Zurich, Como, St Moritz, Zermatt, Wengen, Montreux, Geneva in October
A traveler shared their recent trip to Switzerland, revealing a fantastic journey that included destinations like Zurich, Varenna, St. Moritz, Zermatt, and Wengen. They explored many scenic views and indulged in delicious local cuisine while navigating various transport options, including a memorable ride on the Glacier Express. They sought advice on managing altitude sickness and the benefits of Engadin transport cards during their time in the Alps.
- Be sure to book your seat reservations in advance for popular train rides like the Glacier Express to ensure a smooth experience.
- Utilize the Engadin transport cards for free access to local transportation and mountain rides in St. Moritz.
- Always allow extra time for train connections, especially in the Lauterbrunnen area, as delays can occur.
- If planning to visit Zermatt, expect it to be busy with tourists, even in early October.
AI-generated summary-
Our trip started with a flight to Zurich, but we immediately caught a train to Como and spent the first five days in Varenna, before then travelling to Tirano, with a driver due to train issues. We stayed overnight at the Hotel Bernina and had a wonderful dinner at Parravicini, before boarding the Bernina Express on Sunday 29th October.
I booked the seat reservations back in November last year, but only purchased the point to point tickets over dinner the night before.
We had a great train ride on a perfect day, with good company in the first class carriage, including a a couple of Sydney couples, one with a young child who behaved very well and appeared to enjoy the trip.
We were picked up by our hotel, the Schweizerhof in St Moritz and taken to the hotel where we were able to check in early. The room was lovely with a great view of the town and lake.
We were given our free Engadin transport cards and so we immediately caught two funiculars and a cable car to Piz Nair where we had a lunch of Veal Sausage with Rosti. Delicious. I was quite out of breath in the high altitude though which surprised me as this hasn’t happened before.
Dinner that evening was supposed to be a fifteen minute walk away but we were too tired, so we cancelled and ate in the hotel. A fairly bland meal in glaring LED lights, so somewhat disappointing. We both had club sandwiches.
Monday 30th September
Another beautiful day. Today we again used our Engadin cards and caught the train and another cable car to Diavolezza. This was incredible with stunning views of the over 4000 metre Piz Bernina and the Morterarsch Glacier. I loved the name – the mountain of the she-devil who apparently lured men to their deaths. We ate lunch at the outdoor terrace with amazing views. We both shared a platter of local meats and cheeses along with a glass of white wine.
It was a great experience, and we returned and stopped at the village of Pontresina. This was a charming Swiss village which we spent an hour or so strolling around before returning to our last night in St Moritz.
Dinner was at Le Lapin Bleu where my husband ate Venison Escalopes with Pasta and Red Cabbage and I had Veal with Cream Sauce Zurich style and Roesti.
Tuesday 1st October
After an early start we caught the Glacier Express on a partly sunny, partly cloudy day. Excellence Class was absolutely sensational and worth the large cost. We were taken care of all day with drinks and superb food to go along with the incredible views on either side of the train.
We started with glasses of Swiss sparkling wine, along with two mini tartlets, one cheese and one beef tartare. Next was trout smoked in Switzerland with oven-roasted beetroots, apples, salad and horseradish cream cheese. This was followed by pea mint soup, with dried alpine flower blossoms.
Main course was a Swiss beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes and truffle oil, carrots, spring onions and gravy with mountain herbs.
All of this was completely delicious and matched with glasses of Swiss wine. White wines accompanied the second two courses and a red with the main dish. We ordered a second glass of the lovely red, which from memory was a Pinot Noir.
Dessert was first a cheese course, a regional cheese plate with Viamala cheese, Graubünden mountain cheese, sliced Aletsch cheese and organic Langwieser ewe’s milk cheese, with tomato-apricot chutney, pear bread & crackers followed by a warm chocolate cake with vanilla sauce and roasted almonds. The cake was served with a sweet dessert wine.
Herb tea or coffee finished off the amazing repast, as the train continued from St. Moritz to Zermatt.
Upon arriving in Zermatt, we were met by the owner of our hotel in an electric mini bus and driven to the property. We entered the hotel by an underground tunnel then a lift up to a stunning architecturally designed building with what would be views of the Matterhorn if the sky was clear. Unfortunately, at this point, it was not.
On arrival we were given welcome drinks of a glass of prosecco in the lounge before being shown to our rooms. We did little more than unpack and get settled in our amazing suite, with free standing shower in the bathroom, and a separate toilet, before it was time for dinner.
Needless to say, we were still not terribly hungry after the day’s feasting, so we visited the Brown Cow pub in Zermatt village for some simple pub food. My husband had a hot dog and I had chicken cordon bleu with fries. He ate my fries and I still only got half way through the cordon bleu, although it was very nice indeed.
We walked back to the Coeur des Alpes, ordered a Baileys and a Grand Marnier as a nightcap, took them to our room and went to sleep.
Wednesday 2nd October
We had the most spectacular Matterhorn views today. Our hotel room’s balcony faces it, and I looked just after 7am but only saw clouds. I checked again ten minutes later and there it was in all its glory.
We spent most of the day at Gornergrat. We paid for priority boarding which proved to be a waste as the clouds descended as we rose, and we could see nothing. I started to think we’d waste what was quite a large amount of money when converted from AUD, but I needn’t have worried. Once we got above the clouds the views were magical.
