Maison de Montagne de Bretaye — Hotel in Ollon

The Maison de la Montagne was originally (in the 1930s) built as an Army training base. It was converted to a hotel and opened to the general public in the 1980s. It is no longer used by the army.||The building retains traces of its origin. There are dormitories as well as individual rooms, shared showers and lavatories are situated on each floor, rooms don't have television or telephone, each floor has a large central space with cold water wash basins or fountains for things like tooth cleaning.||||Don't let any of that put you off! It is simple, but lovely.||||The altitude is just under 1'800 metres, and the scenery from every window, from the restaurant and from the large sunny terrace is spectacular. Take your choice from the Dents du Midi, Mont Blanc, the Diablerets and many many more. There are many good and well marked walking paths starting from the hotel, and yet more easily accessible from the little mountain railway whose use comes free with your hotel booking.||||The food is very good indeed, copious and adventurous. The chef coped wonderfully with one meat eater and one vegetarian - my daughter and I were the only guests in the (bad weather) few days that we were there.||||The staff could not be kinder or more helpful. They even found a coffee machine for my daughter to put in her room so that she could make herself a cup of coffee before her very early morning walks.||||The hotel can only be reached by public transport; car drivers have to leave their cars in Villars. (The manager will tell you where:) ||||As I said, use of the cog railway from Villars comes free with your booking. You pick up a free access card covering this and a few other mountain railways from the tourist office in Villars before you catch the train up for the first time. The only snag with the railway is that the last trip up leaves Villars at 17.00, so if you don't want to eat in the hotel, you are limited to what else you can walk to, or to bringing up food. Given the quality of the dinner we we were provided with each evening, we didn't find this a problem!||||The final big advantage is the price. Rooms are very moderately priced, and the restaurant is not expensive.||||In winter, the ski-ing from Bretaye (one train stop or ten minutes walk away) is very popular, and the hotel is often full - book well in advance. In summer it is quieter. ||||In summary - we loved it, we would recommend it to all those looking for peace, quiet, good walking, good food and...

I stayed at the Maison de la Montagne for a weekend, with my son. The staff are exceptionally pleasant. The manager went and bought non-lactose milk especially, after I emailed asking if they would have some, and he added a firmer mattress to the original one for me. I thought I saw genuine kindness there, not just an interest in pleasing the customer. Also, the restaurant is excellent and reasonable, with a view that is one of the best in the whole region. Kids can run around on the lawn and play with some games that they have (e.g. throwing little pillows onto a board) while you wait for your food; it's very relaxed and ideal for families. It's great, also, to be well above Villars, because there is nothing but woods and pasture around you, it's a bit cooler up there in summer and sunnier in winter, and there are regular trains "into town" (Villars) and it's a pretty 10 or 15 minute ride. The last train up is at about 21:30 and there is one at 19:14 (roughly) in summer. From the Maison de la Montagne, you can walk down to Villars, or walk 2 minutes and you are at the train stop to go either up or down. If you go up, it's one stop to the end of the line and from there there are some...

Very simple rooms and dormitories, perfect after a day in the mountains. The important things are more than well catered for: excellent food, very friendly staff, great atmosphere, lovely outdoor area with the bar to enjoy one of the best panorama around with a drink.||Eventhough a large group was present on the saturday night, we never felt our service suffered, and they were completely silent after 09:30... don't know how the staff managed that as i then learnt they partied until 02:00AM!!!! ||||Couldn't recommend the place enough. It's not a 5 star hotel, it's a lovely gem of a place, where the owners kindness...