Gruyères Day Trip with Chocolate Factory from Lausanne

Our guide Roger was fantastic and provided lots of information about the area, including some personal stories. It would have been nice to have a little more information about the pickup location, so that we knew we were in the right spot. For example, note that pickup was at the Aquatis Aquarium or the name of the metro stop, instead of just providing an address.

The Gruyère cheese and chocolate factory tour was a wonderful experience with beautiful scenery and delicious local products. The tour was well organised and very interesting. However, it was quite expensive, so travellers should budget accordingly. Overall, it is worth visiting if you want to experience some of Switzerland’s famous cheese and chocolate traditions.

We caught the van in Lausanne, it was an easy pickup at one of the metro stops. First stop was an hour at the chocolate factory which was really informative and delicious too. Then we spent an hour at the gruyere cheese plant and it was equally fun. It was going to be a 2-hour ride back to Lausanne from there, but one option was to take a scenic train for an hour and then back on the tram for the remaining hour, which we did. We highly recommend it. $15 per person, but worth it.

Aristotle the driver/guide was very good, but the experience was soured by learning only after boarding the bus (too late!) that the trip included an option — for an extra price — to be dropped off at Montbovon, take the Golden Pass Express to Montreux and then get back on the bus to return to Montreux. Result: instead of returning direct to Lausanne from Gruyeres the vast majority of us on the bus took an unexpected and lengthy detour to accommodate the view who disembarked for the Golden Pass. The Golden Pass had been advertised as a different trip. I suspect in fact Swiss Tours at the last minute combined it with the Broc-Gruyère trip because so few signed up for it. Had I known in advance about the detour, I would not have signed up for the trip. Boo hiss on Swiss Tours.

We had a ‘silver’ ticket which included the same chocolate factory experience (it was excellent) and the museum and tasting sample at the cheese factory (not lunch). We had a longer time in Gruyere village which was useful and chose to visit the castle museum; I think gold ticket holders had a shorter time in the village. Roger was an excellent guide and his driver was also very proficient - comfortable travelling all day. I particularly enjoyed the St Bernard stories and info about the vineyards. We didn’t join the train journey and travelled back to Montreux on the bus although there is an option to buy tickets as extra on the train if you want. Overall, as a family of which includes young adult children, we enjoyed our day and would recommend highly.