The Ultimate Guide to 72h in Geneva

This past December, in an effort to feel more Christmassy, visit a Christmas market or two, and to maybe even see some snow, we booked ourselves a long weekend in Geneva. In choosing the destination, and with the above criteria, we were looking at Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and finally settled on Geneva because none of us had ever properly visited the city, we found cheap direct flights from Lisbon to Geneva at hours that worked for us, and we found a very well priced hotel in the center of the city. All other expenses cost us an arm and a leg, but that doesn´t even matter anymore as we look back at the wonderful few days we had there. So let me tell you all about them!

Getting to Geneva

Coming from Lisbon, we flew directly to Geneva with easyjet for about 90€ a person. We booked the ticket some 1.5 months in advance. Once we arrived at Geneva´s Cointrin international airport it was confirmed to us that this was one of the most central and well connected airports we´ve ever been to. Located just 4km from the city centre, it connects by train to Geneva´s main train station, Gare Cornavin, and for 2 CHF per person it will need cca 5 minutes to get you there. As you´ll read below, I actually recommend staying in the Pâquis area, which is 5-10 min walking from the train station, so that if you have more days in Geneva and want to explore some destinations outside of the city (we had Montreux and Gruyères on our list), you can easily hop on a train and get there.

Where to Stay

Lately I´ve been much more thorough in my research of where to stay when I travel. I think it´s due to our Asian trips, where we´ve at times stayed in such big cities that something as generic as “stay downtown” was not always an option or the best ideas. Nowadays I try to read quite a bit about a town´s neighbourhoods and navigate their maps before deciding on a hotel or Airbnb. Geneva being fairly small, this was less of a challenge, but we still found a lot of different opinions about what were the best spots to stay in the city. The most popular spots seemed to be: 1. Pâquis, for its proximity to the train station (from where you need less than 10 min on the train to get to the airport) and the Bains de Pâquis, a local and tourist attraction, 2. the Old Town for obvious reasons – it´s charming, you get to visit pretty much all attractions easily from it and it has gorgeous apartments and hotels and 3. Plainpalais for a more authentic Genovese experience and proximity to the city´s largest markets.

We ended up choosing Pâquis and it was just perfect. I should say that the neighbourhood is popular due to its many international restaurants, cafés, night clubs but also the Red Light District. We stayed at the Kipling Hotel, a 3* hotel that is actually closed to 4* judging by EU standards, and despite all the things that make Pâquis famous, the hotel was super quiet and isolated. With decor inspired by the English writer Rudyard Kipling, the hotel is cozy and clean, and besides the very attractive price (we paid barely over 130€ per night for a double room with a nice sized bathroom with a bathtub), we loved the fact that they checked us in at 8am when we got there, they gave us a free transportation pass each for our time in Geneva (we literally only spend the fare to get from the airport to the train station while there, everything afterwards was free), and that we could walk from there to literally everywhere. We did take the bus on two occasions – once to get to Carouge, and once to Jonction. But more about that later! Let´s move on now.

Where to Eat

Now I am sure there´s no shortage of restaurants to be experienced in Geneva, but I´ll let you in on how we approached eating while there and what our criteria were in this case too – because yes, almost all restaurants we went to were planned in advance. Meals at restaurants (meaning lunches and dinners) cost us generally €100+. Since we were in Geneva in December and both Christmas markets were ongoing as well as the Escalade Festival, we ended up eating every day either lunch or dinner at a market and the other meal at a restaurant. Even so that still meant close to 200€ a day spent on food for the two of us so please take that into account when reading about my restaurant recommendations. I´ll write a more complete article on food I loved in Geneva.

Firstly, Café Paris deserves an honourable mention because we went there for both lunch on our first day, as well as breakfast on our last day. We went for lunch for their entrecôte – which is actually the only item on the menu. Served with a simple green salad as a starter, it then comes cooking to your table, on a bed of butter. To enjoy with a bottle of wine. We also had breakfast here on last day and while the vibe was very different (much emptier and quieter, newspaper on the tables at your disposals and no one drinking wine), we still liked it.

