Three days in Lausanne: the same lake as Geneva, and twenty years younger
Two nights on a very steep hill above Lake Geneva, with the Olympic Museum at the bottom, a Gothic cathedral at the top and Chillon and Chaplin down the line.
- Length
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Where you stay
- Lausanne
- Places
- 6 across 3 days
Lausanne is built on the side of a hill so steep that the city eventually gave up and dug a metro through it, which makes it the smallest place in the world to have one. The bottom is a lakeside promenade at Ouchy, the top is a Gothic cathedral, and between them are two universities' worth of students, which is what gives the place its edge over the more decorous city forty minutes down the shore.
It is the Olympic capital, and has been since the committee moved here during the First World War. That sounds like a piece of bureaucracy and turns into a good museum on the waterfront, plus a habit of hosting things.
The other reason to come is the shore east of town: an unbroken line of vine terraces, then Vevey where Chaplin spent his last twenty-four years, then Montreux, then a castle on a rock offshore that more people visit than anywhere else in the country. All of it is on one railway line and none of it takes more than half an hour to reach.
Highlights
- The Château de Chillon, a complete medieval castle standing in the water where the road runs out of room
- Charlie Chaplin's last home above Vevey, left as a family house rather than a shrine
- The Olympic Museum at Ouchy, with a sculpture park on the lake you can walk into for nothing
- Notre-Dame at the top of the town, the finest Gothic church in the country, with a watchman still shouting the hours at midnight
- A museum given over entirely to art made by prisoners, patients and recluses
Where to stay
Lausanne, two nights
Sleep near the station or in the old town rather than down at Ouchy, unless the lake view matters more to you than the walk. The metro connects all three in minutes, but the restaurants and bars are up top around Flon and Saint-François.
Lausanne is unusually vertical for a city of its size, and streets that look flat on a map are not. If anyone in the group has trouble walking, plan around the metro rather than the map.
Day by day
Day 1 in Lausanne
Down to Ouchy for the Olympic Museum, back up for dinner
Drop the bags and take the m2 down to the water. Ouchy is the lakefront: plane trees, a promenade, boats to France on the far shore, and the Olympic Museum on the slope above it. The museum is better than its own marketing suggests, running from the ancient games through to the modern circus, with a lot of objects (a sprinter's shoes, a skier's boots) that turn out to be more affecting than the films. The sculpture garden outside is free and open to anybody walking past.
Walk the promenade afterwards for as long as the light lasts, then ride back up for dinner in the old town. The oldest restaurant in the city is a plain room doing classic Swiss cooking properly, and it doubles as the local bar, so it is a good place to be at nine in the evening.
The cathedral is above you all evening, lit up, and the night watchman calls the hours from its tower from ten until two, which you will hear if your window is anywhere near it.
- 13:00
Arrive at Lausanne railway station
TravelThe m2 metro platform is inside the station: two stops down to the lake, three up to the old town.
- 15:00
Olympic Museum
CultureThe Olympic collection above the lakefront at Ouchy, with a free sculpture park outside. Closed Mondays in winter.
- 19:30
Pinte-Besson
OtherThe city's oldest restaurant, and still a neighbourhood bar: classic Swiss cooking, no ceremony, in the lanes below the cathedral.
With more time: With more time, the boats from Ouchy cross to Evian in France in about thirty-five minutes, which is a cheap way to spend an afternoon on the water and come back for dinner.
Day 2 in Lausanne
Chaplin's house, Montreux, and the castle in the lake
Take the morning train east to Vevey and the bus up the hill behind it. Charlie Chaplin moved into the estate in 1953, lived there until he died in 1977, and the house has been left as a family home rather than a shrine: his study, the children's rooms, the terrace with the view he chose. A second building recreates the Hollywood studio sets, which is the part that works for anybody under twelve.
Carry on to Montreux for lunch on the lakefront. The town is a strip of belle époque hotels along the water with a steep old quarter behind, and its two landmarks are both musical: a statue of Freddie Mercury looking out at the lake, and the casino that burned down in 1971 while Frank Zappa was playing, which is the fire in 'Smoke on the Water'.
Then take the trolleybus, or walk the shore path, for the last three kilometres to Chillon. The castle stands on a rock a few metres offshore, exactly where the road from the Great St Bernard pass is pinched against the water, which is the whole point of it: nobody got past without paying. Byron made it famous with 'The Prisoner of Chillon', about François Bonivard, who was chained in the vaults until 1536, and Byron is said to have cut his own name into one of the pillars down there.
- 10:00
Chaplin's World
CultureThe house Chaplin lived in from 1953 until his death, plus a studio building of recreated film sets. Bus up from Vevey station.
