Hi Lynn, I love Switzerland and have been there many times, so I can give you some Switzerland suggestions. I would recommend one of the two main moutain areas - the Bernese Oberland or the Valais.
The Bernese Oberland (also called the Berner Oberland) is the mountain area in the Bern canton, in German-speaking Switzerland. It starts with Gstaad in the west and ends around Meiringen in the east. At the northern end are two lakes with the town of Interlaken in between. There are beautiful mountain towns in all the valleys of the Bernese Oberland - Meiringen, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Kandersteg, Adelboden, Lenk, Gstaad/Saanen.
Of these towns Grindelwald is the most famous. It sits at the base of the Eiger and is connected by train to Wengen, Murren, Lauterbrunnen and Interlaken. It can be crowded with tourists. It has very good mountain rides where you take a gondola up, then walk a mostly level walk for an hour or two, and take a bus back to town. We were there last year.
Another option would be Gstaad or Saanen - they are close to each other. We have vacationed in Lenk the last three years and are currently in love with this area. Lenk is down a valley but Gstaad/Saanen are more central and you could explore from there. The area has great mountain rides (gondolas, chairlifts, buses) and they are much less expensive than Grindelwald. There is very good easy hiking. There is a hot springs spa in Lenk but I have not been to it. There might be one in Gstaad.
The Valais is the canton that starts at the eastern edge of Lake Geneva. It is a long valley running east and west, with high mountains on the south side, more gentle moutains on the north. The first part of it is in French-speaking Switzerland, the second part in German speaking. The mountains here are more dramatic than the Bernese Oberland. There are valleys with towns both on the north and south sides of the Valais. The most famous town is Zermatt on the south side, at the base of the Matterhorn. On the other side is the lively town of Crans-Montana.
For hiking I do not recommend Crans-Montana but it is a mountain town with lots of restaurants and great views across to the big mountains. It is also a place you could more easily drive in and out of because it is not too far down a valley. You could explore a few other Valais towns from there.
There are some fabulous train rides you can do through Switzerland. One is the Glacier Express which runs from Zermatt to St Moritz.
Here is information on the Swiss Tourism website. You might want to work that into your plan.
The Swiss Tourism website is very good. Most towns have a website too, usually in the format of townname.ch - for example
gstaad.ch. They will mail brochures to you. The town/area websites also have vacation rental booking - there are many vacation rentals in Switzerland. The large agency
Interhome specializes in Switzerland vacation rentals. I have reviewed the places we have stayed on our
Reviews forum.
I am happy to talk more about this, so keep posting as you are researching.
Have a look at my trip reports:
Switzerland July 2015 - Grindelwald and Lenk
Alps 2016 - Lenk, Switzerland and Aosta Valley, Italy
And I have a bit of info in the Day Trips section:
Day Trips - Switzerland - Bern
Here is a photo for you from Lenk in September.
