In my version of Throwback Thursday, Monday Memories, I am taking you back to when I studied abroad in Paris. During one of our long weekends, four other girls and I decided to visit Geneva, Switzerland! I thought it would be a long weekend of chocolate, watches, fondue, and banking but never did I expect boating.
I knew Lake Geneva was one of the main attractions when it comes to Geneva, but we had no idea you can rent boats for an hour, two, or the day. We joked about going on a yacht to our CouchSurfing host, Alex, since we had seen a few earlier in the day and when he told us it was possible to rent a boat, we knew this had to happen.
First we went up into the mountains to get a view of the lake so we knew what we were getting ourselves into. Lake Geneva is a ginormous lake sharing borders with France and Switzerland right by the Alps. Now, being from the Midwest, I am no stranger to great lakes (see what I did there?), however Lake Geneva is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe and spans over 45 miles.
There are several options to rent a boat in Geneva, and after coming down the mountains, we decided to choose Les Corsaires only because it was closest to us and cheaper than another one, as we were poor study abroad students! It was cheaper five years ago, but if you get a group of you to go, it isn’t too expensive to rent, and cost us around 20 euros or so each.
We got the ‘scoop’ boat to hold all six of us, and while it isn’t the fastest, it got the job done! We treated our CouchSurfing host to the boat ride for putting up with 5 crazy Americans for a couple days and it was cool to experience something he had never done even though he had been living in Geneva for a year!
If you are looking to do something fun and different to do the beautiful city of Geneva, I highly suggest renting a boat to see a different view of the city from one of its main attractions!
