Why you need to visit Geneva

 

There are so many things to love about Switzerland - incredible landscapes, good food, an amazing public transport system and particularly for me, how immaculately clean everything is (especially the air). I had wanted to go to Switzerland every since I was a child, because I loved the book Heidi. As discussed in an earlier post, my dad was also fascinated with Switzerland and particularly their railways, as they are famed around the world for their efficiency and innovation. For his 50th birthday, we therefore decided that we were finally going to go to Switzerland, and see for ourselves if it really was up to our expectations.

Our base city for our trip was Geneva. As one of the most populous cities in the country, Geneva was not somewhere I was particularly excited to see in all honesty, as I'm not a big city person, but it has a lot of incredible landmarks and excellent rail links to the rest of Switzerland. So we booked our flights from Leeds Bradford Airport and after two hours, landed in this (what I now know to be) gorgeous place.

When you arrive at Geneva airport and head over to baggage reclaim, there are machines where you can print a ticket that allows you to use public transportation for free, which is valid for up to 80 minutes after printing. We chose the free train (the airport train station is just downstairs from the airport)  which was only one stop away from Geneva's main station - Geneva Cornavin.

When we came out of the train station, we were so shocked to see that the hotel I had booked, Warwick Geneva, was actually diagonally across the road. I had booked the hotel because of its proximity to the station, but I was so shocked when I realised just how close it actually was. It was perfect because we were going to purchase a Swiss Travel Pass and go to a different location every day, so being so close to the station made this a lot easier.

I want to say that Warwick Geneva was an absolutely outstanding hotel choice. The location was perfect, the staff were so lovely and the hotel itself was just gorgeous. We arrived at our hotel at around 12.30pm and because we were early, the concierge took our bags while we went off to look round the city.

Now I just want to say that we visited in February but the weather was gorgeous! I remember leaving England while it was raining and I kept checking the weather forecast for back home (it was raining all weekend) just so I could feel smug. 😉 It was around 20 degrees the entire time we were there and beautifully sunny. I had packed my winter coat and gloves etc. thinking it would be freezing, and they didn't even leave my case. We spent a good amount of time just sitting by the side of the river, making the most of the warm weather, since we hadn't seen any for months in England.

We then decided to take a look around the shops. If you travel to Geneva, you must take a walk down Rue de Rhône, where you will find high end stores such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Christian Louboutin, Rolex, Dior, Fendi, Hermes, Prada and loads more. Having been awake since 3am, not yet having had a chance to change into clothes more suitable for the warmer weather and of course, not wanting to spend all my money in the first hour of being in Geneva, I stuck to window shopping in this area. 

 Instead, we headed for Manor, which is a chain of department stores/supermarkets across Switzerland, selling everything from fresh produce, to makeup, to a giant selection of Swiss chocolates. The supermarket aspect of Manor is very similar to Booths Supermarkets, here in England, which I often go to because the food is just amazing. I of course was drawn to the Swiss chocolate section, where I had to convince myself that I would be unable to eat 4kg of chocolate in a weekend.

   
 Switzerland is home to some of my favourite things - cheese, chocolate and wine. Swiss wine isn't as famous as that of its' neighbours, France and Italy, because they rarely export outside of Switzerland. It is beautiful however and I really wish I could have brought home some of the bottles they had on offer. We spent a good amount of time looking for souvenirs, so much so that we realised it was time for us to check in at the hotel.

Now you probably have heard that Switzerland is very expensive and I can 100% confirm that you're correct in thinking that. In fact, Switzerland is reported to be the most expensive country in the world. 'Switzerland' and 'on a budget' do not go hand in hand, although of course there are tons of ways to save money, that make your trip a little less demanding on your finances.

Our hotel, Warwick Geneva was priced comparatively low to some other hotels (particularly the ones with views of the lake). This in no way reflected on the hotel though. The rooms were absolutely gorgeous and they even put together this lovely hamper because I told them in advance that it was my dad's 50th birthday. 😍 I of course drank the Swiss Champagne, but I did allow him the chocolate.

If you're trying to decide between staying in a hotel or a private rental, be aware that when you stay in a hotel, you get a free Geneva City Pass, which allows you to travel on the tram system and visit more than 50 museums and attractions for free or at a discounted price, for up to 72 hours. If you do stay in a private rental, you can also purchase the Geneva City Pass but it is included in the cost when you stay in a hotel, bed and breakfast or hostel etc.

After checking into the hotel, and having a chance to make myself look a bit more presentable (and prepared for the weather) we were eager to see what Geneva had to offer. So, we set off on the first part of our tour of the city.

Now of course, one of Geneva's most famous landmarks is the Jet D'eau, which is visible from the city and from the air. When we were flying into the airport, it was quite clear that we had arrived at our destination as we neared the Jet D'eau, which looks over the city at a height of 140 metres. The Jet D'eau was built in 1886. They built the fountain to control and release the excess pressure of a hydraulic plant at La Coulouvrenière. Its engine pumps 500 litres of water per second, and is seen as the symbol of Geneva, representing the strength and vitality of the city, and of Switzerland.

A walk along the shore of Lake Geneva is just incredible. The backdrop of the Swiss alps against the foreground of high end stores and luxury hotels is such a beautiful sight.

As our day was particularly warm and sunny, there were hundreds of people who were making use of the pier for the purpose of sunbathing. We decided to take a walk along the pier, where there was a café and lots of photo opportunities as you venture further out into the lake. You can also catch a paddle steamer to take a tour of Lake Geneva, where you might choose to stop off at Montreux or Lausanne. I definitely regret not taking the lake tour, but we still made the most of the lakeside.

