I can recommend the relaxation and the views in Gimmelwald. You’ll see a few posts about Gimmelwald in this forum – it’s beautiful.
If you’d like to stay in a city, you can use Interlaken which is about half an hour away, and make visits to Gimmelwald & Lauterbrunnen.

If you’re after a bigger city, the only other one I stayed in was Lucerne, which was pleasant. Perhaps someone else can give you advice on Bern, Geneva etc.

Lugano is close to Milan and very pleasant. It is in the lakes near the Italian border. Excellent food.

I think Luzern and Zurich are the best big cities, but they are not up in the mountains so you have to take a train ride to see the mountains. I didn’t like Geneva because it was dirty. Bern is the seat of government, which is not too interesting, but does have some interesting sites and restaurants.

Gimmelwald is tiny, but right up in the mountains. That part of CH is very popular with tourists, so it can be crowded. Soso food, but the scenery makes up for it.

The Valais (also spelled Wallis) is a valley on the south side of the alps, and has some great scenery, but is also popular with skiers. We liked Brig (German speaking) and Sion (French speaking). Both these towns are in the valley, but there are an abundance of lifts to the skiing areas where the scenery is. We liked the ambience of Sion more, but both are nice. Excellent food and wine. Both are convenient to Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Martigny, further west in the valley, is convenient to Mont Blanc.

Chur is not as close to Milan, but is scenic with good food and wine. Near there is where the author of the Heidi books drew inspiration.

Thank you for the tips! I’ve been looking into Zermatt for a possible destination, and my understanding is that I would take a train from Milan to Bern, then on to Zermatt, is this so? Or how would we best get to Sion from Milan? Thanks again!

I would visit Zermatt, but not stay there. It is a small town with not much to do except see the Matterhorn and watch the tourists trying to impress each other with their expensive clothes. It is a great day trip, as the train line up to Zermatt is scenic and almost scary as it skirts some deep valleys, and there is another train from Zermatt up to the area of the Matterhorn, although you can also see the Matterhorn from the town.

Check a map. Bern is on the north side of CH, while Zermatt is on the south, so a train to Bern would lengthen your journey. My suggestion would be to take a train from Milan to Brig and base there, or go on to Sion (my preference). Zermatt is a short train ride from either town. Both are near many ski areas and you can visit them and enjoy the great scenery even if you don’t ski. Typically,you get a train ticket and a lift ticket together.

I don’t know if you want to look into getting one of the Swiss rail passes for a short trip, but if you have kids, many of the passes let them accompany you for no charge, and might save you a bit. Try http://travel.sbb.ch… to see if any of them make sense for you.

Cleveland is right about checking out the many railpasses, discount cards and other offers available in Switzerland. Some passes are honored on the extensive bus system. I think there’s one that covers 2 airport transfers if you fly in or your train trips in and out of Switzerland plus one r/t while you’re there. A discount card will allow you to purchase any train ticket at 1/2 price. Almost any pass will get you a discount on a variety of scenic trains, cog railways, etc.

Gimmelwald, definitely. One of those places where there’s “nothing to do” and you’re absolutely fine with that!

Of course, that’s just the town itself. There are hundreds of different hikes you can do from Gimmelwald, and if you need to “get out”, it’s easy to get to the mountains on the other side of the valley and do more activities (I hear you can even go “dogsledding” up on Jungfraujoch)