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With its abundant sunshine, dramatic alpine panoramas and lush Mediterranean vegetation, Locarno offers a pleasant year-round mix of natural and cultural attractions ranging from the famous film festival in August to skiing at Cardada during the winter months. 

 

Locarno is a bustling, aesthetically unremarkable hub which, due to its strategic geographical position, offers excellent public transport connections: two fast  railway lines, an all-year-round ferry service, a funicular and a cable car. The town makes a popular base for exploring the surrounding area whilst with its great shopping and a lively restaurant scene, Locarno, is perfect for idle browsing, eating out or cafe-crawling. There is a lively buzz in its streets at any time of year.

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Together with Ascona and other adjacent municipalities, the agglomeration of Locarno is the largest on Lago Maggiore and so, unsurprisingly, is one of the few lakeside destinations that does not slumber through the winter months. Head for the cobweb of cobblestoned streets in the old part of town where the film festival is held; here you’ll find a scattering of interesting crafts shops.

Locarno's main tourist draw however, and one of the most photographed sites on Lago Maggiore, is its incredible church, Madonna del Sasso, perched high on a craggy bluff overlooking the lake. This site alone justifies the town as a day-tripper’s destination.

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As the funicular station which whisks you up to Madonna del Sasso is close to both the ferry boat landing stage and the Vigezzina/Centovalli mountain railway station, the church can be squeezed into the Lago Maggiore Express tour – provided you set off from Italy early. In short, visit the church, soak up the amazing views, and you can leave Locarno happy.

If you have longer to stay in Locarno, a highly enjoyable trip takes you by cable car – leaving from just above the Madonna del Sasso church - up to Cardada which makes a handy gateway to prime walking and mountain biking territory. The views over the lake and mountains are sublime but prices are high.

 

Hot spa

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After a hard day's skiing or hiking, what could be better than soaking any aches away in the only spa and hot pools on Lago Maggiore? Termali Salini e Spa features several indoor pools, wonderful granite and wood decor, and best of all, an outdoor infinity pool which comes into its own on a gloomy winter's evening as the lights of Locarno are turned on.

 

Definitely a contender for the most picturesque waterfront on Lago Maggiore, immaculately preserved Ascona, on the other side of the Maggia river to Locarno, is a sleepier, more scenic place, owing its fortune to its sunny, south-facing lakeside promenade. Whilst in the rest of Switzerland, people are shivering in snowbound streets, visitors to Switzerland's Florida can be sitting in the sun on the car-free lakeside sipping cappuccinos.

 

Though part of the canton of Ticino and therefore Italian-speaking, due to the influx of out-of-towners from the north of Switzerland, Ascona sometimes resembles a small German-speaking enclave. Visitors flock here at weekends and during holidays, either to recharge after a hike or simply to hang out in the flurry of waterfront cafes and restaurants, injecting a cosmopolitan atmosphere into the town.

 

Monte Verità, Ascona

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Other than its popular lakeside lungolago, Ascona’s main draw is Monte Verità, nestled on a wooded hillside just behind the town. Reachable on foot, by bus or by car, this area is steeped in the cultural history of the interwar years. The idealistic Monte Verità community was established here with the intent of fostering an alternative, healthy lifestyle.

 

Hermann Hesse

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Vegetarianism was practised and guests were encouraged to live in simple wooden huts built amongst the trees. Famous names associated with this experiment were Carl Gustav Jung, Erich Maria Remarque and Hermann Hesse whose wooden hut can still be seen. Monte Verità is open to the public and nowadays features Switzerland's only tea plantation together with a Japanese-style shop where you can stock up on tea-related products. But tea is not the only surprising crop usually associated with hotter climes: rice is also cultivated on the Maggia delta - at Switzerland's lowest point.