What is the Geneva outdoor escape game?
The Geneva outdoor escape game is an escape room without walls: the puzzles are planted at the city's landmarks and solved from your phone. Plan on about 2 hours, 45 minutes of which is walking, and the 3.5 km route threads 10 stops together between the lakeshore and the Old Town.
You will find puzzles at the Brunswick Monument on the lakefront, at St Peter's Cathedral on its hill, at the Museum of Art and History, along the Reformation Wall in the Parc des Bastions and on Place de Neuve with the Grand Théâtre and Victoria Hall. Each puzzle is self-contained, with no plot running between them, and three hint levels are available. Geneva fits the format because the lake and the hill town sit within one walk of each other.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 45 min · 3.5 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Every attraction comes with a puzzle built on observation and logic. There is nothing to revise beforehand.
Look up
Pinnacles, statues, carved mottoes and inscriptions carry the information a puzzle needs.
Walk
45 minutes on foot across 3.5 km, from the lakeshore up to the Old Town, with Google Maps doing the navigating.
Take your time
There is no countdown. Ask for a hint, break in the Parc des Bastions and continue later or another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends
The puzzles keep a group talking between landmarks, and nobody needs to know Geneva in advance.
Couples
A shared task with the lake on one side and the Old Town on the other, and nothing forcing your pace.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 players, each with a phone, which makes it workable for a whole office.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from the Basilica of Notre-Dame to Victoria Hall
10 stops · about 45 min walking · start: Basilica of Notre-Dame · finish: Victoria Hall
Play opens at the Basilica of Notre-Dame near Cornavin station, then drops to the water for the Brunswick Monument and crosses to the National Monument in the Jardin Anglais. From there the route climbs to St Peter's Cathedral, carries on to the Museum of Art and History and the house where Liszt and Marie d'Agoult lived, and runs along the Reformation Wall. Place de Neuve, the Grand Théâtre and finally Victoria Hall close the game. A different opening stop, or a different sequence, is a tap away in the app, and none of the ten puzzles asks for a ticket.
Open the route map ↗
1Basilica of Notre-DameStart
Geneva's main Catholic church stands a short walk from Cornavin station and was built in the mid-19th century in the Gothic Revival style. It reflected the growing Catholic community in the city of Calvin, and its pointed arches, pinnacles and tall windows deliberately recall the French cathedrals of the Middle Ages.
2Brunswick Monument
This richly decorated mausoleum on the lakefront holds Duke Charles II of Brunswick, who died in Geneva in 1873 and left his fortune to the city on condition that it build him a worthy tomb. The city modelled it on the Gothic tombs of the Scaliger family in Verona, so look up at its pinnacles and canopied niches.
Read the full story →
3National Monument
In the Jardin Anglais two bronze women stand together: Helvetia, who represents Switzerland, and Geneva. The monument by Robert Dorer was unveiled in 1869 and celebrates Geneva joining the Swiss Confederation in 1815.
4St Peter's Cathedral
Building began around 1160 on a hill that was already a place of worship in Roman times, and the cathedral became Protestant during the Reformation in the 1530s. John Calvin preached here, and the neoclassical portico with its columns was added to the medieval church in the 18th century.
5Museum of Art and History
One of the largest museums in Switzerland, it opened in 1910 in a monumental building by the architect Marc Camoletti. Its collection includes Konrad Witz's altarpiece of 1444, whose Miraculous Draught of Fishes is set on Lake Geneva and is one of the earliest realistic landscapes in European painting.
6Liszt and Marie d'Agoult's House
In 1835 the young pianist Franz Liszt and Countess Marie d'Agoult, who had left her husband for him, came to Geneva and lived in this house. Their first daughter, Blandine, was born in the city that year, and Liszt taught piano at the newly founded Geneva Conservatory.
7Reformation Wall
This 100-metre wall in the Parc des Bastions was begun in 1909, the 400th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, and runs along the old city moat. Its central statues show William Farel, Calvin, Theodore Beza and John Knox, and above them is carved Geneva's motto, Post Tenebras Lux, light after darkness.
Read the full story →
8Place de Neuve
Place de Neuve lies at the foot of the Old Town, where the Porte Neuve, one of the gates of the old city fortifications, once stood. Today it is framed by the Grand Théâtre, the Conservatoire de Musique and the Musée Rath, and at its centre stands the equestrian statue of General Guillaume-Henri Dufour, who led the federal army in 1847.
9Grand Théâtre de Genève
Geneva's opera house opened on Place de Neuve in 1879, and its richly decorated façade recalls the Paris Opera of the same period. A fire in 1951 destroyed the stage and much of the auditorium, which was rebuilt with a modern interior and reopened in 1962.
10Victoria HallFinish
This concert hall was paid for by Daniel Barton, the British consul in Geneva, and named after Queen Victoria when it opened in 1894. It is the home of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and after a fire in 1984 its richly decorated hall was restored.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Sebastian– Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Overall the tour has provided us with a nice experience. However, some text in the app feels like a text generated very poorly, repeating itself or making no sense in places. The quiz/quest also has a lot of room to improve itself. However, because it was the only one available, I would recommend it to someone, therefore the 4 stars.
Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Quite enjoyable, but would have been better if there were more stops, 10 was not enough