Lausanne hotel

The Hotel Ibis Lausanne Centre is about a fifteen minute walk to the main train station. You can often get rates around $100USD a night. http://goo.gl/maps/YGxtV Be aware the Lausanne is the hilliest city in the world. So walking to the train station will be downhill. Back to the hotel will be a steep hike up. So using one of the buses would be best. Hotels in all Swiss cities provide guests with a free municipal transport card for the duration of your stay.

Take a look at Hotel Elite. It's been a few years, but I'm sure it still gets good marks on tripadvisor or other sites. It's a nice hotel, but it doesn't have air conditioning in the rooms (or at least it didn't). That's normally not a problem for me, but it was hotter than hell and humid as all get out when I was there in July. The lobby and breakfast room were air conditioned. As Michael said, it's a short walk up from the station, but it's steep. I walked it but was soaked when I arrived. Still, I would stay there again. Happy travels!

The Hotel du Port is wonderful, right on the lake. There are rooms priced in the neighborhood of $200 per night, some a bit below, some a bit above. There is a funicular that runs from the train station to the lake level, about 2 blocks from the hotel. You will have to pay for your first ride down, but the hotel will furnish tickets for subsequent trips between the lake and upper levels. Another consideration is food. We paid for a lake view room and bought take away, eating in the room, with the window open, looking out at the lake. Wonderful. If you eat out, it will be VERY expensive.

You will have to pay for your first ride down, but the hotel will furnish tickets for subsequent trips between the lake and upper levels. The transit inspectors will accept a print out of your hotel reservation for your initial trip to the hotel.

Thank you all for the responses. I wondered about the bus tickets from hotels. I did not realize this was the case: "Hotels in all Swiss cities provide guests with a free municipal transport card for the duration of your stay." Only the Ibis in Lausanne explicitly states that---should I confirm with the hotels before booking or is this just a given that free transport cards are given? All Swiss cities? Thank you!

While I'm sure there are some exceptions here and there, the practice is a given. I've stayed at about five different hotels in different cities over the past ten years, and they have always given me the pass with the room key. In all cases it was never advertised when I made the reservation, nor did I ask for it. Ironically I was already holding a Swiss Pass so the I never needed the city transit pass as the feature is already built into them.