The best photoshoot locations in Switzerland, by landscape

Most sessions combine two of these rather than staying in one all day: an old town in the morning and a lake at sunset, or a valley floor early and a peak above it for the evening. A multi-location session is priced for exactly that.

Weather also plays a part in the choice. Old towns and lakes both have covered or sheltered options — arcades, covered bridges, a boat deck with an awning — that keep a session workable in light rain, while valleys and peaks depend much more on a clear sky to be worth the travel time. If your dates are fixed and the forecast is uncertain, building in an old-town or lakefront option as a fallback keeps the day from depending entirely on one clear mountain view.

Lucerne is the most compact of them: the Chapel Bridge, painted Old Town squares, the Musegg wall and the lakefront all sit inside a 20-minute walking circle, so a single hour can cover three or four different backdrops without a car or a train. Zurich adds a wider mix — the Altstadt and Lindenhof for history, Zurich West for modern lines suited to personal branding — and Geneva pairs the Jet d'Eau and the harbour with an international-city feel that photographs differently again.

Old towns are the most reliable option when time is short or weather is uncertain. Covered bridges, arcades and narrow lanes keep a session workable in light rain, which is not true of an open mountain ridge or lake shore. They also suit solo travellers and quick portrait sessions well, since you rarely need to walk far or wait for a lift.

The trade-off is crowds and timing. The Chapel Bridge in Lucerne is close to empty at sunrise and full of visitors from about 9:00; the same pattern holds in most old towns from late spring through early autumn. Early morning is close to a rule here, not a suggestion.

None of the three cities require a lift ticket or a train beyond getting there, which makes them the easiest starting point for a first-time visitor to plan around. If your itinerary only allows for one Swiss city, choosing between them usually comes down to what you want in the background rather than which is objectively "better": water and mountains in Lucerne and Geneva, or a wider mix of historic and modern settings in Zurich.

Switzerland's lakes do not all look the same. Lake Brienz and the water around Iseltwald run a strong turquoise from fine glacial sediment; Lake Geneva and Lake Zurich sit a deeper blue-green; and Lake Lugano has a softer, Mediterranean look with stone villages stacked above the water. Each supports a different kind of photograph, and each has its own boats: paddle steamers on Lake Geneva and Lake Lucerne, the smaller SNL boats on Lake Lugano, ZSG services on Lake Zurich.

Lakes suit a slower, less rushed session than an old town. A boat crossing becomes part of the shoot rather than transport, piers and jetties give natural places to sit or stand, and the pace of a lakefront walk fits honeymoons and relaxed couple sessions particularly well. Families also do well here: flat promenades, benches, and boats that hold everyone's attention are easier to manage than a hiking trail.

Our dedicated guide to Swiss lake locations covers water colour, boat timetables and reflection conditions lake by lake in far more depth than fits here.

One practical note applies to every lake: the most photogenic piers and viewpoints are also the most visited, so the hour matters as much as the location itself. Early morning gives calmer water for reflections almost everywhere, while late afternoon and the two hours before sunset usually give the warmest light and the fewest other visitors once the day-trip boats have finished their rounds.

The Lauterbrunnen valley is the clearest example: a narrow trough with sheer limestone walls, Staubbach Falls dropping almost 300 metres into the village, and hay meadows on the valley floor. Grindelwald is broader and gentler, with chalets scattered across sloping green pasture below the Eiger's north face. Both give you the classic "meadow, chalet, big mountain" picture without needing a lift ticket for the valley-floor parts of the session.

Valleys suit sessions that have time to walk rather than stand in one spot: a path that climbs gently out of the village towards a viewpoint, working light and background as you go, fits couples and elopements especially well. They also make a natural lower half of a longer day that finishes higher up — Wengen or Mürren above Lauterbrunnen, or First above Grindelwald.

The deep valleys have their own light pattern: the sun arrives late and leaves early on the valley floor, so morning is usually strongest for Lauterbrunnen itself, while the terraces above stay lit well into the evening.

A peak session means Zermatt and the Matterhorn, the summit of Rigi or Pilatus above Lucerne, or the glacier saddle at the Jungfraujoch. These are the settings people picture when they imagine a Swiss photoshoot, and they are also the ones that depend most on a lift running, the weather cooperating and a realistic amount of travel time.

Peaks suit proposals and dramatic couple or honeymoon sessions well, because the setting itself carries the occasion. They suit family sessions with older children more than very young ones, given the altitude, the cold and the walking involved at some viewpoints. Every peak session in this guide is priced from CHF 650, reflecting the mountain transport and the longer day it usually takes.

Our guide to mountain locations goes into altitude, lift access, snow season and safety in detail, since it is genuinely different planning from a lake or an old town.

Few couples build a whole session around a single waterfall, but a river or a fall makes an excellent second location added to an old town or a valley shoot. The Rhine Falls near Zurich are Europe's largest waterfall by volume and a dramatic half-hour stop on the way to or from a city session. In Lucerne, the Reuss runs fast and green through town beneath both covered bridges; in Interlaken, the Aare does the same between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.

These spots work at almost any time of day, since moving water photographs well in both direct sun and flat, overcast light, which makes them a useful fallback when the light elsewhere in your plan is not cooperating.

Solo travellers tend to do best in old towns and gentler lake spots: short sessions, no lift logistics, and settings where a photographer can move quickly between two or three backdrops in under an hour.

Couples have the widest choice of all, since every landscape in this guide suits a couple photoshoot — the decision usually comes down to how much travel and walking you want as part of the day.

Families generally do best on flat, short routes with something to hold children's attention along the way: a lake promenade with boats, an old town square, or the gentler viewpoints on Rigi rather than an exposed mountain ridge.

Proposals depend more on privacy and timing than on landscape type; our proposal locations guide ranks specific spots by how well a photographer can stay hidden.

Switzerland's trains, boats and mountain railways make it realistic to move between landscape types within a single session, provided the plan accounts for travel time rather than treating it as free. A common combination is an old town in the morning, a train or boat to a lake or valley for the afternoon, and a mountain viewpoint for sunset — or the reverse, starting high and finishing in town for dinner.

A multi-location session is priced to reflect the extra travel and time this takes, starting from CHF 850. Mountain and lake transport for you and the photographer is separate again and is itemised in your proposal. Tell us the places you are considering when you request availability, and we will tell you whether the timing realistically works for one day or needs two.