You can take a bus to a place that should only be accessible by rapture. A bus is how we arrived in Morcote, a picturesque Italian-speaking Swiss town on the shore of Lake Lugano featuring narrow cobblestone lanes, a lakeside promenade, and the spectacular Scherrer Park gardens. Yes, palm trees in Switzerland. It was an offhanded comment from my husband’s coworker that tipped us off on this little gem. The hotel staff (Hotel Admiral $350/night https://www.luganohoteladmiral.c

Walking into Bierliebe & Friends https://bierliebeandfriends.ch/ along the bank of the Reuss River, we planned on a casual dinner spent googling “hikes near Lucerne”; instead the warmest and friendliest waitress in the world chatted us up, asking where we were from and offering suggestions for family hikes for the time of year (early April- mud season) and weather (mostly cold with occasional sprinkle). “You have to hike Rigi” she insisted. Lucerne cityscape We traveled to Lu