Geneva

Saveurs & Couleurs Café

The Grottes neigborhood of Geneva has long been a center for creative types, many of whom can be found of an evening enjoying a glass of wine at this comfy little bistro.

Café de la Gare

Of the two restaurants attached to the Hotel Montbrillant this is the pick. The beautifully decorated but unpretentious Café de la Gare captures the laid-back feel of some of the best sidewalk cafés in Paris. It's a great place for dinner as well, with excellent Swiss, French, and Italian offerings.

One of the oldest English pubs in Geneva. Live sports, wide selection of draught and bottled beers, ciders. More than 5 big television screens are there to watch different sports as well as a good area to play darts. You can enjoy watching major sports such as NFL, NBA, Masters Tennis, Football league, Boxing, MLB, NHL, EPL, International Rugby union etc. . . . Also serves lunch specials, burgers, steaks, salads and chips.

A café bar bicycle-workshop hair salon and wine shop, with a nice lunch tapas buffet and Thursday night jazz in a beautiful post-industrial space with atrium roofs and an olive tree. What is there not to like?

This cozy little bar on the central square of Geneva's old town more than quintuples in size from April until October when it is able to use a huge swath of the place as its terrace. During warm weather it's packed, but is such a lovely and central stopping point that it's worth the wait for a table - check out the gallery on their website. In the winter they have the best vin chaud in town.

A swanky cocktail bar above the Alhambra Theater. Pretty people in a pretty room, usually with a DJ. A small tapas menu early in the evening and a nice brunch on weekends until 2PM.

This cosy Coffee Shop is in the bank district. Espressos, Cappuccinos, Lattes, Renversés, Macchiatos, Mochacinos, ice coffees and teas can be consumed there or take-away. The coffee is great, there is a free WIFI connection. This is the kind of places where you feel like staying hours, lovely !

One of the few brew pubs in Geneva, Les Brass serves three flavours of home brew in the usual half pints, pints, and litre glasses or you can go for one of the giant plastic tubes filled with three to five litres. A small menu of pub food and a full restaurant in the back makes it a good spot to waste an evening.

One of the half-dozen or so British pubs. Usually full of football watching ex-pats eating fish and chips while sipping Guinness. Saturday night has low-key dancing to sometimes cheesy disco and pop music. A laid-back, friendly spot. One of the best in Geneva for burgers and a dozen of draft beers!!

Remor

Place de cirque 1, phone number (+4122 328 12 70). really the best parisien style grande cafã© in geneva. artwork by university students and sometimes the proprietor hang on the wall. they also offer two salads of the day, and a range of ice-cream treats. on recent evenings they've been screening the best of swiss film, for free. 3.50/5.00chf draft/bottle beers. free wi-fi available.

There are punks in Geneva! Well, a few anyway, and they all hang out at the bar upstairs at the l'Usine. When you're sick of rubbing elbows with bankers, politicians, and their lackeys, head over to the smoky interior of L'Usine for a cheap beer and interesting people-watching. L'Usine also has two large dance/concert halls: One downstairs with an entrance by the river hard to miss with typically massive lines every weekend and one upstairs. Prices typically run for 15ch, but entry from upstairs is free or the bouncers don't care once Moloko starts kicking people out and closing down after 1AM. The two halls are booked by three separate organizations: KAB (http://www.lekab.ch) which books punk rock and rasta, PTR (http://www.ptrnet.ch) which handles slightly bigger name acts, and ZOO which books the best dance hall and electronica music available in Geneva.

Le Ferblanterie

The Ferblanterie, or Tinsmith would be one of the coolest bars in just about any town, and it happens to be on a street loaded with cool bars. This is very much a student haunt, and a grungy one in all the right ways. Some of the cds in the rack above the cd player are by Paulo Conté, Tom Waits, Fugazi, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Charles Mingus, if that tells you anything.

L'Etabli

L'Etabli is a great place to go when the Ferblanterie is packed, or perhaps it's the other way around. This super-friendly little café/bar/wine bar is a great place to meet grad students to help with your French, or to help with their English, or just to argue politics or whatever.

Inside the Grand Hotel Kempinski

One of the most modern clubs in Geneva, the Bypass is, for lack of a better word, bling-bling. The dance floor swarms with young professionals and, on occasion, corporate parties and the rooms pound with clean house music, hip-hop and r'n'b. Unfortunately, this club is not near the city center, but still just a short taxi ride from it.

Although it's not the easiest place to get to, Weetamix is able to attract good, mostly local crowds by consistently booking some of the best cutting-edge talent in electronic music from France, Britain, and the U.S..

The SIP is one of the largest and most happening places in Geneva. The music tends toward the mainstream, which does serve to attract a large mixed crowd of locals and expats. The bar is on the first floor and disco on the second floor. i

This club is known for the wild nights within, thanks to its very strong cocktails served in shaker glasses. The dance floor is imposing, but once on it, well known for romantic encounters. Very popular with English speakers.