Re-considering a day trip to Geneva / Lausanne
Joejax and his wife are planning a 15-day trip to Switzerland in September, spending 2 nights in Montreux after arriving from Interlaken. They are reconsidering a day trip to Geneva due to limited attractions and are seeking advice on whether to visit Lausanne or explore more of Montreux instead.
- The Swiss Travel Pass provides great flexibility for last-minute changes, making it easier to modify your itinerary.
- Gruyères is easily accessible from both Montreux and Lausanne, making a chocolate and cheese tour a convenient option.
- Lausanne offers several attractions, including the Olympic Museum, and is worth exploring before returning to Montreux.
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My wife and I are going to be on a 15 day Switzerland trip in September. with a STP. As part of our itinerary ,we are staying in Montreux for 2 nights after arriving from Interlaken on the Golden Pass. We had planned to take a day trip to Geneva by train after our first night in Montreux. After a short visit and lunch in Geneva, we were going to take the train back to Lausanne, visit the city and get on a boat cruise back to Montreux. After researching Geneva, we are re-thinking this leg of our trip because we just couldn’t find a lot of things to see that interest us. We could take the train to Lausanne. There are some things to see in Lausanne before taking the boat back to Montreux. One of the considerations is a side trip to Gruyeres Chocolate and Cheese tour from Lausanne. Is a visit to Gruyeres easier from Montreux? After Montreux we are off to Zermatt.
Should we still consider Geneva or perhaps just go to Lausanne or perhaps just skip this entire leg of our trip and stay and explore Montreux for 2 days? Any advice will be appreciated>
Joejax
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Hello Joejax,
Thank you for sharing your plans.
Train journey times, which you may have probably discovered whilst researching, are not that huge between Geneva-Lausanne-Montreux. Gruyères is approximately 1h 8 minutes from Montreux and 1h 14 minutes from Lausanne by train. You can research frequency of the trains via the timetable link: https://www.myswissalps.com/timetable
The cheese factory is right next to Gruyères rail station, so very convenient: https://www.myswissalps.com/lamaisondugruyere and Maison Cailler is located in Broc: https://www.myswissalps.com/maisoncailler
Geneva, did you manage to have a read through our activity suggestions for Geneva? https://www.myswissalps.com/geneva/activities.
Here are also the activity links for Lausanne and Montreux:
Basing yourself in Montreux, you can easily reach both Lausanne and Geneva at ease. Personally I really love Lausanne and Montreux. Geneva, I have only spent time there, in passing. It was much larger and busier of the three, and from what I could see, lots to see.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Yolanda
Yolanda
,thank you for your quick response. I went through your links and they are very helpful. Regarding the things to do in Geneva, I observed that nearly all of the activities are day trips and we were planning to be there just 2-3 hours which made those trips a little unpractical. I was hoping to find activities that we could do in a couple of hours including a stroll around Old Town and lunch. I noticed several museums but since we like modern art, none of them seemed to display that. Does anyone else have any advice of what to do in a 1/2 day in Geneva?
Hello again Joejax,
Perhaps keep an eye on the MAMCO museum in Geneva, they may have an interesting exhibition when you visit in September.
Or when in Lausanne, the MCBA:
Kind regards,
Yolanda
Yolanda,
Thank you. These 2 museums could be good additions to put on our itinerary in Geneva and Lausanne.
Joejax
I shall be there this weekend – yippee!
Try the Botanic Gardens; Maison Tavel (Museum with fabulous scale model of Medieval Geneva); Jet d’Eau water spout, UN, Carouge old town:http://www.geneva.info/carouge/
various other museums: http://www.geneva.info/museums/
Hi Joejax,
There is quite a bit to see in the Lausanne/Montreux area also. There is quite a bit of hiking in and around the vineyards, the Olympic Museum, the village itself, just in the Lausanne area. Gruyers, and the chocolate factory, as mentioned above, are easily accessible from either Montreux or Lausanne.
The train to Geneve from Montreux is in the area of an hour fifteen, twenty. I personally wouldn’t count out the area. It’s quite beautiful with the lake and the mountains in the background. It wouldn’t be the worst thing if you missed going to Geneva in spite of wanting to. It’s so hard to squeeze everything in, in spite of being such a small country, but you would need to decide if it’s worth it to go to Geneva for just a couple hours as versus other destinations/towns (Gruyers, etc). Montreau also offers the Chillon Castle, the Rochers de Naye, (which boasts the most beautiful view of the lake), and easy
access to the Glacier 3000, via Aigle. Also, high above Aigle, is the charming town of Leysin, with beautiful views of the lake as well.
As far as planning goes, the train to Zermatt from Montreux is just about two and a half hours, with a change at Visp. Hope you have a wonderful trip.
Regards,
Danielsan
Have fun 1960man :-)!
Thank you Danielsan. I always enjoy reading your contributions 🙂
No problem, Yolanda. Thank You.
Thank you to all that contributed to my post. All of the information helped me very much. I now believe a day trip of Geneva, Chocolste factory, Lousanne and boat ride back to Mobtreux will be too much or even possible in 1 day. I believe we will train to Lausanne, enjoy the city and boat back to Montreux for a relaxing beautiful day.
Joejax
Thank for the update Joejax.
You will have a wonderful time. Plus you have the very convenient Swiss Travel Pass so you can easily make last minute changes should you wish to do so.
Enjoy!
Kind regards,
Yolanda
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