Three days in Geneva: Calvin preached here, and the world moved in
Two nights between the lanes and the lake, with the cathedral towers, an afternoon inside the United Nations and a swim in the harbour.
- Length
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Where you stay
- Geneva
- Places
- 6 across 3 days
Geneva is the least Swiss-feeling city in Switzerland. It speaks French, it sat as an independent republic until the last day of 1813, and today a large part of the working population turns up each morning at an organisation that belongs to the rest of the world: the United Nations, the Red Cross, the trade and health bodies, the particle physicists out at the French border.
Underneath that is a hard, small, hilly old town where John Calvin ran a religious experiment strict enough to be exported across Europe. The two Genevas are about twenty minutes apart on a tram, and seeing both is what makes three days here worthwhile rather than one.
The lake is the third thing, and in summer it is the one people here would defend. They swim off a stone jetty in the middle of the harbour, in view of a fountain that throws water higher than most cathedral spires for no practical reason at all.
Highlights
- Climbing the towers of the Cathédrale St-Pierre, where Calvin preached, for the lake and the roofs
- A guided walk through the Assembly Hall of the Palais des Nations, the League of Nations' own building
- The Reformation Wall in the Parc des Bastions, four stone reformers carved several times life size
- Swimming or eating fondue at the Bains des Paquis, out on the jetty in the harbour
- The Jet d'Eau close up, which means getting soaked
Where to stay
Geneva, two nights
Sleep in Paquis or across the bridge rather than out by the organisations. Paquis is the dense grid behind the north quay, five minutes from the station and full of cheap restaurants from everywhere; the far bank is quieter and closer to the parks and the swimming.
The old town is up a steep hill from both, which is worth knowing if you are wheeling a suitcase or not walking well.
Day by day
Day 1 in Geneva
Up into the old town, the cathedral towers, a table on Bourg-de-Four
From Cornavin, walk down to the river, cross at the Bel-Air island and go straight on uphill. The old town is small, steep and made of grey stone, with the city hall, its little square of cannons and a row of antique shops whose windows are half the pleasure of the walk.
The cathedral is at the top. It was Catholic first and stripped for the Reformation second, and the interior is famously plain: this is the building Calvin preached in from 1541, and the room next door, the Auditoire, is where he taught. Two things underneath and above are better than the nave itself. The archaeological site below the floor goes back past the Romans and explains why anybody built a city here at all, and the tower stairs come out on a platform with the lake, the old roofs and, in clear weather, Mont Blanc.
Come down as far as the Place du Bourg-de-Four, the oldest square in the city and still the one people sit in, and stop. From April the bars put their tables across most of it.
- 13:00
Arrive at Genève-Cornavin
TravelSix minutes in from the airport, and about twenty-five on foot to the far side of the old town. Ask your hotel for the free transport card.
- 15:00
Old Town
VisitAn hour or two of steep grey lanes: the city hall and its cannons, Rousseau's birthplace, antique shops. Hard going on wheels.
- 16:30
Cathédrale St-Pierre and Calvin's auditorium
ReligiousCalvin's cathedral, plus the archaeological site under the floor and the Auditoire where he taught. Climb the towers for the lake view.
- 19:00
La Clémence
EatA small bar on the Bourg-de-Four that takes over the square with tables from April to October, and pours the town's best mulled wine when it does not.
With more time: With more time, the museum of the Reformation shares the courtyard and an underground passage with the cathedral, and the same ticket covers both.
Day 2 in Geneva
The Palais des Nations, the Red Cross museum, then the jetty
Tram 15 goes north to the international quarter, where a dozen organisations sit in gardens on a hillside above the lake. Book the Palais des Nations in advance: visits are by guided tour only, there are a handful a day, and you enter through the Appia gate with a passport for the security check. The building went up for the League of Nations, and the tour walks you through the Assembly Hall and a great deal of donated art, most memorably the Spanish ceiling in the Human Rights room.
The Red Cross museum is a five minute walk away, in the basement of the organisation's headquarters. The subject is the strongest in the city and the staging divides people: it is a designed experience with screens and audio triggers rather than a set of cases, and some visitors find it moving and others find it in the way. Go for the archive material, which is extraordinary.
Then take the tram back down and swim. The Bains des Paquis runs out into the harbour on a stone jetty: a beach and diving boards in summer, a sauna and a fondue restaurant in winter, and a plat du jour all day that is the cheapest good meal in central Geneva. The Jet d'Eau is directly across the water from the end of it.
- 10:00
Palais des Nations
ArchitectureGuided tours only, a few a day, passport needed at the Appia gate. Built for the League of Nations and still working as a debating chamber.
