Is Geneva expensive or something?

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

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Quick question really - been looking at booking to take the Mrs away somewhere for her birthday in Sept. There's really good flight prices to Brussels, or a bit cheaper would be getting the train up to Edinburgh and then there are some flights to Geneva for a bit more than Brussels.

Now i've never been to Switzerland before and quite fancy it over Brussels as we went to Antwerp last year but I've just looked at hotels in Geneva and its like £200 for 2 nights at least at most places.

Is it generally an expensive place to visit or am I looking on the wrong sites?

Looking at it Brussels is going to be cheaper than them both staying in somewhere half decent but I do fancy Geneva as its somewhere a bit different!
 
R.O.S.S.I said:
Quick question really - been looking at booking to take the Mrs away somewhere for her birthday in Sept. There's really good flight prices to Brussels, or a bit cheaper would be getting the train up to Edinburgh and then there are some flights to Geneva for a bit more than Brussels.

Now i've never been to Switzerland before and quite fancy it over Brussels as we went to Antwerp last year but I've just looked at hotels in Geneva and its like £200 for 2 nights at least at most places.

Is it generally an expensive place to visit or am I looking on the wrong sites?

Looking at it Brussels is going to be cheaper than them both staying in somewhere half decent but I do fancy Geneva as its somewhere a bit different!
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Geneva is pricy and not a great place. Better is to move down the lake, Lausanne/Vevey etc.. even better is to take a train into the mountains. I lived in Switzerland in the Lausanne area for 5 years and found lots of reasonably priced hotels in the mountains. Look for the smaller ones like Leysin, Zinal, Arrola, Evolene, Ovronaz. All easy to get to (mix of train and post bus), really beautiful and reasonably priced (80CHF a night B&B).

I have even found good priced hotels in very touristy places like Grindlewald.

Of course if you want a 4* hotel anywhere in Switzerland you will pay. Thing is in Switzerland even the most basic hotels and amenities are very high quality so you don't have to look at the high end to get what you want. I often found Switzerland to be good value for money, you just don't get the cheap and nasty, you get moderate price and very good service.
 
My bosses in laws are from Switzerland (Laussane to be precise) and they agree Geneva is very expensive and not actually that great, I was there at the start of the year for work and wasn't that impressed either.
 
Geneva was expensive pre-credit crunch... Everywhere is relatively expensive now post credit crunch. CHF is a 'safe' currency and it rose a bit in value....
 
Aside from the fountain there is nothing to do as a tourist in Geneva. Having lived in Lausanne + Geneva for 9 years of my life take my word on it.

As someone said above, go further into Switzerland and you will have more to do.
 
Thanks for the info guys. Is there an easy way to get from Geneva to the mountains? Or will that be a bit tight timewise if we are going Friday (after 5pm) and back Sunday night.

The idea of the mountains/somewhere scenic is quite appealing though, I might look at some other scenic places.
 
R.O.S.S.I said:
Thanks for the info guys. Is there an easy way to get from Geneva to the mountains? Or will that be a bit tight timewise if we are going Friday (after 5pm) and back Sunday night.

The idea of the mountains/somewhere scenic is quite appealing though, I might look at some other scenic places.
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The trains are very regular, very reliable and very easy to use. Everyone speaks English.

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

Mountain towns without a train station will be served by a post bus that is designed to leave about 10 minutes after the trains arrive.


The closest nice mountain town form Geneva is probably Leysin- nice hiking, views of the lake, small and laid back, cable car to the top of the mountain with a panoramic restaurant.
 
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Hmmm I'm thinking Brussels may be the best bet with the budget/time i've got. If I was to find somewhere in the mountains it would take up a lot of time in travel to get there.

Hotels in Dublin and Edinburgh are all very very steep. Don't really fancy staying in a hostel either, did my fair share of them when I went backpacking. Brussels appears to have a good standard of hotel for much cheaper than what we'd be paying in Dublin/Edinburgh, fair enough we went to Antwerp last year but we've never been to Brussels!

Wish somewhere in Germany was a bit more in budget!
 
Switzerland is VERY expensive - I wanted to cover it as part of my Eurotrip last year and ended up staying in Austria instead and just driving through it.

If you want amazing mountains look at Innsbruck.
 
If you are going to travel to Belgium may I suggest Bruges rather than Brussels. Nothing special about Geneva ( and yes, it is expensive ) unless you take the opportunity to disappear into the Alps.
 
Currently live in Swiss (near Lausanne) and have lived in Brussels/Chamonix.

I would avoid Brussels, Bruges is far nicer and a very romantic, pretty place.

As has been said, Switzerland is expensive for everything, and there is nothing special in Geneva. As a whole the country is stunningly beautiful, take a train to somewhere like Zermatt, Grindelwald - the journey will be awesome in itself, and once you get to a places like these the views are breathtaking.

As also suggested Chamonix is approx an hour away and just amazing, more of a buzzy nightlife and wider choice of restaurants/bars. In a weekend you could go for a stroll, take a ride on the Aguille du Midi cable car to 3800m and get spectacular views on the Mont Blanc massif etc. And it's cheaper than Swiss.

Otherwise Dublin/Edinburgh are fine choices for a weekend too, have fun!
 
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