Geneva

Bacchus

So, anyone ever been there? I'm taking a week holiday with my girlfirend in August and we've randomly selected Geneva as the place we wanna go. I'v checked flights and accomodation. Those two combined should cost in the region of 500 - 600 euro each for 7 days.
Does anyone know much about the city? How expensive is it to eat out and do touristy stuff there? My girlfriend sees this as a bit of a shopping holiday. Are the shops good there? Is stuff for me to do while she's off doing her thing Any hotel recommendations?

Thanks for any replies. If anyone has any recommendations for better European cities to visit instead post em up here too. All advice is welcome

savoyard

Geneva is expensive and although it's really nice during the summer, you might be better off using it as a base for the region, which is amazing. Shopping in Geneva is pretty unexciting - there's lots of designer shops like Gucci and Dior etc, but obviously they're kind of pricey. A day's shopping might be pushing it - it's not a big city and pretty conservative. Try around the Paquis on the lakeside for decent bars and not too expensive restaurants.

The lake is great - you can do waterskiing etc, there's a beach and during the summer there's an open air cinema. Look at www.genevaonline.ch for ideas from expats and links.

On the French side, Annecy is beautiful and the shopping far superior to Geneva IMO. And they've got just as nice a lake. You can get a train there from Geneva in an hour or so - or go in the other direction to Lausanne and Montreux. If you're into outdoor activities, there's loads of hiking and mountain biking in the area in the ski resorts (if you've got a car).

Personally I would reckon a week is too long for Geneva itself, unless you plan on doing lots of daytrips or have lots of cash!

Heinrich

Shopping first.

There is Balexert which is a big Blanchardstown type center. Lots of shops there. It is 10 minutes away from the Airport on the no 10 bus. For atmosphere take a no 12 tram to Carouge which is a Sardinian city founded by the Dukes of Savoy. There is a lovely veg and food market on the Place du Marche on Saturday mornings.

There is another center similar to Balexert in La Praille which is 10 minutes walk from the market.

If you hire a car a trip to Annecy on Sunday morning where there is a splendid Sunday morning market. A 17 kilometer trip up to Semnoz in the afternoon would be an absolute must. There you will have a magnificent view of the Mont Blanc and a short walk up to the Cret de Chatillon will give you a view of Lake Annecy, Lac de Bourget (at Aix les Bains) and on a clear day Lac Leman. For a lovely evening the Vieille ville d'Annecy has the finest collection of eateries, ranging from traditional French, Italian, Moroccan to Macdo's! There are great bistrosand pubs. The Munich has Guinness or Murphys, I forget which.

A trip on the train to the Swiss Alps would be in order. There is a fairy tale rack and pinion railway which brings you to Rochers de Naye from where you can admire the Bernese oberland. Another railway will get you to Leysin which is a pretty alpine town. You can get a telepherique (suspended cable car) up to the revolving restaurant. The food is bof (take it or leave it) but the view is amazing as the dining room does a full rotation every hour.

In Geneva itself there is lots to see and it is quite manageable. Place Neuve is the home of the Grand Theatre, Conservatory, Musee Rath and the nearby Victoria Hall (classical concerts) It has the University behind in the Parc des Bastions, famed for the Mur de Reformation. They have the giant chess sets which are available to all and sundry!

Have a browse around the bus company site:

http://www.tpg.ch/Internet+TPG/Anglais/EHomepage/Accueil.htm

and the federal railway site:

http://www.sbb.ch/en/

Shad0r

Two friends of mine went there for a long weekend and couldnt get out of the place fast enough. It was the worst holiday they've ever been on! They complained that all the bars were shut really early so there was no night life and afair they were stranded there because of some public transport issue at the time.

There isnt really anything to do there by their account.

Culchie

Heinrich wrote:

Shopping first.

There is Balexert which is a big Blanchardstown type center. Lots of shops there. It is 10 minutes away from the Airport on the no 10 bus. For atmosphere take a no 12 tram to Carouge which is a Sardinian city founded by the Dukes of Savoy. There is a lovely veg and food market on the Place du Marche on Saturday mornings.

There is another center similar to Balexert in La Praille which is 10 minutes walk from the market.

If you hire a car a trip to Annecy on Sunday morning where there is a splendid Sunday morning market. A 17 kilometer trip up to Semnoz in the afternoon would be an absolute must. There you will have a magnificent view of the Mont Blanc and a short walk up to the Cret de Chatillon will give you a view of Lake Annecy, Lac de Bourget (at Aix les Bains) and on a clear day Lac Leman. For a lovely evening the Vieille ville d'Annecy has the finest collection of eateries, ranging from traditional French, Italian, Moroccan to Macdo's! There are great bistrosand pubs. The Munich has Guinness or Murphys, I forget which.

