Have you decided there's an Alp in your future? If so, there are major decisions ahead. It may be a small country of only 15,943 square miles, but that space is so packed with wonders, it will take encore trips to even scratch the surface.

Where do other travellers focus? Well, if the concept of a "little Hollywood" holds appeal, within a close distance of Vevey and Montreaux literally dozens of celebrities have maintained mountain residences.

Fim stars such as Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Yul Brynner, James Mason, Charles Chaplin, Peter Ustinov and David Niven started the trend, followed by others who prefer to shield their identity.

Although locals respect their privacy, some outsiders do have a tendency to arrive at gated entrances imitating paperazzi. Other famous residents have included the Aga Khan, Prince Sadruddin, Baron Edmond Rothschild, Noel Guinness and Prince Victor Emanuel of Italy.

Their mountain hideaways carried such little-known village addresses as Pregny, Chateau d'Oex, Les Diablerets, Tolochenaz Cologny and Buchillon ¿ all choice locations which should rate travel-folder attention.

Holden and Niven knew what they were doing when they chose Chateau d'Oex. It would rate five stars in anyone's book. Only eight miles from prestigious Gstaad, its site is a valley almost overwhelmed by peaks.

Mountain families had come down to crowd its narrow streets for the annual fall market day where they load up on winter supplies and it was a colourful experience.

Just down the road is Les Diablerets where an aerial cable car takes sightseers and skiers up to a glacier surrounded by 23,000-foot peaks.

Many of the resorts discovered thereabouts are small, simple, cosy chalet-style, specialising in country cooking and exceptional hospitality. Most have only 25 to 30 beds and look like something off a picture postcard.

The ultimate was 50-bed, 18th-century Le Grand Chalet at Rossiniere, largest chalet in Switzerland now classified as an historic monument. Victor Hugo and Alfred Dreyfus have been among it guests.

Consider Italian-flavoured Lugano and Locarno with their mild climate, a Mediterranean mood, palm trees, camellias, magnolias and proximity to slopes observed from sidewalk cafes. Lugano's Splendide Hotel is exactly that . . . very grand, a standout.

Or consider mediaeval Gruyeres deep in the cheese county of Fribourg Canton. The whole town look like something from Hansel and Gretel.

If a more modern environment is your thing, Crans Montana near Sion in the impressive Valais district will please you. However, we personally would have enjoyed its natural beauty more if developers had not decided to "improve" it with ugly high rises and tasteless condominiums. But slopes are super, with distracting Matterhorn views.

Food all over Switzerland is excellent, a blending of German, French and Italian cultures which are part of their heritage. Look for the day's special posted on menus outside smaller restaurants.

And don't be afraid to try the unfamiliar. A raclette dinner which consisted of cheese melted before an open fire and served over boiled potatoes, gherkin pickles and pickled onions was delicious. So was the alpine chalet setting where it was served.

Did you know Switzerland had some excellent wines? They're little known outside the country because there's not enough made for major export. Local tourist offices can direct you to wine-tasting and wine-cellar tours in wine districts.

In fact, across Switzerland travellers will find tourist offices established for the sole purpose of helping you find what you're looking for . . . and that includes accommodations, restaurants, historic sites, shops, whatever interests you.

Remember tourism holds very major importance here, right up there with banking. High on the list of major income producers, Swiss tourist offices definitely realise a happy visitor is a return visitor.

They can help you discover "the real Switzerland". Those off-trail, super-scenic regions locals have discovered, places where you won't be surrounded by mass tourism, sites where Swiss themselves vacation. After all, not all those Swiss are bankers. They're looking for bargains, too.

Start leafing through guidebooks, talk to friends and travel agents for ideas about specific sites. There are so many . . . major cities such as Geneva, Zurich, the capital Berne and Basle for their sophistication, fine hotels and restaurants.

We're most familiar with Zurich because of its airport accessibility and gateway to the Bernese Oberland. We've also stayed in Geneva and enjoyed it, even driven down to Basle from France just to stock up on our favourite Swiss muesli.

But doing things on the spur of the moment can be most fun of all if you have an adventurous spirit. We once followed an appealing back-country track road behind a herd of cows up to the village of Jaen where we overnighted at a small remote mountain-top hotel.

En route we stopped at an unusual cemetery where a local craftsman did a remarkable life-like job carving deceased people's image into wooden crosses. We'd never seen anything quite like it.

We tried to find him, interested in hiring him for some carving, but we were told he was a recluse who wanted nothing to do with the outside world.

Warned, it was no surprise when he ran into his house and locked the door the minute we pulled into his yard. But he was the exception. All over the country we have encountered very friendly people.

Summer visitors have the opportunity to attend many special events of great variety. They include Montreaux's 42nd annual Jazz Festival, from July 4-19. What is a labelled a "varied" festival, it offes jazz, blues, rock, soul, pop, world, reggae, R&B, electronic music and more. See www.montreauxjazz.com.

Geneva's Bol d'Or from June 13-15 is Europe's largest sailing regatta located on Lake Geneva with more than 650 yachts competing, including amateurs and professionals. See www.boldor.ch.

For something definitely different, how about the Cow Fighting Contests held in the Matterhorn region from May to September. A unique breed of cows, the Herens, challenge one another to establish hierarchy of the herd. Regional festivals take place during that season.

Those are just a very small sample of what's happening, thanks to talking with local Swiss tourism officials about this summer's schedule. Learn more at www.myswitzerland or by simply typing in Switzerland on your computer and you will be overwhelmed by possibilities.

One we will certainly never forget is encountering the Swiss Army on manoeuvres while driving in the mountains. To our amazement, they were on bicycles, in full uniform, carrying their rifles. Obviously very fit and healthy, they thought nothing of pedalling up those mountains.

Reading some interesting books can also help set the mood when visiting a country for the first time and subsequently when you're a bit more familiar with it.

We're admittedly fond of mysteries and one author in particular stands out for books he's written about Switzerland.

He was first recommended to us by an American journalist friend who spent much of his life working in Switzerland.

He's Paul Erdman, who died recently and made a name for himself in writing circles with books that often focused on banking and financial matters.

Some of them were made into movies and all have a certain spellbinding quality. The Silver Bears was one while others included The Crash of '79, The Swiss Account and The Panic of '89.

He was labelled by Publishers' Weekly as the "king of the financial thriller". And they're the kind of books, once started, that keeps you up very late!

Silver Bears starred Michael Caine as a financial expert, Louis Jordan as an impoverished Italian nobleman, and Martin Balsam as head of a Las Vegas syndicate which decides to deposit his illicit underworld gains in his own Swiss bank.

The action moves in an out of Lugano, always by private plane, then jets off around the world pursuing the silver market. Many scenes were shot at well-located Hotel Splendide where we also stayed.

Located across from Lake Lugano with its flower-lined promenade, it has a very Mediterranean mood. The city remains a centre for banking, chocolate and tourism, an interesting combination.