Montreux city switzerland. Switzerland, Montreux is an upscale European resort. Guide to Montreux

Montreux: treatment, health improvement, medicine, balneotherapy. Information about the medical centers and sanatoriums of Montreux. Reviews of tourists about Montreux.

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City code

8-10-4121-phone number

How to get there

Flight to Geneva, then transfer for about an hour (60 km).

Trains run to Montreux from Geneva (Sfr26, 70 minutes, departure every hour) and Lausanne (Sfr9.80, 25 minutes, thrice an hour). On the way to Interlaken, the GoldenPass Panoramic offers amazing views of the mountains and the fabulous nature of Switzerland (transfer to Zweisimmen and Spiez, Sfr60, 3 hours, once a day).

Weather in Montreux

A bit of history

Montreux was once a tiny fishing village, where winemakers also lived. But since the 19th century, fate has prepared a different path for Montreux - the town is turning into one of the largest resorts in Europe. Aristocrats and bohemians, artists and writers from many countries come here to undergo the “grape course” of treatment that was popular in those days. In 1904, the Montreux Palace deluxe hotel was opened in Montreux, which still remains not only a landmark of the city, an important part of its history, but also one of the most popular hotels on the coast of Lake Geneva.

The world-famous song "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple was not created without the help of one unfortunate event in Montreux. On December 4, 1971, during a Frank Zappa concert, a fan fired a flare gun at the ceiling of the Montreux Casino where the concert was taking place. A fire broke out that destroyed the building, and the picture of smoke over the water (Smoke on the Water) ran into the memory of the band members who saw it from the window of their hotel.

christmas market

Fairs are held every Christmas in Montreux. The main street of the city (Grand "Rue) and the lakefront are full of wooden chalets where you can buy local wine (tasting is free and offered everywhere), chocolate and local crafts. The atmosphere during these fairs is magical. Children enjoy the Pere Noel Park, where an ice rink and a mini-train appeared in 2006.

Bars or where to spend the evening

The terrace of the Suisse-Majestic Hotel (45 avenue des Alpes, opposite the train station) offers really good prices for Switzerland and a great view. Here the saxophonist plays live music in the evenings to the drum machine, and plays well.

The English-style pub The White Horse (28 Grand Rue) is always crowded with local youth in the evenings. And you can understand them: there is a good selection of beer and darts.

Those who are looking for a special place for a special event should pay attention to the terrace of Le Palais Oriental (Quai Ernest Ansermet 6) - amazing and very romantic views, coupled with an amazing dinner available.

Flight over Montreux

Treatment in Montreux

Many people go to Montreux for beauty and health. The famous La Prairie clinic is located here, providing a full range of services for face and body care, restoration of the nervous system, weight loss and plastic surgery. Holidays in Montreux can be very active: tennis, water skiing, horse riding, hiking (long walks in the mountains). Evenings are usually busy visiting taverns, restaurants and wine cellars.

Guides in Montreux

Popular hotels in Montreux

Entertainment and attractions Montreux

The main attraction of the city is the building of the Montreux Palace Hotel, where celebrities and the powers that be once stayed. For example, Vladimir Nabokov from 1960 until his death (in 1977) lived in a hotel room with his wife Vera. They have rented rooms here since 1964. The writer is also buried nearby, in the cemetery of the town of Clarens (Clarens).

Today, the city is famous for its jazz festival, which has been held annually since 1967 in early July.

Montreux is located in the western part of Switzerland and is considered one of the centers of "" - a strip of resorts that are located on the north coast. On the other side of the lake, a city with a population of twenty-three thousand people is “supported” by the picturesque Alps.

The once small village of winemakers and fishermen has long ceased to be such. The status of "one of the best resorts in Europe" dictates its own rules - in Montreux every year there are more and more comfortable hotels offering rooms for every taste and budget - from modest single rooms to "royal suites". The streets and the embankment are gradually overgrown with chic restaurants, cute cafes and expensive boutiques.

Montreux has long been a "resort for the rich", who prefer going to a good expensive restaurant, expensive hotels, comfortable walks on Lake Geneva and excursions to elite vineyards to all other types of recreation.

Of the sights, you should pay attention to the Chillon Castle, located in the suburbs of Montreux and described by Lord Byron in the poem “Prisoner of Chillon. It is considered one of the most famous in Switzerland and has long been a symbol of this prosperous country. From Montreux train station to the castle no more than forty minutes on foot. And along the way, you can admire the beautiful view that opens up on the city. There are two monuments to Charlie Chaplin and Freddie Mercury on the waterfront of Lake Geneva.

