More recently I hiked with friends in the Jungfrau region, basing ourselves in Mürren on the flank of the Lauterbrunnen Valley, what has to be one of the most scenic settings on earth. At other times I’ve explored Geneva, Lausanne, Luzern, St. Moritz, Gindelwald, Appenzell, Chur, and other places, but I’ve never been there in winter.

Well, I was once in Chamonix on the French side, and stayed in the village of Argentiere near the railway tunnel into Switzerland. I skied with friends there for several days, but never crossed the border, so that doesn’t count.

Twice I’ve been to the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe, in summer, looking down the mind-boggling Aletsch Glacier and up at the Jungfrau and Mönch. The excursion train to the Jungfraujoch — the Jungfraubahn — begins in Kleine Scheidegg. Even in summer it’s clear that the slopes here would offer superb skiing.

Naturally, right now the  Swiss Alps are covered in snow. A quick look at ski reports shows a 2-foot base and 6 feet on the upper slopes of the Matterhorn, and similar stories at Verbier and Mürren-Schilthorn.

Snow has been falling in California and throughout the American West. It’d be cheaper and easier to go to Lake Tahoe, to Mammoth Mountain, or to Sun Valley, Idaho or Park City, Utah for that matter, but where do I really want to go?

I think my daydreams are telling me where.

A few years ago I tromped around the Jungfrau region with friends, basing ourselves in the tidy village of Mürren that clings to a ridge above the Lauterbrunnen Valley with a front-row view of the legendary peaks the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. A year before that, with young children in tow, my father-in-law, wife, and I trekked the trails out of Grindelwald in the shadow of the Eiger. Both experiences left me wondering if it could get any better.

As everyone knows, it can always get better. These days I’m dreaming of hiking through the terraced vineyards above Lake Geneva in the Lavaux region between Lausanne and Vevey. No, this isn’t alpine hiking, and the trail I have in mind will take only half a day to complete, but the area is near the top of my list of the world’s most astoundingly beautiful places.

If you want to know the truth, I’ve been dreaming of hiking there since 2003, when I saw it for the first time. I was traveling by train after landing in Zurich with my then-five-year-old daughter, on our way to meet my wife and three-year-old who’d flown into Geneva on a different routing. After a couple of hours of speeding through the rolling countryside, through picture-perfect towns, fields, and forests, we entered a long tunnel. When we emerged, we burst into dazzling light, a whole world of blue from the sky above and the azure expanse of Lake Geneva below, tucked in by a horizon of high mountains. Both my daughter and I were stunned. The transition from dark tunnel to blue radiance was so instantaneous it felt like a blow to the chest.

And then the vineyards appeared: rolling, curving green terraces stepping down the hillsides to the lake, mile after mile, with chateaus dotting the rows of vines. Immediately I wanted to hike there, whether there were trails or not. I needed to make my way into that landscape.

Well, I still do. And will. I’ve put it on the calendar for summer 2011.

But if your 2010 plans are still forming and you have an iPhone, get the new Swiss Hike App from MySwitzerland.com and look at hike #1, Lavaux Vineyard Terraces. That’s the one, from St-Saphorin to Lutry. Or just check out their website for the same information. Maybe I’ll see you there if you wait a year.

Others might choose the Inca Trail in Peru; the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain; pub-to-pub walking in the Cotswolds of England; the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.

I’ve been tempted by the Overland Track in Tasmania. But Robert D. Hershey Jr. extols the virtues of the Milford Track in New Zealand in a recent story in The New York Times. As far back as 1908 this 33.5-mile trail was called the finest walk in the world and many hikers feel it’s true today.

After reading Hershey’s story I’m ready to start planning a trip south. How about you?