Since she like sports, she might enjoy
going to Saleve: if the day is beautiful, one can have a really nice hike there with some
beautiful views of Mont Blanc. Fondue boat ride might be enjoyable too.  style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If you are willing to take a day trip, consider
going to Broc chocolate factory - it's a free self guided tour with a reward at the end: all you
can eat chocolate. Kids usually like that. From there, a short ride to Gruyeres cheese factory
- you get to see how the cheese is made and smell the flowers in the fields, etc; then just
climb the hill and you are in Gruyeres village; they have a castle to visit among other things
- just a nice little town. The best fondue i ever had was in Chalet restaurant. Otherwise, you
can book a chocolate train trip from Montreux. Really nice, but less flexible and certainly
doable on your own. It also visits the three locations.You can take her
for a visit to a farm and have a nice Brunch there. It seems that they organize kids activities
as well. See Ferme de Merlinge: www.fermedemerlinge.ch  style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-
height: 14px; ">Hope this helps and enjoy your time together!  face="'Times New Roman', Times, serif" size="4"> 
lemiukas, Sep 17, 2009 @ 16:20

Since she likes sports, she might
enjoy going to Saleve: if the day is beautiful, one can have a really nice hike there with
some beautiful views of Mont Blanc; if it is not too cold, you can even have your
picnic! Fondue
boat ride might be enjoyable too. If you are willing to take a day trip, consider going to Broc chocolate
factory - it's a free self guided tour with a reward at the end: all you can eat chocolate. Kids
usually like that. From there, a short ride to Gruyeres cheese factory - you get to see how the
cheese is made and smell the flowers in the fields, etc; then just climb the hill and you are in
Gruyeres village; they have a castle to visit among other things - just a nice little town. The
best fondue i ever had was in Chalet restaurant. Otherwise, you can book a chocolate train
trip from Montreux. Really nice, but less flexible and certainly doable on your own. It also
visits the three locations.You can take her for a visit to a farm and have
a nice b runch there. It seems that they organize kids activities as well. See Ferme de
Merlinge: www.fermedemerlinge.ch  style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal;
">Hope this helps and enjoy your time together!  
lemiukas, Sep 17, 2009 @ 16:20

 Aquapark for sure...you can go by train and boat if you do not want to drive...
Movies Balexert
Shooping
Tennis, my son is almost 14 and he plays good tennis, not sure if they want to play together, I will ask him..
Booling in La Praille..
Good luck...
Susan61, Sep 17, 2009 @ 17:07

 There are quite a few ropewalk parks around in Switzerland, a number of which have kids courses or specify the height requirements (often around 1.2 metres).

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/offer-Activities_Sports_and_Adventure-Hochseilparks-list-all.html

Pushed mine (she's 7) around a couple of the kids tracks in the summer and she enjoyed it enormously.

But you can find a shed load of stuff in the regional online directory:
http://www.region-du-leman.ch/en/page.cfm/sitemap


Sandokan, Sep 19, 2009 @ 17:06

One thing that both young and old like, is the underground river and lakes at the "source de l'Orbe" in Vallorbe. www.grottesdevallorbe.ch Can be combined with the iron/railway museum in Vallorbe, and I usually make a day out of it by going to the Chateau de Chillon, which is sufficiently medieval to appeal to kids.

Vallorbe can be combined with the Vallee de Joux, which is very good for hiking or swimming. (Or wait a bit and you can do skating there.)

Other options:
- Walk through the waterfalls at the "Cascades de l'Herison". My kids certainly ask do do it again, but I've heard rumours that they've changed it.
- Via Ferrata at Fort l'Ecluse. (The fortress in Pays de Gex.)
- Signal de Bougy, potentially with the tree-walking. I think they also have some farm animals for the kids to pat. I know my 12-year old daughter likes that.
- You can float down the Rhone from the Pont-sous-terre, but the water might be cool these days, and as an over-fussy father, I would suggest a life-vest, even though most people don't use them.
- Simply walking as close to the jet d'eau as you dare, especially at night when it's lit. Bring a raincoat and/or a change of clothes.
- The Bains de Cressy are always popular with kids.

tawb, Sep 20, 2009 @ 02:35

 Hi
I have a godson who is the same age. We went to the Natural History Museum of Geneva.
He does not like museums, but he was very glad to see it.
Cheers.


Milena D, Sep 20, 2009 @ 09:10

 Dear all
Thanks so much for all your fab ideas. I think we will do
the chocolate factory and Gruyere on the Saturday and go to Signal de Bougy or forestland if
the weather is good on the Sunday - I am sure she will be out again in the summer, so we can
try out aquapark then (it looks fun!!)
Best
regardsGVAbound 
Victoria W, Sep 21, 2009 @ 17:11

 Dear all, 
Just to finalise this thread - the weekend went
really well (12 year old is still alive and according to her Mum, she really enjoyed
herself!)
We drove to the cheese factory/Gruyere chateau and
the chocolate factory on Saturday - I think it would have been better to take the train, but the
"chocolate train" does not operate on a weekend. That said, the cheese factory is superb -
you have a commentary to listen to all the way around from the perspective of a cow and it
is entertaining. There are also lots of smelling tubes that reflect the different smells
associated with cheese making (such as the smell of the different grasses eaten by the
cows). It is a working dairy, so it really takes you through the process. We really enjoyed that
and Charl had some samples to take back home with
her. 
The chateau was, again, very good (although we just
walked around a bit and had lunch due to the time). If you have boys however, there is a
museum up there showing the work of the guy who did the alien movies and a cafe/bar with
the chairs etc made out of "bones".  We didn't go in (although I would have loved
to!).
The chocolate factory is not a patch on the cheese factory in
terms of the exhibition, but it does have CHOCOLATE tasting - and you would get very sick
before you ran out of chocolate. The chocolate bars on sale in the shop afterwards are very
reasonably priced. 
Forestland in Divonne les Bains
(Sunday) was great. You get shown around a test area and left to practice. We then moved
on to the 4m circuit, culminating in the 10 m circuit. There is also a 15m circuit, but I think
that was a bit high for Charl. That said, I intend to drag my husband there 'cause I definitely
want to go back once my back, stomach and arm muscles have recovered!!!  There is
a little cafe that does hotdogs and sandwiches, although it does seem to get very
busy. 
One thing that would have been good to do (but
time did not allow, nor did we realise it was on until we got there) was a candle making
workshop in Gruyere. I think the more practical things that we did were the most enjoyable
for a 12 year old. As you will all probably know, the views out over Lake Leman and St
Saphorin/Vevey are phenomenal but I think they were lost on a 12 year
old!!!
Thanks everyone for your suggestions - I intend to try out a
few when she comes back. GVAbound
Victoria W, Oct 13, 2009 @ 18:20