Every year at the beginning of July, musicians, cultural figures and just connoisseurs of good music arrive in Montreux to fully enjoy the international jazz festival for two weeks. This event has been held annually since the year 1967. Over the years, various world-class stars have performed on the festival stage. Claude Nobs has been the director and inspirer of the Montreux Jazz Festival all these years.

Over the years, Montreux was visited by such personalities as Vladimir Nabokov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky and Leo Tolstoy.

At the Mountain Studios recording studio, owned by the Queen group, a huge number of famous stars have been recorded over the years.

Watch a short beautiful video with the main beauties and sights of Montreux.

Difficulties.net guide to the Montreux resort in Switzerland.

Montreux: The main resort of the Swiss Riviera

The so-called Swiss Riviera, located on the northern shore of Lake Geneva, includes coastal resort towns, smoothly flowing one into another, with a practically uninterrupted and unblocked embankment. The largest of them - Lutry, Vevey and, of course, the "star" of these places - Montreux.

Riviera, by analogy with the seaside, these Swiss resorts were named, among other things, because of the local microclimate - this part of the lake is reliably closed by the Alps from cold winds, and it is warm here in winter and hot in summer, like in seaside resorts. Therefore, plants of more southern latitudes grow calmly in this area - palm trees, magnolias, many types of flowers. Add to this the fresh mountain air, the luxurious resort infrastructure that has been formed since the beginning of the 19th century, the breathtaking views of the mountains and the lake, as well as the Swiss service - and you get a recipe for an ideal place to relax.

In a review article on there is basic general information about this resort: its history, sights, what else to see around.

Here I propose to take a walk along Montreux on a summer day and see how it looks, what it is famous for and why it turned out to be so loved by numerous aristocrats, rich people of all stripes and representatives of the artistic world of the 19th-20th centuries. I think after viewing the photos you will have no questions - why. Simply because these lands are damn beautiful.

So let's go.

The main place in Montreux, as in all self-respecting seaside cities, of course, embankment. It stretches along the lake for seven kilometers. Along the embankment are the best hotels of the resort, built in the XIX - early XX century.

An important thing for vacationers is that there are no beaches in Montreux, at least along the main part of the city's embankment. In summer, there is a strong heat here, and the sight of blue water beckons to dive into its coolness. But it was not there. Look for where you can swim culturally - on a beach with infrastructure, or even without it, but still in a specially designated place for this - you will have to go outside the resort. Of course, if you get into the water, most likely no one will make comments to you, but no one will be responsible for you either. In general, it is not accepted. Here, rather, sedate walks along the embankment in the manner of the last century, under an umbrella and with a dog, are encouraged. Yes, and to imagine aunts in bathing suits wandering along this embankment with inflatable circles in their hands is somehow wild. So maybe it's for the best that you can only swim outside of Montreux.

One of the attractions of Montreux - casino (Casino de Montreux). Knowing its history - burned down in 1971 by Frank Zappa's unbridled rock fans and then rebuilt - we're no longer surprised that it's outdone in its modern look by the sumptuous historic casino buildings on this and that side of Lake Geneva.

(In general, the Savoyard nobility knew a lot about entertainment, and casinos in these parts amaze with their monumentality and elegance at the same time, for example, a casino in or).

Another iconic attraction of the city is, of course, statue of Freddie Mercury, which we eagerly expected to see, turning around the winding promenade along the lake every time. The monument is located on Marche Square, approximately in the central part of the embankment. On the same square, "according to the name", there is also a city market, as well as a Migros supermarket, where numerous tourists buy sandwiches and ready-made salads to eat them, sitting on the embankment curb and looking at the lake. In my opinion, it's still wrong when there are excellent restaurants and cafes around here. In Montreux, you have to allow yourself a little beautiful life.

Monument to Freddie Mercury - a place of constant pilgrimage for fans and ordinary tourists

Place Marchais and the market located on it. From this area you can delve into Old town of Montreux and wander through its tangled streets. You have to understand that despite the seeming compactness at first, this Swiss resort is far from small, and you don’t have to worry that you will bypass it all at once. On the contrary, its entire infrastructure, medical and spa facilities, restaurants, clubs, concert halls, casinos and other respectable recreation areas are specially designed to ensure that wealthy guests stay here longer. It is impossible to get bored here, if there were funds.