A trip on the train to the Swiss Alps would be in order. There is a fairy tale rack and pinion railway which brings you to Rochers de Naye from where you can admire the Bernese oberland. Another railway will get you to Leysin which is a pretty alpine town. You can get a telepherique (suspended cable car) up to the revolving restaurant. The food is bof (take it or leave it) but the view is amazing as the dining room does a full rotation every hour.

In Geneva itself there is lots to see and it is quite manageable. Place Neuve is the home of the Grand Theatre, Conservatory, Musee Rath and the nearby Victoria Hall (classical concerts) It has the University behind in the Parc des Bastions, famed for the Mur de Reformation. They have the giant chess sets which are available to all and sundry!

Have a browse around the bus company site:

http://www.tpg.ch/Internet+TPG/Anglais/EHomepage/Accueil.htm

and the federal railway site:

http://www.sbb.ch/en/

Great post.

Also, a trip to Verbier, just a little further on from Aigle (where you would take the Leysin Alpine train) would also be well worth visiting.

I used to live in Leysin and Verbier, this thread has made me 'pine'

Bacchus

The general feeling I'm getting from ye is that Geneva itself is not great but the surrounding towns are nice. Annecy sounds nice. Would it be more worth our while to stay there for a week and maybe just do a day trip to Geneva. I'm planning on doing a lot of little day trips to the Alps and to nearby towns. Where ever we go, it will be a base of operations, though we will be eating out & spending most time there so I'd rather go to Annecy than Geneva if it's nicer. It's mainly the Alps and the lakes that attracted me to Geneva but sure if Annecy is better.... I'll think about it.

Thanks for all the info guys, ye've given me some food for thought. Time to get googling If ye think of anything else let me know.

savoyard

The only drawback with Annecy is that if you're relying on public transport to get about, it's not a great hub. And it is jammers in August. But for restaurants, bars and general ambiance, it's a great place. Lots of campsites along the lake too if you're on a budget. Or, what about going self catering / in a hotel in a ski resort? Really reasonable to hire during the summer, and the mountains are just as nice in the summer as during the winter. Lets Gets / Morzine are packed during the summer and just an hour's drive from the airport. Might not fit the shopping plans though!

My advice would be hire a car, pick out interesting sounding spots and go where you fancy. I live in the region (French side) and work in Geneva and when people come over, an afternoon in Geneva is more than enough for them and they want to move to Annecy

PS Heinrich I can't believe you'd send anyone to Balexert shopping centre on their holliers! Blanchardstown would be much more exciting

Heinrich

savoyard wrote:

PS Heinrich I can't believe you'd send anyone to Balexert shopping centre on their holliers! Blanchardstown would be much more exciting

Sorry but Balexert is better than Blanch for a tourist! What tourist shoppers want is chocolate, cheese and inexpensive clothes other than Dunnes or Penneys.

I don't know if you are on the Ain or Haute Savoie side of Geneva but let's be honest, the Savoie with the Alps is far more interesting. If the guy is renting a car then Annecy, Gorges de Fier, Semnoz, Plateau de Glieres, Col de la Forclaz, Chamonix, Sallanches are the places to visit.

Geneva itself is a great town and if you know your way areond is very interesting. La Jonction where the Arve and Rhone join together viewed from the railway bride is a must see. The Bois de la Batie is also interesting and has a mini zoo which is a great hit with the kids. An hour or so simply enjoying the public transport with the bendy busses, trams and of cours a crossing of the rade in the mouettes keeps people happy.

...

Bacchus

Hi again,
Thanks for all the replies. They've been very helpful. We checked out some books & sites on Annecy and it looks great. Won't be hiring a car when we're over there so we'll be using the buses and trains to get around. We'll probably only take two day trips to some surrounding areas (one day for Geneva I think) so I think we'll manage on that front. There seems to be a lot to do in terms of hikes, cycling, water stuff and shopping in the area anyway so we'll be fairly content to stay in Annecy for most of the week. Thanks for the heads up on the busy season.

