Bus, Geneva

From the Bus Station (Gare Routiere) of Geneva, you can visit the beautiful French neighbor cities, such as Annecy, Chamonix, Megeve, Flaine, St. Gervais, Les Contamines. With the exception of Annecy (Lake and old city), others are popular ski cities in the French Alps. In the summer these cities have also beautiful mountains and lakes to visit and climb. The cost of busses is around 30 Swiss Frances for a round rip.

Geneva isn't fun to drive around. Buses & trams are a brilliant alternative: they often have their own lanes & traffic lights, so are faster than a car, especially at peak times. The buses are clean, frequent, remarkably long, & on time.

Most buses & trams have an electronic sign inside the bus informing you of the final destination, & the next stop. The bus stops are usually named after a local feature (eg. museum, hospital) or nearby street. Some buses also have a vocal announcement telling you which stop is approaching.

NOTE: normally buses & trams stop at every stop along a route, so you do not need to signal. However, to open the doors you must press a button located beside or on the door on the outside, or on a pillar or on the door on the inside.

Tickets are available from every bustop. There are very useful maps of the city & routes at most stops. You can also pick up a free map showing the whole city & its bus and tram routes, from the Cornavin station - the central city bus, tram and train depot. All roads lead to Cornavin it seems! It is a short walking distance from a lot of the central hotels, and is well signposted.

The TPG website is quite useful, & much of it available in English. You can plan routes quite easily & down to the very minute. Once you know which number bus you want, click on it & it will bring up a document showing all the stops. If you click on your particular stop, it will give you all the departure times for that particular stop.

One last thing... ticket machines do not give change, so be careful what coinage you put in! If you have to overpay, keep your ticket and take it to the central station where they will give you the balance back.

The town of Geneva and its agglomeration (in fact the canton or state of Geneva) has an excellent public transport network including local trains, tramways, buses and electric trolleybuses.

When arriving at Geneva airport and before going through customs, pick up a free ticket, that gets you by train or bus from the airport to any destination in Geneva county within 90 minutes.

Most hotels will provide a travel pass that gives you free public transport during your stay in Geneva. If you don't stay at such a hotel, get the ticket (best a Day Pass) from the ticket machine at most stops. If you are caught without a valid ticket, you risk a hewfty fine of CHF 120.

I would suggest that anyone travelling with the bus in Geneva, bring along his bus pass(its 45chf per month and can be easily bought at the gare cornavin station-if ur a resident here)or if you are a tourist id reckon you purchase the 4.50chf ticket on the section A in the bus stand for it covers up to 12 hours for the whole day..

should somone forget his/her bus pass or ticket...and upon being caught during those random checks it would cost 80chf and no amount of bribery or excuse will get you out of it

Geneva Airport is approximately 6km from the city centre.

How to travel to/from the airport :

- By bus : TPG (Geneva Public Transport) bus stops are situated at the departures and arrivals levels. Bus Number 10 goes to the city centre every 10 minutes. Bus Number 18 goes to the UN building every 30 minutes. You can purchase tickets from the machines at the bus stops (please have the correct amount, machines don't give change!). Ticket costs CHF 3.- (60min).

- By rail : the underground rail station is located 300m from the airport departures and arrivals levels. All trains stop at Geneva-Cornavin (city centre). The journey takes about 5 minutes, and costs from CHF 3.-.

- By taxi : the journey to the city centre will cost between CHF 30-35.

1ST GOOD NEWS : from 2008, Geneva International Airport will be offering every passenger arriving in Geneva a UNIRESO ticket free of charge, valid for 80 minutes in Geneva public tranportation. A ticket machine is installed for that purpose in the baggage reclaim hall. In the event of a ticket inspection on the network, anyone holding this type of ticket will have to show they have an air ticket proving they arrived in Geneva on that day.

2ND GOOD NEWS : since 2007, all visitors staying at a hotel, youth hostel or camping in Geneva can benefit from the Geneva Transport Card, with no additional cost. This personal and non-transferable pass is established upon the visitor’s check-in in the hotel, youth hostel or camping of his (her) choice, enabling its holder to use of the entire public transportation network without restriction (bus, train and boat), with validity for the entire duration of his (her) stay including the departure day.


If waiting your flight, I highly recommend to have a drink or a light meal to the Zoulou bar (level 2), you could enjoy a great view on the tarmac and less crowed bar. The Follow-me in front of the Post office (arrival level) is another good and quiet address if you are waiting someone at the airport.

There are plenty of buses coming from and going to the neighboring countries. If you come from Switzerland, the only possibility in terms of public transportation is the train - there are no bus connections whithin Switzerland.
BUS!!!
If you drive a car in Geneva, you'll get crazy. Just don't.

**ALWAYS** buy a ticket when riding the buses in Geneva. The dude doesn't check your ticket or stuff like that, but when the ticket guy comes around and finds that you have no ticket you will pay a big fine that makes the whole no ticket concept suck.

A person on our bus did not have a ticket and the mess that caused was quite amazing. Yelling and stuff. Bah. Just buy the damn ticket and chill out.

A Genève tout est possible ! Il y a un aéroport, une gare, des bateaux (lac léman), plein de voitures....
Par contre les taxis sont très chèrs !. Personellement je préfère me déplacer en bus dans la ville, c'est tellement plus simple !.