Val-de-Travers: Gorges, Culture and Holiday Apartments

In Val-de-Travers, discovery begins with two gorge routes: The route through the Gorges de l'Areuse follows the course of the Areuse and leads over stone bridges, footbridges and stairs through rocky gorges with impressive walls. Near Môtiers, the route through the Gorges de la Poëta-Raisse begins at the Rousseau Waterfall and the cave of the same name; it leads through narrow gorges and along cascades.

Activities

The La Robella leisure park offers around ten activities for families and for a full day, in summer and winter alike. La Robella has a pump track with bumps and banked curves for practising with a BMX. The landscape, type of activity and season provide different points of comparison for planning your day.

History

The asphalt mines in Travers can be visited year-round in any weather. The asphalt mines have their own railway station at La Presta, where trains stop on request. The tour provides access to underground galleries where asphalt was mined for almost three centuries.

The Séchoir à absinthe de Boveresse is a building historically used for drying plants, built in 1893 by the Barrelet brothers from Boveresse and classified as a historic monument in 1998. The Volkswrecks Bar & Museum presents a private collection of vehicles from 1950 to 1979.

Culture

The Maison de l'Absinthe presents a permanent exhibition about absinthe, its history, its legend and the plant. The exhibition also covers the ban on absinthe in Switzerland in 1910 and its re-legalisation in 2005. A cooking workshop teaches the use of absinthe in gastronomy; participants prepare savoury or sweet menus.

The Musée Rousseau in Môtiers covers Jean-Jacques Rousseau's stay in two rooms of the house where he spent three years in exile. Around 200 original documents are distributed across eight stations.

The Maison de la nature “La Morille” in Champ-du-Moulin offers an educational exhibition about trout, bats and the caves of the region.

Other places in Val-de-Travers: Les Verrières, Travers Ne, Couvet, Buttes, Saint-Sulpice Ne, Môtiers and Fleurier.

When comparing holiday apartments in Val-de-Travers, you can compare travel dates, room category and cancellation policies on the respective offer pages. These three fields provide an objective basis for reviewing the offers within your own parameters.

Food and Drink

Café des Mines serves ham cooked in asphalt. At Mauler in Môtiers, a tour followed by a tasting of sparkling wines is offered; the Mauler family has been producing them since 1829. At the Prieuré de St-Pierre in Môtiers, the Mauler family has been producing sparkling wines since 1829; a tour followed by a tasting is offered.

Jacot Haute Chocolaterie offers a bean-to-bar experience in Môtiers, in the canton of Neuchâtel, explaining the process from cocoa bean to bar as well as ethical and ecological sourcing.

For the higher-level travel overview: Neuchâtel.