Hi folks,

My sister is visiting me later this week and is driving. I don't have a parking spot and all the ones near me need a permit, so does anyone know where you can park overnight in Lausanne? What about the multi-story car parks in the centre?

I don't drive here, so I know nothing about parking. I don't want her (or me) ending up on the wrong side of the law/rules. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Cheers,
Sam.

You can almost always leave your car in any blue lined parking space (permit or not) using the blue parking disc during working hours (if I remember right, that's 8am to 7pm weekdays and 9-5 on saturdays). The blue disc gives you usually 1.5 hours but if you keep going back and changing the time on it, then you can potentially keep it there for ever.

Same goes for the parking meters - you pay between 8am and 7pm instead - but overnight it's free.

One additional thing: I always left my car without bothering to do anything. Depending on where you live (how central), the wardens do zones over periods of time, so where I lived (sous-gare) once every 4 weeks I'd get a CHF40 fine. I just looked at it as CHF40/month for on-street parking.

Otherwise here's a list of Lausanne car parks.

Park down in Ouchy. Free unlimited parking and a short buss ride into town.

You can get a day parking pass (it's a scratch off kind of thing) for the blue zone in your area. You can pick them up at the address below. For where you are, I think it's CHF12 per day which is much cheaper then leaving the car in a parking garage.

http://www.lausanne.ch/view.asp?domId=62898&language=E

Police de Lausanne
Office du stationnement
Rue Saint-Martin 29
Case postale 5354
1002 Lausanne