We spent three fabulous hours taking photos and enjoying cheese fondue and Pinot noir at the Kolm Hotel casual restaurant.
Then things got interesting. We thought we’d investigate the Zoom exhibit before coming down, but when we got there, it had suddenly closed for an unknown cause.
We got to the train area to descend, and it was in utter chaos with people everywhere. They had suspended all services with no timeline as to when they might resume. I asked an attendant and was told that it was an electrical issue.
We waited in line for a full two hours before a train arrived. I am suffering badly from the effects of altitude and my Apple watch kept telling me my heart rate and breathing were too high, but what could I do.
Finally, a train appeared, and I learnt that people from some countries did not understand the words queue and boarding in order.
Long story short, they squashed the lot of us into one train, we waited for another twenty minutes or so, and finally returned to Zermatt.
I assume this sort of thing doesn’t happen very often.
We ate dinner at Grampis that evening, where I had chicken saltimbocca and my husband had pork ribs. All was very good and very reasonably priced.
Thursday 3rd October
Today we woke to dark grey moody skies, and the ever elusive Matterhorn had hidden her face under at least fifty shades of grey.
Luckily of course we’d seen her in all her glory yesterday, and had already decided against more mountain activities as the altitude was still bothering me and my husband had a slight sniffle, so it really didn’t matter.
After a great breakfast we put on our raincoats and luckily I thought to grab the hotel umbrella.
We had decided to visit Gornerschult, a gorge over the river which was supposed to be very pretty and suitable for a wet day. The website stated it had timber walkways for viewing so we assumed that it would be similar to the gorge of Orrido we visited last week while we were in Varenna.
We travelled with hiking poles but haven’t used them and it never entered our heads to take them.
This ended up a 1.5m walk with a 150m elevation gain to get there, scrambling over rocks and tree roots, with an occasional bit of rope to hang onto to to stop you falling down the sheer drop off of the path.
When we finally got there, with me gasping for air since the elevation was still troubling me, we did find the timber walkways. The website never mentioned the number of timber staircases going up and up to the top. Luckily the views were spectacular and thank goodness for the umbrella which I used as a walking pole. I very much doubt I would have made it otherwise. While 1.5km is less than I walk the dog each day, the terrain was entirely different to anything we are used to.
The whole journey was very worthwhile though, and then we had to choose between coming back the same way or climbing further, crossing the gorge on an elevated bridge and then having a restaurant to stop at before descending. We choose the second option and enjoyed a lovely bowl of barley soup with bread and a glass of wine on the terrace overlooking the grey, wet, but beautiful scenery. There were lots of other hikers there too, but they all had proper poles. Ooops, lesson learned, we’ll carry them in future.
The descent was hard on my knees, but better on my breathing. I think we’ll sleep well tonight.
After we got back to town, we visited the Hinterdorf, which is the old town of Zermatt with buildings of 500 years old. Next came the Matterhorn Cemetery, which was heartbreaking to read the headstones, particularly considering how young most of them were. At least they died doing what they loved in most cases.
Our final stop was the Matterhorn Museum which was completely fascinating seeing how Zermatters lived in days gone by, and the pull of this incredible mountain and the others surrounding it.
Our final Zermatt dinner was at Restaurant Spycher where I had a trio of fillets and my husband had duck. We both had Crepes Suzette flambeed at the table for dessert.
Friday 4th October
Today was a travel day from Zermatt to Wengen. Lots of trains, lots of changes, but all went to plan. We purchased a first-class Saver Day Pass for this day.
Once in the beautiful village of Wengen, we checked into our hotel, the Maya Caprice and spent the rest of the day wandering the town and admiring the view, before a steak dinner at Restaurant Baren. Good food but not great.
Saturday 5th October
Today was a big day. We started after breakfast at around 9am, firstly catching a cog wheel train down to Lauterbrunnen, then a cable car to Grütschalp, and another to Mürren, another car free village on the other side of the valley from us.
We walked the length of the village for two more cable cars up to Schilthorn.
We started at the Piz Gloria revolving restaurant with two glasses of Bollinger to celebrate that we made it without getting lost.
The scenery, both from the cable car rides and from Schilthorn itself, was simply unbelievable. How on earth such a small country as Switzerland got so much beauty is a question we keep asking ourselves.
Australia has beauty, England certainly has, and we’ve been to many other amazing places on earth, but this is over the top nonstop beauty.
We investigated the whole complex, watched a bit of James Bond, and my husband amused himself at the James Bond experience.
We caught the cable car back down to Mürren and had a lovely lunch of a bowl of goulash soup and a glass of red overlooking the staggering view.
We then did a small hike of about 3km, all downhill, to the tiny hamlet of Gimmelwald. I’ve never been on such a walk in my life with the massive mountains of the Mönch, the Eiger and the Jungfrau in touching distance in front of us the whole way.
We stopped at Pension Gimmelwald for my husband to try what is apparently the world’s highest rated dark beer, the Schwarz Mönsch.
The expedition ended with yet another cable car down to Stechelberg, a bus to Lauterbrunnen past all the waterfalls and a final cog wheel train home.
Sunday 6th October
Dinner last night was in a local Italian restaurant called Ristorante da Sina. From the second we walked in, we felt the vibe, so to speak. It was warm and cosy without being overheated like so many European restaurants are. It was packed with an eclectic crowd off older couples like us, young couples, groups of young people and families.
