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Our kids booked us a trip to Switzerland in late January: 2 nights in Zurich, 5 nights in Rougemont, 2 more in Zurich. We will be traveling by car. Looking for what to do and where to visit. We do not ski. 🙄
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Local roads (perhaps near your accomodation) could be snowy in January in Rougemont. Are you sure you want the hassle of this? Rougemont has a good frequent train service which you can use to access you accomodation, and then for day trips
Would you recommend traveling by train from Zurich and then by train while in Rougemont?
Absolutely
Here’s a couple of my photos from a few years ago – and it was April not January…
If we travel by train instead, what type of pass should we purchase?
Is there train service from Rougemont to Chateau d’Oex?
Hi BobbieG and welcome to MySwissAlps!
I’d agree to use the train system when traveling in Switzerland – especially in the winter. You can use the Swiss railways timetable to plan out trips between all towns and any mountains you may want to visit when you are there: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable (a train to Chateux D’oex is 15 minutes for example).
A trip on the Golden Pass line could suit you as well as a trip up the Glacier 3000 or Rochers-De-Naye if you are interested in mountain visits. For ideas on what to do and see in the Lake Geneva,South-West Switzerland, look here: http://www.myswissalps.com/so uthwestswitzerland/act ivities.
What you can see and do from Rougement depends on how much time you want to travel on any one day (or just relax there for example). The trains, buses and cable cars of Switzerland will take you just about anywhere).
Rougemont is adjacent to Chateau d’Oex (10 minutes by train). The whole valley is the route of the MOB (Montreux Oberland Bernois) railway.
Here is the timetable PDF:
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/ fileadmin/fap_pdf_fiel ds/2019/120.pdf
Thank you so much!
A friend told us something about a pass or book we could buy which makes train tickets half price. He was not very specific. Do you know what he’s talking about?
Must have been the Swiss Half Fare Card. You can read about it here: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isshalffarecard
It may or may not be the most cost effective rail pass for you though – it depends on your daily itinerary/travel plans.
To know which Swiss rail pass (if any) will save you the most money on your trip, you’ll have to first decide on your day to day itinerary.
Once you’ve got a rough itinerary set you’ll need to find regular ticket prices for your trips, and then compare those prices to a rail pass’s offered discounts (and its own purchase price). Rail passes can cover between 25% and 100% of a ticket’s cost for a particular route.
The following link gives you instructions on how to find prices and compare various rail passes http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass (we even have a spreadsheet there to help with the math).
If you don’t want to pre-plan or bother much with math the Swiss Half Fare Card is a good bet but if you plan to head out each day on some longer train trips the Swiss Travel Pass i a great and easy option (as many trains don’t require the purchase of a ticket so you can just hop on and go). http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass
Swiss half fare card. I have the annual version, and I can recommend it if you are likely to do journeys of varying distance. For example if you only go Rougemont – Chateaux d’Oex on one day you are not ‘wasting’ the value of the ticket as you would if you had a Swiss Travel Pass but only did one short journey – however you still need to buy the card in the first place, so the forum calculator is still required!
You and BobbieG might find this book to be informative and interesting. The history of that region is a good illustration of what life was like when Switzerland was poor. And, how things changed when the Bernese moved in to the region and imposed their strict Calvinist Reformation views on how the people should live. (Maybe Zwingli, not Calvin…don’t recall which). And, some information on the history of Gruyeres cheese.
Switzerland, a Village History, author David Birmigham, ISBN 0-8040-1065–X
Slowpoke
Thanks. I’ll check out this book!
I am a bit overwhelmed at how to handle train tickets. I expect we will travel round trip from Zurich to Rougemont. While in Rougemont, we’ll most likely make 2-3 side trips-one to Chateau d’Oex and maybe one to Gruyeres. Maybe one more. What kind of pass works best for us?
Those are all short trips except to/from Zurich.
I expect the Swiss Half Fare Card might save you some money but you’ll still have to buy tickets for each trip.
