Sunflower Books Bernese Oberland and Valais: car and train tours + 75 long and short walks

Although a car is the best way to explore much of the Oberland and Valais, Switzerland boasts the world’s best public transport system. You can see a vast majority of its mountain landscapes by public transport. There are many suggested train tours in the guide. But where trains don’t go, buses will – even to remote valleys and hamlets.

Switzerland is a hiker’s paradise (you would expect nothing less of a country which has an article in its constitution regulating the responsibilities of those who maintain the thousands of kilometres of hiking paths!).

Mountain huts and comfortable hotels sit atop summits reached by spectacular train or cable car rides, but there is still plenty of space where you will hardly meet a soul.

The author, who lives in the area and has written several guides for walkers, caters for all abilities – from gentle strolls through the wine villages of the Valais to more strenuous hikes beside the north face of the Eiger or alongside the largest glacier in the Alps.

Information ‘boxes’ add interest to the book – whether describing grape varieties and harvesting methods or the engineering feats of the country’s dams and irrigation channels.

There are three main car tours, with dozens of side excursions. A map accompanies each car tour, but there are also two pull-out touring maps covering the whole of western Switzerland.) Of course, there are many suggestions for train, funicular and cable car rides, as well as 75 long and short walks (some of which are specially tailored to motorists). All the main walks are illustrated with 1:50,000 topo maps and free GPS tracks are available from this website.

Area covered: This guide covers all of the Bernese Oberland and Valais.

The best time for walking here is May to October (in the highest mountain areas July to September).

Essential handbook for touring western Switzerland. This is a marvellous guide for anyone walking, using Swiss trains or driving around Western Switzerland. The descriptions are informative and accurate, providing just the right amount of guidance while allowing the reader to form their own opinions. A pull-out map in the back is conveniently annotated with reference numbers to the main walking tours and car tours detailed in the book. One whole chapter is devoted to those who will be using the Swiss Railroad to get around the country. Photos and topographical maps abound, complementing the written text and making this an enjoyable book to browse through even when not out hiking. –(SV, Amazon, reviewing the author’s guide to all of western Switzerland)

About the series

Pocket-sized full-colour guides focusing on long and short walks, these books also describe all the best car tours and picnic spots in the holiday area. The text is complemented by detailed large-scale walking maps (at least 1:50,000), fold-out touring maps, public transport timetables and language hints.

Delivery

All items that are in stock will show a delivery timescale of 1-3 working days.  If your order consists solely of these items, then dispatch is within 1 working day of purchase with the exception of framed and customised items which may take up to 14 days.

If your order is a non-stock item, the delivery timescale on that item will show as 3-10 working days on the product details.  In these instances, dispatch is usually 3-7 working days with delivery in 5-10 working days.  If your item is delayed for any reason, we will update your order to provide an explanation of the delay, although it is not always possible to say how long the delay will be. The item will be kept on order for up to three months and supplied to you when it becomes available. After 3 months, we will cancel the order or the remainder of the order unless you ask us to keep it on back order for longer. Incomplete orders will be held until the remaining items come into stock, unless we anticipate a long delay. At our discretion, incomplete orders may be sent out as partial shipments if we anticipate that an item may take some time coming in to stock.

EU customers - IMPORTANT: You will be required to pay import VAT (tax) at your local rate to your postal delivery service before any goods are delivered. Since 2021 you have not been charged British VAT (at 20%) on any purchases or P&P charges, however, with effect from 1 January 2022, the rules regarding importing from outside the EU changed and import VAT is now payable on any value of goods imported into the EU. This is separate to any tariff which may or may not be chargeable on the goods due to their country of origin. Please also note that we are legally required to declare the correct value of your purchase which is used to calculate the tax and any tariff duty. Failure to pay the import charges will result in the goods being returned to the UK.  Our terms and conditions have been updated to reflect this situation. 

See full details of our Delivery Details here

Cancellations - non personalised/bespoke items

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (formerly the Distance Selling Regulations) provide consumers with the right to a 'cooling-off' period to allow you to change your mind. Under these regulations, you have the right to cancel your order, without explanation, within 14 days of delivery (starting the day after you receive the goods) and to return the goods for a refund within a further 14 days (28 days in total). The Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to businesses nor to individuals who are trading or acting as a trader (buying goods to re-sell for profit) because no-one is the 'Consumer'. This means there is no 'cooling-off' period and the order cannot be cancelled once processed.

See full details of our Returns Information here

Cancellations - personalised/bespoke and 'On-Demand' items

Where an order is placed for an item which is to be personalised or is bespoke or printed only on-demand, cancellation is not possible once production has started and these are expressly excluded from The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (formerly the Distance Selling Regulations).

All transaction information passed between Guy's Magnets Ltd T/A MapsWorldwide and Sage Pay’s systems is encrypted using 128-bit SSL certificates. No cardholder information is ever passed un-encrypted and any messages sent to our servers from Sage Pay are signed using MD5 hashing to prevent tampering. You can be completely assured that nothing we pass to Sage Pay’s servers can be examined, used or modified by any third parties attempting to gain access to sensitive information.

Once the information is in Sage Pay's systems, all sensitive data is secured using the same internationally recognised 256-bit encryption standards used by, among others, the US Government. The encryption keys are held on state-of-the-art, tamper proof systems in the same family as those used to secure VeriSign's Global Root certificate, making them all but impossible to extract. The data we hold is extremely secure and we are regularly audited by the banks and banking authorities to ensure it remains so.

Sage Pay’s systems are scanned quarterly by Trustwave which are an independent Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) for the payment card brands. Sage pay is also audited annually under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and is a fully approved Level 1 payment services provider, which is the highest level of compliance. Sage Page are also active members of the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) that defines card industry global regulation.

Guy's Magnets Ltd holds PCI compliance