The food matched the ambience. My husband had Spaghetti Vongole, with lots of chili and garlic, and he was very happy with the presentation and the ease of eating it. I had pistachio encrusted salmon, with grilled zucchinis and mashed potatoes. So, so good. I finished with tiramisu and my husband had an affogato.
Today I felt like I’m starting to succumb to my husband’s cold, so we slept in and had a lazy start. It was also our anniversary, so rushing wasn’t part of the plan.
We set off just before 11am and caught a cable car from here in Wengen to a mountain top named Mannlichen. We paid a little extra for the Royal Ride, which means you get to ride outdoors on top of the cable car. It was spectacular and felt like we were on a ride at Disney somewhere. I love rides so this was perfect.
After taking many photos of the views from Mannlichen, we set off for the famous Panoramaweg, a fairly easy 4.5km walk or hike from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg.
As mentioned, I thought I was coming down with a cold and felt very vague and thick headed. As soon as we started, I realised that I hadn’t bought my hiking poles. Duh!!! Luckily My husband had his and shared and we actually found using one each was easier.
It was the most scenic, amazing walk of our lives. Around halfway through, about an hour in, my weak bladder was starting to struggle. This was a worry as going back wasn’t an option. Around the corner was the best sight of the Alps – a portaloo! Not only was it there, but it was clean and had water, soap and toilet paper. Australia, take note.
Almost at the end of the hike was a cute mountain restaurant and we were hungry. We stopped at had lunch and a half bottle of Veuve to celebrate our anniversary, before continuing on to Kleine Scheidegg and catching the cogwheel back to Wengen.
We spent an hour or so wandering the town and taking yet more photos of the Lauterbrunnen Valley from the church which has an amazing viewpoint.
Finally, we had a glass of red in the hotel hot tub. There is nothing like being in a hot tub looking at snow covered mountains. At one stage we were joined by a couple from Arizona, but they then left us to ourselves.
Tonight, had a superb anniversary meal in our hotel restaurant. We both ordered the menu of the day and had three courses, which is very rare for us. We started with cheese and Parma ham croquettes, light, crispy and scrumptious. Main course was roasted entrecote of Swiss beef with a truffle sauce, saffron risotto and best of all, broccoli with almonds. Totally delicious but I couldn’t manage all of it. Dessert was a white chocolate mousse layered with crispy biscuits and fresh raspberries, the perfect ending to a wonderful day.
Monday 7th October
This morning we got going much earlier and caught two cog wheel trains to the town of Grindelwald on the other side of the mountain. Originally, we planned to stay in Grindelwald but changed our minds and I’m so glad we did. Pretty as it was, it was far too hectic and crowded compared to our car free village.
The annual market was on which didn’t help, so we wandered that and found a pharmacist as I had a nasty splinter in my finger which we couldn’t get out. The pharmacist couldn’t remove it either, but she sold us some drawing cream, so fingers crossed that it comes out before it gets infected.
Next we caught the Firstbahn, a gondola up to First mountain where we walked the famous First Cliff Walk. It is an incredible feeling to walk along a less than a metre wide steel mesh path attached to the side of a cliff 2500 metres above ground level, but good fun as well. Not for anyone who doesn’t like heights!
We had lunch up there facing the big three mountains of the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau, delicious Bratwurst with Rosti and onion gravy, along with a glass of red.
We then rode the new Eiger Express up to the Eiger Glacier where the journey to Jungfraujoch starts. We decided not to go to Jungfraujoch as we’ve seen lots of mountains by now and it is extremely expensive. We rode the Express back down again, then another two cable cars up one mountain, Mannlichen, and then down the other side to our peaceful Wengen.
Dinner was at the villages’ one and only Indian restaurant, Golden India. It was okay but not as good as the Indian food we get in Australia where we have a very large Indian population. We were the only people in the whole restaurant, which was rather odd.
Tuesday 8th October
We woke this morning to yet another grey and miserable day. We’ve been here two weeks now and this is the third bad day, worse than we normally get travelling at this time of year, but not too bad.
We decided to visit Bern as everything I had read said it was ideal for rain. It really wasn’t. Possibly okay for showers but this was nonstop persistent rain. We wandered a few arcades, saw the Parliament building and the famous clock, the Zytglogge, but that was really it. I wanted particularly to see the Bears and the Rose Garden, but I couldn’t imagine that any self-respecting bear would be out in this sort of rain, so we decided against the almost a kilometre walk from where we had lunch to it.
We had a very good lunch at a small French place on their well sheltered terrace. We both had an excellent cheese and onion tart with a deliciously tangy side salad and a glass of Rioja. Good people watching ensued, before we gave up and returned “home”.
Even the train journey back was disappointing. We were in first class and i needed the toilet. All the first-class toilets were closed and out of use, I had to walk up and down stairs over four carriages to find a working one which was filthy and out of toilet paper and soap. Not the usual Swiss train experience.
We decided to get off and explore Lauterbrunnen on our way home. Cute town, but too busy with cars and buses. We walked to the base of the Staubbach Falls that we can see from our balcony, but I wanted an up-close shot of them. Just as we got there, down came a cloud and covered the top of them!
At this point I decided it was just not our day, so we bought a bottle of red in Coop and are now enjoying it in our room before dinner. We didn’t have dinner plans so simply wandered into Pasta and More, where I had a pork escalope which was very tasty.
Wednesday 9th October
This morning we woke to a beautiful day, with the rising sun tinging the mountains with a pink hue.
