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[Arno]

3 February 2018 at 17:49:03 #875002

Hi Snowman,

You should be able to edit your post using the “Edit post” button at the top of your post. It is available until one hour after posting.

[sreraku]

3 February 2018 at 18:49:31 #875003

Thanks Snowman and Slowpoke. Your suggestions are extremely valuable.

If AirBnB and VRBO is not a good option, what do you recommend? I see the links in the website for chalets/apartments and its asking for 1 week whereas I am there for 2 days in one place at a time.

Also, now that I saw the pics from slowpoke and around the web, I am confused between Murren or Wengen. Which one do you prefer with picturesque views and good places to stay?

If bakery is available in all the towns, that solves our problems of breakfasts 🙂 thanks for the note. Is vegetarian option available in all the options or should we pack and go? ie when we go for hike/walk on Jungfrau or Mt Rigi/ Mt Titlis etc..?

Slowpoke, from your note about staying for more days, I have to probably comeback if I dont get the shots I need as its a very tight schedule. But, appreciate your insights and agree with you about mountain weather. This time I will gather info and will come back for sure for just photography 🙂

When you say golden pass scenic is slow. is it from Wengen to Montreux?

Snowman about the trip from Montreux to Paris, thanks for the note about trains. Is it scenic on this ride? Are there any trains that is preferred?

Can I visit Gruyères and Broc on both same day? As I had noted, chocolate making and cheese making is what we want to look at. Is it close to Montreux?

[Snowman]

3 February 2018 at 22:01:09 #875004

Montreux to Paris, scenic ? I’d say yes, but from a photographer’s point of view I wouldn’ expect too much. TGV stands for “Train à grande vitesse” (high velocity train). Between Macon and Paris, that would be 300 km/hr, I have no photographic experience under such conditions. Just choose the one that best suits your programme.

Yes, you can go from Montreux to Gruyères in 1:15 hr, and from Gruyères to Broc, via Bulle, in 20 min. This site has a page where you can check the timetables, including between Switzerland and France. There, you can also check the train timetables from Wengen to Montreux, or any itinerary, including public busses (postal coaches and urban bus lines, cable cars, lake ships etc.).

Chalets for rent are usually available for weekly rents, Saturday to Saturday. But it is worthwhile to negotiate a shorter stay. Landlords are getting flexible these days. Otherwise, there ae hotels and inns (“pensions”). Good budget places are Youth Hostels (Hostelling International). They usually have double rooms and family rooms. You absolutely don’t have to be a “youth” to stay there.

You can have vegetarian meals everywhere. I understand you do eat cheese. In the French part fondue and raclette are the traditional dishes. No meat in there. In the German part the mountaineer’s macaroni is a traditional dish (Aelpler Maggronen), or Roesti (roast potatoes). You can get all these, plus “modern” vegetarian dishes, in all parts of the country. In the Italian part, a traditional vegetarian dish is pizzocheri (check Wikipedia). There is a vegetarian dish on the card of the dining cars in the railways. Don’t worry. And enjoy a good Müesli for breakfast. Switzerland is the home of Müesli.

i don’t think you’ll hike on the Jungfrau. The Jungfraujoch is a train station with souvenir shops, restaurants, ice-carved statues (underground in the glacier), the make-your-own-candy place, and an outdoor observation terrace, surrounded by cliffs. The Jungfrau, along with the Eiger and the Moench, is an alpine peak, for experienced climbers with professional guides. On Righi you can hike, yes, it’s a “cow mountain”. I don’t know Titlis.

[Snowman]

3 February 2018 at 22:08:43 #875005

Thanks Arno, I learned something!

[Slowpoke]

3 February 2018 at 23:16:06 #875006

<<“Thanks Arno, I learned something!”>>

That’s encouraging. 😉

[sreraku]

4 February 2018 at 2:39:13 #875007

Thanks Snowman for the info. If I have to do gruyers and broc for the chocolate and cheese factory tours, do I stay at montreaux? I will be travelling from wengen and have only a day. So I am trying to optimize my stay.

In the same context, is gruyers+broc the only place for these two factories near montreaux?

Thanks for answering patiently.

[Snowman]

4 February 2018 at 8:46:31 #875008

Hi,

No, you don’t have to go to Montreux. Grab a map, use the railway site or the connection to it fro MySwissAlps.com, and make decisions. Consider for your overnight stay Bulle (would minimize travel) or Fribourg (nice old town), but there are plenty of other places. There are TGV lines to Paris from Basel, Lausanne, and Geneva, and (I think) also Berne and Neuchâtel.

I don’t know about other cheese factories, and the only chocolate factory I have visited is near St-Gallen.

[Snowman]

4 February 2018 at 8:53:08 #875009

Your kid could attend a chocolate workshop in Broc, at Cailler’s:

cailler.ch/en/maison-cailler/la-chocolaterie-suisse/

[Snowman]

4 February 2018 at 8:55:40 #875010

And for cheese check this one out:

http://www.lamaisondugruyere. ch/homepage-en/

[Slowpoke]

4 February 2018 at 9:33:41 #875011

Hi Sreraku.

Please take a look at these two sites (or your preferred map)

They will help with many of your questions.

map.search.ch/index.en .html

map.search.ch/Broc?pos=574616,163088&z=32

I like MAPsearch because it shows the train lines very clearly when you zoom in as far as zoom level 32. It gives y a sense of how the lines are routed around ( or under) the mountains.

This gets you to the SBB timetable, via an instruction page

http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

Spend some time with the instruction page. There is a lot of information available,and you can study trip times and alternate routes. The timetable defaults to tthe fastest route, so the map helps you find “via” points on the scenic routes to force the timetable to tell you about the alternatives.

The direct link is

http://www.sbb.ch/en/

Slowpoke