Lausanne, Switzerland

Time from Geneva main station Gare Cornivin: 41 - 53 minutes (depending on the train). Trains go every 20minutes or so to Laussane from Cornivin.

Ticket prices:

• Point-to-point one-way: ~22.80 CHF.

• City Ticket: ~28.80 CHF

• Round Trip + City Ticket: ~53 CHF (round trip tickets aren’t always just double the price of the point-to-point. They can vary and if you purchase them a couple days in advance you can usually get a “super saver” ticket that can be anywhere from 5-20% off)

Train Ticket Advice:

If you are staying at a hotel that comes with a city bus pass for Geneva, that will cover you for zone 1O. That means you only have to purchase a ticket from Gare Cornivavin (or another train station) to the Lausanne train station because that is when you will leave Zone 10. If you put your hotel stop into the SBB app and put Laussane as your final destination, it will charge you the price of your bus ticket from your hotel to the station AND the station-to-station ticket. If you are using the SBB app (which I cannot recommend enough- it is the most accurate you will get in Switzerland and much better than google maps, and you can purchase your tickets right on the app.) You can purchase a city ticket that will also cover the zone for Lausanne which will allow you to take any busses, trams, and subways in the city while you’re there.

If you do not have the SBB app and you do not have a zone 10 Geneva pass you will need to purchase your bus ticket for the ride to the station and your station-to-station ticket at a Geneva Kiosk (located at most bus stops), and if you want to take the public transit in Lausanne you will purchase a day pass once you arrive that will cover the zone you are in (which I would purchase inside the train station at a kiosk when you first arrive). Although it is less common to be checked for tickets on buses and trams, it is VERY common to get checked for your ticket on the train. You will need the correct ticket because the fine is very big if you don’t have it (anywhere from 70CHF to 200CHF, I’ve seen people charged with both) and they don’t have much sympathy if you have the wrong ticket because the app makes it very easy to purchase the correct one- and they will tell you that. If you have any confusion about buying your tickets you can always do it inside the train station, but plan your time accordingly because those lines and wait times can be very long, I once waited for 45 minutes. Good luck!

General advice:

Lausanne is full of a LOT of hills. If you are going in the winter/ early spring I would highly suggest bringing a sweatshirt because the buildings are tall on both sides when walking through the old town, which makes it very chilly because you are in the shade a lot. If you are going in the summer I would recommend getting the day pass that includes the city bus tickets because those hills seem a lot steeper and harder when you’re sweating in the hot sun! If you don’t want to get the city bus ticket and it’s the summer, I would recommend getting off at the Lausanne station and heading straight for the Cathedral because they are somewhat close to each other, and then working your way down to the lake. Then take a swim in the lake to cool off before hiking back up town to the station.

Things to do:

• The Cathedral. It has a lot of beautiful stained glass windows. It is a silent cathedral, so keep that in mind if you are wanting to take little children who might have a hard time keeping quiet. When you walk in, to your right there will be an office where you can purchase a ticket to go to the top of the Cathedral. I highly recommend doing it, the view is spectacular and much better than the view from the top of Geneva’s Cathedral (in my opinion). Be warned that it is a bit of a workout with a lot of narrow winding stairs. Be careful of the time you go up. If you are going up anywhere around the top of the hour the bells will go off and they are so much louder than you would imagine, so cover your ears! It costs 5CHF for students and I believe (not 100% sure) that it’s around 7CHF for adults 16+. Once you reach the outlook level, on 2 of the sides there are very small staircases that will lead you up even higher!

• Sauvabelin Tower: If you are really into “lookouts” and have seen enough Cathedrals to last a lifetime (we’ve all been there if you live in Europe long enough), this can be a great alternative, plus its free! It’s a very cool architectural structure and will once again be a very good workout to get to the top, but the stairs are much wider than the Cathedral, and is a bit easier for kids. There is also a beautiful walking path to a park and some places to eat nearby so it can be a wonderful nature walk! There is also some wildlife like goats and pigs in the park that you can see as well!

• The Olympic Park: Even if you don’t want to go inside to tour the museum, the grounds themselves are very pretty. They also have some cool statues and things like “the longest high jump” that you can look at. If you do want to go inside it will cost 20CHF if you are 16+, or 14CHF if you are a student. You get to learn about the history of the Olympics and why Switzerland has been the host of the Olympic Headquarters for so many years. If you are a big sports/ Olympics fan then the museum is a must-see. It has a TON of memorabilia and is a lot bigger than you think it is going to be. It can easily take 2 hours to go through the entire museum, and for someone like me who really only watches a couple of sports during the Olympics… it felt a bit too long and boring if I’m being honest. The clothes, medals, and torches were cool, and the interactive activities at the end were pretty fun, but both I and the person I went with agreed that it's a lot more fun for big fans of the Olympics and we would have been fine to skip it. I’m also not a very big museum person so if you’re the type that loves reading the plaques and learning, then I think you would like it. But if you have young kids then I think they might have a hard time being entertained.

• The Lake: I highly recommend bringing your swimsuit in the summer and taking a swim in the lake! They do have some public bathrooms where you can change, but to make life a little easier I would recommend wearing your swimsuit under your clothes or getting those towel dresses from Lidle that allow you to change your clothes underneath without having to go anywhere. Here is an Amazon link if you are planning in advance: https://a.co/d/iEK84JX

• Food: The best crepes I have had in all of Switzerland are found in Lausanne. It is a very well-known place and when we went the first time it was around 11 am on a Saturday. It was very crowded and they told us it would be a 2-hour wait. We ended up just touring around the city and going back, and it was well worth it! It is close to the train station and Cathedral, so I would recommend going when you first arrive to see if they have a long wait time, or just eating first if they don’t. I’ve been a total of 3 times and the other 2 times I went around 3pm and there were very few people we were seated right away, so it just depends on the time you go. It is also one of the only restaurants I’ve seen that is open late, so it could also be a nice late dinner place or just dessert if you want something sweet. It’s called Crêperie La chandeleur. Their spinach crepes will have a LOT of spinach in them, fair warning. But the best dessert crepe on the menu is their salted butter caramel, and I don’t even like salted caramel but it is AMAZING! The Nutella one is pretty basic and the lemon one is quite nice if you’re a lemon fan. Very decently priced with the sweet crepes being around 10CHF and the savory around 15-17CHF. The lemonade was pretty good as well, just not very sweet.

  • If you are down by the lake and want crepes I also enjoyed La Crêperie d’Ouchy. There are also a lot of great gelato places by the lake if you want a little treat!

• Last thoughts: Lausanne is more aesthetically pleasing than Geneva and has more buildings that look like what you “imagine” Switzerland would look like (that is a big generalization, but I think you’ll see what I mean when you compare the two from an American perspective). You can easily spend a 8-hour day here walking around and having a lake day. But if you’re on a tight schedule you can also easily see the Cathedral, lake, and museum grounds in half that time if you have the city bus ticket and just want to see a couple of sights and take pictures.