A short walk from the Jet D'eau is L'horloge fleurie or the flower clock, which is situated in Le Jardin Anglais.

I have to say that we really struggled to find the flower clock (I don't know why) and we went through the entire garden before actually finding it. If you're planning to visit Geneva and want to see the flower clock, the easiest direction I can give is that it is directly across the road from Montblanc, which is next to the Rolex store. You can find the Rolex store super easily because there is a huge sign.

The flower clock is so beautiful and the clock face is made up of around 6,500 flowering plants. It was created in 1955 to commemorate the city's watch makers. Of course, Switzerland is famous for watchmaking and it's fitting that the location of the flower clock is opposite two of Switzerland's most famous watchmakers. 

The clock's design is changed up frequently, so the photo I took was completely different to the photos I had seen before visiting.

Le Jardin Anglais is also worth visiting, as it's absolutely beautiful and a lovely place to take in the lake.

The day went by and we spent most of it exploring the city, and of course searching for a bar or a pub for later on. When my dad and I went to Japan, we spent most nights in an Irish pub. It's funny how you can go to the other side of the world but still frequent a pub that feels much closer to home. It would have been coarse to ruin the tradition, so once we'd found our Irish pub we were quite satisfied.

At this point, I hadn't eaten for about 24 hours so we figured it was probably about time to find some food. For this, we decided we would head over to Geneva's beautiful old town.

My dad and I are obsessed with European old towns. His favourites are Stockholm (Sweden), Prague (Czech Republic) and Tallinn (Estonia), while I think mine will always be Geneva. The restaurant we chose was Le Flore and let me tell you I was pretty happy with our choice.

Restaurant Le Flore is located on Rue de la Fontaine and is super quaint inside. The menus are of course in French, which is no problem for myself but do use your translator app if, like my dad, languages aren't your forte. Luckily even my dad was able to translate Peroni, so that made my job a bit easier. 

After a full day without food, even a piece of cardboard would have been welcome but the pizza I ordered was absolutely insane. 

I ordered a chorizo and red onion pizza and my dad ordered a vegetable one. The portion size was huge and even with a day of no eating, I still didn't manage it all!

After a long day of sightseeing and this incredible meal, we had one more walk around the old town, before going back to the hotel. The next day, we headed off to Interlaken to hike up the Harder Kulm and on the Sunday, we headed off the Gruyere, which I have discussed in another post. After we had visited Gruyere, my dad wanted to take the train onto Montbovon, but I really wanted to visit a few more sights in Geneva as it was our last day.

When we arrived back in Geneva, we made use of our Geneva Pass and took the tram to Musée Ariana, a beautiful museum that houses a large collection of glass and ceramics works. The interior of the museum is absolutely beautiful and that's just about all I can say! We arrived around 5 minutes before closing time, and were permitted free entry but didn't have any time to really explore the collections. The museum is considered a valuable attraction in Geneva, and is a short walk away from the United Nations so easy to find.

Speaking of the United Nations, of course we had to take a look.

After a day of exploring Gruyere, I wasn't in the mood for having my photo taken but my dad wasn't going to bypass a photo opportunity in front of this icon. The United Nations office is housed at the Palais des Nations and is a beautiful art deco style building, but of course highly secure and not easily photographed. 

Directly across the road from the United Nations is the Broken Chair sculpture. 

The Broken Chair is a monumental sculpture by the Swiss artist, Daniel Berset and stands at 39 feet high. The sculpture symbolises opposition to cluster bombs and land mines and serves as a reminder to world leaders to remember the victims of landmines and to urge their government to ban them. 

This area hosts a great amount of attractions in one small space. The International Museum of The Red Cross is just around the corner too and I would have loved to have visited but was slowly running out of time. Top on my list of attractions to visit in this area was the botanical gardens, which is just a ten minute walk away.

I love the outdoors and nature, and I love visiting city gardens, particularly botanical gardens. The gardens are home to over 16,000 different species of plants and separated into sections from all over the world including the Mediterranean, Asia and South America. There is also an animal park, a fairy tale carousel, a café and a library. We could have spent hours here and really wish we had visited during the day as there is so much to do and see. I think this would be a really popular place for families to visit, as there are a lot of child-friendly activities.

We decided that we were going to walk back to the hotel, rather than take the tram, because to be honest we just wanted to make the most of the city as it was our last day. The sky looked so incredible as we walked along the lake back to the hotel.

When we arrived back at the hotel, we felt disappointed that our trip was over. Switzerland is so incredible and Geneva is a real gem with so much to see and do.

My absolute must see's for anyone planning a trip to Geneva are - 

• The Jet D'eau (of course)
• The Flower Clock
• Rue de Rhône for some high-end shopping
• The Botanical Gardens
•  The Old Town
• The United Nations
• The Broken Chair
• The Red Cross Museum
• Musee Ariana
• Jardin Anglais

Not featured but worth a visit - 

• St Pierre Cathedral
• Reformation Wall
• Basilica Notre-Dame

And why stop there? You can take a lake cruise or the train to other locations along Lake Geneva, such as Lausanne, Montreux, Vevey, Nyon and Morges. 

Look into getting a Geneva City Pass and remember to take comfortable footwear (I learned that the hard way) and enjoy exploring this incredible city that combines natural beauty with rich culture and history. So,  whether you're looking for a city break with loads to do, or a relaxing lakeside holiday - Geneva really does have it all.