Several people have asked for our campsite recommendations, so the full list is below.

Firstly though, a quick mention to a few stand-out campsites in places you might not be looking at:

Camping Wydeli in Brenzikofen (between Thun and Bern). An outdoor lido and playground with small campsite attached. Delightful, could have spent a few days here.

Camping Muntelier (west of Bern): You can sit in your pitch with your feet in the lake. Great buvette and ice cream. Only shade was lacking.

Camping Ebnet in Ennetmoos, Camping Eichholz in Bern, Ferme de la Corbiere near Yverdon and Seeland camp near Biel are also worth a mention.

The full list in order of visiting:

Thulersee. So wet it was hard to tell. Could have been great. 💧/10

TCS Luzern, Horw.  Least favourite, pitch too far from playground, muddy. One of very few cold showers. Lakeside is different from lake view (actual lakeside 10 mins from campsite was lovely). 🌿/10

Ebnet farm, Ennetmoos. Steep and cheap. Lovely little family-run working farm selling their own honey. Spacious modern shower room, toys and games for the kids, numerous cats and cows. 🐝/10

Camping Obsee, Lungern. Good swimming, playground and nearby friendly shop. In-the-mountains feel with parapentes and cable car. 🚠/10

Camping Balmweid, Meiringen. Best trampoline/playground. Shady tent area. Odd rules against charging phones, laundry etc. 🚫/10

TCS Interlaken. Busy (small tent city), good shelter for dinner. Table tennis. Friendly. Poor swimming. ⛺⛺⛺/10

Camping Brenzikofen. Loved it. Pool, unique adventure playground, level crossing at far end providing endless train watching, classic lido cafe. 🍟/10

Camping Eichholz, Bern. Big trees and tables. Busy (queue for washing up!). Surprisingly great for city camping.🌳/10

Camping Muntelier, Murtensee. Small pitch nearly in the lake – amazing. Fantastic ice cream. Tiny beach. 🏊‍♀️ /10

Ferme de la Corbiere. Lovely private beach, but 40m below the pitch (not ideal for cooling off). Nice tent area with trees and tables, sunset views, facilities a little tired and cramped. 🏖️ /10

TCS Camping La Tène Lac de Neuchâtel. Swimming too sandy and too shallow, but fun breakwater walk. Large, efficient facilities. Pitch OK given it wasn’t busy. ⛱️/10

Seeland-camp, Meinisberg. Longest check in ever – friendly to the point of being unhelpful. Up a stupidly big hill to a nice situation – views and meadows. Great swimming pool with free flippers and noodles to borrow. 🤿/10

TCS Camping Solothurn. Best morning bread. Far too big, miles to facilities and twice as far to the playground. No shade. Competes with other TCS camps for worst ‘swimming area’. 🥖/10

Camping Aarburg. Not cheap, not cheerful. Old-style campsite with nice tent area and good (though small) facilities. Best thing is it’s the last campsite before Zurich. Friendly touring atmosphere. 🚲/10

More or less the reverse of the outward journey, except that we collected rather more souvenirs and knew what we needed to supplement our train breakfast with! Back home now after a really successful trip – summary thoughts to follow.

A long, hot ~80 km day following Route 5 almost to Zürich Flughafen. We descended on friends in the chaos of the first week of their school term, despite which we’ve had a lovely few days catching up (and hopefully not getting in the way too much). The rainy weather provided the perfect excuse not to go anywhere or do anything very exciting, though we have greatly enjoyed visiting the next-door swimming pool every day!

Criss-crossing the Aare and enjoying the slightly cooler weather. One more (long, due to a scarcity of campsites) riding day to finish the Swiss part of our cycle tour…

Heading back towards Zurich along the lakes and canals south of the Jura.

Unfortunately not literally, as the heat wave has been in full swing for our two days here, but we have probably fared better than if we had been in a tent…

From the Murtensee to Lac de Neuchâtel, passing the westernmost point of our tour in Switzerland at Yverdon.

Hot hot hot – the perfect time for a rest day with our tent two feet from a brilliantly swimmable lake…

Out of the mountains and into what looks like a week of wall-to-wall hot sunshine as we hit the halfway point.

Blue lakes and big mountains