Montreux

Introduction

Montreux is a small city along the shores of Lake Geneva, in the Swiss canton of Waadt/Vaud, in the west of the country. It has just under 25,000 inhabitants and is a popular jetset resort and also famous because of its Freddie Mercury statue, several festivals and the Deep Purple song 'Smoke on the Water'.

Sights and Activities

• Château de Chillon
• Place du Marché, with the statue of Freddie Mercury
• The centre with its pastel buildings
• Views of The Alps
• Walking along Lake Geneva

Montreux

© skteddy

Events and Festivals

• Montreux Film Festival
• The Golden Rose Festival, annually in Spring
• The Golden Award of Montreux, annually in April
• Montreux Jazz Festival - annually in July
• Freddie Mercury's Montreux Memorial Day, annually during the first weekend of September

Weather

Summers in Montreux are from June to early September when daytime temperatures are mostly between 20 and 25 °C and nights are around 10-12 °C. Winters last from December to early March when it's around 3 or 4 °C during the day and few degrees below zero at night. Precipitation is fairly common throughout most of the year, although spring and summer are just slightly drier. Average monthly rain/snowfall is around 60-70mm.

Getting There

By Plane

The Geneva International Airport (GVA) is the main gateway, just about 70km away near Geneva. From here, dozens of airlines serve cities in Europe and further away. Lowcost airline Easyjet has many flights to/from Ajaccio, Alicante, Amsterdam, Asturias, Barcelona, Bastia, Belfast, Berlin, Birmingham, Bordeaux, Bournemouth, Bristol, Brussels, Budapest, Cagliari, Copenhagen, Dubrovnik, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Ibiza, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lisbon, Liverpool, London, Madrid, Málaga, Manchester, Marrakech, Nantes, Naples, Newcastle, Nice, Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Porto, Rome, Sharm el-Sheikh, Split, Stockholm and Toulouse. Some of them are seasonal only. Many other airlines mainly serve European destinations (as far away as Moscow and Reykjavik.
Cities further away include Montreal, Toronto, Algiers, Mauritius, New York, Tel Aviv, Cairo, Kuwait, Tehran, Beirut, Amman, Riyadh, several places in Tunisia and Morocco, and Tashkent.

By Train

The Swiss Federal Railways has regular connections to Geneva (hourly, about 70 minutes) and Lausanne (thrice an hour, 25 minutes), with connections to other destinations, both domestically and internationally.

By Car

Montreux is just west of the A9, which connects Lausanne with Martigny.

By Bus

The Postbus has domestic connections from Montreux.

Sleep

Learn

• European University

Keep Connected

Internet

Switzerland has a high rate of people with their own internet connection and computers, so internet cafes are not as common compared to other countries and compared to the past. But still you will be able to find a computer in the main cities and tourist areas, also at libraries, video rental shops, train stations or tourist information places. Wifi is widely available, though sometimes at a cost. A growing number of hotels, restaurants, coffee bars and fastfood joints now offer free wifi.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Switzerland's country code is 41 and the emergency phone numbers are 117 (police), 118 (fire department) and 144 (emergency rescue service/ambulance). Swiss phone numbers consist of the area code and a local phone number. The area code has three digits and starts with a zero, such as 022 for Geneva. The local phone number has usually 7 digits, but there are numbers with only 5 or 6 digits.

If you stay for some time, it may be advisable to buy a pre-paid cell phone card that you can use in any phone that supports the GSM standard on the 900/1800 MHz bands - they usually cost around 10-40 CHF and are obtainable in the shops of the mobile service providers Swisscom, Orange or Sunrise in most cities. Mobile network coverage is close to 100% by area, even in the mountainous, non-populated areas. There are also a lot of cheap prepaid cards for local calls from other providers. The prepaid cards of the big supermarket chains Migros and Coop for example cost around 20 CHF and include already 15 CHF airtime. The cheapest prepaid card for calls within Switzerland is Aldi Mobile. The cheapest prepaid card for international communication is Yallo. The prepaid cards can be bought online (30 CHF with 30 CHF airtime inclusive), in most post offices (29 CHF with 20 CHF airtime inclusive) or Sunrise shops (20 CHF with 20 CHF airtime inclusive).

Post

Swiss Post is the national postal service of Switzerland and has fast and reliable services. For more information about prices to send postcards, letters and parcels, both domestically as well as internationally, they have a very useful Price Calculator. Domestically, there is priority mail (arriving the following day) and economy mail which takes 2-3 days to be send within Switzerland. Stamps can be bought at the post offices or from shops and kiosks that also sell postcards. In general, post offices are open from 8:00am to noon and 2:00pm to 5:00 or 6:00pm, with a lunchbreak in between. Opening times on Saturdays are usually only during mornings. Larger cities and central post offices might keep longer hours and skp the lunchbreak. If you want to send packages internationally, you might also consider international courier companies like TNT, DHL or UPS.