Self-Guided Audio Tour to the Many Faces of Geneva
Description
Pride and love, gluttony and moderation, justice and anger, envy and courage go hand in hand in Geneva. In this tour you will not only manage to see all the main sights of this city, but also look at them from a different angle — from the perspective of human vices and virtues. The monument in honour of Empress Elisabeth ”Sissi”, who was stabbed to death, is located not far from the “doing a good deed” Jet d'Eau fountain. The monument to Jean-Jacques Rousseau reminds visitors of a man who promoted ideas of social equality, but at the same time confessed to affairs with married women and masochism. The building known to serve as a shelter to orphans and bread for the poor in the Middle Ages was also used to lock up beggars and the insane, but the theologians depicted on the Reformation Wall were later taunted with inflexibility, mercilessness and heartlessness. We will guide you through the key places of Geneva and tell the true story of the real people and their sins and virtues.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Embark on this captivating journey starting near the statue honoring the empress tragically taken by an anarchist. Uncover the intricate details of this event, delving into the how and, more importantly, the why.
Marvel at one of the world's largest fountains, pondering its contribution to making the world a better place.
Proceed to a monument dedicated by a generous benefactor, exploring the significance of his donation and discovering images of virtues adorning the structure.
Encounter the monument commemorating Jean-Jacques Rousseau, delving into the sins he openly confessed.
Venture to the National Monument and unravel the story behind its triumphant selection in a competition for erection.
Take a moment with the Flower Clock, unveiling its ties to the concept of pride.
Explore the Lutheran church, delving into diverse religious perspectives on the impact of sins and good deeds on an individual's salvation. Adjacent to the church lies the Palace of Justice, where the profound connection to mercy will be unveiled.
Embark on a discovery of the monument representing a Genevan champion for justice, unraveling the history of past red-light districts.
Gaze upon St. Pierre Cathedral, understanding its association with the virtue of temperance. Explore the statue of the Prophet Jeremiah, often referred to as "the weeping prophet." Progress to the Town Hall building, where the stone bench witnessed the pronouncement of death sentences by Geneva's judges.
Journey to the Reformation Wall, learning which theologians faced criticism for inflexibility, mercilessness, and heartlessness.
Witness the statue of Guillaume-Henri Dufour, gaining insight into his valiant struggle against evil.
Encounter the bust of a Red Cross founder, discovering the intricacies of his life and uncovering surprising parallels with Leo Tolstoy.
Conclude your tour with a visit to the fountain that stands as a testament to the courage of the Genevans.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(10)
PROS: the tour did a good job explaining directions on how to get from point to point. Also the tour operator responded in chat when the code did not work. Also having an audio guide is much easier than a written format. CONS: unfortunately this audio guide was very boring, and at times the commentary is simply reading passages and quotes that were not very interesting nor given a lot of context of importance. Halfway through I stopped and just listened to the rest of the tour to see if it would improve but it didn’t. My recommendation to the tour operator is to add more of a storytelling element about the city and stops.
The narrative thoroughly described the sights, with written text. Good directions. I learned a lot! Reasonably priced. I would do it again.
Thanks for your feedback! We’re really glad you found the content detailed, the directions clear, and the price reasonable. Knowing you’d be happy to do it again means a lot to us — it’s one of the best signs that we’re doing things right.
It was very informative and fun walking through the city! Good directions with pictures help. Hot day so we took some breaks and then kept going.
Thanks for sharing! One of the best things about self-guided tours is the control they give you — the freedom to choose your own pace and focus on what interests you most. We’re glad you enjoyed the tour and found the directions easy to follow! Wishing you many great journeys ahead!
Perfect for some history and orientation and your own pace on arriving in Geneva. Perfect guide with interesting history and easy directions
Thanks a lot for your lovely feedback! We’re so happy the tour helped you settle into Geneva and explore it comfortably. Glad you enjoyed the stories and found it easy to follow — that’s exactly what we aim for!
The tour was great. Well put together and have an interesting perspective of Geneva. Unfortunately the tech was frustrating. You need to have really good data coverage! I experienced drop outs and slow loading. Several times the whole tour had to be restarted. There was no way that I could see to down load the tour onto my device which would have saved a lot of problems.
