It’s 9:30 a.m., and my stomach is already growling as I hike along a narrow ridge in the Swiss Alps. To my left, clusters of wild herbs and ripe berries glint in the August sun. To my right, the valleys of Gstaad-Saanenland, once described by Julie Andrews as “the last paradise in a crazy world,” remain seemingly untouched by time. I’m in the Bernese Oberland region, but not to forage or simply admire the view. I’ve come to experience Switzerland’s cheese trails, a collection of hundreds of mountain paths within the country’s 40,000-mile trail network leading travelers to traditional alpine dairies.
The clang of cowbells in the distance tells me I’m close. Then, I spot it: a wooden chalet tucked into the hillside of Alp Gfell. Outside, a self-serve fridge allows hungry hikers to purchase cheese and sausages using an honor-system piggy bank. The most coveted wedges are alpkäse, a traditional Swiss cheese made exclusively in summer at high-altitude dairies, using milk from cows that graze on alpine pastures. The result is a nutty, herbaceous, hard cheese with a hint of butterscotch.
“Grüezi!” beams Michael Schläppi, a third-generation cheesemaker who greets me in Swiss-German. Even better than help-yourself kas is the fact that, along the cheese trails, there are ample opportunities to meet the farmers keeping these centuries-old traditions alive. Schläppi invites me in to meet his 36 cows—each of whom he knows by name. His favorite, Tania, is no longer around; she was 18 when she passed away in 2023, but not before introducing Schläppi to his girlfriend: Katja, a veterinarian. Now the couple spends around 100 days per year at 6,000 feet on the verdant slope, making alpine cheese in a tiny workshop until early September, when the cows descend to greener pastures below. “It’s not me who decides when the cows go down into the valley—it’s the grass,” Schläppi says, as he heats milk in a copper cauldron over an open fire.
Stäfeli, run by Ruth and Stefan Arnold, is an alpine cheese dairy on the Engelberg Alpine Cheese Trail.
Courtesy Tourism Engelberg
Cheesemaker Toni Matter works at the Langenboden farm, also on the Engelberg trail.
Courtesy Tourism Engelberg
Like the well-trodden paths leading to chalets, tradition and nature dictate how each cheesemaking season unfolds. Guests who time their visit to the Gstaad Züglete, a cow parade festival in early September, might share the trail with flower-crowned cattle wearing handcrafted bells. Every cheesemaker’s batch tastes slightly different depending on the wildflowers in their meadows. Come winter, many, including Schläppi, swap cheesemaking for ski instructing.
After watching Schläppi separate the whey and press the curds into wheels, which will be aged for at least 18 months, we step outside so I can sample a selection of his finest cheeses. My favorites are the delicate rolls of Bernese Hobelkäse, an extra-hard alpine rendition that’s spicy, tangy, and as fragrant as the meadows around us. With a cup of coffee, complete with a splash of farm-fresh milk and a view over the valley, it’s the perfect mid-hike breakfast.
The route I’m on—which travels from the Horneggli Mountain cable car station to the Gfell slope and back—is a moderate three-mile loop, but cheese trails across Switzerland range from short and sweet self-guided journeys like this, to multi-day treks like those on the Via Le Gruyère trail network that starts near Lake Geneva.