Secondly comes the prolific Buvette des Bains which we discovered while visiting the Bains de Pâquis. This utterly simple restaurant on the shore of lake Geneva had such a long queue and so much foot traffic that we spontaneously decided it must be a local favourite and made sure to go there for dinner one night to have their fondue, which is their speciality. We got a big bottle of Swiss wine (1l) to go with it and had such a lovely time dunking our bread in the cheese for a couple of hours.

Thirdly, still for fondue, and also feeling like a local favourite, I recommend Auberge de Savièse. This was recommended to me by a friend who lives in Geneva as the best place he had fondue at and we were not disappointed. Swiss chalet vibes meet delicious fondue and a good wine selection.

What To Do

Day One

Visit the Old Town and Climb Up St. Pierre´s Towers

Visiting the old town is definitely not a revolutionary idea, but let me still leave you with some landmarks worth adding to your list while you´re there. This can most likely take you an entire day, especially if you want to take it easy and stop for a praline, or a glass of wine here and there. It´s a great start to understand Gevena´s history though, so I would recommend you dedicate the time to see as many of the below landmarks as possible.

Firstly, as you are walking from Pâquis towards the old town by the quai, drop by the Brunswick monument, a beautiful mausoleum like structure erected in honour of Charles II, Duke of Brunswick. Take a picture and continue by the lake until just before the bridge du Mont Blanc. There, visit the Holy Trinity Church, a small church which traces its origins back to the Marian exiles, a group of Protestant refugees fleeing from persecution during the reign of Mary, the Tudor Catholic Queen of England, in the mid 16th century. Since Protestantism plays such an important role in the history of Geneva, this is an excellent starting point to understand the development of the city. Next, walk past the Pont du Mont Blanc and cross the Pont des Bergues arriving to the Place du Rhône. Turn left and eventually right towards the Place du Molard to admire Geneva´s old clock tower. Originally, the clock used to show the times of both Geneva, Paris and Zurich because the difference between them was in the realms of less than 20 minutes, but eventually we got ourselves together and time zones are now supposedly easier to navigate. Slowly start climbing until you reach L´Ancien Arsenal , the Artillery Museum, where you can admire a beautiful mural just outside it should you not want to go in. Across the street lies Geneva´s Town Hall which you can partially visit and let me tell you the building is a neoclassical stunner. You´ll get some beautiful pictures here if you just climb the tower and convince someone to climb the ramp opposite you in the inner courtyard. Of course you´re not just visiting for the Instagrams, but also because this building houses the famous Alabama Room in which the first Geneva Convention was adopted in 1864, from which the International Red Cross emerged. Talk about a crucial destination on your itinerary! Next and final stop of the old town for now is St. Pierre Cathedral. Make sure you get here before sundown. Go in and visit the cathedral and make sure to climb its towers. The views over the city are just the best – you can see everything from the smoking chimneys of Geneva´s houses, to the lake sparkling in the background and the mountains reigning over everything.

Ride a Mouette

Because I imagine you´ll be tired by now and assuming your accommodation is reachable by boat, just grab a mouette and hitch a ride across the river home. These yellow shuttle boats are Geneva’s public transport boats operated on the Geneva Lake between 4 harbours in a city center. We embarked the M1 from Molard to Pâquis just at sunset and while the ride was quick and mostly full of tourists, it was a quite fun thing to do and gave us a new angle on the city – from a boat. Note: the M3 and M4 lines are the longest and I imagine quite scenic, but we haven´t caught either.

If all you want now is to grab dinner and sleep, check my restaurant recommendations above. If you find yourself hungry at lunch time doing all this walking, you might want to check out the restaurant Les Armures, right between the cathedral and the artillery museum. They allegedly serve a very good fondue!

