Lake Geneva has a remarkably rich museum scene for its size: major fine art and history collections in Geneva, a new arts district and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, about 61 km from Geneva Airport, small but distinctive museums in Vevey near Montreux, and the Fondation Pierre Gianadda in Martigny, in the Rhône valley beyond the eastern end of the lake. A chauffeur from AirportsTransfers.ch lets you link two or three of them in a single day without trains and taxis.
- Geneva: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, MAMCO, Musée Ariana, Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum
- Lausanne: Plateforme 10 arts district, Collection de l'Art Brut, Olympic Museum
- Vevey: Musée Jenisch, the Alimentarium, Chaplin's World nearby
- Martigny: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, with exhibitions, sculpture park and Roman remains
- Tip: check temporary exhibitions in advance and plan one major museum per half-day
Geneva: from old masters to contemporary art
The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, in a grand early twentieth-century building near the old town, is one of Switzerland's largest museums, with archaeology, decorative arts, arms and armour and a fine art collection. Its best-known work is Konrad Witz's fifteenth-century altarpiece showing the miraculous draught of fishes set on Lake Geneva, one of the earliest realistic landscapes in European painting. For contemporary art, MAMCO, in a former factory in the Plainpalais area, presents rotating installations across several floors. The Musée Ariana, a palatial building near the United Nations, is devoted to ceramics and glass, while the Fondation Baur holds an elegant collection of Asian art in a townhouse. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, across from the Palais des Nations, tells the story of humanitarian action through immersive galleries; it is less an art museum than a moving experience, and many visitors rank it among the city's highlights.
Lausanne: Plateforme 10 and the Art Brut collection
Lausanne has invested heavily in culture, and Plateforme 10, beside the main railway station, brings three museums together in one district: the cantonal fine arts museum (MCBA), mudac for contemporary design and applied arts, and Photo Elysée for photography. It is easy to spend half a day there. Across town, the Collection de l'Art Brut, based on the collection assembled by the artist Jean Dubuffet, shows work by self-taught artists, psychiatric patients and outsiders; it is unlike anything else in the region and often deeply affecting. Down by the lake at Ouchy, the Olympic Museum covers the history of the Games in a landscaped park, and the Fondation de l'Hermitage, in a villa with gardens above the city, stages major exhibitions in a domestic setting.
Vevey: small town, distinctive museums
Vevey, on the lake next to Montreux, which is about 91 km from Geneva Airport, has long attracted artists and writers. The Musée Jenisch combines fine art with an important collection of prints and drawings and a foundation devoted to Oskar Kokoschka, who spent his later years nearby. The Alimentarium, on the lakefront, is a museum about food and nutrition; its giant fork standing in the water is one of the most photographed sights on the lake. Just above the town at Corsier-sur-Vevey, Chaplin's World occupies the manor house where Charlie Chaplin lived with his family for the last decades of his life, with film sets and the family home open to visitors. Combine any of these with a walk through the Lavaux vineyard terraces nearby.
Martigny: the Fondation Pierre Gianadda
Martigny lies in the Rhône valley in Valais, past the eastern end of Lake Geneva. The Fondation Pierre Gianadda was built around the remains of a Gallo-Roman temple and is known for ambitious exhibitions, frequently featuring major names of modern art. The site also includes a sculpture park with works by well-known twentieth-century artists, a collection of vintage cars and a small archaeological museum. Martigny itself has Roman remains, including an amphitheatre, and the medieval tower of La Bâtiaz overlooks the town.
- One-day plan: Lausanne in the morning, Vevey in the afternoon, back to Geneva in the evening
- Two-day plan: add Martigny via Montreux, with a night on the lake
- Geneva-only day: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, then the Red Cross museum or the Ariana
Booking a museum day with a driver
A chauffeur by the hour or a set of point-to-point transfers can be booked on AirportsTransfers.ch, with the fixed price for the vehicle shown before you pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. The Mercedes E-Class suits up to three visitors, the S-Class offers a quieter ride, and the V-Class seats up to seven, ideal for a family or a small group of friends. From Geneva Airport, the driver meets you in arrivals with a name sign and tracks your flight. Child seats are provided on request. Plan your route by calling or messaging +41 78 346 56 77 on WhatsApp.