We set off at 9am on the cog wheel to Lauterbrunnen, then a train to Wilderswil, where we changed to yet another cog wheel to Schynige Platte. This cog wheel took 50 minutes and went at an incredibly steep angle. It has apparently been running since 1893 and only took two years to build! This is kind boggling when back in Melbourne they are quoting five to ten years for a train to the airport, which is completely flat and a lesser distance.
When we arrived, we were greeted by traditional alphorn music which was lovely.
The views from here might be some of the best we’ve seen in the BO area, not only the mountains but the lakes of Thun and Brienz as well and the very large town of Interlaken.
We decided to do the smallest hike, described as easy with just a slight steep bit at the end leading to the viewpoint. It was about an hour and this time we had our poles, so all was good.
Let me tell you it was not easy! It was an extremely steep and rocky and muddy goat track only about half a metre wide. I’d never have survived without the poles. I hate being on the edge without a trail and there were no rails. I don’t even walk upstairs without a railing.
Long story short, I survived, but won’t be in a hurry to repeat that.
It was a circular hike so we ended up back at the restaurant and ordered half a bottle of red as my just reward along with a dish that we hadn’t tried yet, rosti with raclette cheese and a fried egg. It sounded odd but was very delicious, story of like English egg and chips but much, much better.
We repeated the process of returning down the mountain and decided to go back to the wonderful bar at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald. I’d seen a really nice hoody there that I thought would suit my husband and of course he loved that idea as he loves shopping.
By the time we returned to our hotel it was 6:30pm and we are completely exhausted. An awful lot of time is spent traveling although it is so beautiful that you don’t really mind.
I was led to believe everything was always on time, but in reality, almost every train and cable car we’ve caught has been two to three minutes late, necessitating rushing to the next mode of transport. In almost all cases they waited, except this morning when our cogwheel from Wengen was three minutes late due to “technical issues” and when we pulled in at Lauterbrunnen we saw the train we were due to connect with leaving without waiting. This meant a thirty-minute delay which was very frustrating.
Conversely on our return trip, our cable car was late and we thought we’d miss the bus, but he did wait, even though he hooted his horn to hurry us up. By this stage there was no way I could run but he kindly waited anyway.
For this stage of our trip in the Berner Oberland we purchased a first class Berner Oberland pass, which was greatly reduced with our Half Fare Card. Since I returned home, I calculated the cost of the trips that we did in the area, and we saved over 300 CHF by purchasing the pass.
Dinner this evening was at Da Sina’s again which we so enjoyed last Saturday, and we enjoyed it again, my husband had mushroom ravioli with bolognaise sauce and I had spaghetti carbonara. Both were excellent but I was still so full of lunch that I could barely eat half, so had to explain to the restaurant owner that it was good, but I was full!
Thursday 10th October
We woke this morning to another cloudy day and had already decided to do a lake cruise as they are supposedly good to do in the rain. We got lucky today though and the weather cleared to a gorgeous day.
After catching two short trains to Interlaken we transferred to a boat for the hour-long cruise to the Grand Hotel Giessbach and the magnificent Giessbach Falls.
Our Berner Oberland pass was first class, so we got to go to the top floor of the boat with the restaurant and the best views. We didn’t need food but did have a glass of Prosecco to celebrate the day.
After arriving at the hotel at the falls, we caught the private funicular to the hotel and made a lunch reservation for the restaurant. We then spent time taking photos of this incredible place. Our plan was to hike to the top of the falls, but hey, feeling the pain in our quads from yesterday we decided that they could be viewed perfectly well from the middle bridge that was reached by the funicular.
Lunch came with the most superb view of the amazingly blue Lake Brienz. No idea why Brienz is so much bluer than Lake Thun but that’s something to look up another day.
We ate veal patties with piped potatoes, sauce and vegetables. They even had my much loved green beans which I hadn’t seen since leaving Australia. It was a very good lunch served with a wonderful glass of merlot.
Next was another boat to Brienz where we wandered searching for a carved cow souvenir. We’ve been looking all week and they are either beautiful and 200 CHF or rubbish for 20. I suspect we will have more choice on Amazon or possibly in the Gruyeres region next week.
The trains are still not running between Brienz and Interlaken since the damaging summer storms, so we caught a replacement bus to Interlaken Ost.
Again, we searched for cows to no avail when we noticed the funicular to Harder Kulm right there. We’d never planned to visit Harder Kulm, but it was included with our pass and the day had become sunny so why not.
We had a glass of white merlot on the terrace looking at the gorgeous view (again) before coming back down, which took twice as long as going up with huge queues.
Our final dinner in Wengen was again at our hotel restaurant, the Ristorante Caprice, by far the best restaurant in town in our view.
The was simply incredible. In honour of our last night, we were seated at the prime table with a view of the entire restaurant as well as people watching outside, lovely. We only had a main course each and shared a dessert, but I have to say it was one of the best main courses I’ve ever eaten.
It was described as pasture lamb with a New Zealand lamb chop, mash and carrot varieties but it was so much more. It was a piece of slow cooked lamb with herbs on a bed of chive mash. Off to the side was a three-point lamb rack with a herb crust. There were baby carrots, carrot batons, both yellow and orange, a carrot purée, and the most amazingly crisp tempura carrot. It was all pulled together with a divine red wine sauce.
Dessert was an apple tart tatin with vanilla bean ice cream and berries.
