The Quai des Fleurs
Kilometres of flower promenade along the lake.
Maude Rion โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Adoscam โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Adoscam โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Corno Bob Evans โ CC0
**The lakeside walk from Montreux to Chillon Castle**: about 3 level kilometres along the water among gardens, palms and historic hotels, ending at Switzerland's most famous castle. It takes 45 minutes one way, is entirely free, and is loveliest in late afternoon. Return by bus or local train if you tire. It is the best hour a visitor spends in Montreux.
If you love music: the festival is an exceptional experience, many of its concerts on the promenade and in the gardens are **entirely free**, and the atmosphere is unforgettable. But book a hotel months ahead and expect doubled prices and heavy crowds. If you want quiet and scenery: avoid July altogether โ May, June and September are lovelier, calmer and cheaper.
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Montreux sits on the eastern shore of **Lake Geneva** in an exceptional position: the mountains drop straight to the water, creating a wind-sheltered pocket with a **near-Mediterranean climate** rare in Switzerland โ palms, magnolias and cypresses grow along the promenade with snow-covered Alpine peaks directly behind them. That contrast is the secret of the "Swiss Riviera". Its heart is the flower promenade (**Quai des Fleurs**), running for kilometres along the lake among gardens, statues and Belle รpoque hotels, and carrying the statue of **Freddie Mercury** โ Queen's singer lived here and recorded his last albums in a studio overlooking the water. Its greatest fame is the **Montreux Jazz Festival** each July since 1967 โ among the world's most storied music festivals, filling the town with concerts (many of them free on the promenade), driving prices up and selling hotels out. Outside July: a quiet, elegant town, ideal for walking and unwinding.
Kilometres of flower promenade along the lake.
His statue on the quay and Queen's studio in town.
A scenic line from Montreux to Gstaad and Interlaken.
1820 Montreux, Vaud