Valle Maggia
I did this hike on the 16th of May, 2021. It was one of my first hikes in Switzerland and my first hike in Ticino. I had some friends that were in Ticino for the weekend, and I joined them on this hike in Valle Maggia.
Full route: Swisstopo
I took the train from Zürich to Bellinzona and there changed to a train to Locarno. In Locarno, we all took the bus to Someo, where we started the hike. The morning was really nice and sunny, and we had great views down through Valle Maggia from the trail.
In the beginning of the hike, we walked past many of the typical stone houses that you find throughout most of Ticino. Most of them were empty, and it was generally very quiet and empty on the first part of the hike.
About half way through the hike, the weather started changing, but although it got more cloudy and grey, we avoided rain. The trail was quite easy, mainly on wider hiking path, constantly making its way up and down on the side of the valley, and in and out of vegtated areas.
You walk close to the river the entire time, which makes for some nice scenery. As we were still relatively early in the season, some of the mountain peaks still had snow on them, and it looked very nice as a contrast to all the green surrounding us.
The closer we got to the end of the hike, the more cloudy it became. It also started to get colder, so we were all happy to reach Tegna, from where we had decided to take the bus to Ascona.
In Ascona, we walked along the lake and enjoyed the views. It was still only afternoon, but since we were all hungry after the hike, we decided to find a place to get some food before starting the journey back.
We decided on a restaurant by the lake and all had pizza and beers, which was a great ending to the day. After finishing the food, we walked to the train station in Locarno, from where we started our trip back home to Zürich.
