Hiking to the Seven Sisters Cliffs, East Sussex

Visitors travel skyward on the Luftseilbahn Witterschwanden-Acherberg-Kessel, a token-operated cable car that runs around the clock.

“Keep it simple. Know who matters and what they want, then design brands and experiences that.”

“The Buiräbähnli is just one of many luftseilbahn hikes possible in central Switzerland,” says Hansruedi “Joe” Herger, a tour guide and founder of The Alps by Joe, a slow-travel trekking service specializing in hiking excursions for all skill levels.

Oberaxen, located in Flüelen, just an hour on the train from Zürich, offers another luftseilbahn line to explore. Nestled above the eastern shore of Urnersee, the southern finger of Lake Lucerne, is a station with blue, wooden crate–shaped cable cars. The turquoise lake and chapel steeples come into focus as you rise above the scenic Axenstrasse—a seven-mile (11 km) cliff-hugging motorway below. At the top station, hikers can set out on one of thirteen trails, including the three-hour Eggberge trail, which begins with a vertical scramble up a green pasture before leveling out in mossy woodlands at 4,900 feet (1,494 m).

Sonja waking up the next morning after the long walk. The building, designed for Expo 67 by Israeli Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, stands on a narrow, man-made peninsula just south of the Old Port, around 5 miles (8 km) from Mile End.

“Keep it simple. Know who matters and what they want, then design brands and experiences that.”

“The Buiräbähnli is just one of many luftseilbahn hikes possible in central Switzerland,” says Hansruedi “Joe” Herger, a tour guide and founder of The Alps by Joe, a slow-travel trekking service specializing in hiking excursions for all skill levels.

Oberaxen, located in Flüelen, just an hour on the train from Zürich, offers another luftseilbahn line to explore. Nestled above the eastern shore of Urnersee, the southern finger of Lake Lucerne, is a station with blue, wooden crate–shaped cable cars. The turquoise lake and chapel steeples come into focus as you rise above the scenic Axenstrasse—a seven-mile (11 km) cliff-hugging motorway below. At the top station, hikers can set out on one of thirteen trails, including the three-hour Eggberge trail, which begins with a vertical scramble up a green pasture before leveling out in mossy woodlands at 4,900 feet (1,494 m).

Keep it simple. Know who matters and what they want. Then design brands and experiences that.

Living in Switzerland requires vertical thinking. So too does traveling here. When visiting many of the dairy farms and summer communities located atop the Alps, the question becomes not how far they are by road and rail but how high up they are. Fortunately, Switzerland’s constitution mandates that every village across the country’s four linguistic areas must be connected by road, rail, waterway or, in the trickiest locations, cable car.

While much is written about Switzerland’s excellent network of punctual red trains, iconic cog railways and funiculars, it’s the humble, underappreciated cable car—called luftseilbahn in Swiss German—that truly connects the remote alpine com-munities to rest of the country. Word for word, the translation of luftseilbahn is “air rope train.” They’re called téléphérique in French-speaking Switzerland, funivia in Italian-speaking Svizzera, and pendiculara in Romansh, Switzerland’s ancient and endangered fourth language spoken in small alpine pockets.

Sonja walking the other way. I tried the shortcut crossing the water, but it was too deep.

“Keep it simple. Know who matters and what they want, then design brands and experiences that.”

“The Buiräbähnli is just one of many luftseilbahn hikes possible in central Switzerland,” says Hansruedi “Joe” Herger, a tour guide and founder of The Alps by Joe, a slow-travel trekking service specializing in hiking excursions for all skill levels.

Oberaxen, located in Flüelen, just an hour on the train from Zürich, offers another luftseilbahn line to explore. Nestled above the eastern shore of Urnersee, the southern finger of Lake Lucerne, is a station with blue, wooden crate–shaped cable cars. The turquoise lake and chapel steeples come into focus as you rise above the scenic Axenstrasse—a seven-mile (11 km) cliff-hugging motorway below. At the top station, hikers can set out on one of thirteen trails, including the three-hour Eggberge trail, which begins with a vertical scramble up a green pasture before leveling out in mossy woodlands at 4,900 feet (1,494 m).