In most studies, forest attractiveness is determined by visual aspects. However, forest perception is not only influenced by visitors' visual impressions - all sensory dimensions play a role. In order to capture other sensory perceptions, we conducted seven go-along interviews, during which forest visitors were accompanied by an interviewer on their normal route through the forest and prompted to comment on what they saw, smelled, heard and felt. In addition, a pilot survey provided some initial insights on the influence of sounds on visitors' perceived visual attractiveness of forest plots. The pilot study was part of a larger quantitative forest visitor survey across the whole of Switzerland aiming to link forest visitor data to forest characteristics according to the Swiss National Forest Inventory NFI. At a subset of 29 forest plots, sounds were recorded in addition to the questionnaire survey and the data on forest characteristics. This enabled us to link forest visitor data provided in the questionnaires with forest characteristics and sound parameters, in an attempt to explain between-plot variability in the perceived visual attractiveness of forest plots.