Friday 11th October
This morning we had our final breakfast, packed up our bags and caught the cogwheel to Lauterbrunnen, then the regional train to Interlaken.
We then rode in Prestige Class on the Golden Pass Express for the just over three-hour ride non-stop to Montreux.
We were served our pre-ordered Swiss champagne, a mixed meat and cheese platter with a glass of pinot noir and got to enjoy the journey. The scenery is still amazingly spectacular, not as many mountains but lush hills, cows, Swiss chalets with the odd snowcapped peak rising above it all.
We enjoyed all of our Panoramic Trains, but the Prestige Class was the least impressive of them all. First class would have been all we needed, as I really didn’t see any benefit in the extra that we paid for Prestige. We had to leave the carriage for the toilets, apparently the seats rotated, but nobody came to show us how, and we had to pay for our food just as those in first did.
After arriving in gorgeous Montreux to stunning weather, we checked into our hotel right opposite the station, the Hotel Suisse Majestic, and had a lakeside stroll before watching an amazing sunset from our balcony overlooking Lake Geneva. Sunsets were the only things we never saw in the mountains unfortunately.
Dinner that evening was at Funky Claude’s Jazz Bar which was great fun with way too much food. We ordered “tapas” of fish and chips, mini burgers and a club sandwich. There was literally enough to feed the entire bar. We ate what we could and sadly left the rest.
An entertaining jazz trio played, the setting was lovely, and we had a very relaxing evening.
Saturday 12th October
This morning, we started with a very good hotel breakfast, far more American than we’ve been having, but I suppose it is a Marriott after all. They made a great omelette though and had some very good French baguettes. My husband ate the most revolting looking iced donut, I can’t handle anything sweet for breakfast except a tiny smear of jam, he obviously doesn’t have that issue.
My little cold from earlier in the trip, which only lasted around 36 hours, has appeared to freshen up again, and the weather wasn’t as nice, but still, only a few days left so we need to make the most of them.
We caught the train to Vevey, and wandered the beautiful French style old town. There was a Saturday market on, and even I like a market, so we wandered for a while. The array of fruits and vegetables were amazing, but they certainly don’t appear in restaurants here, the one thing we’ve missed in Switzerland is vegetables with our meals. We have noticed the same thing in the past in Germany, Austria and Czechia, so it must be this part of the world. Someone told me that they eat vegetables at home and going out is all about the meat!. The market had great takeaway food options too but it was much too early for lunch.
I then bought tickets in the SBB app to ride on the steamboat back to Chateau de Chillon. We rode first class so we could sit upstairs in the restaurant area, where I had a raspberry spritz and My husband had a Moscow Mule. A bit strong for the middle of the day but it didn’t faze him!
We got off at Chillon and popped into the only cafe we could see and ate surprisingly good hot dogs for a quick lunch. They were grilled and in a toasted roll which I much prefer over boiled frankfurters in a soft roll, and they had fried onions and good French mustard too.
We spent a couple of hours exploring the castle. It was impressive, and not at all expensive, a rarity in Switzerland. I think My husband enjoyed it more than I did, There were displays of weapons and the stuff that men seem to enjoy. I didn’t dislike it, but it didn’t wow me, although the history was very interesting.
The original plan was to walk the lake promenade back to the hotel, but the castle had many steps, we were tired, I was sniffly, and then it started to drizzle, so we caught the bus back.
Dinner this evening was in the hotel Restaurant 45 which had very good reviews. We shared a starter of Malakoff, deliciously light and airy fried cheese balls, then I had grilled sea bass with sarlataise potatoes and mixed vegetables with a white butter sauce which was perfect. My husband had duck breast but unfortunately, he didn’t enjoy his as it was very chewy. Luckily, they didn’t charge for our starter to compensate.
This morning, we were lucky enough to get two unreserved seats on the Golden Pass Belle Epoque train to Montbovon in first class. The train was lovely but the old-style seats were not terribly comfortable, so I’m pleased that we didn’t go very far.
We arrived in Gruyère and had yet another steep hike up stairs and a dirt track to the medieval town and the castle.
I enjoyed this castle more than Chillon although I have no idea why. One huge disappointment though was that there was a modern art exhibition on at the time and there were random pieces of modern art sprinkled throughout. Slightly annoying but we came to one room with a large, beautiful tapestry and they had put a piece of modern art right in the centre. Sacrilege.
We had lunch on the terrace of a small restaurant in town, traditional and very tasty Gruyère dishes of fondue and meringues with double cream and Swiss berries. At least we could share the dessert.
A visit to the Giger Museum was next on the agenda although I didn’t go in. Neither the art nor the movies that came from it interest me so it would have been a complete waste of money and my patience so I waited for my husband on a nice comfy seat. We followed his museum visit with a drink at the Giger Bar before we strolled slowly back to the station, taking photos of cute cows along the way. We returned to Montreux, this time on the Goldenpass Panoramic Train.
Dinner was at 1820 Bar and Restaurant, an Italian restaurant close to our hotel. It was very nice, I had Hunter’s Chicken, a chicken breast supreme with potatoes dauphinoise and vegetables and my husband had Cacio e Pepe with freshly shaved truffles. Very nice.
Monday 14th October
This morning we got up early and caught the train to Nyon, a small town, very pretty with its own chateau. From here we walked down to the lake and caught a ferry to the French side to the gorgeous town of Yvoire. Yvoire is a walled medieval town and completely beautiful. It was busy enough on an overcast Monday in October, that I dread to think what it would be like in summer.
