Car Hire from Geneva Airport - French or Swiss side

[superoz]

We are going to the French Alps for a week in August, flying into Geneva Airport. We are staying one night in Geneva as the chalet will only be ready the day after we arrive.

I’ve looked into car hire but I am really confused with the French and Swiss sides. If we were just heading straight into France it would be a straightforward hire from the French side, but as we are going to be in Switzerland for a day I am getting conflicting opinions as to which side to hire from.

Please could someone help? Before my head explodes!

It’s been a few years since I’ve done car at Geneva so apologies if anything has changed and this isn’t up to date but to the best of knowledge here goes.

If you’re driving on any motorways in Switzerland and not straight to the French border then you need the Swiss vignette which is a sticker you have to display or else you’ll get fined. The Swiss side will have this has standard but you would need to check with the rental company that they will allow you to drive into France, you usually can if you sign a waiver. If you rent from the French side, unless there’s another way of you getting the vignette and I don’t know if that’s possible, you have to avoid all motorways when in Switzerland.

The French side is usually cheaper so in your case I might see if you can either avoid motorways or do without the car altogether for your night in Geneva and pick it up the following day and drive straight to the alps.

Hope that helps!

sorry for typos there, hope you get the gist regardless!

Thanks. I’ve read it’s also probably better to rent from the French side as less problematic to drive an EU played car in France. I’ll have to look into getting a vignette to drive on the Swiss motorways.