Montreux to Chillon castle and Rochers-de-Naye
A traveler plans to visit Montreux in September for a couple of days, arriving after a flight from the USA. They need advice on the best way to get to Chillon Castle from their hotel, whether to prioritize Rochers-de-Naye on their full day, and what else to do on their last day before heading to Wengen.
- Take the trolley bus to Chillon Castle; it's frequent and convenient from Clarens.
- Consider a boat ride one way to enjoy the lake view, then walk or take the trolley back for a different experience.
- The Swiss Travel Pass covers local transport options, including CGN boats and the trolley bus.
- Plan to visit Rochers-de-Naye in the morning as it's a half-day trip, allowing for a castle visit afterward.
AI-generated summary-
We will be in Montreux in September – arrival day should be there at 1pm/ next full day/ 3rd day leaving for Wengen.
We will be staying in small hotel by Clarens SGN – looks a steam boat station. What would be the best way to get to the Chillon Castle – walk there (not sure, but looks far enough), or waybe boat half way, walk and then boat back? Is this a good idea for the 1st day after flight from USA?
Is Rocher de Naye should be our top priority for the full day?
Is there anything we can do the third day before leaving for Wengen?
PS THis will be our second trip to Switzerland.
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Hi maniimjach! Great that you get to visit Switzerland a second time. I think you’ll love Montreux (http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux).
You can find your trip options to the Chillon castle using the timetable at http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable, entering Clarens (or rather your exact hotel address) as your departure point and “Veytaux, Chateaux-de-Chillon” as your destination: http://www.myswissalps.com/chilloncastle. (By the way, I wasn’t able to locate “Clarens SGN”. The boat dock is officially called “Clarens, lac”. You might have meant “CGN”, which is the boat company servicing Lake Geneva: http://www.myswissalps.com/bo atlakegeneva.) There are several direct train and bus connections, taking about 20 minutes. Boat rides to “Chateaux-de-Chillon, lac” take about 30 minutes.
The trip up to Rochers-de-Naye doesn’t necessarily take all day: http://www.myswissalps.com/ro chersdenaye. Half a day would be fine I guess, and you could combine it with the castle if you like. Further recommendations for the area can be found at http://www.myswissalps.com/la kegeneva/activities.
One of my favorite things to do in Montreux is to visit the Queen exhibit inside the waterfront Casino. It is very good (free) and flies under the radar. Queen had a very good connection with Montreux where they owned the recording studio and recorded several albums. There is also a very cool statue of Freddie Mercury on the waterfront.
Planning to see Freddie for sure 🙂
Annika – do you know if the CGN boats are covered by Day saver pass?
Hi maniimjach. Yes, it is. You can check the Saver Day Pass validity page: http://www.myswissalps.com/sa verdaypass/validity.
Clarens is well served by public transport as you can use three modes to get along the lake shore, trolley bus, train and CGN lake boat.
Clarens is the ‘wrong’ side of Montreux, so the walk to Chillon is (at 1 hour) not as short as it would be from Montreux centre, but 1 hour along a lake shore shouldn’t be too taxing, and passes Freddie Mercury’s house in Territet.
However, it sounds like your hotel will be pretty close to a trolley bus stop. The trolleybus (which also runs right past Chateau de Chillon) is quite rare, it is one of the last survivors of the many Swiss inter-urban trolleybus routes that were introduced in the 1940s. It is ridiculously frequent as it serves a linear urban area with a large population. Rather boringly it is now just called route 201. It used to be known by its company name (denominating the route served) of VMCV (Vevey-Montreux-Chillon-Villeneuve). I would definitely recommend using that one way or the other.
Timetable: http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/ fileadmin/fap_pdf_fiel ds/2019/10.201.pdf
Additional to my previous comment.
If you are there at a weekend, there is the heritage railway Blonay – Chamby:
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/ fileadmin/fap_pdf_fiel ds/2019/115.1.pdf
There is a direct bus route Clarens – Blonay
Even if the Blonay – Chamby is not operating, you can still take the bus to Blonay and take the mountain railway to Les Pleiades. It is lower than Rochers de Naye but still worth a visit.
Great advice, thank you. As the Castle visit will probably on my travel day from US, I may use trolley one way, and walk the other. Do you recommend trolley over the boat/ CGN? My husband is an escalator mechanic and may go the trolley way.
The trolley bus, by definition, runs on the roads so can’t really compete with the boat ride, but as I say I think you would find it very convenient for your hotel in Clarens. You could do boat one way and part walking part trolley bus the other perhaps.
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