Things to do in the Lavaux vineyards

The Lavaux terraces climb the shore of Lake Geneva between Lausanne and Montreux, roughly 830 hectares of vineyard on UNESCO's World Heritage list since 2007. The draw here is the walk, not a monument: signed paths thread between stone-walled terraces with open views across the water to the Alps, through villages such as Cully, Rivaz and Grandvaux.

Regional trains from Lausanne stop in each of them in under 20 minutes, and CGN boats call at Lavaux villages from Lausanne and, in season, from Geneva. A short loop from a train station takes an hour or two; walking further along the terraces, with stops for tasting, fills half a day to a full day.

Spring brings flowering vines, autumn the September-October harvest; outside these months, tasting cellars and trains to some hamlets run on a reduced timetable.