Private Swiss Riviera Day Trip from Geneva

Lausanne: the hilly city above Lake Geneva

The first stop of your private Swiss Riviera tour is Lausanne, about an hour from Geneva along the lake. The city climbs steeply from the waterfront district of Ouchy, with its old harbour and lakeside gardens, up to a medieval old town crowned by a Gothic cathedral consecrated in 1275, where a night watchman still calls out the hours from the bell tower.

Lausanne is also the seat of the International Olympic Committee, and the Olympic Museum stands in a terraced park above the lake at Ouchy. Your guide chooses the photo stop according to the light and your wishes, often the lakefront or a viewpoint over the rooftops toward the French Alps. Lausanne is one of the easier places on the route to find halal food, and your guide can point out options for a later visit.

The Lavaux terraces, a UNESCO landscape

East of Lausanne, the road leaves the shore and climbs into Lavaux, a landscape of steep terraces held up by stone walls that stretch for about 30 kilometres along the lake. The terraces were first shaped by monasteries in the Middle Ages, and in 2007 UNESCO listed Lavaux as a World Heritage cultural landscape, an outstanding example of how people have worked a difficult slope for almost a thousand years.

Your private vehicle follows the narrow corniche road through stone villages such as Cully, Epesses and Chexbres, with Lake Geneva spread out below and the Alps of the Valais and the French shore beyond. Because the vehicle is yours, you can stop wherever the view is best. The best time to visit Lavaux is spring to autumn, when the terraces are green or golden and the lake shines blue.

Vevey and Corsier-sur-Vevey

Vevey is an elegant lakeside town known for its huge market square facing the water and for a giant stainless-steel fork planted in the lake, a playful sculpture that has become a favourite photo. The town has a long tradition in food and chocolate, and its promenade is lined with plane trees and old hotels looking across to the French mountains.

Just above Vevey, the village of Corsier-sur-Vevey looks over the lake from gentle green slopes. With the default option, your free time here includes entry to a museum dedicated to the golden age of cinema, set in a 19th-century manor house within a large park. Interactive rooms recreate film sets and studios, and the gardens offer some of the finest views of the Swiss Riviera. Allow around one and a half hours.

The Montreux lakefront

Montreux sits in a sheltered bay where the mountains protect the shore from northern winds, giving it a mild climate in which palm trees, magnolias and flower beds thrive. The lakefront promenade runs for several kilometres past Belle Époque hotels, the covered market hall and the old landing stages of the paddle steamers that still cross the lake in summer.

Your free time here is perfect for a stroll and a meal at your own expense. Each July the town hosts a world-famous music festival, and in December the lakefront fills with a Christmas market. Above the town, the cog railway climbs to Rochers-de-Naye at about 2,000 m. Is Montreux worth visiting? For lake views, gardens and the castle nearby, it is one of the most charming places in Switzerland.

Chillon Castle on its rock in Lake Geneva

The highlight of the day is Chillon Castle, built on a small rock island just off the shore at Veytaux, a few minutes from Montreux. The site was fortified from at least the 11th century, and in the 12th and 13th centuries the Counts of Savoy turned it into a residence and toll post controlling the road between northern Europe and Italy. From 1536 the castle belonged to Bern, and today it is one of the most visited historic monuments in Switzerland.

With admission included in the default option, your visit leads through a long sequence of rooms: vaulted underground halls cut into the rock, great banquet halls, bedrooms, a chapel with medieval wall paintings and the keep, from which you look along the lake. Plan about one and a half hours. Chillon Castle opening hours change with the season, generally from morning to early evening, and your guide times your visit to avoid the busiest moments.