Jura, Fribourg Prealps and Vaudois Alps

Three ranges, one corner of the map

This region gathers three separate ranges that share a corner of western Switzerland without forming a single geographic unit: the Vaud portion of the Jura in the northwest, the Fribourg Prealps in the centre, and the Vaudois Alps, the Alpes Vaudoises, toward the Rhône valley in the south. None reaches the scale of the high Alps further east, and the area is better understood as three distinct days out than as one continuous massif.

The Vaud Jura

The Jura here is limestone rather than granite: long, folded ridges running northeast to southwest, wooded on their flanks and open on top, with cross-country skiing rather than climbing as the winter draw. Mont Tendre (1,679m), above the Vallée de Joux, is the highest summit in the Swiss Jura and gives long views back over the Lake Geneva basin; La Dôle (1,677m), a few kilometres north and topped by a working radar station, is a close second. Both sit between the lake and the Vallée de Joux, home to the watchmaking towns that gave Swiss horology much of its early skilled workforce.

The Fribourg Prealps

East of the Jura and separated from it by the Broye valley, the Fribourg Prealps are a different kind of hill country again: green, limestone, dairy farming country rather than folded ridges, and centred on Gruyères, a fortified medieval hilltop town whose cheese has made its name well beyond the canton. Above the town, Moléson and Vanil Noir, at 2,389m the highest point in the Fribourg Prealps, rise steeply out of the same pastureland, a reminder that these hills, gentle as they look from the valley, still reach real altitude.

The Vaudois Alps

South again, toward the Rhône valley and the Valais border, the Vaudois Alps proper begin. Villars, Leysin and Château-d’Œx, in the Pays-d’Enhaut district, are the main bases, and Les Diablerets, where the Glacier 3000 cable car climbs to just under 3,000m and a footbridge connects two viewing platforms across the ridge, is the region’s high point and its only glacier ski area. This is markedly higher and more alpine than either the Jura or the Fribourg Prealps, closer in character to the Bernese Oberland just across the cantonal border than to the rest of the area it is grouped with here.

Season and access

Winter here means two different things depending on which range: Nordic skiing on the Jura’s marked trails, and downhill skiing on the higher ground around Les Diablerets and Villars. Summer walking suits all three areas, with the Vaudois Alps holding snow, and interest, later into the year than the other two. Rail access is good throughout: Gruyères, Château-d’Œx and Montbovon sit on the same line between Montreux and Fribourg, and the Jura summits are reachable from Lausanne or Geneva within an hour or so by train and postbus.