Handpicked experience · Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
A fountain that began as a pressure-relief valve, a clock with the world's longest second hand, and a 27-kilometre ring buried under the countryside.
A lakeside stop at the water fountain
The flower clock in the gardens by the shore
An old town orientation by foot, tram or mini-train as conditions allow
A short scenic cruise on the lake
Live local commentary and transfers between the sights
Three hours covering the essentials of Geneva: the lakefront and its fountain, the flower clock, an orientation run through the old town on foot or by rail, and a short cruise on the lake, with live commentary throughout.
You travel between the main sights by coach with a guide talking as you go, cover the old town by whichever means the weather allows, and finish with time on the water. It is designed as a first pass at a city, and it does that job in an afternoon.
The plume on the lake was not built to be beautiful. In 1886 the city ran a hydraulic power network for its workshops, and when the craftsmen closed their taps at the end of the day the pressure had nowhere to go. Engineers fitted a relief valve on the river that shot the excess straight up. People liked it, so in 1891 it was moved into the lake and turned into a monument. It now pushes five hundred litres a second to a hundred and forty metres, which means about seven tonnes of water hangs in the air whenever it is running.
The flower clock beside the lake is planted with several thousand bedding plants, replanted several times a year so the pattern changes with the season. Its second hand is two and a half metres long and holds the record for the longest in the world. The mechanism underneath is a real clock, corrected by satellite.
Geneva has more international organisations than any other city on earth — the European seat of the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Red Cross and a few hundred others — and the population reflects it. Around forty per cent of residents are foreign nationals, and the city functions in several languages at once without making a point of it.
The particle accelerator west of the city runs in a circle a hundred metres underground, crossing back and forth beneath the French border. Physicists there built the World Wide Web in 1989 as a way of sharing documents between laboratories, then gave it away for nothing. Both facts are visible from nowhere on this tour, and both are true of the ground you are standing on.
The old town section changes with the weather, so it may be on foot, by tram or by small train. Meals are not included, and the cruise is short by design. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Enough to leave you oriented rather than expert: the shoreline, the gardens, a loop of the upper town and time afloat, with someone talking the whole way.
It was a pressure-relief valve. The city's hydraulic power network had nowhere to send excess pressure when workshops shut for the day, so engineers vented it upwards in 1886. It proved popular and was moved into the lake as a monument in 1891.
Five hundred litres a second to about a hundred and forty metres, which keeps roughly seven tonnes of water in the air the whole time it runs.
Its second hand is two and a half metres long, the longest in the world, and the planting is changed several times a year so the pattern follows the season. The movement underneath is satellite-corrected.
Geneva holds more of them than any other city — the UN's European seat, the WHO, the Red Cross and hundreds more — and around forty per cent of residents are foreign nationals as a result.
No. It runs a hundred metres underground in a twenty-seven kilometre ring that crosses under the French border, and the World Wide Web was created there in 1989 and released for free.
On foot, by tram or by small train, depending on conditions on the day.