Thanks to some excellent advice from a DE on the Trip Advisor Switzerland forum, we had lunch at the Le Pré de la Cure, just outside the main city gate. What an incredible meal this was, and we met some English people living in Nyon who asked how we had learned about what they called “the best restaurant in the world”.
We didn’t have a starter, just a Kir Royale, this was served with some toasts and tapenade.
Next came an amuse bouche of pumpkin soup with foam which was lovely.
The piece de resistance though was the house speciality of lake perch with wok fried vegetables and lemon butter sauce, washed down with a glass of local dry white wine. We finished with my husband’s favourite souffle Grand Marnier.
We had another hour wandering to walk all that off and then caught the boat to return to Nyon and then to Montreux.
We visited the Freddy Mercury statue, and the Queen Museum before dinner in the Casino’s French restaurant, Le Fouquet. Again, we started with Kir Royales, then my husband had chicken supreme, and I had Dover sole in lemon butter sauce with vegetables.
Both were very good, but the fish was superb, perfectly filleted at the table and melt in the mouth delicious.
We ventured into the casino so my husband could waste some money on Blackjack. I never gamble, and my husband does it extremely rarely, but he enjoyed it very much, even though he lost, of course. He got to bring home a chip to add to his souvenir collection.
Oops, I just realised that we travelled to France today, leaving our passports safely locked in our safe. Good thing we weren’t caught, the changing of countries simply didn’t enter my head. We did at least have laminated copies which we always have on us.
Tuesday 15th October
Everywhere in Switzerland has given us a free transport card that covered local trains and buses and Montreux is no exception. They definitely take using public transport very seriously here and it works brilliantly.
This morning we walked back down to the casino on the lake to see the Freddy Mercury statue in daylight before catching the train to the pretty wine village of St. Saphorin. My original plan was to train to higher up in the Lavaux wine terraces and hike down, but no way would our legs allow that. We couldn’t even explore the town as much as I would have liked as so much of it was up high involving long flights of steps.
Nowhere really seemed to be open for a decent lunch, so we walked a kilometre or so along the fortunately flat lakeside to Rivaz with its wine tasting vinorama. We were able to combine the Expert tasting of three whites and two reds along with a tasty cheese and dried local meats platter.
The wine was lovely and it’s such a shame that Switzerland only exports 1% of its product as it’s unlikely we’ll find any in Australia and we’ve really enjoyed it.
On our return we went out for a walk, or more accurately, a climb, up to the Old Town of Montreux, which was quite cute and pretty. We were aiming for the church at the very top but the poor legs gave out and at that moment a bus came by, so we hopped on.
It’s funny, I’d never dream of catching buses and trains back home, but here’s it is so easy. It’s also amazing how these large buses can wind their way around the steep windy medical streets, but somehow, they do.
Our final Montreux dinner was at Les Rouvenaz, an Italian restaurant on the lakeshore. I ordered Bracciole Alla Messinese which was sliced beef with a pistachio crust and provola cheese with vegetables. My husband had Ravioli with Venison and Ricotta. We both had Creme Brulee for dessert.
Wednesday 16th October
We checked out of the hotel after breakfast and caught the train to Geneva. I was slightly worried about the 600m walk with luggage to our hotel but after taxi quotes of circa 80 CHF we were walking! It was actually very easy and only took a few minutes.
Our room wasn’t ready, so we left our bags and walked the short distance to the lake. Firstly, we confirmed our dinner booking at Windows restaurant overlooking the lake and the Jet d’Eau before catching a mouette, a little orange boat that ferries passengers across the lake on five different routes.
These boats, as well as all buses and trams in the city, are free with the Geneva tourist card that gets emailed three days before you arrive at your hotel. It even covers transport to and from the airport. These tourist passes are available all over Switzerland, some are better than others, but for a country determined to minimise car use and encourage public transport it is an excellent idea.
We took some shots of the famous fountain, but it was fairly grey this morning, so they weren’t the best. We had a quick outdoor lunch of paninis and a glass of Pinot Grigio overlooking the fountain and lake before returning to the hotel and getting into our room.
The hotel is really lovely, one of the best we’ve had, but no views to speak of. I looked at the price of a lake view hotel room here in Geneva and it was seriously eye watering. We’re only here for the last night, and we’ve had balconies and views everywhere else, so it really wasn’t necessary here.
After unpacking a few things, we set off on a short walking tour of the Old Town, which was beautiful. We visited the Cathedral of St. Pierre and stopped for a drink in Place du Bourg-de-Four for some people watching. It is really terribly French here, particularly in the Old Town, you could easily believe that you were in Paris.
After that we visited the Reformation Wall, a very impressive sculpture built into the old city walls portraying the major figures of the Protestant Reformation.
Finally, we headed back to the lakeside to see the Flower Clock and take more photos of the Jet d’Eau, which was far nicer against the now bluish sky.
We had our complementary welcome cocktail in the very nice hotel bar. It is a nice touch from Accor that you are welcomed with a drink anywhere in the world, and this signature cocktail was particularly good being a mix of Laurent-Perrier champagne, raspberry liqueur, another liqueur and raspberry puree. It was light, refreshing and surprisingly not at all sweet.
My husband then returned to the station to the Laderach shop for a selection of after dinner chocolate.