- 13:30
Freddie Mercury statue
HistoricFreddie Mercury in bronze on the Montreux quay, arm up, facing the water. Five minutes from the station, and always has flowers on it.
- 15:00
Château de Chillon
HistoricThe most visited historic building in Switzerland, on a rock just off the shore. Go late in the afternoon when the coaches have gone.
With more time: With more time, get off the train at Cully or Rivaz on the way back and walk part of the Lavaux vineyard terraces above the lake, which are a world heritage site and full of cellars that sell by the glass.
Day 3 in Lausanne
The cathedral at the top, then the Art Brut collection
Climb, or take the metro, to Notre-Dame. It is the best preserved Gothic cathedral in Switzerland, consecrated in the thirteenth century, and it kept its shape through the Reformation even after losing its decoration. The tower costs a few francs and gives you the roofs, the lake and the French Alps on the other side of it.
From there, cross town to the Collection de l'Art Brut, which is the museum most people remember longest. Jean Dubuffet gave the city his collection of work by people with no art training and often no audience: prisoners, patients, recluses, spiritualists. Some of it is obsessive, some of it is beautiful and quite a lot of it is uncomfortable, which is the intention.
Buses run back down to the station in about ten minutes, and the whole morning fits comfortably before an afternoon train.
- 09:30
Notre Dame cathedral
ReligiousSwitzerland's finest Gothic church, at the top of the old town. Climb the tower, or just stand on the terrace outside it, which is free.
- 11:00
Collection de l'Art Brut
CultureDubuffet's collection of art made outside the art world, in a mansion north of the centre. Unsettling, and unlike anything else in the country.
- 14:00
Train from Lausanne railway station
TravelForty minutes to Geneva, seventy to Bern, a little over two hours to Zurich, and about three and a half to Paris direct.
With more time: With a later train, the museum block on Place de la Riponne holds five collections under one roof, from cantonal fine art to natural history, and none of them takes more than an hour.
Before you go
Getting in and getting around
Geneva airport is forty-five minutes away by train, with at least two departures an hour, and it is the sensible way in. Trains from Zurich and Bern arrive at Lausanne's main station on the half hour for most of the day.
In town, the m2 metro runs from the lake at Ouchy up through the station and the old town, and it is doing serious work: the hill is steeper than it looks on a map and the difference between walking up and riding up is about twenty minutes and a change of shirt. Hotels give guests a transport card for the length of the stay.
The lakeside line east through Vevey and Montreux runs several times an hour, and boats do the same trip more slowly and much more scenically.
Language
This is French-speaking Switzerland, and unlike Geneva it does not run on English. Restaurant and hotel staff will manage, but somebody stopped in the street may not, and a few words of French are worth more here than they are two hours east.
When to go
May to October, when the terraces are open and the lake steamers run their full timetable. The vineyards above the shore are at their best in September, when the harvest is on and the villages hold their own tastings.
The jazz festival at Montreux takes over the lakefront for a fortnight in July. It is a good reason to go and an expensive time to sleep anywhere between Lausanne and Villeneuve, so decide which side of that you want to be on before booking.
Lausanne is the working half of Lake Geneva: a university town on a hillside that happens to run the Olympic movement and looks out at the Alps while it does it. It is cheaper, younger and more casual than its neighbour, and it puts you within half an hour of the best shoreline in the country.
Three days is the honest minimum, and the third one belongs to the train east, past the vineyards, to a castle and a comedian's front room.
Or make it a longer trip
These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.
Make it your trip
Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.
Common questions
- How many days do you need in Lausanne?
- Three. The city itself is a comfortable day and a half, and the third day goes east along the lake to Chaplin's house and Chillon, which is the trip most people remember. Add a fourth if you want to walk in the Lavaux vineyards properly.
- Lausanne or Geneva?
- Lausanne, unless you specifically want the United Nations. It is smaller, steeper, considerably livelier at night thanks to the students, has a better cathedral and sits closer to the good end of the lake. Geneva is forty minutes away by train if you want both.
- Is the Château de Chillon worth the trip?
- Yes, and it is the busiest historic site in the country for a reason: it is a complete medieval castle standing in the water, with the vaults, the great halls and the ramparts all open. Go after four in the afternoon, when the coach parties have left and the lake turns gold.
- How steep is Lausanne, really?
- Steep enough that the metro exists to solve it. There is about a hundred and fifty metres of height between the lakefront at Ouchy and the cathedral, and the streets between them are stairs as often as not. Copy this plan into your own trip and let the m2 do the climbing.