Great weekend gateway: Lake Geneva
I hope you all had a great memorial day weekend. I am very much spontaneous but for a long weekend we have to plan in advance otherwise will not get hotel booking and prices will high as you delay booking. So these time we decided to have one days trips and visit different places in three days.
So to enjoy the very first day of the weekend we want to start it real slow and relaxing so we choose lake Geneva to enjoy our day and its just 1-hour drive from Milwaukee so no early wake-up calls and no long drives.
How to get there
Chicago o'hare international airport or Milwaukee General Mitchell International Airport or Dane County regional airport are the nearest airports from Lake Geneva. You can rent a car from the Airport and drive to Lake Geneva. Drive will be more or less than 1 hour.
Tip to explore Lake Geneva
So to enjoy the very first day of the weekend we want to start it real slow and relaxing so we choose lake Geneva to enjoy our day and its just 1-hour drive from Milwaukee so no early wake-up calls and no long drives.
How to get there
Chicago o'hare international airport or Milwaukee General Mitchell International Airport or Dane County regional airport are the nearest airports from Lake Geneva. You can rent a car from the Airport and drive to Lake Geneva. Drive will be more or less than 1 hour.
Tip to explore Lake Geneva
- If you are planning to walk on a hiking trail than wear proper shoes which comfortable for a walk. Do keep a water bottle and granola bars in your hiking bag.
- As there is no parking spot at each and every place do park your vehicle on-street parking lot around the visitor center.
- If you are planning to spend the whole day at Lake Geneva take parking for 5 hrs (max allowed hours at a time) so you don't have to go every now and then to renew your parking.
- If you have short time than 1 day will be enough to explore the lake, beach and a little bit of hiking.
Places to visit in Lake Geneva
As soon as you reach to Lake Geneva very first thing is to do the parking for 5 hours and keep the receipt with you because you can renew parking from any of pay station. I would say go to the visitor center first. They will give you a map and tell you places to visit. You can ask your questions and they help you find your answers. Even they have menus for some restaurants so you can identify where you want to go for lunch.
I don't prefer hiking after lunch so the very first thing we did is hiking on Lake Geneva shore path.
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| Map of Lake Geneva |
Lake Geneva Shore path
Lake Geneva shore path is an incredible hiking trail I had ever seen. The whole path is parallel to the lake. There are 21 miles long hiking trail and no doubt I haven't covered the whole trail we walk hardly few miles but the experience was amazing. I have decided to walk on this trail all the way to complete 21 miles trail in the future. The beauty of the trail will make you forget how long you walked. And another most incredible thing of the hiking trail is million dollar houses oops my bad Mansions. Never seen such beautiful houses and green grassy yards around mansions.
Lake Geneva shore path is an incredible hiking trail I had ever seen. The whole path is parallel to the lake. There are 21 miles long hiking trail and no doubt I haven't covered the whole trail we walk hardly few miles but the experience was amazing. I have decided to walk on this trail all the way to complete 21 miles trail in the future. The beauty of the trail will make you forget how long you walked. And another most incredible thing of the hiking trail is million dollar houses oops my bad Mansions. Never seen such beautiful houses and green grassy yards around mansions.
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| Mansion with huge yard |
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| Amazing white house |
If you are not a hiker but love to see architecture than I would suggest you to walk a little bit on the opposite side of Riviera beach within a few steps you will able to see great mansions.
Riviera Beach
This is the only beach near the visitor center. Riviera beach has admission fees for above 6 years. Children 7-12 years pay $4 and 13 to adult pay $7. They have different passes if you are visiting frequently. You can buy a ticket from the pay station for the beach. There are some rules which you have to keep in mind. They don't allow Glass containers, Alcohol, drugs, smoking, pets, and weapons. You can take your food and beverages which are in plastic.
This is a small beach but nice and clean. You will enjoy swimming but it has a small boundary for swimming as within few feet boat tour deck is situated.
Boat tours
Lake Geneva boat tour offers three different types of tours.
You can see in map very first tour red line indicates is a full lake, Mailboat, and all meal cruises. This tour covers the whole lake even Fontana and Williams bay area also. In this tour, you can see some of the Mansions as well as Yerkes Observatory and George Williams College. This tour takes 2 or 2 and a half hour according to which tour you are taking.
