Gstaad to Gruyères: Watch the Cheese, Climb to the Castle

The cheese story starts on your train line: the Gruyère AOP file cites the 1115 charter of the priory at Rougemont, one stop after Saanen, for its mention of pressed cooked cheese. Change at Montbovon, and La Maison du Gruyère stands beside Gruyères station. Between 9:00 and 12:30 its cheesemakers turn milk from 22 farmers into Gruyère AOP in open copper vats, as the AOP rules require; the house says up to 48 wheels a day. Its exhibition counted 191,363 visitors in 2024. And you can taste the cheese at 6, 8 and 10 months, then walk 20 minutes up to the car-free town and the counts' castle, open every day, winter included.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Pass the Priory of 1115 on the 8:36 History · Free

   From your train seat: the 1115 cheese record sits on your line.

   The cheese story starts before you arrive. The Gruyère AOP file cites the founding charter of the Cluniac priory of Rougemont, from 1115, for its mention of pressed cooked cheese; the counts of Gruyère were the priory's patrons.

   Where: the train from Gstaad. Take the 8:36, change at Montbovon to the S50, and you reach Gruyères at 9:57, 1 h 21 in all.

   What: Rougemont is the second stop, one stop after Saanen, at 8:44. As the train stops, say the year 1115 aloud: the cheese you will watch being made this morning has a written trail that starts here.

   How: free, from your seat.

   Backup: earlier trains leave Gstaad at 6:35 and 7:36; by car it is 39 km via Montbovon, about 43 minutes.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Catch the Curd Being Cut Adventure · Price: low

   The house makes cheese only in the morning: be there for it.

   Where: La Maison du Gruyère, Place de la Gare 3, beside Gruyères station.

   What: buy your ticket at the desk (CHF 8 for adults, or CHF 17 with the castle; tickets are sold on site only). Allow 20 minutes from the entrance to reach the gallery over the dairy floor. Cheese is made 2 to 4 times a day between 9:00 and 12:30. Watch for the three moments the house names: the cutting of the curd, the check of the grain and the filling of the moulds. The open vats are copper, as the Gruyère AOP rules require; the house says it has 4 vats of 4,800 litres and makes up to 48 wheels a day.

   How: the visit takes 30 to 45 minutes with an audio guide in 13 languages and ends with Gruyère AOP to taste at 6, 8 and 10 months.

   Backup: after 12:30 no cheese is made, but the exhibition's film shows every phase of the making; the Swiss Museum Pass gets you in free.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Order the Fondue, Choose Your Glass Wine · Price: moderate

   Lunch in the dairy: Fribourg fondue, with wine or without.

   Where: the Restaurant de la Maison du Gruyère, in the same building, with 250 seats and a terrace.

   What: the kitchen runs non-stop from 11:30. Order the fondue moitié-moitié, Gruyère AOP with Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP (CHF 27.50 on the menu card the restaurant links). The house pours a glass of Fribourg wine, 'vin fribourgeois', with its group menus; ask whether it is poured by the glass. Zero-proof: mineral water, or the region's Bénichon dessert, meringues with crème double de la Gruyère (CHF 10.50). The tarte au vin cuit (CHF 8.50) is no wine either: vin cuit, despite its name, is heavily reduced pear or apple must.

   How: order at your table.

   Backup: the Marché Gruérien shop in the same building opens from 7:30.

   Log Memory
4. 4 Find the Two Warriors over the Gate History · Free

   Free: the walk up into the car-free town.

   Where: walk up from the station. The town is closed to traffic and the castle is about 20 minutes on foot; or take the bus to Gruyères-Ville, 5 to 10 minutes from the castle.

   What: on the fortified gate at the entrance to the town, find the two warriors of the War of Everdes of 1349, Claremboz and Bras de Fer. On the main street, find the Belluard fountain: running water first reached the town in 1755, in wooden pipes that burst under the pressure; the fountain you see is a 1979 copy of the 1755 one. Then, on the old market square, find the grain measures cut in stone in the 15th or 16th century, from a town that held six fairs a year for cheese, grain and livestock.

   How: free, at any hour.

   Backup: the tourist office is at Rue du Bourg 1.

   Log Memory
5. 5 Find the Duke's Fire-Steel, Then Take the Photo History · Price: low

   The counts’ castle, which the castle says stays cool in winter, and your photo memory from its terrace.

   Where: Gruyères castle, at the top of the town.

   What: buy a ticket (CHF 13 for adults, or use your CHF 17 combined ticket from the dairy). Find the three Burgundian copes taken as booty by the Confederates at the battle of Murten in 1476. On each is the emblem of Philip the Good: a fire-steel striking a flint. Then find the paintings by Corot, from the years after 1849, when the Bovy family's artist friends decorated the castle.

   How: a free paper guide comes in 12 languages. Finish on the castle terrace with the panorama of the Prealps behind you, and take your photo memory there.

   Backup: in winter the garden is closed, but you can see it from the ramparts or the great balcony; the castle says its rooms are cool in winter, so keep your coat on.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Arrive by mid-morning: cheese is made only between 9:00 and 12:30, and the dairy floor is about 20 minutes into the visit.

• Ask at the dairy desk for the CHF 17 combined ticket with the castle; dairy tickets are sold on site only, never online.

• The castle says its rooms stay cool in winter, so keep your coat on; it opens every day, Christmas and New Year included.

• There is no footpath from Gstaad. The cheese walk here runs from the dairy to Moléson, and that alpine dairy makes cheese only from May to September.