Switzerland Guide
Geneva
Accommodation
1 At Home 16 Rue de Fribourg 
022 906 19 00 
www.hotel-at-home.ch Clean, modern, sound-proofed Pâquis rooms, convenient for the location, but small, soulless and, despite the name, not very homely. Discounts for students.Price: Fr.150-200
2 Balzac 14 Rue de l'Ancien-Port 022 731 01 60 www.hotel-balzac.ch Quiet and very spacious rooms – unrenovated but still comfortable – just off the Place de la Navigation. Good value. Parking Fr.10/day. Price: Fr.150–250
3 
De la Cloche 6 Rue de la Cloche 022 732 94 81 www.geneva-hotel.ch/cloche Eight spotless, characterful, high-ceilinged rooms in what was formerly a private apartment in a quiet area of the Pâquis 50m from the lake. The pleasant atmosphere is enhanced by period fittings such as original fireplaces and wood floors. Regularly full.Price: Up to Fr150
4 Ibis 10 Rue Voltaire 022 338 20 20 www.ibishotel.com Generic, functional chain hotel in the city centre, characterless but low-priced. Price: Fr.100-150
5 International & Terminus 20 Rue des Alpes 022 732 80 95 www.international-terminus.hotel-rv.com Clean and comfortable, a stone's throw from the station but off the main traffic street. Ask for an upper floor. Price: Fr.150-200
6 Des Quatre-Nations 43 Rue de Zurich 022 732 02 24 Divey little Pâquis den above a lowlife Portuguese bar, with blithely unhelpful staff (if you can find them) and dead-cheap shower-free rooms. Price: Under Fr.100
7 Rivoli 6 Rue des Pâquis 022 731 85 50, www.geneva-hotel.ch/rivoli Good, quiet central location, but a little gloomy inside: rooms are nothing to write home about, studios are slightly better value. Price: Fr.150-200
8 Windsor 31 Rue de Berne 022 715 16 00 www.hotel-windsor.ch Simple, unadorned rooms, adequate and not without character. Higher floors avoid the Pâquis street-noise. Formal, friendly staff. Price: Fr.150–250
9 Bel'Espérance 1 Rue de la Vallée 022 818 37 37 www.hotel-bel-esperance.ch Owned by the Salvation Army, and now completely renovated into an excellent, modern, family-run hotel on a steep Old Town alley. Exceptionally quiet rooms are bright and simple, with free use of kitchen and great views. A renowned dentist nearby attracts toothache sufferers from all over Europe, making for quirky, cosmopolitan breakfast-times. Completely non-smoking.Price: Fr.150-200
10 Central 2 Rue de la Rôtisserie 022 818 81 00 www.hotelcentral.ch Quiet, comfortable, renovated top-floor rooms just below the Old Town, all with balcony. Prices depend on the room size, but are all good value. Price: Fr.100–200
11 Auberge d'Hermance 12 Rue du Midi, Hermance 022 751 13 68 www.hotel-hermance.ch Charming inn set amidst the medieval lakeshore village of Hermance 15km northeast of Geneva, with five cosy and attractive rooms. The restaurant is celebrated for its excellent French cuisine. Price: Fr.200-250
12 Edelweiss Manotel 2 Place de la Navigation 022 544 51 51 www.manotel.com Comfortable three-star, entirely done-up with Swiss kitsch – carved light pine, images of St Bernard dogs and Alpine flowers and, to top it all, folkloric dinner-shows nightly in the basement restaurant. Ignore it all: beneath the veneer, this remains an excellent city-centre small hotel, with courteous, switched-on staff and good facilities (all rooms have air con). Ask for a top-floor room, facing back over a quiet rooftop panorama.Price: Fr.200–300
13 Kipling Manotel 27 Rue de la Navigation 022 544 40 40 www.manotel.com A touch of airy, exotic class in the heart of the Pâquis, with this sophisticated three-star hotel, air-conditioned throughout. Rooms are styled with some care: fabrics are rich, woods are dark and highly polished, and artefacts attempt to evoke the colonial era of the Raj. Parking available. Price: Fr.250-300
14 Montbrillant 2 Rue du Montbrillant 022 733 77 84 www.montbrillant.ch Award-winning family-run hotel overlooking the station, with some style, plus quiet and atmospheric modern rooms – those under the sloping roof are particularly good. Soundproofing throughout. Price: Fr.200–300