Jazz Festival in Montreux

Historically, Montreux has attracted many famous musicians. Russian geniuses with world fame - Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, many European composers of the 19th century in the 20th century were replaced by no less great jazzmen. Since 1967 Montreux has been hosting international jazz festival in which took part (and take part to this day) stars of jazz and other musical styles of the first magnitude - from Miles Davis and Ray Charles to David Bowie and Prince. Naturally, over the years, the Montreux Jazz Festival has undergone a transformation, and today far from only jazzmen perform at it. But thanks to a strict selection policy, the reputation of the Montreux Jazz Festival remains at the highest level.

Here are just some of the musicians who performed at different times in Montreux:

1970 - Carlos Santana, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans; 1971 - Aretha Franklin and Frank Zappa (during the concert of which there was an incident with a zealous fan and a rocket launcher, a casino fire and the birth of the hit Smoke on the water by Deep Peple following the fire); 1973 - Miles Davis; 1974 - Van Morrison; 1977 - Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald; 1978 - Ray Charles; 1986, the year of the 20th anniversary of the festival, was marked by performances by Eric Clapton, Simpli Red, Chris Rea and others; 25th Anniversary - a grandiose concert, directed by Quincy Jones, and Sting had a hand in organizing the sound part, with the participation of Elvis Costello, B.B. King, Ray Charles, etc; 1993 - Robert Plant, BB King, Ray Charles again, James Brown and Chris Isaac; in 1999, the festival broke the record for the number of spectators who visited it - 220 thousand - and R.E.M and Blondie became the headliners; 2001 - Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Alanis Morissette. The list goes on and on.

It is most convenient to purchase tickets for concerts online on the same official website.

We continue our walk along the embankment. One of the piers of Montreux.

And, finally, one more place from the must see category - chic Montreux Palace Hotel, built at the beginning of the 20th century (1904) in the Belle Epoque style. It was here that the writer Vladimir Nabokov spent the last 16 years of his life. Opposite the hotel there is a polished square with a monument to Nabokov, as well as busts of famous musicians who performed here (and, of course, stayed at Montreux Palace) - Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Carlos Santana, Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald.

The monument to Nabokov looks very realistic, it is clearly a very successful sculpture.

Carlos Santana

That, perhaps, is all about Montreux. By the way, the mini-golf lawn near the hotel is quite Nabokovian, as if from the dreams of the protagonist of the novel "Lolita". Remember that Adrian Lyne adaptation where curvy Lolita lays on the grass and dangles her legs?

(100 km from Geneva) has the right to be called one of the most luxurious resorts in Switzerland. Montreux is located in the caton of Vaud. The nature of this small town surprises with a variety of tropical plants. Along the waterfront you can find palm trees, almonds, and cypresses with magnolias. And all this thanks to the unique microclimate. Landscapes are very reminiscent of Sochi and Crimea. If not for the snow-capped Alps on the opposite side of Lake Geneva. The air here is so clean that you immediately want to quit smoking.

During the day, mostly transit tourists walk along the Montreux embankment, who, passing along the coast of the lake, stopped here to explore the beauties and sights of the city. If you have the opportunity during your vacation to visit this wonderful Swiss resort, this Riviera of Switzerland, then first of all I advise you to see the Freddie Mercury monument on the embankment.

Statue of Freddie Mercury in Montreux.

Here in Switzerland, in Montreux, "Queen" and Mercury rented a recording studio, here they worked a lot. The monument is easy to find, it is located right on the embankment.
Another attraction of Montreux, which, I think, is also a must see is the monument to Vladimir Nabokov. The monument is located near the hotel where he lived with his wife from 1960 to 1977. By the way, he moved here from America. The hotel is also easy to find, everyone knows it. The hotel is called Montreux-Palace. Here they rented a room on the sixth floor. They walked along these streets, went to the nearest cafes to drink coffee or tea. In Montreux, more precisely, not far from Montreux, in the town of Clarence, Nabokov was buried with his wife, who died in 1992.
In the hotel itself, in the lobby, if you go inside, there is a gift from Y. Luzhkov. More precisely, a gift from the Moscow mayor's office. This is a sculpture by V. Nabokov.

