Swiss Chocolate Train

If the mere thought of chocolate makes your mouth water, you will not want to miss this delicious, all-day, round-trip tour from Montreux. However, this excursion isn’t just for chocolate aficionados—if you don’t even like sweets, you will have a wonderful time. Every Monday and Wednesday, from June through October, the Chocolate Train pulls out of the Montreux station at about 9:25 am. As the train heads north through lush valleys and gentle hills laced with vineyards, you are served complimentary coffee and croissants. In a little over an hour, the train pulls up to the Gruyères train station, and stops across from the Gruyères cheese factory. Time is allowed to visit this modern factory which incorporates a museum showing how the delicious Gruyères cheese is produced. As you begin the interesting tour, you are given samples of various aged cheeses and don headphones that present an audio narrative which follows with what you see along the way. After the cheese tour, a bus is waiting to take you up to Gruyères, a fairy-tale walled village perched on the top of a small mountain. The cobbled main street, lined by adorable houses, cute shops, and restaurants, leads to a picturesque castle that is open as a museum. After your time in Gruyères, the bus takes you back to the train and for the short ride to Broc, where you visit the Cailler-Nestlé chocolate factory. As you walk from the parking lot, the scent of chocolate fills the air. The tour begins with a short video presentation and then a guide takes you to the various displays, explains how chocolate is made, and how it has evolved from the bitter bean that Cortez brought back to Spain to the delectable chocolate we know today. The tour ends in a large room where trays are set out, loaded with a stunning variety of samples of candy cut into little squares for tasting. After the chocolate factory, it’s back to the train, and you arrive back in Montreux about 5:40 pm.