annacouvert

Hello
I am planning to spend 3 nights in Montreux this October. I would love to see Swiss villages with their characteristic wooden architecture. I read about Rougemont. Please advise if Rougemont is the best choice, what would be the best way to get to Rougemont and also to Gruyeres (I would like to visit cheese manufacturing facility and to taste the cheese) from Montreaux preferably in one trip using public transport.

I would be very grateful for any information or suggestions.

Annacouvert

nytraveler

Can't comment on Rougement. Gruyere is a charming small village - with an interesting castle well worth a visit and a few lovely restaurants -some with terraces overlooking the valley. I strongly suggest you avoid the cheesery - since it is really boring - and making cheese is very smelly (I found it kind of nauseating) - and you can get the cheese anywhere.

swandav2000

Hi annacouvert,

Rougemont is a great choice. It is an absolutely beautiful little village that represents the architecture and the handcrafts of the region. Here is a webpage with some historical info:

http://www.chateau-doex.ch/en/rougemont_en/history_rgt

However, it is really small. It will probably take you about 20 minutes to walk through it. Yes, it's a good idea to combine it with Gruyeres and the cheese demonstration building.

This is really gorgeous rolling-hills country, so I would try to get into the countryside a bit if possible. Some possibilities are Saanen to Rougemont (about an hour), Saanen to Gstaad (about 40 minutes). I think I personally would take the train to Rougemont and enjoy the village, then walk to Saanen and onward to Gstaad. Gstaad is a medium-sized little town, and it has the best choice of restaurants of these villages. After you have something to eat, you can backtrack to Montbovon and go on to Gruyeres.

Gruyeres is just a quick detour off the scenic Golden Pass route that links Montreux to Gstaad; Gstaad, Saanen, and Rougemont all lie on this same train line. Use the Swiss rail site to see the schedules and fares:

www.sbb.ch

Have fun as you plan!

s

Sojourntraveller

If you are truly interested in traditional Swiss architecture, the best place to visit is Ballenberg. Examples from many parts of Switzerland have been assembled there and in a sense it is like visiting much of Switzerland all in one day.

http://ballenberg.ch/en/Welcome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ordCyqrC5mY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c23rFg12Y8

Not only do you see inside the buildings, they are furnished in period and there are craftsmen etc. demonstrating the traditional ways of working.

neckervd

Direct trains from Montreux to Rougemont every hour. Connecting trains from Montbovon - midway between Montreux and Rougemont - to Gruyeres every hr too.

Rougemont has a very interesting 940 years old romanic church.
http://www.chateau-doex.ch/en/rougemont_en/history_rgt
A gondola goes to the viewpoint of La Videmanette
http://www.chateau-doex.ch/en/seasons.

The architecture (chalets) is the same in the whole Saane Valley (Chateau d'Oex, Rougemont, Saanen, Gstaad):
http://www.rougemont.ch/net/Net_roug...Sty=&NumStr=92


A visit of Gruyeres (cheese diary, castle, medieval city, Giger Museum, chocolate factory in nearby Broc (direct trains from Gruyeres) may take a whole day.

annacouvert

Thank you Swandav2000 and nytraveler for great suggestions.
I understand that Golden Pass train stops at the station in every of these small towns, am I right? The walk from Rougemont to Saanen and to Gstaad sounds like a great idea, hopefully the weather permits.
Here is the rest of the story. I will be spending 10 days in Switzerland, first 3 nights in Montreux. I am coming to Montreux on October 9th in the late evening around 7pm. and I am leaving Montreux on October 12th in the afternoon going to Zermatt. I want to spend 1 full day in Laussanne, the rest- 1,5 days is for Montreux and vicinity.
And here come difficult choices, so many tempting places and not enough time.
Rougemont, Saanem, Gstaad are for sure, by the way, do I walk from town to town along the road with cars and all other traffic or are there walking trails leading thru peacefull surroundings? If trails, are they marked somehow or should I get a map at Tourist info?
I would also like to see Montreux old town, Vevey and its old town, take a walk along vineyards.
I am thinking about not visiting inside of Chillon castle, will I loose a lot? I will take a walk to the castle, but then I would rather stay out admiring scenery instead of being closed within the walls of a castle.
What else would you suggest?
Annacouvert

annacouvert

Thank you Sojourntraveler and Neckervd for great informations, I didnt see your posts before posting my second post.
Ballenberg is very interesting but too far away from Montreux. I have it on my list for the next visit. This time it is my first visit to Switzerland and I hope there will be more visits to come.
Annacouvert

kja

"I am thinking about not visiting inside of Chillon castle, will I loose a lot?"

