Air:-

There are airports in Switzerland at Basel, Bern, Zürich, Geneva and Sion. Easyjet fly to Zürich & Geneva & are very cheap if you book well ahead. Then, proceed to your first base by train & bus. You can get Swiss Passes of various types fom your Swiss National Tourist Office in your own country. Ask them which one you need. The London one is at 30 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ED, telephone 020 7420 4900 in GB & 00800 100 200 30, International free-phone or
e-mail them. They have the timetables for trains & buses & it is very easy to work out your itinerary. Cathy Jones, the lovely lady on the desk, is extremely helpful.

For Austria, either fly to Innsbrück (see the Stübai Tour) or for the Vorarlberg, fly to Zürich & catch the train. The Austrian Tourist Office seems to have gone into hiding in London but they are in the telephone directory, so order the village brochures you will need that way.
Try this link for plenty of Austria information.

Rail:-

From Waterloo through the Channel Tunnel to Lille. Thence, to Basel, Bern, Brig & see under Air above. You will have to change in Lille, probably in Basel & usually, at Bern for the Berner Oberland or the Pennine Alps.

For the Rhone Valley, go to Paris, walk round (5 minutes) from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de l'Est & catch a train for Lausanne. Change for points up the Rhone Valley. You can also go to Paris for Basel trains from the Gare de l'Est. Swiss train timetables are on this link in English.

Car:-

It's a Long Way & two sensible day's driving to most mountain bases. I have never done it.
If heading for Zermatt, you cannot drive the last bit from Täsch but must take the train (sfr3.60 in 1999).
You will need to buy a pass to use Swiss motorways unless you are going to struggle on the normal roads.

When you get there...

...you will need somewhere to stay. Out of season, which is the ski season (when you won't be walking!) and August, there is no trouble finding accommodation to your taste, from five star hotels to the camp site (but Adam & Janice Bloom say, watch out for Italian public holidays, when everywhere in the Italian Alps is booked solid). If you have to go in August, book. You can get brochures from the Tourist Office. The huts up the mountain never turn anyone away but it can become very cramped if the weather turns nasty & everyone in that area heads for the same hut. The 60 person Dent Blanche Hut once had 300 people packed into it.

My individual village pages have details of how to get to them.
This includes the ski season pages.

Essential links