I still remember the first thing my host director said to me when I told her I’d soon be off to Geneva that weekend: “Oh that place is for old, boring people!”. I looked the other way, having already bought my ticket and honestly very excited about my first journey out of Lyon, and on my own (with the exception of two other girls).
Looking back on the trip I’ll be the first to admit that Geneva wasn’t amazing. At a short glance, or perhaps overall, it is a historic town full of lots of serious business people. At the same time, though, it has a charming town square, a handful of diverse museums, and tons of things it’s globally known for like watches, Swiss army knives, and of course chocolate.
If you’re traveling from France, you might select Geneva since it is so close to the east part of the country. That (only 2 hours away from Lyon), and the cheap train tickets (about 10-13 Euros each way), is why we chose visit the city. A visit to Geneva is definitely worth a trip but overall I would firmly state that you can see most of what you want in a weekend’s visit, and to recommend that you make it one of your first trips abroad because a)it is a nice baby-step into traveling, and b)because you will see a lot more exciting things in future places.
My recommendations for a 2-3 day visit:
-Go to the lakefront (which overlooks Lake Geneva) and you’ll see the Jet d’Eau, a large water fountain that is one of the city’s most famous landmarks
-You can also take boat tours from this area
-Explore the old part of town: you will catch the market in the morning. Plan to have breakfast or lunch there and, if the weather permits, sit outside!
-Place du Bourg-de-Four is the very heart of it
-See Place Neuve: it includes the Grand-Théâtre (the opera), the Conservatory of Music, and the Rath Museum
-Take a look at Saint Peter’s Cathedral: only 157 steps will take you to the summit of the cathedral’s north tower
-Tourist attractions: we visited The UN and Red Cross/Red Cresent Museum, both definitely worth a visit especially because they are right across from each other! Others recommended:
-Art and History Museum on Rue Charles-Galland: has archaeology, fine arts, and applied arts
-Rath Museum: another for fine arts
-National History Museum: the largest in Switzerland
-MAMCO: museum for modern and contemporary art
-Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
-Shop: for watches, jewelry, and many high quality Swiss and imported goods
-Walk inside a chocolaterie and buy a bunch of goodies for your trip home, or a wrapped package to send to friends and family back in the US
-Other traditional eats: filets de perches, the Longeole (a pork sausage spiced with wild fennel, garlic, muscat nut and white wine) and Cardons (a thistle-type-stalk vegetable that tastes like artichoke and is best served au gratin)
-Nightlife:
-Start off at a pub, like the one we went to: Mr. Pickwick’s. It’s the oldest English club in Switzerland and has two floors, the bottom one hosts live music
-The pub introduced us to two guys who then took Elyse, Ann, and I to a late-night club called Java. It was the first club we had ever gone to in Europe so needless to say we were instantly entertained and amazed
*** Know that Geneva is the third top financial center in Europe, and rather expensive. Maybe that’s why all the old and serious people live there.
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