Dinner at Windows was simply superb. The restaurant, food and service were faultless. I had lamb shoulder cooked on the Josper grill with sides of charred baby Brussels sprouts and truffle mash, with sauce bearnaise. The mash had huge shavings of delectable truffles and was out of this world. My husband had lobster ravioli, which was not just ravioli stuffed with lobster, but also large chunks of freshwater lobster meat. He loved it.
For dessert my husband had a thinly sliced apples tart, and I couldn’t resist chocolate fondant, both served with the nicest vanilla icecream I’ve ever had. We quickly almost regretted our desserts though, when the waiters came out with beautiful congratulatory platter of macarons and berries for our anniversary.
Not having a huge sweet tooth it was an effort to manage the super sweet, albeit delicious macarons, but it wouldn’t have felt right not to eat it.
My husband was made even happier on our return to the hotel to find that the bar stocked his favourite Cuvee de Centinaire Grand Marnier, which is now almost impossible to buy anywhere.
We slept in a tad this morning till 8:30 before going to breakfast. I can’t speak more highly of the Hotel Rotary Geneva, their service and food is excellent. We had the signature Swiss breakfast off roesti with a perfect fried egg and bacon and a veal chipolata on the side.
We didn’t have much on the agenda for our last day. We caught the tram out to view the United Nations building and its famous chair with a broken leg sculpture.
We caught another tram back and yet one more back to the old town where we also walked past the Opera, Conservatory of Music and various statues.
We had lunch in a lovely French cafe in the Place du Bourg-de-Four, baguette filled with jambon iberico and Parmesan for me, along with another Kir Royale. It was perfect people watching territory up there.
Finally, we returned to the hotel to freshen up before one last train to Geneva Airport for the long flight home to Melbourne.
Thanks for joining me on our big adventure, and thanks to the experts and others on the MySwissAlps page who helped so very much with my trip planning.
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HiDeb
Wow! What a wonderfully comprehensive trip report! I have read it through, except, as I am not a ‘foodie’, I skipped the culinary delights!
I will confine myself to some points I consider very important.
Altitude Sickness This point I deal with in my replies to RrD’s trip report.
Engadin Card (30th September) It is absolutely wonderful that this card covers not only the local buses and trains, but all the mountain lines as well! That is a huge ‘selling point’ if you are considering a holiday in the St Moritz or Engadin area.
Zermatt Stay Despite it being early October, it is clear from the report that Zermatt was still busy with tourists! (I contrast that with my own experience at nearby Saas Fee on 5th October. Some skiers, but only a few pedestrians like me!)
I note that you did not go up to Glacier Mountain Paradise. For me, the Gornergrat trip is the best value for money trip in the Alps, way ahead of the the trip to Glacier Mountain Paradise.
Wengen Stay Wengen is a beautiful location, but it does have one big drawback, the number of changes required to get there! (Note that Murren is even worse.)
Note again that all the places visited were still busy in early October. Note especially the remarks about Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, both of which allow ordinary motor traffic.
The Missed Connection at Lauterbrunnen The whole of the superb Swiss public transport system depends on ‘tight’ connections. Official statistics tell us that 98% of connections are made. The Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken trains have to leave Lauterbrunnen on time as they all have ‘tight’ six minute connections with long-distance trains at Interlaken Ost. (If staying in Wengen or Murren and you need to catch a long distance train to (say) Berlin from Interlaken Ost, leave your resort 30 minutes earlier than suggested by the electronic timetable. A friend of mine who regularly stayed in Wengen always did that. And she was only going to Zurich Airport!)
You Gave Jungfraujoch a Miss Hooray! Jungfraujoch is just NOT value for money. And of course it is not the highest point you can reach in Europe using mechanical means.
First Class on Boats This is always well worth it, because you get much better views from the top deck. (My first visit to Switzerland was in 1971, and I recall that I bought a Lucerne area rover ticket with a supplement for first class on boats. Well worth the extra cost!)
Montreux Stay
Prestige Class on GPE I have carefully noted your comments for future reference!
Wot no mountains? I note that you clearly had a wonderful time in Montreux, even though you did not go up a single mountain! (Note to people with Swiss Travel Passes – The STP is valid on the boats across to France.)
Your Comments on Swiss Public Transport Under the 15th October you say, ‘Everywhere in Switzerland has given us a free transport card that covered local trains and buses and Montreux is no exception. They definitely take using public transport very seriously here and it works brilliantly.’ Later you say:
‘It’s funny, I’d never dream of catching buses and trains back home [in Melbourne], but here’s it is so easy. It’s also amazing how these large buses can wind their way around the steep windy medical [medieval] streets, but somehow, they do.’
And that is from a person who in an earlier thread indicated that she did not like travelling by bus.
Many many thanks, and very best wishes.
Roger
Hi Deb,
Thanks for this detailed and very interesting trip report – I enjoyed every word of it!
>>> Next was another boat to Brienz where we wandered searching for a carved cow souvenir. We’ve been looking all week and they are either beautiful and 200 CHF or rubbish for 20.
I wonder if you mean the iconic Trauffer cows? They are produced by the Trauffer family enterprise in Hofstetten bei Brienz.
https://shop.trauffer.ch/de/kuehe/Default.aspx
I’m sure many people will find a great deal of useful information in your trip report to help with planning their own trips and considering which hikes might be suitable for them.
