Hiking in Switzerland Without a Car

Public transportation and the integrated system of mountain railways/gondolas will take you almost anywhere you need to go, including hiking trails. Transport stations will have yellow signposts pointing you in the right direction. Zermatt itself is actually car-free, as are Wengen and Mürren.
I don’t have a car and I’ve enjoyed all the places you mentioned without one. The advantage of going without a car is that you don’t need to do circular hikes, which opens up a lot more options. Are there specific trails you are wondering about? Otherwise, I can highly recommend checking the various tourist office websites, which usually give detailed info about reaching trails by public transport. For example, in Appenzell https://www.appenzell.ch/en/summer/hiking.html
Also, the Schweiz Mobil website and app are great for planning routes, and include transport stops on their maps https://schweizmobil.ch/en/
You do, of course, have to plan and keep track of schedules etc, and there are a few places around the country where a car is more practical, but the transport infrastructure is very well developed here and caters well to hikers and walkers.

@hopper18 Thank you! This has been my biggest stressor in planning this trip. I'll check out the websites you have recommended. Sounds like Switzerland makes this pretty easy. I appreciate you!

A car is a burden in all places you mentioned. In fact, Zermatt has banned cars in its city limits. Parking is a real pain in this country.

You can easily get to many trails by train, bus, funicular, and cable cars, and you can make some hikes longer or shorter by deciding where to get off a cable car to start your hike or when to get on another one to end it.

Just a few examples:

From Interlaken, you can take the train to Lauterbrunnen and hike along the valley or take the bus toward Stechelberg and hike back down the valley. Or you can travel to Murren or Wengen for a number of hikes in each area.

I found these to be useful resources for planning hikes in the area:

https://lauterbrunnenhiking.wordpress.com/lauterbrunnen-hiking/murren-hikes/

https://www.interlaken.ch/en/experiences/poi/winteregg-muerren

From Interlaken, you can also take the bus to Beatenburg, then a cable car to the Niederhorn for a hike with spectacular views.

https://www.interlaken.ch/en/experiences/autumn-pleasures/hiking-in-autumn

All the best,

Raymond

Thank you @barkinpark! One more reason not to mess with a car.

Thank you for the resources and ideas, Raymond! There is so much that I want to see that it's a little overwhelming. I appreciate you taking the time to help!

We don't really have a concept of a "Trailhead" here.

The trails form a country spanning network, and they are everywhere. And they mesh with the transportation network. So a typical hike involves taken public transport to some point, hiking to another, and then taking public transport back. Often at railway stations there will be a big map of local hiking trails, so you could treat stations as a "trailhead" of sorts.

@wengenk I'm from Washington State, USA and we routinely drive 1- 1.5 hours to a trailhead. Hiking in Switzerland is going to be SO much nicer. I can't wait to see your beautiful country. Thank you for taking the time to comment!