Switzerland. The country I had been dreaming of visiting to see the beautiful Alps. I’m so thankful I finally got to see it all and it was even more beautiful than I expected. We flew in to Geneva from Lisbon and took a train straight to Montreux from the airport. We were only spending 4 nights in Switzerland and my main goal was to see mountains, not cities. I figured, Geneva could be seen on another trip with an extended layover – mountains were more important. It was easy getting around Geneva airport and very simple to find our train. I highly recommend downloading the SBB app for Switzerland to buy train tickets and also easily check timetables. The train ride from Geneva to Montreux was an hour and a half and the views were nice. It was a very comfortable ride. The hotel we booked for Montreux was the Freddie Mercury Hotel. We got a room with 4 twin beds, which was great so everyone could sleep well. The room was clean, but AC was weak, which was the case for most hotels (or they didn’t have AC). We usually like the room pretty cool at night so, might not be an issue for other people. The location was great in that we could walk to where we wanted to go. When we first arrived, we hadn’t realized that we could get to the hotel right from the train station platform. From the platform we were on, we went in the direction out to the street and took the long way around, pulling our bags up a very steep hill, lol. Only after reaching the hotel did I realize we could have crossed over to the other platform and entered our hotel from there. Oh well.

After checking in, we went out to get dinner at AU PARC. I recommend making a reservation. We did not have one and they didn’t seem too happy about that, but still sat us. We got there right when they opened for dinner and it was empty so, not sure why the hesitation. Anyway, the food there was incredible. I ordered a gluten-free pizza with veggies and it was the best I had ever eaten. It wasn’t the usual thin, crunchy crust pizza offered everywhere else. It tasted so fresh, was soft and was not dry. I ate almost the entire thing and felt perfectly fine, probably because of how it’s made. My husband and older son both ordered pasta and my son was in heaven and said it was the best he had eaten. My husband and other son were happy as well. The meal was a great start to the trip!

After dinner, we went to walk along the lake and get gelato (what we promise the kids every day of walking). It was a little spot next to the La Rouvenettaz restaurant and might have been part of it. It tasted great, but like all food in Switzerland – a little pricey. It was a very enjoyable evening, walking along the lake with the gelato. The views are so stunning, with the mountains and the flowers along the walkway. I could have stayed there for hours, just enjoying the views and the breeze. The kids have a limit though for just sitting somewhere. We spent at least an hour walking there and then headed back to the hotel. Thankfully, everyone managed to sleep even though the room didn’t cool down too much. We had tried opening windows, but because the hotel was basically part of the train station, it was too loud with the trains going by every few minutes. I think there were maybe a few hours overnight that they didn’t run, but they ran until late at night and very early in the morning. It wasn’t too bad though.

The next morning we just had a simple breakfast of yogurt and bars that we picked up from Coop the day before. We checked out pretty early so that we could get the train to Brig, where we were staying, and get to Zermatt early enough. The train to Brig was an hour and 20 minutes and then we wanted to drop our bags at least at the hotel before taking the train to Zermatt. Luckily, when we got to Brig we were able to get our room right away even though it was the morning. We stayed at Hotel Stockalperhof. The hotel was a good location, being a short walk (5-minutes) to the train station. It wasn’t so easy pulling our rolling carry-ons on the cobblestone, but at least it wasn’t a long walk doing so. The woman at the front desk was very friendly and the room was clean and had a nice view of the village and mountains. After putting our bags in our room, we headed back to the train station to go to Zermatt.

The train ride to Zermatt was an hour and 30 minutes. Once we got to the village, we picked up ready-to-go lunch from Coop. We managed to find a place to sit to eat near the train station before heading to Gornergrat train station to take the Alpine train to Gornergrat. We got off at Rotenboden first to go to Riffelsee, which was about a 30 minute ride. Riffelsee has great views of the Matterhorn and a simple enough walk down to the lake from the train. It’s a decent hill to get there so going back up with the altitude was a bit hard for the kids, but they managed and were fine. We spent a little less than an hour there before getting back on the train to head up to Gornergrat, less than a 10-minute ride. Gornergrat has a great overlook and some food options. We just stopped to see the views and waited for the next train back down to Zermatt. It was a little crowded at that spot, but wasn’t too bad except when trying to get back on the train. Still less crowded than I expected. 

We took the train back to Zermatt and walked around the village for a bit, got the kids some stuffies (one that got left behind a couple days later), and then got on the train to head back to Brig. Once we arrived back in Brig, we went to relax a bit in the hotel and then just got take-out from a spot next to the hotel called Runder. It had some Mexican food – bowls, quesadillas, but wasn’t the best. Pricey like everything, and not the best tasting and portions (for my bowl at least) wasn’t great. My bowl was mostly rice, which was quite disappointing. We then headed out, hoping to get some gelato from the place under the hotel, but they all close so early at 6 or 7! We managed to find one that was a bit of a walk from the hotel that was almost about to close. Thankfully, we got there in time and they took our order so the kids didn’t end up disappointed. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel. It was a little hard to sleep because there was no AC and it had been a pretty warm day in the high 70s. We had two fans running and a window open slightly, but it didn’t get too cool. We managed to sleep ok though before heading to Interlaken the next morning.

Up Next – Grindelwald & Interlaken