Once again, thanks to all for the advice. It's really helped. Now all I have to do is sort flights and accomodation :rolleyes:

Jim10000

I hope you don't mind me starting with a negative point, but Geneva and the surrounding area wouldn't be my first choice for a weeks holiday destination. It's pricey and while there is plenty to do, if you don't know where to find it, or if the fairly tame and stuffy atmosphere of the city aren't for you, you could have a boring time. It's not exactly Barcelona... but maybe that's not what you want!

You will enjoy Geneva and the surrounding areas if you want to take advantage of the great outdoors stuff and relaxing, and aren't looking for cultural stuff or hectic nightlife. I don't really know about shopping, but I can't imagine your girlfriend being overjoyed by what's on offer there.

I'd also say Geneva would be a much better base than Annecy. A day trip to the latter, which is a really pretty town (with better shopping I'm told), would be enough really, and Geneva would be much better suited for day trips.

The best thing about going during August is the 'Fête de Geneve' which is a city wide series of outdoor events and parties from the 3rd - 13th, which is pretty good. A nice back drop to your trip if nothing else.

http://www.fetes-de-geneve.ch/?rubrique=0000000080&lang=_eng

Pubs stay open in Geneva till 2 in the morning and the clubs are pretty lousy as far as I know. Having said that though, during the summer the best socialising is done outdoors anyway.

As someone said Pâquis is good for multi-cultural dining. There's also a nice outdoors bar on the lake there, (the Terrace near Bains des Pâquis) just look out for the crowds sitting on the grass. There are countless Italian restaurants all over the city with excellent and inexpensive pizza.

Taking the train to have a look around Lausanne and Montreux is well worth it. (a 40 min and 1 hour trip respectively along really beautiful lakeside scenery)

It's a compact city and public transport is good, but if you want, you can hire bikes for free for the day, or for next to nothing for longer periods of time from a place near the back of the train station.

Heinrich already mentioned Rochers-de-Naye, which is a good day out. Get the train to Montreux, a small train up to 'Marmottes Paradise' (!?!) have a look around and hike back down.

The weather should be lovely in August and there are plenty of really nice spots for swimming in the lake.

If that kind of thing is what you're looking for you could have a really good time. Hope so!

Culchie

For the Girlfirends type of 'shopping'...if she's like my missus, Lausanne is a better spot than Geneva.

It's just a short train hop from Geneva, you should also take the Ferry over to Evian for a visit as well.

Restaurant Recommendation in Evian - La Verniaz http://www.verniaz.com/

Bacchus

More replies. Thanks guys. I wasn't expecting this much feedback, it's great.

Jim: We're not really looking for a hectic nightlife or cultural holiday like what you could expect from Barcelona. I'm looking forward to nice restaurants, a relaxing atmosphere and doing outdoor stuff like cycling, swimming in the lakes, hiking etc. Annecy looks perfect for that kind of thing. As for the shopping, a day trip to one of the cities nearby will easily sort out that aspect.
I see what you are saying about Geneva being a better base of operations but to be honest I think Annecy has nearly everything we are looking for in a holiday. A day trip or two to Geneva/Lausanne/Evian will be on the cards too. The only thing that worries me is what savoyard said about the public transport. We will be relying on it for getting to Geneva/Lausanne or whereever we decide to go for little trips.

Looking at trying to get flights and hotel sorted now. That's no easy task

Culchie

Bacchus wrote:

More replies. Thanks guys. I wasn't expecting this much feedback, it's great.

Jim: We're not really looking for a hectic nightlife or cultural holiday like what you could expect from Barcelona. I'm looking forward to nice restaurants, a relaxing atmosphere and doing outdoor stuff like cycling, swimming in the lakes, hiking etc. Annecy looks perfect for that kind of thing. As for the shopping, a day trip to one of the cities nearby will easily sort out that aspect.
I see what you are saying about Geneva being a better base of operations but to be honest I think Annecy has nearly everything we are looking for in a holiday. A day trip or two to Geneva/Lausanne/Evian will be on the cards too. The only thing that worries me is what savoyard said about the public transport. We will be relying on it for getting to Geneva/Lausanne or whereever we decide to go for little trips.

Looking at trying to get flights and hotel sorted now. That's no easy task

The transport is great around there, there's loads of buses heading off to different places every day, just call to local tourist office for info.

My favourite day trip I took when I was in Evian was to Zermatt (The Matterhorn) another one was to Dommodossla in Italy, and Lake Stresa via The Simplon Pass and ... a 6.30am start and a late finish, but boy what a day !!

Basically a good train service on the Swiss side of the lake, and a good bus service on the French side.

If you have no luck in Annecy, Evian would be a good base.