The white line indicates Expanded bay & Black point tour which cover almost 2/3rd of the shoreline of Lake. This tour will return just before the Williams Bay. Expanded Bay is 1 and half hour tour. Black point estate tour is 3 and half hour long tour. It is guided tour of the 1888 home and grounds. If you are taking small kids or infants with you then take stroller as its long tour you need one. :-)
The blue line indicates Geneva Bay, Sun-downer and Ice cream social tour. These tours are around one hour. If you want to enjoy a beach and do hiking than take this small tour and explore the lake.
Water adventures
Lake Geneva has a lot to offer. Some people like to sit back and relax so they take boat tours. But some are crazy like me, who like adventures. So don't worry Lake Geneva has boat rentals and Jet skies. They have different size of boats so depend on how many people you have in a group, you can book. If you are planning on the weekend then please book in advance otherwise you will not get the boat which you desire. There are plenty of rentals on a bay of Lake Geneva. Marina bay rentals, Elmer's Lake Geneva boat line, Watercraft rentals of Lake Geneva, Leather Lips water sports
Big Foot Beach state park
Bigfoot beach state park has Campsite, Picnic area, and Sand beach. You can carry your own kayaks and do kayaking around the beach park. This park is open year round from 6 in the morning to 11 at night. It has six and a half miles long hiking trails. And remember no alcohol allowed in anywhere in the park. And you also required Vehicle admission sticker.
This is the only beach near the visitor center. Riviera beach has admission fees for above 6 years. Children 7-12 years pay $4 and 13 to adult pay $7. They have different passes if you are visiting frequently. You can buy a ticket from the pay station for the beach. There are some rules which you have to keep in mind. They don't allow Glass containers, Alcohol, drugs, smoking, pets, and weapons. You can take your food and beverages which are in plastic.
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| Riviera Beach |
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| The Riviera building |
Lake Geneva boat tour offers three different types of tours.
You can see in map very first tour red line indicates is a full lake, Mailboat, and all meal cruises. This tour covers the whole lake even Fontana and Williams bay area also. In this tour, you can see some of the Mansions as well as Yerkes Observatory and George Williams College. This tour takes 2 or 2 and a half hour according to which tour you are taking.
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| Boat tour deck |
The white line indicates Expanded bay & Black point tour which cover almost 2/3rd of the shoreline of Lake. This tour will return just before the Williams Bay. Expanded Bay is 1 and half hour tour. Black point estate tour is 3 and half hour long tour. It is guided tour of the 1888 home and grounds. If you are taking small kids or infants with you then take stroller as its long tour you need one. :-)
The blue line indicates Geneva Bay, Sun-downer and Ice cream social tour. These tours are around one hour. If you want to enjoy a beach and do hiking than take this small tour and explore the lake.
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| Lake Geneva Boat tours |
Lake Geneva has a lot to offer. Some people like to sit back and relax so they take boat tours. But some are crazy like me, who like adventures. So don't worry Lake Geneva has boat rentals and Jet skies. They have different size of boats so depend on how many people you have in a group, you can book. If you are planning on the weekend then please book in advance otherwise you will not get the boat which you desire. There are plenty of rentals on a bay of Lake Geneva. Marina bay rentals, Elmer's Lake Geneva boat line, Watercraft rentals of Lake Geneva, Leather Lips water sports
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| Rentals for Water sports |
Bigfoot beach state park has Campsite, Picnic area, and Sand beach. You can carry your own kayaks and do kayaking around the beach park. This park is open year round from 6 in the morning to 11 at night. It has six and a half miles long hiking trails. And remember no alcohol allowed in anywhere in the park. And you also required Vehicle admission sticker.
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| Big foot beach park |
Ooh, this is definitely a place I need to take my family to visit! Thanks for the thorough travel-log!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if you could add a Pinterest button, I'm sure that lots of readers would enjoy pinning your content!
ReplyDeleteThanks Amy for suggestion. I have added pin button on all images
DeleteWhat a big lake! Looks like you had a lot of fun. =)
ReplyDeleteYeah it was huge lake and had fun weekend
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