72625 posts
It is easy to do it independently. The usual places people go are Gruyeres for the cheese and Broc (Maison Cailler) for the chocolate as the two locations are not far apart, but opinions vary on whether it is a ‘great’ thing to do.
However the MOB railway does still run the Train du Chocolat [but it is mostly by bus!], as you will see on the web site link: The Chocolate Train run from 3 May to 29 September 2022 as follows:
May, June and September on Tuesdays and Thursdays
July and August every day
mob.ch/activity/the-chocolate-train/?lang=en
Personally I can’t get excited about either, and arguably both places are just there to take as much money as possible from tourists! At least Gruyere cheese is still independent, whereas the ‘Maison Cailler’ has long since been part of the Nestle conglomerate, although at least that is still Swiss owned and the chocolate is made on site with local ingredients (unlike Lindt which makes most of its chocolate 900km away from Switzerland in the French Pyrenees mountains ).
6274 posts
Hi VolatilityTS,
The Chocolate Train is a fully-arranged day trip by train and bus from Montreux. You can find more details about it here: http://www.myswissalps.com/chocolatetrain
Since this trip is fully organised, you won’t have to stress about planning transportation and buying tickets separately. But if you prefer to plan the trip yourself, you can use the SBB timetable to check train schedules and plan your journey.
Regards,
Anna
13 posts
Hi, VolatilityTS, we were in Montreux and did do the Chocolate and Cheese train on August 3rd. Yes, it starts from a train out of Montreux and then you switch to a double-decker bus for the rest of the trip. The factory tours are just that, but interesting if you enjoy that sort of thing. If you don’t, then I don’t recommend going. The cheese one shows part of the actual process, but the chocolate was more exhibits and stuff, but still interesting in parts. Coming from the U.S., Nestle is not considered a huge chocolate bar brand (Hersey has that crown), but learning that Nestle is Swiss, and during the depression from 1929 actually saved Callier because of it’s presence in the U.S., was an eye opener. We do not have a car, and was not familiar with the busses yet, so having a “tour” do all the planning was easier for us. I’ve attached two photos: one of a cheese maker, the other from the final Callier tour where your headset can tell you about the people and their part of the complete process of making chocolate; this was very informative. Hope you enjoy!
15471 posts
Thanks for your input and your nice pictures Sfarns216!