In this country you can get to virtually every village by public transportation.  Unlike NYC, there are no jungles, just mountains, lakes, valleys, forests, farmland, and  . . . .  so don't bring your guns, and buy a demi-tarrif (that's a card that enables you to travel half price on the trains and other public transportation, as without a car, you may just be a prime customer.  Or, there's the AG, which for a flat fee enables you to ride all the public transportation systems.  Its an honor system here, with only periodic checks to make sure that you have a valid ticket.  Where you come from, they send you to jail for not having coughed up; here we (the Swiss) just voted to deport such villains.  Buy a ticket and be happy.

Cheap ?  Well you get what you pay for . . .  besides, its clean, it runs on time and you usualy come out at the other end still alive and with your wallet.  In those terms, yep, its cheap !

Liz: Yes and no.  There's very reliable transport to every little village.  However, a car will open up more options for sightseeing.  Plus you can stop whenever you like and look around instead of staring at stuff out of the train windows whilst you pass it by.

Also, note the cost of train travel.  The cost of 2 one-day travel passes are higher than the cost of a car rental.  When two or more people are involved, a car will almost always work out cheaper than train transport.  It's when only one person is travelling that things aren't so clear-cut.

My advice is to try both.  Rent a car for a week, focus on using transport the next.  See how you like it.

Once you're "officially" in Geneva (you have to actually live here), you can buy day tickets for only 35 CHF - and that covers the whole country. There's only a limited number of tickets for every day so obviously they go fast for the weekends and you have to plan a bit in advance, but there are many great train rides up into the mountains and you can get to many places for hiking by public transport.

Reaching rock climbing sites is more difficult without a car. Although there is a car sharing network in Switzerland which works very well, and which makes it possible to combine train and car: www.mobility.ch