The Swiss Travel Pass will allow you to just hop on and off trains as you wish (so convenient and easy to use) but with few trips (and only 1 long one) it may not be economically the best option. But if you think you might make more trips or want to freedom to tack on a trip last minute it is the best option
You can use the link from my last post to calculate fares and rail passes to know for sure what might be best.
Hi BobbieG –
I’ve looked through the thread an have a few comments to amplify or refine some of the information.
I certainly agree with the recommendation of using the trains.
Not sure where you come from, but reading your comments, I wonder if it is the USA or Canada?. If you come from a part of the USA (or elsewhere) which has Winter, you will be used to driving on snowy roads. And, the roads will be well maintained. But, the ease of using the frequent trains, and the ability for the driver and navigator to sit back and enjoy the ride in strange country, with having to quickly decipher many road signs in French ( or German) carries the day for any first time visitor to Switzerland. It is definitely part of the travel experience to use the Swiss Transport System. By the way, do you speak or read French or German? Not required, but helpful.
And, which rail pass to use depends on your budget and relative convenience. Some people ignore the cost and buy the Swiss Travel Pass, with out even thinking beyond that choice. Most transport is “free” with no ticket need, (except for discounts on some of the scenic mountain trains and cableways) . One nice thing – once you are there, you may like the trains so much that you decide on the spur of the moment to make a day trip to some distant point. Just hop on and go!
Others, my self included, who do not travel long distances frequently and don’t mind using the convenient ticket machines available in English, find a half-fare card works well.
Timetables –
They are invaluable. My kids used to joke that my favorite book about Switzerland was the timetable, when they published it as a book. 😉
They are available on line, in a smartphone app, and in the (digital) “printed” form that 1960sman linked you to. It used to be published as a thick paper book of about 2100 pages; now, the SBB only provides it on line. At some stations, small printed booklets, showing the kind of information in 1960sman’s link for local transport, are available for you to carry in your pocket. So, that may be handy, and it helps to understand the format, if you use those.
The most convenient and most commonly used format with good detail is the online time table, linked by Lucas in his first post:
http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
That link provides an invaluable explanation page, before getting you to the actual timetable and SBB website with lots of other information:
And, the smartphone app is handy while you are on the go, but it may not easily give you some of the fine detail. You can find it on the SBB website:
http://www.sbb.ch/en/timetabl e/mobile-apps/sbb-mobile.html
However, some old-timers such as myself, tend to like the now uncommon form provided by 1960sman, for travel planning. But, in fact, the on-line timetable works very well for that and I use it a lot. Most people use it. It works best with a map, although it does present maps related to the routes, and often of the areas near the stations.
Maps –
Here are just a few on maps. Briefly, Google Maps works well, but I prefer Mapsearch.CH for some reasons I’ll illustrate here:
map.search.ch/?pos=585920,148336&z=32
Note how clearly the train lines show up.
And, it is easy to turn on icons for the stations:
map.search.ch/?pos=585920,148336&z=32 &poi=bergbahn,halteste lle,zug
Click on the star in the menu in the upper left, which shows Points of Interest. then, traffic, and select your mode, such as trains.
Once the icons are showing, mouse over the symbol, and you get the exact official name for that station. Useful in the timetable, especially in the cities.. I recall that Google Maps may well do that, too.
Timetables, Again –
Some comments on how to use the timetable format that 1960sman provided –
1960sman was kind enough to show you the pages from the official “printed” time table. Although the SBB (Swiss Rail) stopped printing the actual book in 2017, it shows schedules for all trains, boats, buses, cableways, in one book 2inches thick, 5 by 8inches format+ two more the same size for all buses.
It is available on line in English at :
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/ en/welcome.html
You can Search for a town/city name and it returns a list of train numbers of trains that run through that town. The table that 1960man provided for the line through Rougemont is selected from such a list.
In order to use it, you must understand the many cryptic symbols scattered throughout the pages.