- 13:30
Museum of the International Committee of the Red Cross
CultureIn the basement of the headquarters up the road. Powerful archive material inside a very designed presentation that not everybody gets on with.
- 18:00
Buvette des Bains (Bains des Paquis)
EatThe bathing platform out in the harbour. Swim in summer, sauna and fondue in winter, and a cheap plat du jour whatever the season.
With more time: With more time, CERN's visitor centre is half an hour out on tram 18 and free, and its exhibition on the collider is pitched at people who did not study physics.
Day 3 in Geneva
The Reformation Wall, then the fountain on the way to the train
The Parc des Bastions sits between the old town and the university, with giant chessboards under the trees and the Reformation Wall along one side: Calvin, Farel, Beza and Knox carved four times life size, looking out at a city that no longer takes their advice.
From there walk down to the water and along the quay to the Jet d'Eau. It began as a pressure release valve for the hydro-power system on the Rhône, the city liked the look of it, and by 1891 it was a permanent pumped fountain throwing a hundred and forty metres of lake into the air. There is a path out to the base of it. Anybody who takes that path gets wet, which is most of the point.
Cornavin is fifteen minutes back along the north quay, so this is an easy last morning with a bag.
- 09:30
Parc des Bastions
CultureUniversity lawns, outdoor chess and the Reformation Wall, where four stone reformers stand guard over the old town.
- 11:00
Jet d'Eau
OtherLake water fired into the sky since 1891. Walk the pier to the base if you do not mind arriving at the station damp.
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- 13:30
Train from Genève-Cornavin
TravelUnder three hours to Zurich, under two to Bern, and a little over three to Paris on the direct TGV.
With more time: With a later train, the watch museum on the Plainpalais side gives you four floors of Genevan clockmaking, and the lockers at the door take a suitcase.
Before you go
Getting in and getting around
Geneva Airport has its own railway station six minutes from Cornavin, the main station, and the machines in the baggage hall give arriving passengers a free ticket for the trip. Hotels also hand guests a transport card covering trams and buses for the length of the stay, so ask at check-in before you buy anything.
The old town, the lake shore and the station are within twenty-five minutes of each other on foot. Trams 15 and 18 handle the international quarter to the north, and boats called mouettes cross the harbour for the price of a bus ticket, which is a better way to reach the far shore than walking round it.
France starts at the edge of the city, and some of the best views back at it are from the Salève ridge on the other side of the border. Take a passport if you go up.
Money and eating
Geneva is expensive even by Swiss standards, and lunch is where you feel it. Two habits help: the plat du jour at midday, which is the same kitchen at half the evening price, and the fact that this is a border city, so a bus ride into France buys a noticeably cheaper dinner.
The city takes francs and, unusually, quite a lot of places will take euros at a poor rate. Pay in francs.
When to go
May to September, if the lake matters to you: the Bains des Paquis is a beach, the parks fill at lunchtime and the boats run properly. August is quiet in a strange way, because the international staff are on holiday.
In December the city marks the Escalade, the night in 1602 when Savoyard troops tried to climb the walls and failed, with a torchlit run through the old town and a great deal of chocolate shaped like a cauldron.
Geneva makes more sense once you stop expecting a Swiss postcard. It is a French-speaking republic with a Protestant conscience that turned into the place where the world argues in committee, and its best hour is still a summer evening on the jetty with the fountain going and the Alps turning pink behind it.
It is also the gateway to the west: Lausanne is forty minutes by train, Bern is under two hours, and Chamonix is close enough for a day in the mountains and back.
Or make it a longer trip
These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.
Make it your trip
Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.
Common questions
- How many days do you need in Geneva?
- Three. One for the old town, one for the international quarter and the lake, and a short last morning. Geneva is small and a lot of people write it off in a day, which is a fair verdict if you only see the shopping streets between the station and the bridge.
- Is Geneva worth visiting, or is it just offices?
- Both things are true. The centre is a working city of banks and organisations, and it is not pretty in the way Lucerne is. What it has instead is a Reformation old town that survived intact, a lake you can swim in from the middle of the city, and an afternoon inside the United Nations, which nowhere else offers.
- Do you need a passport for the Palais des Nations?
- Yes. Tours are booked in advance, you enter through the Appia gate, and there is a passport and security check before you get a badge. Leave time for it, and do not turn up with luggage.
- Can you visit France from Geneva?
- Easily, and it is worth doing. The border is at the edge of the city, buses cross it, and the cable car up the Salève takes you to a ridge with the whole lake and Mont Blanc laid out behind you. Dinner on the French side costs about half what it does in the centre.