Bustling Geneva Switzerland

Geneva is a major European cosmopolitan city and is the second largest city in Switzerland located on the shores of the eponymous lake.

It is the base for some of the world’s largest international organizations, such as the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the Red Cross, the World Bank and the United Nations. Most of the locals we interacted with were fluently trilingual (French-German-English) and quite a number quadrilingual (French-German-Italian-English).

Geneva is also known as the epicenter of the Swiss watch and clock industry; it was in Geneva that the very first wristwatch was produced for a Hungarian Countess by Patek Philippe. During our stay, we visited the Patek Philippe Museum where thousands of very precious watches were exhibited to our delight; I consider this visit one of the highlights of our Geneva stay.

Since the late 16th century many other world known watch manufacturers such as Rolex, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Omega and Cartier have been headquartered in the city.

Major scientific and medical research are both taking place in and around the city. In a northwestern suburb of Geneva CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research operates the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

Another interesting fact is that the World Wide Web i.e. the Internet was conceived at CERN as a way for the scientists there to communicate and exchange information and data with interested colleagues around the world.

Switzerland and Belgium are thought of as having the best chocolate producers and Zurich and Geneva are the two Swiss production epicenters adored by chocolate lovers. Geneva is full of chocolatiers from internationally-renowned brands to tiny boutique producers and some have been in the chocolate business for centuries.

If there is one industry that towers above all the rest in terms of revenue, it’s that of international finance. And Geneva’s financial community is known for being among the global leaders in commodity trading.

Geneva is also a hot spot in the international hospitality industry. Some of the best known luxury hotels are located in this city.

The Hotel de la Paix stands out among five-star area hotels with its chic design, boutique services and culinary expertise. The Beau-Rivage is one of Geneva’s landmark luxury hotels situated at an exceptional location facing Geneva’s jet d’eau and is steadfastly anchored both in the past and present.

The Mandarin Oriental Geneva, previously known as the Hotel du Rhône, is a five-star hotel in an early modernist Art Deco style with classic charm. It was the very first luxury hotel to be built in Europe after World War II. 

During previous visits to the city we had stayed at all three of the above mentioned hotels but on this trip we stayed at the Hotel Bristol Geneva, and we were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of service and amenities of this hotel that is officially labeled as a Superior 4-star property.

The only city feature we were unable to experience, though we heard a lot about it, was the city’s outstanding gastronomy because of the peculiarities of our visit. Hopefully, we’ll return in the near future for a chance to report on that important aspect of a vibrant city.

Some of the experiences mentioned in this article are based on complimentary stays, meals, or goods. But as always, we are dedicated to giving you unbiased accounts of our experiences. See our Disclosures page for more information.