Here is link to that very important table of symbols, published in all four national languages plus English, found under explanations in the main home page:
I provide that information mostly to help as you look at the type of timetable that 1960sman linked. That was a good idea, because it does show how frequently trains run through the town. But, it shows a lot more. It is your option to work with that kind of time table, but most prefer the online SBB timetable linked by Lucas.
Where to Go –
All that stuff was to help you get to someplace, when you want to, and by the route that you prefer. Now- where can you go? That really could come first, once you realize that the transport system can get you there easily, wherever it is. But, you need to be able to figure out how to get there, of course.
Lucas gave you a link to places in the southwest corner of Switzerland and the trains of the Golden Pass route that run through Rougement :
<<“A trip on the Golden Pass line could suit you as well as a trip up the Glacier 3000 or Rochers-De-Naye if you are interested in mountain visits.”>>
In fact, if you take a look a that map I linked, showing Rougement:
map.search.ch/?pos=585920,148336&z=32 &poi=default
and expand it:
map.search.ch/Rougemon t-VD?poi=default&pos=557056 ,162816&z=4
you’ll see that you are in the center of of a region that includes Bern, Fribourg/Freiburg, Gruyères, Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux, Neuchatel, Interlaken (and the more distant high alpine villages) …..Luzern(German spelling) is a bit further away, but is easily accessible from Zürich, and could be a stop on the way to Zürich by one of the more scenic, but slower routes..
All of those are easily accessible as day trips by train; some longer than others. Even Luzern, (fastest route 3 hrs and 8 minutes, so it is a stretch) or those alpine villages past Interlaken, near the Jungfrau, but you’ll need to spend some time with the timetable to check the various routes for those more distant ones…some faster than others..
Each has it own charms. This MySwissAlps website has pages for most of those places, under “Where to Go” on the home page.
Here are a few links:
http://www.myswissalps.com/wh eretogo/towns
http://www.myswissalps.com/mo ntreux
http://www.myswissalps.com/ge neva
Wiki can help:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Fribourg
As can official websites for those towns:
http://www.fribourgtourisme.c h/en/
I have not mentioned the smaller places in the countryside, best seen in
the summer when you can hike or walk more comfortably. I can mention
some if you are interested.
To go further with recommendations, it would be helpful to know if you have specific interests, other than not-skiing 😉
Museums, scenic train rides, good restaurants, very good restaurants, old towns to walk through, lake boat rides ( very limited in the Winter on most lakes) , history, cathedrals and castles….???
Can you offer a few details?
Slowpoke
PS – The link to the explanations page for the old style timetable did not work when I looked back.
Here is one that seems to work:
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/ en/explanations.html
Open the link under Explanations that explains the symbols
Slowpoke
Hi BobbyG, and Happy New Year!
< Looking for what to do and where to visit >
You surely have your reasons to spend 5 days in Rougemont. There is plenty to do, and others have already made suggestions. One thing I want to recommend is the Grand Chalet in Rossinière (a village not far from Rougemont, on the railway line). Some say that the Grand Chalet is the largest chalet in the world, or the one with most windows. Whatever its ranking, the Grand Chalet, former home of the painter, Balthus, is worth a visit. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Grand_Chalet
< Would you recommend traveling by train from Zurich and then by train while in Rougemont? >
You will be a bit puzzled by schedules (“timetables”), how to buy tickets etc. Read carefully the posts on this thread. The hassle of travelling by public transport must be balanced against travelling by (presumably rented) car: find your way in inner cities, find a car park, find out how to pay for parking, find where to fill the tank just before returning the car, etc. You can travel by public transport (mostly trains, but also postal busses) to almost everywhere in Switzerland. There is a trip at least every hour in every direction (except 11 pm to 6 am), often every half hour or even every 15 minutes. Luggage can be put in storage in locker boxes of various sizes at most railway stations, except the smallest ones. In tourist resorts, you will find taxis to bring you to your hotel, but it is a good idea to have wheels on your suitcase.
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