IMO, you can't see everything, so it makes sense to choose what to see and what to skip based on your personal priorities. One option that might be worth considering would be to visit the interior of the Chateau de Gruyeres instead, since it sounds like you will be there. It is smaller, and certainly not the same, but might give you just a bit of a glimpse of a castle interior, if that holds any interest for you. Any BTW, the castle in Gruyeres offers some lovely views out over the surrounding countryside, views that I don't think can be seen otherwise.

swandav2000

Hi again,

So, as I understand it, you have

9 Oct arrive 19.00 (it will be dark)
10 Oct Lausanne
11 Oct Montreux, Chillon, Vevey, vineyards,
12 Oct travel to Zermatt

I'm afraid I don't see how you'll fit in your desire to spend the day around Rougemont and the area. It will take about 3h to see Montreux, walk to Chillon, and see Montreux's old town up in the hills, and about 3h to see Vevey, its old town, and its lakeside promenade. To enjoy the vineyards of the Lavaux can take anywhere from 2h (train to Chexbres, walk down to Rivaz, about 30 minutes, train back to town) to 5h (train to Lutry, enjoy the town, walk to Rivaz). So seeing Montreux, Vevey, and the vineyards is a full day.

What are your plans after leaving Zermatt? If you are going into central Switzerland, you can go via the Golden Pass route and see these towns.

Personally, I don't like cities, so I would skip Lausanne and substitute the time in/around Rougemont.

But yes, the train stops at all of those towns.

Have fun as you narrow it down!

s

swandav2000

Sorry, forgot to add --

Yes, there are walking trails in the countryside between the towns; you won't be walking along the road. When you get off the train, you'll see a little nest of hiking signs, and you should see one that points in the direction you want to go.

I'm not sure if Rougemont has a very robust tourist information office, and I'm not certain if the Montreux tourist information office will have hiking maps for the Rougemont region. However, you can take a look at the area using google maps, and you should see where the trails are in relation to the town and which direction they go.

If you have any doubt at all, you can ask the SBB staff at the station at Rougemont -- those folks live in the area and know it well, obviously.

s

neckervd

Much better than google maps: load just down the official Swiss map (at any scale) and print out the areas you need!
http://map.geo.admin.ch/?lang=en&X=1...xelkarte-farbe
But even without map, you would have no problem: the hiking trails are well signmarked (yellow signposts and signs).

In order to walk to Gstaad, just go from the railway station or from the castle down to the Saane river, cross it and follow it upwards up to the Saanen sewage works, cross the river again and follow it via Saanen airport and Saanen railway station. The trail continues beyond Gstaad (always along the Saane river) to Bode - Grundbruegg (river crossing again) - Feutersoey - Saali - Gsteig - Sanesch Waterfall - Lake Sanetsch - Sanetsch Pass - Prarochet Hut - Quille du Diable (Space hut). From there, it's possible to cross the glacier to Glacier3000 gondola station.

annacouvert

Thank you everyone for the very valuable advice.

It seems that whether I like it or not I have to narrow down, although it is not fun.
My last question is: at this time of the year at what time it is getting dark in the mountains. On my last day in Montreux I can take a train from Montreux to Zermatt as late as possible, I will just need enough daylight to see the scenery during the trip to Zermatt.
In Zermatt it can be dark, I am staying there for 3 nights so I will have time to see everything in a daylight.

Annacouvert

swandav2000

Hi again,

In mountain towns, sunset can be very early, depending on which side of the mountain you're on. I live in Garmisch, and sunset right now is around 18.30, with some lingering twilight for 20 or 30 more minutes. According to this site

http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy...erland/zermatt

Zermatt's sunset is at 19.00 now.

I was thinking about your plans, and I thought of this. Do you think you could cut short your time in Lausanne by a few hours? If so, you could see the vineyards of the Lavaux and Vevey on that day. The Lavaux sits between Lausanne & Vevey, so you might be able to squeeze them both in.

