Planning Your Time

To experience the highlights of lake and mountain, reserve five days. Spend two savoring Lausanne and its Old Town, museums, and hyperactive waterfront. The Corniche route winds its way through the vineyards and hamlets of the Lavaux. Pull-offs are strategically interspersed for photo ops and to steady the nerves of drivers not used to narrow, cantilevered roadways. Get out and walk a section of the wine trail and definitely taste a glass of white wine. A few hours in the harbor-front town of Vevey, especially its older section, and the glitzy, Riviera-like city of Montreux will suffice. A visit to the region would be incomplete without a tour of Chillon—the fabled fortress that inspired Lord Byron to pen his famous poem "Prisoner of Chillon."