Hotel for one night in Geneva and hidden gems

[randlemarcus]

Most of the time, I crawl out of the airport and head for the nearest MegaCorp business hotel to get my head down. This time, I have one night in Geneva with the missus before heading to Morzine. Which is lovely, but the hotel choice in the middle of town is all over the place. She's after opulent rather than glitzy boutique, and while I do love her very much, the Mandarin is not appealing to my sense of "worth it"
Budget is up to around the £200 mark for the night - thoughts and recommendations?

Also, the less I spend on that, the better the dinner can be. Not after Michelin stars necessarily, and have no idea of what food costs in Geneva (mostly, it goes on the expense report and is forgotten). Is £50/head OK, with one bottle of wine?

[JMGS4]

Judging by the prices in the Basel area, I'd calculate SFR 100/head for a good meal...AND Geneva is more expensive than Basel (as they erroneously believe they are somewhere important!! )

[anonymous-user]

When are you going? Is it £200 all in or £200 + hotel?

[randlemarcus]

Friday day and night.

Hotel now sorted, as some nicely timed points mean a nice free room in the Intercontinental

Still looking for a nice place to eat, either for lunch or dinner, as now arriving at 1100 local (yawn)

[anonymous-user]

randlemarcus said:

Friday day and night.

Hotel now sorted, as some nicely timed points mean a nice free room in the Intercontinental

Still looking for a nice place to eat, either for lunch or dinner, as now arriving at 1100 local (yawn)

Any ideas on food type? I can make some suggestions.

[randlemarcus]

Swiss/French, seeing where we are Italian as secondary, curry/chinese as far less preferable.

[anonymous-user]

randlemarcus said:

Swiss/French, seeing where we are Italian as secondary, curry/chinese as far less preferable.

If you want a real Swiss experience, I would go to Les Bains des Paquis around late afternoon. www.bains-des-paquis.ch
It is a sauna/hammam complex (you have to go naked but it's no big deal), make sure you take a towel and they give you a spare for using in the sauna. It costs CHF20 per person and you can stay in there as long as you like. There are places to relax inside and outside, two fabulous saunas, a men's and women's hammam and a mixed hammam. You can have a sauna and jump in the lake afterwards, all whilst looking out onto Geneva across the lake. The reason to go late afternoon is that you can spend a few hours just having a nice time and after you come out in the same place, there is also a restaurant there which does a great fondue. http://www.buvettedesbains.ch/#menu-link

Pretty easy to get to from the intercontinental too.

Otherwise:

Swiss/French restaurants:
Cave Valaisanne - this is a bit of a tourist haunt but fairly central for a fondue/raclette - in Plain Palais
Le Bistroquet - bistro style restaurant in Acacias. I like the ambiance here, the food is nicely made and it isn't very well known. http://lebistroquet.ch/

Italian:
La Pignata - Plain Palais - quite authentic Italian food. Looks old fashioned but serves really nice food.
Les trois verres - Owned by the same guy as La Pignata but more upmarket, it is across the park from La Pignata about 300m away.

Don't bother with curry, it's st here. Chinese food is nice at Restaurant Hungky in Paquis, but don't bother because you are in Switzerland.

There are loads of other options so if none of them tickle your fancy then just let me know.

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 6th January 19:29

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 6th January 19:29

[anonymous-user]

How was it?