15 Royal Manotel 41 Rue de Lausanne 022 906 14 14 www.manotel.com Flagship Manotel property on eight floors (one non-smoking), offering outstanding value. Rooms are large, with an air of elegance and air con; superb top-floor suites feature effortless, modern luxury styling – canopied bed, parquet floor, Jacuzzi – at four-star prices. All guests have access to the sauna, hammam and small gym, and there's secure underground parking.Price: Fr.250–400
16 Strasbourg 10 Rue Pradier 022 906 58 00 www.hotelstrasbourg.ch Best Western chain hotel on a quiet backstreet very near the station, renovated in classic style, with good service and cosy, if generic, rooms.Price: Fr.250-300
17 Tiffany 1 Rue des Marbriers 022 708 16 16 www.hotel-tiffany.ch Highly successful, attractive and charming Belle Epoque hotel near Plainpalais, with efficient, helpful staff and classic Art Deco styling throughout – from stained glass to swirly bathroom tiles and a stunning painted ceiling. Price: Fr.300–400
18 Les Armures 1 Rue du Puits St-Pierre 022 310 91 72 www.hotel-les-armures.ch Quiet seventeenth-century building in the heart of the cobbled Old Town, with uniquely characterful rooms featuring wood beams and frescoed decor. The height of tasteful, understated luxury.Price: Fr.400
19 Beau Rivage 13 Quai du Mont-Blanc 022 716 66 66 www.beau-rivage.ch Dreamy classical-style palace, centred on a huge atrium with tinkling fountain and characterized by luxury redolent of its 1865 foundation. The same family tends to the hotel's guests now as then, and a farther cry from international business-class anonymity you couldn't find. Its tragic claim to fame is that Empress Elisabeth ("Sissi") of Austria died in one of the drawing rooms in 1898, stabbed by an Italian anarchist. Classic French fine dining is also on offer – with fish dishes celebrated above all – with a choice between the somewhat stuffy formal dining room and, in summer, the lighter, easier-going terrace overlooking the lake. Expect Fr.130 at least. Open daily. Price: Fr.500
20 Des Bergues 33 Quai des Bergues 022 908 70 00 www.fourseasons.com The oldest of Geneva's palace-style hotels, this much-loved 1834 landmark, renovated to glittering international standards, is now part of the Four Seasons chain, yet retains its atmosphere of discreet and unassailable opulence.Price: Fr.500
21 Bristol 10 Rue du Mont-Blanc 022 716 57 00 www.bristol.ch A venerable city-centre institution, dating from 1896, with subtle modern decor and calm, efficient service.Price: Fr.400
22 Intercontinental 7 Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 022 919 39 39 www.interconti.com A vast Sixties high-rise out near the UN, some rooms boasting spectacular lake views, that is the favoured choice of politicos and visiting international delegations. Cosy decor softens the generic interior, but sombre, world-affairs formality is the tone. The visitors' book reads like a roll call of history, running through the last half-dozen US presidents, the late King Hussein of Jordan, Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela, to name a few.Price: Fr.350
23 President Wilson 47 Quai Wilson 022 906 66 66 www.hotelpwilson.com Outstanding five-star palace on the Rive Droite, with a vast lobby and public areas done up in a subtle Art Deco style – lots of dark wood and armchairs. Rooms are spacious, airy, light and modern, and – with the hotel's location, facing away from the city centre – benefit from uncluttered lake views. Price: Fr.500
24 Camping d'Hermance 44 Rue du Nord
022 751 14 83
A pleasant site with free access to the lake. Reachable on bus E. Opening time: April– Sept
25 Auberge de Jeunesse (HI hostel) 30 Rue Rothschild 022 732 62 60 www.youthhostel.ch & www.yh-geneva.ch 330 beds in a good, central location in the Pâquis, open year-round. Big, bustling and well maintained, with cheap meals and good services. Dorm beds from Fr.26. Bus #1 to Wilson.Price: Up to Fr.100
26 City Hostel (SB hostel) 2 Rue Ferrier 022 901 15 00 www.cityhostel.ch Excellent no-smoking backpacker place a short walk from the HI hostel in the Pâquis, with plenty of services (including laundry facilities), inexpensive rooms and dorm beds from Fr.28. Bus #4 to Prieuré.Price: Under Fr.100