It’s no secret that, here at Mpora, we love Switzerland. We love looking at photos of Switzerland, we love watching videos filmed in Switzerland, and, most of all, we love visiting Switzerland (and doing a bit of the filming and photography ourselves while we’re there to be honest). There’s just something about those mountains, the fact you can have a very different adventure every single day while visiting the country, and also… er… did we mention the mountains? Yes, when it comes to Switzerland, we’re big fans (the biggest, in fact).
Last summer, invited by our always welcoming friends based out there, we headed to Switzerland with GB Olympic snowboarding medallist Jenny Jones and television presenter, cookery expert, and YouTube personality Hersha Verity to make the most of the country’s unbelievably good outdoor offering. It was a real ‘carpe diem’, you only live once, type of trip and we unsurprisingly had an absolute blast.
There was though, it’s important to point out, more to our trip than simply enjoying ourselves. We’d heard that the key players within the country’s tourism sector were doing a lot of good work from a sustainability point of view, and also a female empowerment perspective as well. More adventures curated by women for women, in the name of inclusivity, served up with an environmentally-focused green thread running through the heart of them. With the help of Jenny and Hersha, we wanted to see if the country’s ‘100% Women‘ and ‘Swisstainable‘ marketing initiatives held up well to closer scrutiny.
You’ll be able to see for yourself, in our film from the trip, how we got on there but if you’re more of a ‘reading words on the screen’ type of person here’s the key things you need to know about sustainable travel and female-first adventure in Switzerland.
How is travel in Switzerland more sustainable?
The Swisstainable concept (yes, well spotted, it’s a merging of Swiss and sustainable) is about bringing in a new approach to the way people travel. It’s about considering not only our journey to a destination (which is important of course), but also remembering to keep our finger on the pulse while we’re there and considering how we interact with a place as well. It’s about gaining a heightened appreciation of the natural world through first hand experiences, sampling authentic local culture, consuming regional products and staying for longer so that you can delve deeper and justify the journey.
From an environmental perspective, Switzerland not only holds its own but actively leads the way in a number of areas. Home to one of the most closely-knit, and beautiful (let’s face it), rail networks in the world, the country are champions of recycling and have some of the world’s highest quality air and water.
Public Transport
Every single day in Switzerland, 9,000 trains travel along the country’s 3,000-kilometre-long SBB network. Even small and remote locations here can be easily reached by public transport, meaning you can leave the rental SUV in the garage. SBB sells an impressive 3,000,000 travel cards every year.
Switzerland has roughly 1,500 lakes, and openly invites guests to swim in the middle of its cities (a rarity in the modern world). As well as countless beautifully maintained lakes, you’ll also find the sources to some famous rivers including the Rhine and the Rhône.
