Yverdon-les-Bains

Yverdon sits at the flat end of Lake Neuchâtel, beside the Grande Cariçaie marshland, and it is the one place on our list where the ground genuinely does not go up. For running that is a real advantage: long, even efforts at a steady pace are hard to do anywhere else in French-speaking Switzerland without a treadmill.

The town is best known for its thermal baths, and the swimming facilities are correspondingly good. It is quieter than the lakeside cities, so there are fewer coaches available — but weekend slots are far easier to get here than in Lausanne, and the trade is often worth it.