Getaways from Geneva: day trips and destinations close by.

The station next to the terminal decides how you leave

There are direct flights to Geneva airport (GVA) from Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Alicante, Málaga, Seville, Palma, A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela, and from Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. The airport has a railway station next to the terminal, and that decides how you leave the city.

To Switzerland you go by train. From Genève to Lavaux it is about 61 minutes, with a change at Lausanne, and from the airport to Cully, about 70. Towards the Aletsch glacier the train continues along the lake and the Rhône valley to Brig, where you change to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn regional: about 149 minutes to Mörel and about 175 to Fiesch with the first EC. On that same line, with a change at Visp, you reach Zermatt, for which there is not yet a timed plan from Geneva.

To France you go by road. The A40 climbs the Arve valley to Chamonix in about 75 minutes, by hire car or on one of the shuttles that leave the airport and are booked online. In the valley you do not need a car: with the Carte d'hôte the train between Servoz and Vallorcine is free. Annecy is about 50 km away, with a train and coach from the airport.

Ten kilometres among vines from Lutry to Epesses

An hour away, Lavaux, without a car. The terraces from Lutry to Epesses on foot are about 10 km among vines, with lunch at the Auberge du Vigneron and a tasting of chasselas at the Vinorama in Rivaz. With children, the Lavaux Express through the vineyards swaps the walk for the little train, lunch by the water at Cully and the vineyard train to Chexbres. To stay, two nights in Lavaux, sleeping in Cully.

An hour and a quarter away, Chamonix. The Aiguille du Midi and the Mer de Glace fit in a day: cable car to 3,842 m first thing, the Montenvers train and lunch at the 1880 refuge. In winter, snowshoes in the Bérard valley and the Brévent. And to sleep a night beside the glacier, two nights in Chamonix with Lac Blanc.

Between two and a half and three hours, the Aletsch glacier, the longest in the Alps. The Riederalp forest and the Bettmerhorn, about 149 minutes away, look at the glacier from above, among Swiss stone pines and from the summit; Lake Märjelen via the Tälligrat tunnel, about 175, reaches the ice on foot. They are long days by train, and that is why there is the two nights at the Aletsch getaway, with a guided crossing of the glacier.

The Aiguille du Midi reopens on 19 December

In winter, Chamonix. Snowshoeing runs from mid-December to March, on Sundays, and the Aiguille du Midi reopens on 19 December 2026. Lavaux stays open, with the Auberge du Vigneron every day, although the Vinorama closes from 1 to 21 January 2027.

In spring, Lavaux: the Lavaux Express leaves Lutry on Sundays from April, and the terrace route is good from April to October.

In summer the Aletsch opens: the Riederalp forest from late June to mid-October, and Lake Märjelen from July to September, when the route is free of snow. July, August and September are also the months of the Chamonix getaway and of Lac Blanc.

In autumn, the September and October grape harvest in Lavaux. November is the month when the lifts and the Montenvers train are being serviced: that month, better the vines than the mountains.

Lavaux on a Sunday, the Aiguille in clear skies

• Without a car and on a Sunday: the Lavaux terraces on foot, all year.
• On a clear day: the Aiguille du Midi and the Mer de Glace, all year except November.
• With two nights in summer: the Aletsch glacier, without touching the car.