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wild stab in the dark filter - anyone know of any *cheap* youth hostels in Genva?
September 16, 2005 6:54 AM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

wild stab in the dark filter - anyone know of any *cheap* youth hostels in Geneva? anyone......?

We're flying to Geneva for skiing in March and want to stay in Geneva after the outbound flight and before the inbound return home to ensure extra mountain taming time!
posted by jwhittlestone to travel & transportation (13 comments total)
Hostels in Geneva
posted by NinjaPirate at 7:00 AM on September 16, 2005


City Hostel Geneva.

posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:03 AM on September 16, 2005


Now, good luck finding a pizza under $300.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:30 AM on September 16, 2005


oh great, have you stayed there NinjaPirate? I was looking for personal reccomendations too.

Also, is Montreux far from Geneva? I know it's the other side of the lake, but my uncle lives there, and a ferry ride may negate the need to buy a 400 franc pizza.
posted by jwhittlestone at 8:39 AM on September 16, 2005


Never been to Geneva ever, but I always use hostels.com because their user ratings are pretty spot-on (they will badger you for one after you use them, but only once per booking).
If you look at the details of the individual hostels there's a break-down of the scoring based on different attributes.
posted by NinjaPirate at 9:05 AM on September 16, 2005


I stayed at the City Hostel (linked above). I was in a 3 bed room, I think. It was fine. I mean, hostels are rarely spectacular...but it was clean and fairly easy. I remember that I couldn't get into my actual room until 3pm, which kind of sucked cause I got there by train at 9 in the morning. They have a kitchen that you can use, or at least refrigerators that you can access. The location is fine...Geneva is pretty small. Overall, I would recommend it.
posted by jetskiaccidents at 9:46 AM on September 16, 2005


Heh, single room in this hostel looks almost exactly like my dorm room in good old days.

Geneva -> Montreux is 1 hour by train, though Swiss trains are rather costly - CHF 54 for a return ticket. For this you will get a whole menu in Pizza Hut, there are several in Geneva.
posted by b. at 10:37 AM on September 16, 2005


Montreux is quite a ways from Geneva by train or ferry, and the cost of the ticket will probably negate any money savings (unless you can stay with your uncle).

Montreux is not cheaper than Geneva. Everything along the lakeshore is expensive, but restaurant food seems particularly spendy. I'd suggest buying food at a grocery store and picnicking whenever possible.

Train from Geneva to Montreux is 54 francs (return ticket) and takes a little over an hour if I remember correctly. The ferry is 63.40 CHF for a return ticket.
posted by letitrain at 10:48 AM on September 16, 2005


I, too stayed at the City Hostel. I ended up getting a pretty good rate by booking and confirming my reservation over the Internet (it ended up costing a little less than it would have been otherwise), and the room was decent. This was three years ago, but I doubt that things could have changed that much in such a short time. There's a pretty decent Italian restaurant about a three-minute walk away from the hostel, if you get hungry for something other than self-prepared or snack/fast food (I'm just guessing it's still there, I don't know for sure).
posted by LiliaNic at 10:55 AM on September 16, 2005


Also, I don't know how strictly they enforce the "only for backpackers" thing - it wasn't mentioned to me when I was there (I was a student).
posted by LiliaNic at 10:57 AM on September 16, 2005


When I needed cheap acccomodation in Geneva I used to take a 5 minute taxi or bus ride across the border to Ferney in France. Hotel Stars is about 35 or 40 Euros a night (and includes free French porn on the TV!)
posted by gfrobe at 11:18 AM on September 16, 2005


Just a note on Pizza Hut in Geneva, when I lived there (2004) all the pizza huts had gone out of business and the franchise was looking for new owners. So they might not be around. McDonalds and Burger King will cost you 14 CHF for a meal combo. If you're going out to Montreux, I'd recommend also going an hour in the other direction to Mont Blanc, also very cool.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:34 AM on September 16, 2005


Slightly OT but if you end up spending longer in Geneva:

Lived there this summer. Food v.expensive and mostly sub-par: I'd cook *a lot* if you want to save CHF *. Hint: Manor has nice food to buy (including a good salad bar), but Co-Op and especially Migros have cheaper food and are generally high quality.

They also let you borrow bikes for the day free there, which is a great way to get around the city. See

BTW there is an excellent museum in lausanne - it was by far the best I went to all summer and I include the Louvre in that judgement!. Lausanne in general is great. As is Luzern.

Enjoy CH!
posted by lalochezia at 4:05 PM on September 16, 2005


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