
#WhenIn Geneva
Going to Geneva during the annual music festival in Old Town is pretty classic. The city is literally submerged with classical music for three days with over 6000 trained musicians showing off their impressive skills across 30 stages day and night—and it’s all completely free! Having discovered such a fabulous event, I naturally had to hop on a last-minute flight to see (or rather hear) what that was all about…
Where to stay:
Hôtel Eden Genève was a lucky last-minute find on Hotel Tonight. We had a very comfortable stay here, particularly because the hotel is situated right across the street from Parc Barton, an exceptionally green and charming park on the southwest side of Lake Geneva, and it included a nice breakfast buffet with freshly-made cappuccinos and bottomless Coco Pops (the Coco Pops did start an unfortunate craving that has yet to run its course).

How to get around:
Walk with a little help from a tram and a mouette. Be prepared to walk around a lot; around the lake, around the parks, around Old Town, around CERN, and around museums. When your legs want to fall off, the trams and mouettes (Geneva’s yellow boat shuttles that do not take their schedules very seriously) are cheap and easy to figure out (but if you are very hungry, and a mouette is what’s between you and food, just expect to die from starvation and rise up like a phoenix before it gets there —don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time).


Where to eat:
Lunch:
Pizzaria da Paulo serves delicious authentic Italian food and was by far my favorite place to eat (we kept coming back for more). I know it’s a boo-boo to rave about Italian food when in Switzerland, but a girl’s gotta like what she likes.

Dinner:
Les Armures in Old Town offers traditional Swiss cheese fondue in traditional Swiss decor (it is said to be the best in town). The cheese was very good, but the bread (kinda the other important 50% of this endeavor) was not impressive, so I would just stick to the little baby potatoes like below (I look happy, because I haven’t gotten to the bread yet).

What to eat:
You mean other than Swiss cheese fondue? I’m glad you asked! If you should happen to have taken a yellow mouette past Jet d’Eau (the highly-expressive fountain) to the southeast side of the lake and found your way to Pizzaria da Paulo (no, they are not (yet) paying me for my advertising), you order the fresh tagliolini with freshly-grated truffle and then perhaps a side of lasagna and definitely some ravioli — and that’s what you eat!
What to do:
Go to the summer music festival. It really is quite magical to walk around Old Town with its many small courtyards and churches filled with everything from chamber music to symphonies, and the humble superiority of it all is just so badass.


Walk around Old Town. This charming old town (in which Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born) has a very cozy atmosphere with its many cute cafes and beautiful old buildings.

Visit CERN. If you read Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and thought the description of the particle accelerator was too awesome for words, then this is a must. Don’t forget to stop by the Globe of Science and Innovation (the wooden dome-looking thing) across the street.

Take a swim in the lake. Is it cold? Yes! But it is so good if you ever make it past your knees (no seriously, make it past your knees!). Just don’t expect any sandy beaches or after-swim daiquiris.

Sunbathe in Parc Barton. It is such a lovely place to lie down and read a book (or take an afternoon nap).

What not to do:
Don’t go to Bains des Pâquis (bathing area) and its La Buvette des Bain (the outdoor cantina at Bains des Pâquis). They both have very high reviews on Google, Yelp, and Foursquare, but I found them to be terribly crowded and very unappealing.