Thank you for your feedback, and we're glad to hear that you enjoyed the content and unique perspective of the tour! We’re sorry that you encountered technical issues during the experience. The tour relies on a stable internet connection, and interruptions can occur in areas with weak data coverage. We recommend ensuring a strong connection for the best experience and to avoid these disruptions. We appreciate your suggestion regarding an offline version of the tour. While we currently do not offer this option, we will consider it as we continue to evaluate ways to improve our services. Thank you again for your input, and we wish you many more enriching discoveries on your future travels.
May be of interest to other people but I found the lengthy comments being too much about morale, philosophy and religion and not enough about historical information.
Dear Eric_C, Thank you for your feedback. I understand that the focus on morale, philosophy, and religion might not have been what you were looking for. However, as stated in the tour description, the intent is to show the main sights of Geneva and explore them from the perspective of human vices and virtues. I hope this explanation clarifies the tour's unique angle and helps align expectations for future participants. I wish you enjoyable and fulfilling experiences in your future travels.
It was easy to follow the directions and nice commentary on all the locations. Glad we did it as felt more informative than walking around on our own.
Thank you for the feedback and we are really happy that you liked the tour and found it easy to follow and interesting. May your other travels be filled with exciting experiences and happiness.
Everything was just great! The tour is perfectly organized from technical and content perspectives. We followed the exact instructions throughout the route and found it very interesting! This guide not only lists some key facts about the city, its various locations and monuments but also shares exciting stories and background atmosphere of the past events - all these makes this city tour one of the best in my experience! Highly recommend for everyone who wants to explore and truly enjoy the city!😍✨
Dear 973evgen, Thank you very much for your feedback! We are happy that you liked content and did not have any issues from the technical side. This is great that you could feel the atmosphere of past events. This is what this product is created for - not only to share our knowledge about Geneva, but also to allow you to feel the city, to experience it not only as a place with many points of interest, but also as a place where people love and hate, help and harm, strive for power and are fragile... We are really proud that you name the tour as one of the best in your experience and wish you to have a lot of other exciting discoveries along your way!
We were going to be in Geneva for a short time and wanted to find a simple, inexpensive city tour. This seemed to fit the bill so we bought 2 tickets. I did not read the ‘Before you go’ instructions as closely as I should have, but a patient Viator rep pointed me to link to start the tour. You will need to use your personal cell phone and ear phones for this tour. The voice quality and directions to the various points of interest were the highlights of the self-guided tour. We didn’t enjoy the story-telling part (Sins & Virtue ) and would have preferred more city facts. We were also disappointed that the audio dropped out frequently and we would have to restart it several times. However, we were able to pause the tour for lunch and side visits without any problem. Again, the tour was inexpensive and very good with directions, but technical glitches diminished our rating.
Dear Jim L, Thank you very much for choosing our audio tour and taking time to provide your feedback, what is very valuable for us. We are happy that you liked the voice quality - we indeed aimed to create a very nice product, this is why we recorded everything in the professional studio and carefully selected the speaker. We are also glad that you found directions clear - this was our other goal that the route is super clear and easy, and one never feels lost. This is why the audio guide contains detailed directions with photos describing the way. We tested the tour many times, and it seems that you experienced technical difficulties because of slow speed of internet and here unfortunately we cannot do a lot. We are sad that you did not enjoy the story part. We wanted to be ahead of the standard excursion, where you are provided with basic facts like when the monument was erected and who the author was. Instead of putting together this standard information we wanted to create something better, more similar to the audio book, where you see many faces of the same city and get immersed into the stories related to love, pride, anger and other sins and virtues. Our experience shows that tourists usually like that approach, but we understand also that tastes differ. Once again, we thank you very much for the feedback and wish you a lot of beautiful experiences going forward.
This was a fun interactive way to see a few sights that we wanted to see and the directions were perfect! If you are like me you can read faster than the narrator or you can just sit a listen while you spend time taking in the sights.
Dear Jason H, thank you very much for your feedback! We are really happy that you liked the tour and wish you a lot of other nice experiences in exploring this world :)
