Visiting Hauteville

Visiting the Campus in Switzerland

Family and friends of Pepperdine students are invited to visit our 90-acre Hauteville Campus in St. Légier, Switzerland.  Please follow the below protocol for visiting:

1. Inform the Executive Assistant to the Program Director,  Ms. Sophie Peeters (sophie.peeters@pepperdine.edu), of your visit in advance to make arrangemanets (at least a week in advance, if possible).
2. Respect the visitation days / times, as described below.
3. When you arrive, please ask your student to immediately introduce you to the Director or another member of the staff.
4. If you would like to eat a meal with your student in the Hatueville Dining Hall, please verify that it is possible on the day you desire.  If given approval, purchase the meal in advance on our program website, indicating which day you would like to join us. 

Visitation Times and Periods

Visitation hours are strictly limited to Monday-Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm.  Because visitation requires the presence and assistance of a staff member, we are unable to make execptions outside of these business hours.  Thank you for understanding.

As you plan your visit, please remember our students are full-time participants in an academic program and are balancing a strenuous academic schedule and travel.  We highly discourage visits during the following times:

• Orientation (first week of each semester - visitation is prohibited)
• Midterm Exams (check with your student for their exact schedule)
• Educational Field Trip (no students will be present)
• Final Exams (last week of each semester)
• Final Banquet and Departure

IP Visitors Weekend Reservation

International Programs Student Weekend Visitors are not currently accepted at the Château d'Hauteville due to space limitations. 

Directions to the Château d'Hauteville

These directions will guide you from the Geneva International Airport (GVA) to the Hauteville Campus.  

We strongly recommend that you download the "SBB Mobile" app on your phone in advance (App Store or Google Play) so you can be aware of the train schedule.

1.  After exiting the baggage claim doors, turn left and continue down the hallway and exit the airport through the glass doors on your right.
2.  At the red SBB ticket kiosk, buy a direct, one-way ticket to "Château d'Hauteville" for the appropriate number of adults and children in your group.  These machines can be navigated in English, and most accept credit cards.
3.  Continue toward the main departure board to check which platform your train is on.  Look for "Vevey" as one of the destinations and advance to the correct platform and board the train.  Enjoy your first views of Switzerland. The train takes just over an hour.  Be sure to watch the digital display to know when the train will stop at Vevey.
4.  When you arrive at the Vevey station, switch trains by walking under the train tracks via the tunnel, and walk toward Platform 7.
5.  On Platform 7, get on the blue and white MOB train.  Watch the digital display and listen to the automated announcement for the "Château d'Hauteville" stop.  When you see the stop announced in the digital display, press the green button to alert the conductor that you would like to stop (if not, the train will proceed past the Chateau d'Hauteville without stopping!).
6.  When the train stops, exit on the right-hand side of the train.  Proceed down a large concrete ramp that connects the train stop to the street below. The front gates and driveway for Pepperdine's campus at the Château d'Hauteville will be directly in front of you.
7. If you do not have an access card, please use the access panel by the gate on the left to call the front office and request that the gate be opened.  Welcome!

Accommodations

Need to stay near the Hauteville Campus?  Here are some local accommodations around the campus for your trip!

Hotels

Vision Apartments for families ($$) - Rue des Communaux 20, 1800 Vevey
W: https://visionapartments.com/en/
T: +41 21 510 2270

Astra Hotel Vevey ($$$) - Place de la Gare 4, 1800 Vevey
W: https://astra-hotel.ch/en/
T: +41 21 925 0404

Modern Times Hotel ($$$) - Chemin du Genévrier 20, 1806 - Saint-Légier
W: https://www.moderntimeshotel.ch/en
T: +41 21 925 2222

Hôtel des Trois Couronnes ($$$$) - Rue d'Italie 49, 1800 Vevey
W: https://www.hoteltroiscouronnes.ch/en/
T: +41 21 923 3200

Grand Hotel du Lac ($$$$) - Rue d'Italie 1, 1800 Vevey
W: http://www.ghdl.ch/
T: +41 21 925 06 06

Restaurants

Reservations are often required in Switzerland regardless of the time of day or price of the restaurant - please email or call the restaurant in advance.

Art & Culture

Pepperdine's Hauteville Campus is situated above the beautiful town of Vevey, Switzerland and between two major Swiss cities: Lausanne and Montreux. As the home of Nestlé and numerous other multi-national companies, Vevey offers a host of cultural and civic events, the most famous of which is the Fête des Vigneronss, a once-in-a-generation spectacle that transforms Vevey's rich history of wine cultivation into story, dance, and song. To the west, Lausanne has won a reputation as a city that is demanding, open and dynamic in the field of the arts. Every year there are numerous cultural events: the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, concerts by the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne (Lausanne Chamber Orchestra), the musical drama productions put on by the Opéra de Lausanne (Lausanne Opera House) and finally plays at the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne E.T.E., which enjoys Europe-wide prestige. The presence of the Cinémathèque Suisse (Swiss Film Archive), one of the richest anywhere on the continent, adds to the originality of a city whose productions or artists often tour abroad.

And that's not all: as the capital of the Vaud region, Lausanne also has a large range of museums just waiting to be explored. To name but a few, the Collection de l'Art Brut (Collection of Raw Art), (the only museum of its kind in the whole world), the Musée de Design et d'Arts Appliqués Contemporains (mu.dac – Museum Of Contemporary Design And Applied Arts) with its exceptional collection of glass-based art, the Fondation de l'Hermitage, the Musée de l'Elysée (devoted to photography) and the Musée Olympique (Olympic Museum).

Montreux is best known for its world-renowned Montreux Jazz Festival, the second largest jazz festival in the world, consisting of two weeks of concerts from some of the world's best artists across every genre of music. However, Montreux is also one of Switzerland's most beautiful cities, home to the iconic Château de Chillon, and one of the most charming Christmas markets in Switzerland.  

Spiritual Life

At the heart of the international experience is the community that forms as our students explore the world and share their lives together in our house.  They foster trust and interdependence by pledging to conduct themselves with integrity, to treat each member with dignity, and to “speak the truth in love.”  This supportive context allows students a space to reflect deeply and develop in the intellectual, social, and spiritual domains of their lives.

A central component of our community is our desire to wrestle together with the critical and timeless questions of the Christian faith: “Who is God?”, “Who am I?”, and “How do I live a life of significance?”  We probe the Bible, examine the life of Jesus, and seek to understand the relevance of the Christian faith to the world today.  In this search, we seek to be guided by love, honoring the faith journey that each student is on and the questions that propel them to greater understanding and transformation.  Our hope is that students will grow in their love for God and in their desire to serve others, as Jesus expressed in Matthew 22:37-38: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In support of these objectives, students in our program participate in a weekly time of worship and devotion known as "The Gathering" and are invited to participate in a faculty-in-residence House Church service every Sunday evening. In addition to these central pillars, students often participate in student-facilitated bible studies and many are members of local French and English-speaking faith communities.