It is not surprising that the bohemians of society rested in Swiss Montreux, namely such celebrities as L. Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Including Charlie Chaplin. By the way, he also moved here from America and lived in Switzerland for twenty years. The VIDEO of Montreux shows a monument to Chaplin. So this is not in Montreux, but in Vevey. Vevey is a town next to Montreux, if you go towards Chillon Castle. There are also monuments to B.B. King and Miles Davis. Montreux is a city of music. It hosts an annual jazz festival, and the Montreux-Palace Hotel hosts competitions for guitarists and pianists. If you're lucky, you can get into these contests, because. the entrance is free. A jazz festival takes place in the concert hall. Stravinsky. As you can see, Russians loved to relax in Switzerland, and especially in Montreux, and therefore Russians in Montreux are still respected. Rich Russians.

However, what is remarkable is that the embankment is now full of all sorts of different street vendors. In my opinion, these are simple (or not simple) migrant workers-emigrants on earnings. They sell all sorts of nonsense: cheap watches, knives, etc.
The resort of Montreux in Switzerland is not for rich people, but for the very rich. The most famous and richest people on the planet send their children here to private closed schools, which, in turn, attend private closed nightclubs, bars and casinos. And their parents, coming to visit their offspring, make an appointment at the local expensive clinics, SPA-salons. If you are lucky, you may meet some famous people on the streets of Montreux.

We did not manage to swim in Montreux. The shore is littered with stones and the water is not at all for swimming. We were in Switzerland in Montreux in the spring, at the beginning of June. And we swam later, when we went to Chillon. Indeed, the water is cold in Lake Geneva, but we simply could not help but swim. For memory.
Vineyards spread over the city itself, and opposite, on the other side of Lake Geneva, your gaze opens up a stunning view of the Swiss Alps. If you use the rack railway, you can get to the top of Mount Rochers de Naye, about 2000 meters above Montreux, and enjoy a magnificent panorama. This tour passes through the vineyards and you will be very lucky if the weather is nice. Especially in summer. Otherwise, you will see nothing and waste your time. A cog railway is a type of funicular with two or one trailers. At the top there is an observation deck. The cost of the tour is something around 30 euros (I don’t remember how many francs it will be).
From Montreux you must go to Chillon Castle. But that is another story.

The enchanting beauty of local landscapes, high-class service, interesting sights attract tourists to small, but so cozy Switzerland. Montreux is considered one of the most popular and prestigious resorts not only in Europe but also in the world. In summer, wealthy travelers come here to enjoy the view of the Alps, wander along the embankment, which at one time inspired many writers, poets and composers to create masterpieces.

The town is located on a small hill, it is surrounded on one side by a calm and on the other - a mountain range, which Switzerland is known for. Montreux is surrounded by a very mild climate, which is why it is also called the "Pearl of the Swiss Riviera". The unique microclimate is reflected in the local vegetation. The city is buried in the greenery of magnolias, laurels, cypresses, palms, almonds. Along the coast there is a boulevard decorated with flowers and interesting sculptures. All this is reminiscent of the annual international jazz festival held in Switzerland in the middle of summer.

Montreux cannot be ranked among the cities with a breathtaking history, a huge number of architectural monuments. He is very rich, not everyone can afford to relax in this area. Luxurious hotels stretch along the coast, striking in their appearance. Active tourists will not be bored; in Montreux, horseback riding, tennis, and hiking in the mountains are provided for vacationers. In the evening, you can have fun in a bar or casino, dance to incendiary music in a disco, taste local cuisine in one of the many restaurants, taste the famous white wine of the canton of Vaud, which Montreux is so proud of.

Which is of interest to many tourists, boasts both ancient and modern historical, architectural and cultural monuments. Fans of ethnography can be recommended to look into the Old Montreux Museum, which tells the history of the city from its foundation to the present day. In the old part, not far from the central station, on the Market Square, there is a statue of the famous Queen soloist - Freddie Mercury.

Switzerland is also known for its chic castles. Montreux has one of the famous fortresses, which was built in the XIII century. On a small rocky island, which at one time struck Lord Byron, he wrote the poem "The Prisoner of Chillon Castle". Tourists can see with their own eyes the ducal chambers, the knight's hall of Justice, dungeons and dungeons, a wooden chapel. It seems that everything here is thoroughly saturated with the spirit of the struggle of the Dukes of Savoy with the Protestants.

Montreux hotels are waiting for guests throughout the year. Switzerland is beautiful in any season, and the favorable location of the city allows you to go to every corner of the country. Not far from Montreux is Lausanne with a magnificent Roman amphitheatre, Roche, where the Organ Museum is located, Aiglie with the Museum of Salt and Wine. Not far from the city is the world's largest labyrinth, water park, children's parks, zoos.