If you left Lausanne at, say, 14.00, you could spend a few hours around Lutry or Chexbres, then spend a few hours in the old town of Vevey and have dinner there. Then take the bus back to Montreux.

Then, you could spend your departure morning in the old town of Montreux -- walk to Chillon to see it, then walk uphill to the town of Veytaux and walk through the hills to Montreux's old town, then descend to the lake again. That would take maybe 3 or 4 hours if you had lunch in the old town. You could be ready to leave for Zermatt after lunch.

Hope you work it out!

s

neckervd

Wherever you will go to after having left Zermatt, you will have to backtrack to Visp (1 hr 10 min by train from Zermatt).
If you don't leave Zermatt in the evening, you can enjoy the panorama along this leg on your way back.
Oct 12th, you will be able to see everything through the train wagon window until around 7.15pm.
Leave Montreux at 17.36 and you will arrive at Visp before 7pm

annacouvert

Hello
Sunset at 19:00 it is a very good news. I live in Warsaw, Poland and sun goes down here at 17:43 today.
After Zermatt I am taking Glacier Express in the morning, it is an excellent idea to enjoy the morning light panorama.
With the GE I have another problem-question. I am making seat reservations at the last moment. I found out that there are only last few window seats ( I need only 1 seat) available in the last row. I read somewhere that the last row of seats is not so good because windows are smaller and the view is somewhat obstructed by the end of the carriage. Would I be better off by taking regular train along the same route. What are my chances that the regular train will not be crowded and I will have a window seat. Do I need to change platforms at the station while changing trains on the way?
Swandav2000, your plan is a great plan, but I probably will not be able to cut Lausanne short, I have some things to take care off there. I am thinking about, with regret, skipping Gruyeres, will half of a day be sufficient for Rougemont and a walk to Saanem and Gstaad?
Annacouvert

swandav2000

Hi again,

Well . . . I'm not really sure. I guess you mean the day you'll head to Zermatt. According to neckervd, you can leave Montreux around 17.36 and still have enough light to see the countryside.

So, take your luggage to the train station and put it in a locker for the day. It will take an hour for the train from Montreux to Rougemont, then maybe 40 minutes to enjoy Rougemont, then 2h for the walk to Saanen and Gstaad, then maybe an hour to see Gstaad and have lunch, then 1h30 for the train back to Gstaad. So that's about six hours.

It seems reasonable to do it. If you left Montreux around 09.00, you should have the time to do it and get back, pick up your luggage, and continue to Zermatt.

Just fyi, I looked to see if you could send your suitcases by SBB's Fast Baggage -- and the problem is that the cases will arrive in Zermatt after 19.30, but the baggage office closes at 19.00. So that won't help much.

I hope you'll be able to come back to enjoy more of the area -- !

s

swandav2000

Oh, sorry. That should be "then 1h30 for the train back to Montreux." Sorry!

s

neckervd

I would rather skip Rougemont than Gruyeres. But everybody has other preferencies. It's really up to you!

If you want to go from Zermatt to the Engadin Valley by standard trains, you will have to change trains at Visp (same platform), Andermatt and Disentis. If you go to St. Moritz, you will have to change at Reichenau-Tamins too. All mentioned stations except Visp are tiny stations where train changes are easy.

According to time of day and weather, some of Visp - Andermatt trains can get crowded, at least up to Fiesch. But coming from Zermatt, you will be among the first people who board the Andermatt bound train; most people will arrive from Berne, 15 min after you.
The Andermatt - Disentis and Disentis - Reichenau - Chur - Klosters - Scuol trains shouldn't be a problem. But if you go to St. Moritz instead of Scuol, you will have to change at Reichenau to the Chur - St. Moritz train. This latters can be crowded sometimes, but probably not at 4pm when you will have to change if you leave Zermatt at 9.39am.

The more interesting question would of course be why you want to spend a whole day in trains and what you plan to do in the Engadin Valley.

annacouvert

I will do whatever possible to come back.
But after I come back from this trip I will have questions about Tyrol, Christmas Markets in Tyrol that is.

What do you think about that GE last window seats- the second part of my last question

A.

annacouvert

Dear Neckervd
For what reason would you rather skip Rougemont than Gruyeres, is it the view and the castle or the cheese facility?
A,