It’s not the French Riviera, but this land-locked version is just as entrancing

It may not be quite as famous or glamorous as its French counterpart but the Swiss Riviera rouses the senses with its cinematic scenery, creativity and charisma. In this Gallic corner of Switzerland you’ll find groovy festivals, homages to music legends, surreal contemporary art, atmospheric old quarters, UNESCO-feted vineyards and ravishing belle epoque architecture on the shores of lovely Lake Geneva.

While Lausanne is this riviera’s biggest city, we’re staying in Montreux, its most alluring resort, on our Globus tour of Switzerland and we couldn’t be better placed. Our newly rebranded and revamped hotel, Mona Montreux, is perched right by the lake. Every room has a view. So does the breakfast room and terrace restaurant where we wine and dine.

When it shot up in the 1960s, as the Eurotel, this modernist tower contrasted wildly with other buildings in town, from the low-rise, centuries-old abodes in the ancient hilltop district to the grand, decorative, lake-facing hotels built after the railway arrived in the 1860s. That brought distinguished visitors – royals, bankers, writers, composers – who were seduced by Montreux’s natural beauty, tranquillity and mild microclimate (even in winter, when most of Switzerland shivers, it rarely sinks below freezing here).

It’s early August, 30 degrees, and some fellow guests are renting canoes and paddle-boards. Others are copying the locals and swimming in the lake’s greenish-blue waters. This is my third time in Montreux and I can never resist a wander on the promenade. Hugging the lake for almost seven kilometres, it stretches from Clarens, the neighbourhood where Russian duo Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky crafted concertos, to Chillon Castle, Switzerland’s most-visited historic building.

There are plenty of shade and benches and alfresco cafes and refreshment kiosks along the way, with pine trees sporadically soaring above immaculately tended flower beds and subtropical plants. You could hire a bike but don’t bank on a smooth ride because there’s so much to brake and U-turn for.

The views are consistently entrancing. You’ll see France across the lake and, year-round, snow-capped French and Swiss alps in the distance. Avant-garde artworks stud the promenade from previous years of the Montreux Biennale, including an oversized wire bird sculpture by Swiss artist Michel Buchs. The next biennale will be held from August to October in 2027.

Statues of iconic musicians also stop you in your tracks, especially the one of Freddie Mercury, his right arm aloft. Guided tours follow in the footsteps of Freddie, who had an apartment in town and a recording studio with Queen at the Montreux Casino – inside which a small, free, memorabilia-filled museum extols the band, who recorded seven albums here.

The casino has staged concerts for the Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF), which has always been more sonically diverse than its name suggests. British rockers Deep Purple have played 10 times and wrote their iconic hit Smoke on the Water after watching a fire break out at the casino during Frank Zappa’s 1971 festival show.

Other past MJF performers, including Aretha Franklin, BB King, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and Carlos Santana, are honoured in statues on the lawn between the Montreux Palace hotel and the festival hub, the Montreux Music & Convention Centre, which is undergoing a sleek renovation ahead of the festival’s 60th edition (July 3-18, 2026).

Harmonious sounds – French conversations, the tingle of bicycle bells, balls thudding rackets – backdrop my pine-scented promenade stroll as I pass more zany artworks, tennis courts and vineyards until Chillon Castle appears. Perched on a rock, it was a stronghold, toll station and summer home for the counts of Savoy between the 12th and 16th centuries but it has been a tourist draw for the past few hundred years.

Visiting in 1816, the poet Lord Byron was gripped by the story of a monk from Geneva who was detained in the castle’s dungeon in the 1500s. Byron penned The Prisoner of Chillon, while beneath this medieval fortress today a few dozen people, in bathers and bikinis, are held captive by the lake’s soothing waters.

THE DETAILS

TOUR
Montreux is on Globus’ nine-day Best of Switzerland tour, which begins and ends in Zurich and runs between May and October in 2026 and 2027. It costs from $5899 a person, twin share. See globus.com.au

STAY
Rooms at Mona Montreux cost from CHF157 ($279). See mona-montreux.ch

FLY
Qantas flies from Sydney and Melbourne to Zurich via Singapore. See qantas.com

MORE
myswitzerland.com

The writer travelled as a guest of Globus