5 ways to meet people and build your social circle in Geneva

5 ways to meet people and build your social circle in Geneva

  April 03, 2017    Destination Leman - sejour tourisme, affaires

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We all heard it: it takes time to (re)build a social circle and make new friends for newcomers in Geneva. Learn about my 5 strategies to speed up the process: simple and easy.


I personally feel good and well integrated in Geneva. Maybe it is because of my age, but I really feel it is a good city for people in their thirties. However, if you come here as an intern at the UN and you do know anybody, you can have a hard time during your first weeks. So I am sharing here what has worked for me as well as additional efficient strategies to make friends and/or connect socially in Geneva. This strategy for building your social circle and developing acquaintances in Geneve are the following:

1. Join welcome drinks for newcomers to Geneva
2. Try out language exchange meetings
3. Practice collective sports
4. Volunteer for events and festival
5. Try salsa parties, for the fun, and potential partners !

So here is how it goes down:

Strategy #1 : Join welcome drinks for newcomers to Geneva to build your social circle

Glocals is a great website that lists every happening places or events in Geneva. This is a foundation website each newcomer to the city should subscribe to. You will find events for a large number of hobbies, including saturday night partying, afterwork drinks, badminton games, woodwork, etc... But in addition to that, Glocals has had the great idea to organize welcome drinks at Hotel Warwick (1mn walk from Cornavin station) about once a month. This specific event is designed to give a warm welcome to all new "Geneva recruit". A member of the Glocals team will welcome you and usher you in a nice room where dozens of participants, new, just like you, are socializing and networking.

Strategy #2 : Try out language exchange meetups to make new friends in Geneva

Geneva is international ! So take advantage of that cultural wealth to build your social network and work on your language skills at the same time. There is a language exchange group on Glocals as well, that is organized around themed language meetups: french/english, german/french, etc..Organizers make sure that there is parity and that the speaking time is divided equally: 15mn of french with a native speaker, followed by 15mn of german with a native speaker.

My thought: What a great way to get to know people !

Strategy #3 : Practice collective sports  to meet new people through passions in Geneva

Group activities are one of the best ways to build connections between people, when all are united to work toward the same objective. This is true of sport, and it turns out Geneva has numerous sports club you can join. I believe running groups are really great to make new friends, because of a shared passion, and also because people, often girls, discuss while they are running. there is a great group of runners, called the Geneva Running group, that gathers 3 times a week to job around the city. After the Saturday session, runners gather for a drink. The most motivated will also sign in to compete races throughout the country. There is also a Geneva Scuba Diving group, Horseriders group, etc...

My thought: I have always noticed how relaxed and positive the atmosphere is when people are gathered for something else than consuming...

Strategy #4 : Volunteer for Geneva events, socializing with local swiss folks

The previous strategies will mainly allow you to meet other internationals, but there are ways to build relationships with local swiss people. It looks like they are hidden, but still they are here ! One way to integrate socially is to volunteer for the organization of cultural events or festivals. One thing we can say about this city is that it is full of festival, there is always something going on in parks and other venues, see if you can be of help by getting in touch with the organizers. Plus, your foreign language could be extremely useful to help visitors: discover here the list of Geneva festivals where you volunteer and make new acquaintances.

Strategy #5 : learn how to dance salsa, for the fun, and more...

There is an opportunity to practice latin dances almost every night in Geneva, so go for it ! Many bars organize salsa nights where a class is proposed followed by practice on the dancefloor. the good thing is that you can use the class to break the ice and then keep on chatting with the people just met, even if you stop dancing after the class. External people will join the bar. It is said to be a great way to meet potential partners as well. Bars such as Brasseurs des Grottes, Point Bar organize such evenings.