General Information

Travel Tips

Everything in the area is made doubly exciting by the following facts:

• the Swiss-French border virtually surrounds the city of Geneva,
• CERN is half in France and half in Switzerland,
• France is part of the European Union and Switzerland is not.

Therefore, always carry your passport, even when going to town for dinner! Unless you are used to the area, you may find yourself in front of a border post when you least expect it. Be aware that nationals of certain countries may need visas for either Switzerland or France, and that you MUST organise this before your visit.

We strongly recommend that you have valid papers for travelling in both Switzerland and France. There will be visits to the CERN site in both countries.

To get to Geneva:

• Geneva has an international airport at Cointrin, it straddles the border, and you can exit through Switzerland or France.
• Geneva has an international railway station, where both trains from Switzerland and trains directly from France arrive. If you arrive by the French fast train (TGV) then you will have to go through customs inside the Geneva railway station upon your arrival there.
• Geneva has motorways arriving from Switzerland (Lausanne) and France (Lyon, Annecy). Here the border posts are at the frontier.

To get to the area from inside Europe:

• if you are not very far away, travelling by car may be a valid option. There is a unique, once-yearly tax of 40CHF to be paid on Swiss motorways. If you intend to travel over Swiss motorways and you come from outside Switzerland, you should buy the 40CHF sticker at the customs post and stick it on the inside of the windscreen. Stickers that have not been stuck on are invalid and you are liable to incur a fine.
• from France, Belgium, Holland or Germany: try the train. There are excellent connections, most take less than a day's travel. From the Paris area there is a fast train (TGV).
• from other locations in Europe, a flight is probably quickest.

To get to the area from outside Europe:

• Cheap flights stop over in several European cities.
• It can also be cheap to fly to Paris and take a TGV train from there (which in addition gives you a touristic opportunity to be on the world's fastest train).

One way or another, you arrive at one of these three places:

• the Geneva International Airport, at Cointrin;
• the Geneva international railway station at Cornavin;
• the motorway/road intersections close to the airport.

Once you have arrived close to the city:

The Hotels Penta, 33, Cadettt Mövenpick, Mövenpick Radisson are very near the airport. Free shuttle services are available to and from the airport for most of these hotels or you may use public transport (Bus No. 10) which runs approximately every seven minutes.

If you have a hotel downtown, the cheapest thing to do is to take the train from the airport to the city (every ten minutes or so) and then take a taxi to your hotel, or walk there.

To get to CERN, the quickest way is to take a taxi (about SF 25-30 from the airport). Otherwise take the No. 10 bus from the aiport to the "Bouchet" (7 stops), then the No. 9 bus marked CERN (SF 2.20 valid for one hour on all buses).