Lausanne

Lausanne has no sea, but in summer Lake Geneva works as the city's pool. From late June to early September the surface water reaches around 21-23°C, and locals swim from lawns, piers and small pebble shores along the waterfront at Vidy, Bellerive and towards Pully and Lutry. The historic lakeside lido at Bellerive, with its lawns and pools, is the classic summer afternoon.

It is lake bathing rather than a beach vacation. The shores are narrow and mostly grass, concrete steps or shingle, the season is short, and from October to May the water is too cold for most people. Bathing fits around a stay here rather than being the reason for one.

Eating in Lausanne is Vaudois and French-Swiss at heart: fillets of lake perch with fries, papet vaudois of leeks and potatoes with saucisson, fondue and raclette in the colder months, and pastries and chocolate from old-fashioned confiseries. What lifts it is wine. The Chasselas from the Lavaux terraces just east of town is poured everywhere, and village caveaux let you taste straight from the growers.

The Saturday market around Place de la Riponne and the old town brings in cheese, charcuterie and produce from the countryside. The region also has a strong high-end tier, with some of Switzerland's most celebrated tables in and around the city. In between, the choice is fairly ordinary and street food is limited, so budget meals take some looking for.

Lausanne's centrepiece is the Gothic cathedral of Notre-Dame, high above the city, with a richly carved painted portal and a rose window. A night watchman has called out the hours from its tower for centuries. Around it, the old town is a compact tangle of steep lanes, covered stairways and squares such as Place de la Palud, with the Château Saint-Maire close by.

The museums carry more weight than the streets. The Olympic Museum, set in lakeside gardens at Ouchy, is the main draw. Next to the station, Plateforme 10 brings together the cantonal fine arts museum, a photography museum and a design museum, and the Collection de l'Art Brut is unusual and memorable. Two or three days cover it comfortably.

For a city its size, Lausanne goes out more than you might expect, helped by tens of thousands of students at the university and the EPFL. The Flon, a former warehouse valley in the centre, is where it gathers: clubs, late bars and terraces stacked in old industrial buildings, busiest on Friday and Saturday nights. The old town has wine bars and pubs, and in summer the waterfront at Ouchy and the lakeside parks fill up in the evenings.

On weeknights it is quiet, drinks are expensive, and the scene is small. Lausanne is a good night out by Swiss standards, but nobody comes here mainly to party.

The view sets the tone: across Lake Geneva the French Alps rise straight from the water, and the city itself climbs steep slopes to the Sauvabelin forest. East of town, the UNESCO-listed Lavaux vineyard terraces drop to the lake, and the paths between Lutry and Saint-Saphorin make one of the loveliest walks in the country. On the water there is sailing, paddleboarding and rowing from spring to autumn, and boats cross the lake.

Within about an hour by train or car you reach the Vaud Alps, with skiing and summer hiking at Villars, Leysin and Les Diablerets and a glacier at Glacier 3000. The wooded ridges of the Jura are just as close to the north-west, good for long hikes, cycling and cross-country skiing. Winters in town are grey, but the mountains are often in sun above the fog.

Lausanne sits in the middle of French-speaking Switzerland, and the trains make it an excellent base. Along the lake, Vevey and Montreux are about twenty minutes away, and the Château de Chillon, a medieval castle on a rock in the water, is just beyond. Geneva, with its old town and international quarter, is under an hour. Bern's arcaded UNESCO old town is about an hour and ten minutes, and medieval Fribourg is closer still.

Gruyères, a walled hilltop village with a castle and cheese dairies, makes a classic day out, as do lakeside Neuchâtel and little walled Murten. Boats cross the lake to Évian and the French shore. By car, Annecy and its canal-lined old town are about an hour and a half away. Most of these trips need no car at all.

Lausanne is safe, clean and easy-going with children, and there is more aimed at them than its size suggests. The Olympic Museum is hands-on and lively, a large freshwater aquarium-vivarium on the city's northern edge shows river and lake life from around the world, and the woods at Sauvabelin have a small animal park, a lake with pedal boats and a tall wooden lookout tower. In summer, lakeside lawns and pools at Ouchy and Bellerive are the easy afternoon, and paddle steamers make a trip on the lake an outing in itself.

The drawbacks are the steep streets, hard work with a pushchair even with the metro, and the high cost of eating out with a family.

Lausanne is small, and almost everything a visitor wants lies between the lake at Ouchy and the cathedral on the hill. The catch is the gradient: the city rises steeply in layers, with stairs, bridges and lifts linking the levels, and walking uphill is real exercise. The m2 metro solves most of it, climbing more than 300m from the lakeshore through the station and the Flon to the upper town. Buses cover the rest and lake boats link the shore towns.

The main station sits on the Swiss rail network, with fast, punctual trains along the lake and across the country. You do not need a car in the city, though one helps for remote mountain valleys.

Shopping in Lausanne is pleasant but limited. The sloping streets of the old centre, Rue de Bourg above all, carry Swiss watch and jewellery shops, fashion brands and chocolatiers, and the streets around Place Saint-François fill in with the familiar international names. The Flon, the converted warehouse valley below, adds chains and a few small design shops. On market days, produce, cheese and some crafts spread through the old town squares.

It is a good place to buy chocolate, a Swiss watch or a bottle of Lavaux wine, but there is no luxury district of note and few independent boutiques. Anyone who travels to shop will find the range narrow and is better off treating shopping as a side activity here.

Lausanne is very expensive, as Swiss cities are. Hotel rooms, restaurant meals, wine and taxis all cost far more than in most of Europe, and even a simple lunch out adds up quickly. Public transport is efficient and the compact centre means you rarely need more than the metro, but that does little to soften the overall bill.

Visitors on a budget picnic from supermarkets and bakeries, spend time on the free lakeside promenades and in the parks, and keep restaurant meals for special occasions. A glass of local Chasselas in a village caveau is one of the better-value pleasures the area offers.

For a city of its size, Lausanne has an unusually serious stage life, and dance leads it. The city is home to the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and hosts the long-running Prix de Lausanne competition for young dancers. The Théâtre de Vidy, a lakeside theatre with an international reputation for contemporary work, presents productions that tour across Europe. The Opéra de Lausanne runs a full season, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne is widely respected.

Live music happens in a handful of clubs and halls, with a strong student audience. In July the Montreux Jazz Festival, a short train ride along the lake, adds one of the most famous events in the music calendar.

Lausanne has no bathing tradition of its own, but it is an easy place to slow down. The lakeside promenades at Ouchy and Vidy, the parks and the quiet lanes through the Lavaux vines invite unhurried days. The grand lakeside hotels have extensive spas, and the region is known for private clinics and wellness retreats.

For thermal water, Yverdon-les-Bains, with its spa centre fed by warm springs, is under half an hour by train, and Lavey-les-Bains, with the hottest springs in Switzerland, is under an hour up the Rhône valley. The centre is busier and steeper than it looks, so the calm is mostly on the edges.