The best lakes in Switzerland for a photoshoot

Couple sessions on any of these lakes start from CHF 390; combining a lake with a nearby town or mountain is priced as a multi-location session.

The turquoise of Lake Brienz and the water off the Iseltwald pier comes from glacial rock flour: rivers fed by the Aare and the Lütschine glaciers carry extremely fine, suspended rock particles into the lake, and that fine sediment scatters light in a way that reads as blue-green to turquoise, strongest on sunny days in summer. On an overcast day the same water turns a flatter grey-green, which is one reason photographers watch the forecast as closely as the calendar here.

Lake Geneva, Lake Zurich and Lake Lucerne are older, calmer bodies of water without the same glacial sediment load, so they sit a steadier deep blue-green rather than shifting as dramatically with the weather. Lake Lugano, further south and at lower altitude, has a milder, Mediterranean climate around it — palms, olives and camellias grow on its banks — and the water itself has a softer, less mineral blue than the lakes north of the Alps.

The high mountain lakes above Zermatt and Grindelwald — Stellisee, Riffelsee, Bachalpsee — are a separate case again: smaller, higher, and valued mainly for reflecting a specific peak rather than for the colour of the water itself. Our mountain locations guide covers those in detail.

Wind is the other variable that changes colour and clarity within a single morning. A still lake surface reflects the sky and the far shore cleanly, which is why reflection photographs at any of these lakes are almost always planned for the first hour or two after sunrise, before the wind rises. By mid-morning on a warm day, ripples break up the mirror at every lake in this guide, turquoise or otherwise.

Lake Lucerne winds for almost 40 kilometres between steep mountains, and the northern shore around Weggis and Vitznau, in the stretch known as the Lucerne Riviera, faces south into a noticeably mild microclimate. That orientation means sun on your faces for most of the day and Pilatus or Rigi in the background.

The lake company runs five historic paddle steamers built between 1901 and 1928, and a session on deck during a crossing between Lucerne and Weggis or Vitznau turns the journey itself into part of the shoot. Away from the boats, the Bürgenstock rock path and the park at Meggenhorn Castle add a cliff-edge view and a quieter garden setting respectively.

Sessions here start from CHF 390, and combining the lake with Lucerne's Old Town or a trip up Rigi is priced as a multi-location session. Because the shore at Weggis and Vitznau faces broadly south-west, late afternoon and sunset are the strongest hours for warm light on faces, with the water and the far mountains behind you rather than in silhouette.

The short wooden pier at Iseltwald is one of the most photographed spots in Switzerland, and also one of the most managed: since 2023 it sits behind a turnstile charging 5 francs per person, and a queue for the end of the pier is normal from mid-morning onward in summer. The practical answer is to use the pier itself for a few strong frames early, shortly after sunrise, and move to the open lakefront, the path towards Giessbach, or a boat for the rest of the session.

Brienz, a short boat ride away, gives the same turquoise water along a quieter lakefront, plus the flower-hung lane of Brunngasse and the historic funicular up to the Giessbach Falls. Many sessions combine both: a few minutes on the Iseltwald pier at dawn, then the main part of the shoot in Brienz.

BLS boats connect Interlaken Ost, Iseltwald, Giessbach and Brienz on a seasonal timetable, roughly April to early December; the boats do not run in winter, so a cold-season session stays on the lakefront and reaches the water by bus or car instead.

Lake Geneva is a 73-kilometre crescent shared between Switzerland and France, and the Swiss shore faces south across the water to the Chablais Alps, so almost every frame here has the same structure: you in the foreground, open water in the middle, mountains beyond. What changes along the shore is the character, from the urban jetties of Geneva itself to the UNESCO-listed vineyard terraces of Lavaux, which fall straight into the water between Lutry and Saint-Saphorin.

At the eastern end, Montreux and Chillon Castle sit under steep mountains with palm trees along the promenade, and looking west from there in the evening puts the sunset directly down the length of the lake. The CGN's Belle Époque paddle steamers, with varnished wood and open decks, connect the towns and make a distinctive setting for a session on board.

Watch the wind here: a strong bise, a cold north-easterly, can blow for days, clearing the air but making open quays and boat decks harder work for hair and loose fabric.

South-east of the city, Lake Zurich narrows enough that you always see the opposite shore, and the north-east bank — the Gold Coast — catches the evening sun, which is why it is named that. The 841-metre wooden footbridge between Rapperswil and Hurden, opened in 2001, gives long, simple leading lines with the town's castle behind you, and Ufnau island, reachable only by boat, becomes very quiet once the last crossing of the day has left.

ZSG boats run from Bürkliplatz in the city out to Rapperswil on the summer timetable, a crossing of about two hours that works well as a scenic start to a longer day rather than pure transport. For a shorter session, the lawns and jetties of Zürichhorn at the city end give a lake setting without leaving Zurich at all.

Lake Lugano, called the Ceresio in Italian, sits between Lake Maggiore and Lake Como and shares their look: houses stacked above the water, arcades at the shoreline, church towers and palms. Gandria, a former fishing village with no cars in its lanes, and Morcote, at the tip of a peninsula below Monte Arbostora, are the two villages built for this kind of photograph, connected by the roughly 3-kilometre Olive Trail on foot or by the boats of the Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano.

The climate here is milder than the rest of Switzerland by a clear margin — Lugano averages around 2,100 hours of sunshine a year — which is why olives, palms and camellias grow outdoors. Summer afternoons bring haze and short, heavy thunderstorms, so morning or the last two hours before sunset both work better than midday for this lake specifically.

For the most recognisable turquoise, choose Iseltwald or Brienz, and plan the famous pier for the first hour after sunrise. For an elegant, wide-horizon session with mountains on the far shore, Lake Geneva around Lavaux or Montreux is hard to beat. For the easiest boat-deck session near a major airport, Lake Geneva from Geneva itself or Lake Zurich from the city both work without a long transfer. For privacy, a quiet pier at Weggis on Lake Lucerne or the far end of the Rapperswil footbridge on Lake Zurich both give more solitude than a famous viewpoint.

If a boat crossing matters to you, check which vessel sails that day: the historic paddle steamers on Lake Geneva and Lake Lucerne run on a published but not daily schedule, and all of the seasonal boats — Lake Brienz, Lake Zurich's summer timetable, Lake Lugano's full service — stop running for the winter. Boat and pier fees, including the Iseltwald turnstile, are paid separately from the photography and are stated where relevant in your proposal.

Season matters as much as the lake itself. May to September gives the fullest boat timetables, the greenest shores and the longest evenings across all five lakes, while late September and October add golden vineyards at Lavaux and calmer crowds everywhere. Winter narrows the choice: several boat services pause entirely, and a session moves to whichever lakefront, promenade or old town is reachable on foot or by a normal bus or train. Our month-by-month guide goes through these seasonal trade-offs for the wider region.