Alps in late March/Early April

It will still be ski season. The valleys will be fine, maybe an odd bit of greenery peaking out on the south facing slopes.

Well, Bozen won't be as bad, but you are pretty early for alpine meadows and hiking. Salzburg and its outlying areas may be a little better. Ideally for the Alps, August or early September are what I have found to be the best for hiking. Sudtirol may be a little warmer (the area around Bozen/Bolzano). In any case the food and wine in Sudtirol are excellent and MUCH cheaper than Switzerland, plus the Dolomites are spectacular to behold..

The Berner Oberland has an extensive network of groomed winter walking trails. Once the weather starts to warm up, though, the trails turn to slush and aren't very pleasent for walking. If the cold holds up, you should be fine. But if spring comes early, forget about it. Plus, as soon as the snowpack retreats, the farmers use this time to fertilize the pastures... which consists of liquified manure pumped through a power hose. Not a good time to hike.

You're entirely too early for the green Alpine meadows. The blooming doesn't usually start until late May or even later.

Tom beat me to it--about the farmers slinging manure on their fields as soon as it thaws. They just want it out of their farm yards. It's the same way in Ireland and many other places in Europe. It can be distasteful to many people.

I've been to the Innsbruck in April, and the weather was simply glorious. It's a 50/50 proposition. The Austrian Alps in many years don't get as much snow as Lake Tahoe, and the skiing can be icy. If at all possible, go a month later and the weather will be warmer.

That's funny. We were just up in Lech am Arlberg last month and were out on a long hike. The farmers were out with the trucks slinging manure on their chive fields already. Phew!

...farmers were out with the trucks slinging manure....

Reminds me of doing walking holidays in England having to cross many sheep pastures. The English famers (at least in the north) seem to use rollers to flatten and spread the sheep droppings. No way to avoid the sheep manure other than to walk in air. Boot to manure was not a problem because the US Ag inspectors were kind enough to sanitize our boots on our return through US customs.

Re Salzburg and winter hiking in Austria. This past January in Salzburg was pretty mild. Some rain showers and light snow in the higher surrounding countryside (Sounds of Music tour) but not in town. We did get snow (a lot of it) in the Tyrol (PillerseeTal) at 900 to 1000 meters ASL. The PillerseeTal is a holiday destination with downhill & cross country skiing. That said, the PillerseeTal area groom (packs down) more winter walking kilometers than it sets cross country ski track. Walkers are expected to use the winter walking tracks and not hike on the ski trails. While we are skiers, we saw a large number of folks using the winter walking tracks.

http://www.kitzbueheler-alpen.com/en/pillerseetal/winter/winter-hiking-snow-shoe-hiking.html

On around 100 km of prepared winter hiking trails non-skiers and
occasional hikers are very well catered for. Countless routes take you
to the loveliest nooks in PillerseeTal through woodlands and across
fields, past farms, hamlets and streams.

That said, I can certainly see spring thaw turning the snow packed winter walking tracks into slushy bogs.

@Edgar-interesting about your experience with the Ag Inspectors. Returning from an Ireland trip in 2011, having checked "Yes" to the U.S. Immigration Card question about whether we'd been on a farm or pasture, the Customs people at the Denver airport swabbed and tested our suitcases (which hadn't been in the fields, and it had been 2 weeks since we'd hiked to see any ring forts or dolmens, so our shoes had been worn in countless cities and town since then) as if they were checking for explosive material, and there was never a question or issue with our footwear! Sheep happens.

Hi mef789-Zermatt, Chamonix, and Cervinia aren't the places you mentioned, but they're in the Alps, and was there in late March/early April 2003 (as Operation Desert Storm was just beginning - interesting to see how that was covered in Europe), and it was definitely ski season, but in France and Italy, the snow was way up high, and some of the lower elevations were snow-free and clear for non skiing activities.

Of course, this can vary from year to year, depending on the weather and climate patterns. Would you consider giving skiing or snowboarding a try? Not necessarily cheap, but you can rent equipment and hire an instructor, and you might get hooked :-)

I'd expect Salzburg to be open for hiking and biking (was there in April 2000). We caught a local hockey game in Chamonix, and there were interesting local museums in each place, too. The food was great everywhere, regardless of weather and snow conditions!

Thanks for the replies! I think we will stay around Salzburg and Bolzano this trip and save Switzerland for another time when it's warmer. Are there any other cities in the area that we should see in March? We have about 10 days total in Europe.

I would continue to head south as late March is still winter throughout Europe. Venice? Verona?