Travels With Clo

With zero annual leave to spare, my friend and I fancied a quick Christmas market getaway, and where better than the picturesque country of Switzerland.

Although inherently not a cheap destination, we made the most of the free and low cost activities available to us, and had an epic 36 hours.

One great thing about Geneva, is that you get a travel card with your hotel booking, so all modes of travel within the city are free of charge. This meant our airport transfer and trams didn’t cost us a thing.

Neither of us had visited Geneva before, so prior to our hotel check-in we crossed off most of the tourist sights. We started at the zoo, which mainly held birds, camels and lemurs. It was also a great plane spotting destination because of its proximity to the airport.

We then did the main sights, including the broken chair, the UN building, the botanical garden and the fountain (which was sadly turned off for maintenance). All of these were within a walkable distance, and in pretty much a straight line, leading us to our hotel.

Our hotel was cheap and cheerful, exactly what we needed for one nights stay. The total for the night was £98, so £48 each. Can’t really complain. We had a clean comfy bed and a private bathroom, with the added bonus of a Juliette balcony.

There was still a few hours until it got dark, so of course we went to the museum!

Once it got dark, we headed to the Noelle au Quays which runs all along the waterfront of Geneva. It was a very typical Christmas market, with a food area, a bar, and many stalls to buy Christmas gifts.

We were spoilt for choice, but ended up getting some rich hot chocolates and pretzels to enjoy by the tree, whilst we plotted which fondue to have for dinner.

Day 2, and our final day of the trip was incredibly jam-packed. We spent the morning following the Chocolate Pass Trail. This was 30 CHF each, and included chocolate samples from nine shops across the city- naturally, we went to them all. In some shops we were given tasters while we were there, one gave us a hot chocolate, and they all gave us some goodies to take away. I thought this was great value for money and I’m glad I stumbled upon it on TikTok!

When we got home, I took a picture of all the chocolates together, and as you can see, there were plenty for the price we paid.

Just before lunchtime, we caught the train to Montreux. You can go straight from the airport and do this as a day trip, but we wanted to include Geneva too. At the station, you can buy the ticket on a Christmas offer, which comes with a free drink and snack at the market. This was 30 CHF each, which is a pretty good deal for return train tickets and food.

The journey from Geneva to Montreux mostly follows Lake Geneva, so the views were wonderful, and the Christmas market is a few minutes walk from the station.

The Montreux Christmas market is quite famous, but the size of it blew my mind. We gave ourselves four hours to explore, and actually ran out of time. Our first point of call was to find where we could redeem our voucher, and found the indoor food hall full of pretzel and mulled wine stalls. We ate these with a wonderful view of the ferris wheel, and then spent the next few hours perusing each stall until it got dark. It was hard to resist all of the fondue and delicious smelling sausages, cakes and burgers.

We made sure to time our visit well, so we’d get to see the famous flying Santa. At 18:00, the flying Santa flew across the lake, and from the videos I’d seen, I thought it was a small, fake Santa. In real life, it was a full sized sleigh, manned by a real Santa!

Sadly, after watching this, it was time to head back to the airport for our flight home. Our bags were brimming with Christmas market mugs and chocolates, and we had the best weekend. Geneva/ Montreux are great options for easy European Christmas markets. They are easy to navigate and quick to fly to. You won’t regret visiting Montreux!