Geneva and its grand hotels

Four. The five-star hotels we list in Geneva are Beau-Rivage Genève; Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues Geneva; Mandarin Oriental, Geneva; and The Woodward, Auberge Collection. Alongside them we keep three four-star addresses, each listed at exactly the tier it holds: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel de la Paix, Geneva; Hotel d'Angleterre; and Hotel President Wilson, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Geneva. Each has its own page, reached from the list above, with a concierge behind every stay.

All seven stand on the right bank, within a quarter of an hour's walk of one another. Three line the Quai du Mont-Blanc, facing the harbor and the Jet d'Eau across the water – Beau-Rivage Genève, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel de la Paix, Geneva and Hotel d'Angleterre – with the Brunswick Monument across the quay and the Pont du Mont-Blanc at the end of it. Two are further along the shore on the Quai Wilson, from the Bains des Pâquis on toward the Parc Mon Repos, where the quay leaves the harbor for the open lake: The Woodward, Auberge Collection and Hotel President Wilson, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Geneva. Two are on the Rhône rather than the lake: Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues Geneva on the Quai des Bergues, where the river leaves the lake at the Île Rousseau, and Mandarin Oriental, Geneva on the Quai Turrettini, a little downstream. Choose the Quai du Mont-Blanc for the Jet d'Eau in the window; the Quai Wilson for the lake beyond the harbor and quieter evenings; the river quays for the Old Town and the rue du Rhône on foot across the bridges.

Late spring and summer – May to September – bring the lake into its own: the Jet d'Eau runs late into the evening, the Bains des Pâquis fill with swimmers, the steamers leave the quays for Nyon, Yvoire and Lausanne, and the terraces along the water stay open after dark. The watch fair in spring takes the rooms of the quays months ahead, as do the larger international conferences through the year. Autumn is clear and mild, with the vineyards of the Lavaux in color an hour up the lake; winter is gray and cold, with the Bise blowing down the lake, the Escalade and its torchlit procession in the Old Town in December, the Christmas markets, and Chamonix an hour away for the snow – and the hotels at their quietest between conferences.

No. From the Quai du Mont-Blanc, the Pont du Mont-Blanc leads across the harbor to the Jardin Anglais and the rue du Rhône in ten minutes, and the Old Town is a quarter of an hour on foot; from the Quai des Bergues and the Quai Turrettini, the Old Town's hill is across the river. The hotels give their guests a card for the trams, the buses and the mouettes, the small yellow boats that cross the harbor between the Pâquis, the Molard and the Eaux-Vives; taxis and drivers are easy to call. Genève Aéroport is fifteen minutes by car, or seven by train to Cornavin station, itself a ten-minute walk from the quays; the hotel arranges a driver. Lausanne is forty minutes by train along the lake, Montreux and the Château de Chillon about an hour, Annecy forty-five minutes by road, Chamonix and Mont Blanc an hour, and Paris a little over three hours on the TGV from Cornavin.

Yes, and easier than most cities. The lake does the work: the mouettes across the harbor, the Jet d'Eau from the end of its jetty, the paddle steamers to Yvoire or Nyon for the day, the Bains des Pâquis for a swim in summer and Genève-Plage across the water; on land, the flower clock in the Jardin Anglais, the giant chessboards of the Parc des Bastions below the Reformation Wall, the Natural History Museum and, for older children, the Science Gateway at CERN. The Quai Wilson and the Quai du Mont-Blanc put all of it within a short walk, and Hotel President Wilson, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Geneva has a pool by the lake. Chamonix and the Mer de Glace are an hour away for a day in the mountains.

Search your dates on the hotel's page to see reference rates, then send the concierge a request. The concierge confirms exact rates and availability with you before anything is booked, and any payment and its timing are set out before you confirm.