4 hours in Geneva, with a 5 year old. Suggestions please!
July 29, 2009 7:13 AM Subscribe
We've got to get a hire car back to the airport in Geneva tomorrow at 11, but our flight doesn't leave till 4. This gives us 3-4 hours or so to have fun. One of us is 5 years old. What should we do? Cheap is good.
Best answer: While browsing around for you, I found this map, which is nice because it shows most of the major city landmarks and how long it takes to walk between them -- sadly, I'm assuming that's minus a five-year-old. But I think it can still help because it's easy to eyeball major landmarks: there's the airport in the upper left-hand corner, and the Gare Cornavin, the main train/bus station in the center. Your starting point is to take the train from "Geneve Aeroport" to "Geneve" -- that will get you into Cornavin, which is how you get anywhere in the city proper. It takes about ten minutes and you can buy a round trip ticket.
Okay, now you're inside the city. What next? Here is the best tourism website I've found; you may need to poke it a bit for the English version, sorry; I can't seem to find a direct link. They have some nice lists for people just passing through, and maps.
If I had to narrow down a few things to do in a few hours, I would recommend the previously-mentioned Jet d'eau and a stroll down the lakefront. Apparently there's some Smurfs behind the Cornavin train station, too? (Whoa, my childhood. I'll have to check that out.) An alternative would be the small but awesome Natural History Museum, which has local fauna, dinosaurs, and for a mascot, Janus, the two-headed turtle. Yes, the turtle is alive; he'll be eleven in a month or two, I think. That's crack for a five-year-old right there.
You should be able to see both the jet d'eau (unlabeled pointy thing on the waterfront, next to the boat) and the museum (labeled, slightly below and to the right of Cornavin) on the pedestrian map.
Anyway, that's what I've got. I don't actually live in Geneva; I only visit every few weeks, months (most recently before I started grad school, a bit over two years ago), and not really to do touristy things, but if you have questions I'll do my best!
posted by bettafish at 10:22 AM on July 29, 2009
Okay, now you're inside the city. What next? Here is the best tourism website I've found; you may need to poke it a bit for the English version, sorry; I can't seem to find a direct link. They have some nice lists for people just passing through, and maps.
If I had to narrow down a few things to do in a few hours, I would recommend the previously-mentioned Jet d'eau and a stroll down the lakefront. Apparently there's some Smurfs behind the Cornavin train station, too? (Whoa, my childhood. I'll have to check that out.) An alternative would be the small but awesome Natural History Museum, which has local fauna, dinosaurs, and for a mascot, Janus, the two-headed turtle. Yes, the turtle is alive; he'll be eleven in a month or two, I think. That's crack for a five-year-old right there.
You should be able to see both the jet d'eau (unlabeled pointy thing on the waterfront, next to the boat) and the museum (labeled, slightly below and to the right of Cornavin) on the pedestrian map.
Anyway, that's what I've got. I don't actually live in Geneva; I only visit every few weeks, months (most recently before I started grad school, a bit over two years ago), and not really to do touristy things, but if you have questions I'll do my best!
posted by bettafish at 10:22 AM on July 29, 2009
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posted by jeffburdges at 7:32 AM on July 29, 2009