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January Visit to CERN in Geneva area

Posted by (Twin Cities of MN) on

I have planned a stop on my January trip to Switzerland in Geneva just so my daughter, a college physics major, can visit CERN. Any tips to help us get the most of a day at CERN? It is a little complicated because we do want a tour and the sign up for tours is 15 days prior to the tour day. So basically I will have planned the whole trip and will be in Austria before I can even find out if we actually get a tour! That piece is what it is, I guess. We can spend time at CERN visiting a couple exhibits. I am seeing there are two--Microcosm and Universe of Particles. For planning purposes, I would be interested in people's experiences at those exhibits. There is also a bike route that seems rather long but incredibly interesting called passport to the Big Bang. It will be January and thus be rather chilly for a bike ride (even for Minnesotans) but I think it'd be pretty fun and educational to see at least pieces of it.

I will be staying near the Cornavin bus station in Geneva and it appears there is a bus directly to CERN. Anyone know how long this ride would take. When we are done at CERN, the plan is to take the bus back to the hotel, pick up luggage and take a train to Paris for a very short stay prior to our flight home.

I appreciate any help planning this piece of the trip.

Posted by
3391 posts

I hope you are able to get in to take a tour...we were lucky enough to get tickets a couple of years ago and it was truly an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Our guide was a particle physicist and the tour was like taking a university course...so amazing!
The exhibits aren't huge but they are packed with lots of interesting things, especially for your physics major daughter! Unfortunately, the Universe of Particles was unexpectedly closed for no apparent reason so we weren't able to see it - we were so disappointed! We did go onto the Microcosm exhibit though which was very interesting. I'm a bit of a geek and wanted to see, do, and read everything and it took about 90 minutes to see that exhibit.
I haven't done the bike tour but it sounds like quite an adventure! Not sure how much you'll see since the LHC is buried deep in the ground but it seems like it might be fun

Posted by
3551 posts

I took the tour in July 2016. There is a museum type exhibit that can take about an hr, a film, then the guided tour follows. I found the guided tour a bit repetitive as most was covered in the exhibit. Driving around by cern bus might be interesting for your daughter. The campus is enormous. The LHC tunnel is not open to the tour grp.
I understand summer internships are open to students who qualify.
There are 2 opportunities to get tour tix , one 15 days ahead and one a few days ahead. I lucked out with second option. U may ck to see if u can just visit exhibit only if u cannot get tour tix. Have her do research ahead on the website to see if it interests her enuf to make a detour in your trip. We took the bus there and it was about 20 min thru an industrial type park. Pls e if u have more questions.

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