My husband and I are planning our trip for the end of June. We fly into Geneva and have 2 days prior to heading to Murren. We'd like to stay in smaller town vs. bigger city and have a car to get around. We'd love to experience cheese making and chocolate making without large tourist crowds. After 3 nights in Murren, we have 3 nights in Lucerne and one in Zurich, and are happy to do the chocolate tours/experience during those days too, if anyone has options for that. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Posted by
Florida
1443 posts
Vevey is a small town close to Montreux. It's cute and easy to get around the riviera from there. Some hotels/B&Bs give their guests a Riviera Card which grants free use of the public transportation up and down the Lake Geneva coast. I stayed at the B&B 7eArt on my last visit in 2017. It's in a quiet residential neighborhood, modern, comfortable. A bus stop close by gets you around town and to the train station.
Posted by
Nice, France & San Francisco
678 posts
Vevey is definitely a very charming town between Montreux and Lausanne. In some sense, it is a company town with the Nestle HQ but that business means there are plenty of restaurants in the central downtown, and the Ferry connection is a must-do.
On the more touristy side, there is a Chocolate Train to the Cailler factory in Broc and a cheese factory/museum (La Maison du Gruyere https://www.lamaisondugruyere.ch/homepage-en/ ) below Gruyeres (which is a neat village). The train departs from Montreaux and hits both, but is touristy. You can drive to either site and miss the train crowd by timing it right. Smaller artisinal chocolatiers sometimes offer workshops -- I don't know of one to recommend -- Durig Lausanne is one example.
In Lausanne, the area known as Ouchy is at the waterfront and is like a town below the main city (it used to be separate, I think). This is the neighborhood where I used to live. The Gare is right adjacent and the Ferries dock here as well. The waterfront features the Olympic Museum and several grand hotels/restaurants. The metro connects it up with the main town above.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you both so much! We've booked a b&b in the Vevey area!
Will definitely look into some of the smaller chocolatiers. We'd like to visit Gruyere and Broc
but maybe skip the chocolate/cheese train portion.
Posted by
Long Beach, California, USA
3391 posts
You'll love Vevey! Great choice...