Good evening people.

What a great forum you have here.
I am visiting Geneva for about a month and has been fighting to find a spot to park my car somewhere since I got here.
I live in a hotel close by Gare Cornavin and I drive a Land Rover Defender (2,10 m high) and I thought I found a parking place for my car just behind the station on some private (seemed to be more or less abandonded) parking spaces. I saw that there was a lot of empty spaces during day/night/weekend before I started parking there. All was going well and I had left my car there for 5 days today, but checking the car this evening and she is GONE!!
I hope that the Police took it, but what do I do to find that out?
And if it's not stolen (i mean who would steal an old Defender in Geneva??) where do I park from now on? Down by the marina (further out past the fountain)? I only need to use the car during the weekends, so it's ok if I need to take the tram or bus to get to it...

I would be so glad to hear advice...

All the best,

Frederik

This is going to be your most expensive parking ticket ever. Go to the police constabulary across the road from the station and most likely they'll tell you where you can retrieve your car from.

If you still have money for fuel after that you can park it way past the marina and the water fountain - you need to drive as far as Genève Plage to find unrestricted places. Bus E will take you back into town.

That doesn't sound promising! Any ideas how much it will be??

It's an expensive way to find a free parking space then, but thanks for the advice; I'll take it...

Well the tow-away is about 300 francs. Plus whatever fine the police sets on top.

I go to Geneva quite often with a Landrover Discovery TD5 and as I have been unable to find an underground carpark which will allow you to park a car over 2m I usually look around Petit-Lancy to park ,then it is the No2 bus. I will try next time where Shorrick suggests.

I had a car removed in Bern a few years ago. As the car had chubb locks on the doors by all accounts they had to lift the car onto a low loader as they could not get into it. The police informed me it had been moved a few streets away as they had a manifestation -but I was never charged.

Yepp, around 500 CHF all in all. But the service is great - at least in Zürich. They tow it to Hohe Promenade and not to some godforgotten place 20 miles away from town as in most other countries. That's Switzerland for you :-)

Beware that Bus E doesn't run very frequently as it's a suburban line. Isn't St-Antoine 2m10 capable? I think David-Dufour next to the university is 2m10 capable as well. Both are a shorter ride than Pt. Lancy....

Look for the caravans & park there!

Thanks for all the tips.
I'll call the police in a little while to check if it really was towed...
If it were, then I hope that the police knows that a 4x4 like this one has to be en neutral in both gearboxes.... Otherwise I need a new gearbox in 1000 kms....

It was towed. The fine was 355 in total... I hope the most expensive I'll ever get, but not as high as I had feared... I had to take a taxi that costed me 23 to get there.. Not as great.

I tried to find the free parking that was mentioned, but I wasn't able to find it so I ended up in the Alinghy marina parking facility... at 23 chf for the first day and relatively reasonably 16 for add days...

Umm, I'm not quite sure how you can miss it. Once you drive past the marina on the right hand side of the road there's about 1500 meters worth of white unrestricted parking spaces.

Well I did see those parking spaces, but there are signs where it says maximum 3 hrs (I think it was) parking.. Does that not apply to foreign cars?

Hm. Either those are really new signs or you haven't seen the right spot. I'll go there check to make sure.

Well I did check it out when I was driving by, but I could have the wrong spot....

I have a similar problem with a different car. Shorrick recommended the car park at the railway station. Have you tried there?