Alpenrose
Dear DebH,
Thank you for writing this trip report. I certainly enjoyed reading it.
It’s comprehensive, honest and very informative. Thanks for all the tips about where to eat!
Regards,
Anna
Hi Deb- Thank for the detailed trip report. I throughly enjoyed reading it! I loved all the details on the food as well!
I am coming from Montana, USA, where there is not much of a wine culture. I am looking forward to trying as many of the options as possible, and it sounds like it is just not something you have with your dinner meal. It made my heart happy when you said “I had a glass of Prosecco to celebrate the day”. Good point! I love that thought!Thanks again for the report!
Hi DebH,
Thank you for taking the time to share your trip report. It was a pleasure to read 🙂
I love the public transport here and agree, in other countries, hopping into a car is the norm but here it can be so much more practical to take a bus, train or boat.
Thank you again.
Kind regards,
Yolanda
Thanks for the kind comments everyone. Again, I apologise that it was so long, I suspect that I write like I talk – too much!
Roger, that makes perfect sense with the Wengen connections, and we did learn very quickly to always catch the train thirty minutes before we really needed to. I’d always rather be early than late.
It was a minor issue having the extra train, and far nicer than the noise of the busier places.
As for Glacier Paradise (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/matterhorn/), we’d already decided not to do it after seeing Gornergrat, as it would have taken too much time that we wanted to spend in Zermatt itself. A few years ago we visiting Mt Titlis (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/titlis/), so saw glaciers and ice caves then, and had no great reason to repeat it. As it turned out our second day was wet, so it wouldn’t have been worthwhile anyway.
In Montreux we had decided that if we had been unlucky with bad weather for the whole trip, we would visit Glacier 3000 or Aguile du Midi. Luckily that was not the case, so much as we loved mountains, there were lots of other different things to experience there.
Dorrie, try all the Swiss wines that you can, they are completely delicious and since they export so little, you won’t get to try them elsewhere.
Hi Deb,
It was great reading your detailed trip report – I completed it and your experiences brought back lots of memories for me, tempting me to return inspite of being there 5x😁. With all the foodie descriptions of the meals, I felt very virtually “full” after reading them. LOL.
It really is amazing just how picture postcard perfect Switzerland is and how they managed to weave in the public transport to make those beautiful views so accessible. There is still so much to experience and it’s impossible to take in all the sights even after so many repeated visits. Perhaps that is because we like to stay in each place for a minimum of 3N to soak in the atmosphere, have a cuppa and chill at an outdoor cafe or restaurant without rushing from place to place. Glad you had the opportunity to do that.
Ah I see you stayed at Couer Des Alpes where we enjoyed our stay during our time in Zermatt. Looks like more and more tourists are visiting Switzerland and I wonder if there is such a thing as “off-peak” anymore especially if all the rides are still open.
You did a great deal of homework and it’s so good to know that it paid off. Thanks once again for taking so much time to do such an extensive trip report.
Regards
Hi Traveljet, thanks for your comments.
We were completely blown away by how beautiful it was. We had spent four or five days in Lucerne and Zurich before, so seen the mountains near there, but it was nothing like the BO area, or even better, Zermatt.
Yes, we did stay at Couer des Alpes, what a lovely place. There were a couple of things that I didn’t like though, minor though they were. Firstly, we had quite a large suite, but there were no bedside tables. I didn’t realise how much we both like our bedside tables until we didn’t have them
I also wasn’t a massive fan of all glass shower, it just seemed to be in the way. I must be old-fashioned but I’d prefer a more standard style bathroom.
My final dislike was how many families with young children were there. I didn’t expect that at a “boutique” hotel in the way that they described themselves. The children were very noise, particularly early in the morning, and whilst I had had dreams of being in the hot tub looking at the mountains, it was always full of children. There was one man who was in the hot tub every morning, standing right in the middle talking extremely loudly on his phone.
So in that sense it wasn’t the romantic experience that I’d hoped for. Luckily the Maya Caprice was exactly that, so fortunately we had seven nights to enjoy that hotel in Wengen.
Hi Deb,
Sorry to hear the noisy kids and man in the hot tub took away the peace & tranquility of the stay at CouerDA.
Our stay during late Nov was nice & quiet – goes to show experiences can differ so much depending on the date & time of travel.
I realised glass showers seem to be the norm for many boutique hotels and tho we have no issues with that, I totally understand why others aren’t keen on this concept
Glad to know the accommodation at Wengen went well.
Any plans for another trip to Switzerland?😁 although we do miss the scenery, the jet lag & costs (especially the changes to the OB pass) means we will not be returning for now.
I doubt we will return to Switzerland traveljet. Coming from Australia it is a very long way and very expensive and this was our second trip there, not including a day in Basel once.
There are simply too many other places in the world that we want to see, and as we aren’t getting younger or richer, we can’t afford to constantly revisit places we’ve already seen.
Having said that, we return to London and Paris whenever we can!
This year we are planning Greece and a few days in Istanbul, next year Sicily and Malta, after that who knows.
Happy travels ! 😁
Hi DebH,
I just finished reading your trip report. Very nice. We basically overlapped on our trips. I was there from 16 Sep – 05 Oct, and saw many of the same places. I haven’t yet found the time yet to write a trip report, but more than likely, it will be a lengthy one as well. I have enjoyed reading some of Traveljets reports as well as others on this site. Thanks again for sharing.
Regards,
Danielsan
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