Warm clothes, boots, umbrellas – prepare the gear and enjoy the outdoors! Because in Geneva there are so many beautiful places. I even found three that are suitable for prams! Unfortunately, many fascinating places close to Geneva are in France, where we can’t go at the moment, but still, I assure you there are enough of adventures to do in Geneva to fill your Wednesdays and weekends!
Here. We. Go!
Reserve Naturelle Moulin De Vert
This place has it all! A steep way down from Cartigny, beautiful woods, meadows, ponds, and Rhone. There are also ruins of an old mill, and if you’re up for it you can make it a loong walk up to the Barrage de Verbois. It means you can start either in Cartigny (there’s a small parking, and signs to follow to get to Moulin de Vert) or from Verbois. You can see some of my photos from this place here.
Teppes de Verbois
On the other bank of the Rhone from the Moulin de Vert, there’s Teppes de Verbois – a fascinating place with several birds observation points (take binoculars!). You can start in La Plaine – the path will lead you to the railway bridge over Allondon, where you can also play at the pebble beach. The bridge itself is great. The bricks and graffitttis around make it a super nice place for photoshoots. From there, you’re almost near the first observation point. The last pond may be too far for some kids but it has nice platforms over the water. You can see our trip to this place here.
La Drize
This canton has so many rivers, there should be an official challenge to visit them all! One of the not well-known streams is the Drize. It starts at the footsteps of Saleve, enters Switzerland in Troinex and goes to Carouge where it joins Arve. You can start your adventure for example at the College de Staël, or in Troinex of course. A great place to observe the stream, and play in the forest!
Bois de Grille – bord du Rhone
On of our favorite places is in Vernier, down from Vernier Village. You can take the bus to the stop « de Sauvage » and go down following the Nant de la Noire or take your car down to the Zone Au Moulin. From there you have three possibilities. The first is to go left to the Ferme du Lignon (on the way you’ll see animals, and local veg awaits at the farm) and visit the fascinating, hanging Passarelle du Lignon over Rhone. The path is uphill-downhill all the way but it’s a short distance. The second option is to turn right from the parking all the way to the beautiful Passarelle de Chevre through mostly flat path, very close to the river, and horses paddocks at the beginning. You can also connect option 1 and 2 and make it a long walk (around 2-3 hours): you just cross one of the passarelles to the other side of the River and cross back through the other passarelle. To make the walk even more amusing you can try to find several geocache spots on the way.
Les Douves, Versoix
A very lovely and very pram friendly trail! The first part leads through wooden platforms over fairy-tale-like ponds. The rest is in the forest. You can take asphalt paths or have fun between the trees. It’s a great place whith lots of possible trails, where you can have a short walk, long walk, exercise on the equipment placed here and there. We visited this place in summer – you can see it here.
Versoix – river
Another river in the canton – la Veroix in, wait for it, yes! Versoix! We found this hike thanks to a brochure by La Poste (you can find it here). It’s a beautiful forest with a beautiful river bank. there’s lots of place to play. If you’re up for a longer walk you can start up the stream and finish in the town of Versoix or the other way around. Our first visit to this forest was back in 2018, captured here.
La Roulave
Guess what? Another river – and this one is so unknown even my very-hiking-Geneva-born-nature-passionate friends haven’t heard about it. It is the most beautiful trail I’ve seen around so far – look at this part of the forest (and swipe right to see more pics from this trail)! The path leads to the remains of an old asphalte mine (they look like small caves). If you grab a bit of the ground from the caves and smell it, you’ll get a scent of petrol! There is a lovely place with a bridge and a platform. It’s a great, not very frequented forest, that I recommend wholeheartedly. Park your car near this bridge, cross it, enter the forest and you’ll be on the right path.
Vineyards
The vineyards in Mandement (Satigny-Dardagny-Russin area) are beautiful no matter the season of the year. In summer it may be too hot for a long walk (not much shade) but all other parts of the year are perfect, and each will make this place look completely different. Feel free to walk along numerous paths. One time we even took our scooters for a ride. You can see it here.
Allondon
The beautiful river of Allondon is a very refreshing and fun place for a family day in summer, but also a fun and adventurous place in autumn and winter. You can get there with TPG (« Malval Centre Nature ») or by car (park here or here). There are some shallow places perfect to explore the river in high boots (like Peppa Pig). The path along the river has some small footbridges that kids enjoy and many small beaches. At times it’s a fast flowing mountain-like strong stream, and in other places it flows smoothly and quietly. The river is a home to various fish and its banks to various animals. If you look close enough, you may find their traces. I posted