Fresh from an epic journey across Europe, Asia and Australia in 1972, Tony and Maureen Wheeler sat at their kitchen table stapling together notes. The first Lonely Planet guidebook, Across Asia on the Cheap, was born.

Travellers snapped up the guides. Inspired by their success, the Wheelers began publishing books to Southeast Asia, India and beyond. Demand was prodigious, and the Wheelers expanded the business rapidly to keep up. Over the years, Lonely Planet extended its coverage to every country and into the virtual world via lonelyplanet.com and the Thorn Tree message board.

As Lonely Planet became a globally loved brand, Tony and Maureen received several offers for the company. But it wasn’t until 2007 that they found a partner whom they trusted to remain true to the company’s principles of travelling widely, treading lightly and giving sustainably. In October of that year, BBC Worldwide acquired a 75% share in the company, pledging to uphold Lonely Planet’s commitment to independent travel, trustworthy advice and editorial independence.

Today, Lonely Planet has offices in Melbourne, London and Oakland, with over 500 staff members and 300 authors. Tony and Maureen are still actively involved with Lonely Planet. They’re travelling more often than ever, and they’re devoting their spare time to charitable projects. And the company is still driven by the philosophy of Across Asia on the Cheap: ‘All you’ve got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. So go!’

In Zürich, Thierry Délèze rolled out the wel-come mat, providing contacts and ideas and participating in the consumption of some soothing beers! It would be hard to find a more enthusiastic Welshländer resident of Zürich!

In Ticino, I owe a big grazie to Monica Bonetti and her family in Lugano, who welcomed me into their home. Monica introduced me to gente molto simpatica, like Gaia Francesconi, Simona Candela, Tommaso di Caro and co. Grazie anche a Nicole della Pietra and Andrea Muehle.

A special merci vielmal goes to the little boy who pointed out the Seerenbachfälle waterfalls to us across the lake from Mühlehorn and calmly informed us of their significance. When he grows up, I will owe him a big beer.

Judith Bongard in Lausanne had some excellent tips – hopefully we’ll catch up for that coffee before this is published!

I owe a gracias to Helena Ramírez for her bunker tip.

The modest results of this Swiss tour are dedicated to Janique LeBlanc, who provided endlessly patient company on a protracted jaunt across the northeast – and that with a crook hip!

KERRY WALKER

Heartfelt thanks to my fiancé and travel companion Andy for his support and skilful driving up those dizzying mountain passes. Special thanks to Evelyne Binsack, Gian Simmen, Sepp Steiner, Damian Cina and Thomas Kernen for the interviews. Vielen Dank to the tourism professionals who made the road to research silky smooth, particularly Sibylle Gerardi in Lucerne, Daniela Fuchs in Jungfrau Region, Susanne Daxelhoffer in Interlaken, Nicole Steindl in Zermatt, David Graefen in Leukerbad, Maria Ferretti in Engelberg, Katharina Schreiber in Chur and ClaudiaKleinbrod in Lenzerheide. Merci also to Fiona Buchan for the gig, as well as Paula Hardy, Mark Griffiths, co-authors Nicola and Damien, and everyone at Lonely Planet.

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OUR READERS

Many thanks to the travellers who used the last edition and wrote to us with helpful hints, useful advice and interesting anecdotes:

Sara Alereza, Jon Barker, Regina Caputo, Clare Carmody, Rachel Cassidy, Donald Casson, Angie Clark, Christine Cooper, David Cory, Julien Dubois, Tim Dunk, Judy East, Sveinung Eikenes, Krista Eleftheriou, Fabio Fabbiano, Roy Freere, Lilani Goonesena, Anna Lisa Grech, Yunhee Ha, Friederike Haass, Olivier Hartmann, Nadia Hashmi, Tom Hughes, Trout Johnson, Lizanne Joubert, Michael Kaiser-Nyman, Miles Cary Leahey, To Nhu Ly, Kim Lyons, John Madden, Hugh and Eileen Morton, David Polmantuin, Sanat Raiturcar, Flavio Renzetti, Cedric Roserens, Daniel Ryan, Stefan Schmidlin, Keith Siddel, Markus Spring, Alyson Stoakley, Dorien Terpstra, Eva Toia, Jonathan Toker, Bert Van Der Neut, Janneke Van Hardeveld, Matt and Sheryl Vincent, Lizzie Wright

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Internal photographs p8 (#1), p9 (#7) by Arcaid/Alamy; p11 (#6) Arco Images GmbH/Alamy; p12 (#4) Travelstock44/Alamy; p8 (#3) Yvonne Bischofberger. All other photographs by Lonely Planet Images, and by Glenn van der Knijff p7 (#2); Karl Lehman p6 (#4); Martin Moos p5, p10 (#1), p11 (#3), Witold Skrypczak p6 (#1).

All images are the copyright of the photographers unless otherwise indicated. Many of the images in this guide are available for licensing from Lonely Planet Images: www.lonelyplanetimages.com.

Many thanks to the following for the use of their content:

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