Things to Do in Lausanne in January

The Olympic Museum sits on the southern slope above Ouchy, its grounds descending through a sculpture park toward the lakeshore. Inside, the permanent collection tracks the arc of the modern Games through original torches, athlete uniforms worn in actual competition, and immersive video installations where the roar of stadium crowds fills a darkened room so convincingly that the hair on your arms rises. The building itself is a clean, light-filled space that uses glass and concrete to frame views of the lake and mountains between exhibition halls, so even the corridors feel purposeful. In January, the museum is one of the warmest and most absorbing places to spend a morning in Lausanne, and you will likely share entire galleries with only a handful of other visitors.

This food tour bridges Lausanne and Geneva with a guide who knows the producers behind the plates, and it moves at a pace that lets January's cold sharpen your appetite between stops rather than exhaust you. Expect to taste aged Alpine cheeses with a nutty, almost caramel finish, sample chocolate crafted with single-origin cacao that snaps cleanly between your teeth, and eat local charcuterie sliced thin enough to see light through. The tour treats Vaudois and Genevan food traditions as distinct dialects of the same language, and the running commentary on terroir, curing methods, and regional wine pairings gives you a framework for eating well for the rest of your trip. In January, the warming stops, a bowl of dense barley soup here, a glass of Chasselas at cellar temperature there, feel less like indulgence and more like necessity against the damp chill that creeps off Lac Léman.

This day trip climbs from Lausanne through the Riviera corridor to the Col du Pillon and then up by cable car to Glacier 3000, where in January you step out onto a snowfield above the cloud line with a 360-degree panorama of peaks, the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, the Eiger, jutting from a sea of white. The cold at altitude is sharp and dry, nothing like the damp chill of the lakeshore, and the air has a clarity that makes distant ridgelines look etched. A suspension bridge connects two summits, and crossing it in winter with wind snapping at your jacket and the creak of metal underfoot is an experience that registers in the chest, not just the eyes. The glacier itself is one of the few in western Switzerland still accessible year-round, and the snow cover in January transforms the alpine station into a compact winter-sports playground with sledging and snow-tubing alongside the views.

A guided walking tour through Lausanne on foot in January strips the city to its bones: the medieval street plan of the old town, the steep covered staircases called escaliers that connect the upper quarters to the lakefront, and the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame whose sandstone façade has a roughness you can feel under gloved fingertips when you pause at the portal. A knowledgeable guide turns the climb through these layered neighbourhoods into a story about why Lausanne is built vertically, its topography forced it, and how the city adapted with funiculars, bridges, and the Métro that burrows through the hillside. January cold keeps you moving at a brisk pace, which suits the terrain, and the absence of summer crowds means your guide can stop in narrow lanes without blocking other pedestrians. You hear your own footsteps echo off the stone walls of the Cité quarter, and the smell of roasting coffee from the small roasteries along Rue de la Mercerie is sharper in the cold air.

This self-guided scavenger hunt threads you through Lausanne's city centre using your phone as a navigator, posing riddles and challenges tied to specific landmarks, facades, and public artworks that you would walk past without a second look otherwise. The format works unusually well in January because it gives you a reason to keep moving through the cold rather than retreating indoors after ten minutes, and the puzzle-solving focus sharpens your attention to architectural details, a carved date above a doorway, the placement of a fountain, the tilt of a roofline, that a conventional stroll lets you glaze over. You control the pace entirely, which means you can duck into a café on Place de la Palud to warm your hands around a cup of thick hot chocolate before tackling the next clue. The route covers the old town's steep terrain, so expect to arrive at each checkpoint slightly breathless, with the bite of cold air in your throat and the particular satisfaction of having earned each view.

The day trip to Interlaken by bus from Lausanne crosses the heart of the Bernese Oberland, and in January the route itself is half the reason to go: the road traces the northern shore of Lac Léman before climbing through snow-dusted valleys where wooden chalets sit under heavy white roofs and the only sound through the bus window is the occasional rush of a half-frozen stream. Interlaken in winter sits between the frozen edges of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, with the Jungfrau massif rising behind the town in a wall of ice and rock so vertical it seems painted on. The air in the Oberland is noticeably drier and colder than Lausanne, the kind of cold that stings the inside of your nostrils, and the snow conditions in January mean the surrounding landscape is at its most dramatic. You can ride the cogwheel railway partway toward Jungfraujoch, walk the town's quiet January streets where the scent of wood smoke hangs low, or simply sit at a terrace with a blanket and a hot drink and stare at the mountains until it is time to board the bus back.