Day Two

Have a swim in the lake

If you´re visiting Geneva in summer, this is probably top of your list and with good reason – the lake in Geneva has one of the cleanest and clearest waters I´ve ever seen in a city. But did you know that you can also swim in the lake during winter? While we didn´t do that, we saw tens of people taking their clothes off, and then stripped down to their swimsuit, hat and sometimes even waterproof gloves, walk into the lake and start swimming laps around the shore. Many of these people came out of the sauna area of the Bains de Pâquis, where I imagine they had a nice steam bath and maybe even massage before jumping into the cold waters of the lake, but regardless of their MO it was impressive as hell!

Visit the Art and History Museum

Now whether the swim made you feel in need of some indoor coziness, or if on the opposite side you want to hide from the heat of the city, the Art and History Museum is just a perfect place to spend a few hours. We went on a Sunday, the entrance was free, and we spent a couple of hours there, taking pictures and videos on its beautiful stairway, marvelling at the Italian Baroque room and even spotting a Monet. I rarely go to a city without visiting its main museum so this was just bliss for me.

Visit the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum and Visit the Patek Philippe Museum

These two museums, which are definitely very different and might cater to different tastes were on our list as a “nice to do”, but we unfortunately didn´t get to do as we spent more times in Christmas markets than any sane human being would. And I regret nothing. You should totally check them out though.

Go See a Show

Since we´re doing culture today, why not see a show while you´re here? We saw The Swan Lake at the Theatre du Léman on the shore of the lake – appropriate, I know! While the Theatre du Léman has closed for renovations now, you still have plenty of other venues to choose from – Geneva even has an Operetta House (which I had never seen before). Check out the Grand Théâtre de Genève for some exquisite performances – theatre, ballet, opera and classical music shows all run here throughout the year! Book in advance and make sure to dress for the occasion!

Day Three

Stroll through Carouge

Jump on a bus and head over to the Carouge district. This picturesque little neighbourhood with pedestrian streets and beautiful houses is just a lovely place to spend a few hours. Jump from café to café, visit the charming boutique stores, and lose yourself in its squares. We went there in the morning and had lunch at the Brasserie La Bourse but while the restaurant was pretty and the location great, right by the market, the food was just ok, nothing too special so I am not sure I recommend it. What I do recommend though, is a walk by the Arve River. We essentially walked up the river from the Pont de Carouge all the way to the Pont du Val d´Arve and for a bit it felt like we were out of the city. With the river flowing to your left and the stadiums and greenery to your right you´ll feel like on a little hike outside the city, even though you´re still very much in the city.

Visit Pointe De La Jonction

The bridge from where you can see the river Arve and the Rhône meeting, the two waters at first refusing to mingle is quite a unique sight! Down in the rivers, especially on the Rhône side, people will be swimming and having picnics next to the water, and considering the location is outside of the city center of Geneva, you´ll find it super refreshing to spend a few hours here. make sure that if you want to see the two rivers meeting you actually head to point and not the pont de la jonction. There´s a difference, trust me. You should be able to reach this by bus from either Carouge or the city center.

Back to the Old Town for Chocolate Shopping

Since this is your last day in Geneva, head back to the old town and get ready for some chocolate shopping to bring home with you. We´ll start with my personal favourite, Favarger (the boutique Marché one), the place where we bought most of the chocolate we took home, but where we also attended a class where we learned how to make our own chocolate. (Which was fun, but don´t expect anything too artisanal – you essentially get the chocolate in liquid form, pour it into a shape of your choosing, then decorate it, let it cool, and wrap it yourself). Another notorious chocolatier (so notorious that you´ll probably have to queue) is Auer. Here we actually went into their café and had a hot chocolate, which was quite nice, but we didn´t buy actual chocolate from them so I cannot rate it. We did buy pralines from the less popular Rohr though. The store was much emptier, their selection quite good, and the pralines were delicious. Also on my list for next time is Stettler & Castrischer whose cakes and pastries look great and of which I´ve heard good things!

And that is that! Three days of history, culture, nature and chocolate later – you´ve experienced some of my favourite bits of Geneva! If you have any additional questions of things I haven´t covered, just drop them in the comments.