Switzerland doesn’t just have scenery – it has flavour, and on our spring trip we set out to taste as much of it as we could. Between one of the country’s most famous chocolate houses, a UNESCO-listed vineyard clinging to a cliff, and a cheese farm so far off the beaten track it felt like the middle of nowhere, this was less a sightseeing day and more an edible tour of everything Switzerland does best with a hillside and a good recipe.
For couples: this makes an easy, low-effort day out – no serious hiking required, plenty to talk about over lunch, and a genuinely good excuse to eat chocolate for research purposes. A car is the best way to enjoy it properly, as some of these places are tucked away in the countryside or on the outskirts of small towns. That said, Maison Cailler itself is accessible by train at Broc-Chocolaterie, so you don’t necessarily need a car for every stop.
Maison Cailler: Inside a Swiss Chocolate House
Who hasn’t dreamed of wandering through a chocolate factory?
Switzerland treats chocolate-making the way Italy treats fashion or France treats champagne – as a proper industry with its own houses, and Cailler is one of the best known. We booked our tour at Maison Cailler in Broc, a small town a little off the main road that makes the visit feel like more of a detour than a tourist trap – it took us a while to actually find the place.
The tour walks you through the history of Swiss chocolate-making – younger than you might expect – before finishing with a tasting. Table after table was laid out with chocolate to try, each one impressively decorated, almost posh. It probably doesn’t change the taste, but it certainly sets the mood – chocolate presented like this feels like it deserves the fuss.
A word of warning: it is entirely possible to eat far more chocolate than is sensible in one sitting, and the tasting room does not discourage you from trying.
Practical note: Maison Cailler, Rue Jules Bellet 7, 1636 Broc. We paid around CHF 10 for adults, with a reduced rate of roughly CHF 8 for children and older visitors, but that was several years ago. Current adult admission is CHF 17, with reduced rates for children, students, seniors and disabled visitors. Opening hours also vary by season, so check the official website before visiting.
The Lavaux Vineyard Terraces
Chocolate seen to, we turned to Switzerland’s other great produce: wine. Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) sits between Switzerland and France, and while the French side rises into mountains, the Swiss side is where most people live — and where the vines grow.
Just outside Montreux are the Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage site and part of Switzerland’s wine route. The terraces themselves are striking, but what caught us off guard was the road cut straight through them on a cliff edge — and, looking up, a railway line running just above it through the same vineyards. Somehow it all works together without looking crowded or awkward.
The Lavaux terraces extend for around 30 kilometres along the northern shore of Lake Geneva, from around Lausanne towards Chillon, and were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007.
On our walk from Leysin to Vevey, we crossed these same terraced vineyards on foot and spotted the machinery used to bring in the grapes — a small hanging railway strung above the vines, built for exactly the kind of slope no tractor could manage.
If there’s a single idea that sums up Switzerland, it might be this: an apparent talent for building houses, gardens, roads and railways on slopes that by rights shouldn’t hold any of it, and making the whole thing look effortless and liveable.
For couples: a slow drive or walk through Lavaux, with the lake and the French mountains on one side and the terraces on the other, is one of those stretches worth taking at half speed rather than ticking off quickly.
Emmental Cheese, Straight from the Source
Marketing works in mysterious ways. Somewhere along the line, Emmental cheese became famous enough that people now drive to a fairly remote corner of Switzerland specifically to taste it at the source – and it clearly works, because the business is thriving.
Even out here, the roads are narrow but properly paved, so reaching what feels like the middle of nowhere is more comfortable than you’d expect. Lunch isn’t cheap, but it doesn’t need to be – you leave with no sense of having wasted the trip.
We tried hard and soft cheeses, a genuinely excellent cheese soup, and cheesy potatoes, alongside more or less every other form cheese can take. It’s the kind of stop we’d happily recommend to anyone passing through.
Beyond the food, most of what there is to see is free to look around a small village-like setup has grown around the site, complete with souvenir shops, making it an easy, low-pressure stop to build into a longer day.
Practical note: Emmentaler Schaukäserei AG, Schaukäsereistrasse 6, 3416 Affoltern im Emmental. The cheese shop, restaurant and other visitor facilities are currently open daily, generally 9am–5pm. The restaurant kitchen operates until 4.30pm. Opening arrangements can change, so check before visiting.
Where This Fits Into a Swiss Trip
Chocolate, vineyards and cheese make a natural pairing for a day that sits alongside – rather than competes with – a longer trip through Switzerland’s towns, cities, lakes and mountains.
If you’re building a Switzerland itinerary from our Western Europe guide, this is the food-and-scenery day to slot in alongside the driving days – easy on the legs, generous on flavour, and a good reminder that Switzerland’s landscape and its produce come from the same steep, stubborn geography.
For us, that’s part of what makes Switzerland so enjoyable as a couple. You can spend the morning admiring a landscape shaped by centuries of careful cultivation, the afternoon eating cheese or chocolate, and still have enough energy left for a lakeside walk before dinner.
Travel42 UK is a couples travel journal dedicated to immersive road trips, slow travel, and destination storytelling.
Explore More of Western Europe:
The long way round, as a couple
About the Author
The author, ainarsbl, is a Level 7 Google Local Guide, Master Reviewer and expert travel reviewer focused on scenic landscapes, UNESCO sites and meaningful couples travel experiences.