“Discover” menu: beach bars, restaurants, stopovers, sights and beaches

User guide · updated 19.10.2026

Where to stop to eat, sleep, swim or visit, by boat or on foot from the lake.

What this menu is for

The Navleman menu, with the “Discover” tile circled. — Menu, then the “Discover” tile.

Stopovers and sights around the lake — beach bars, harbour restaurants, hotels, campsites, heritage, museums, parks, viewpoints, wine cellars, leisure — checked against an official source, anchorages and coves aligned with the measured bottom, and beaches at the top of the list.

How to use it

Open the menu

Tap Menu, bottom right, then the menu's tile. At the top: 📖 User guide for this menu (this page) and ↺ Reset maps, which switches everything off at once.

The open menu, with its list of map layers and a checkbox in front of each. — The open menu: one row per map layer.

Turn on a map layer

Tick a map layer's box to lay it over the base map; untick it to remove it. The arrow at the right of the row opens its info note: what the layer shows, its colour key, its source and what it doesn't tell you. An OFFLINE label marks a layer built into the app, which works without signal.

Why checkboxes? So that only what's useful right now goes on the map: ten layers switched on together become unreadable.

Two map layers ticked in the list; the arrow at the right of a row opens its info note. — Tick the box; the arrow on the right opens the layer's info note.

Reading the map

Beach bars (orange) and heritage between Geneva and Rolle: each map layer has its own colour.

The map of the Petit-Lac with the orange beach-bar icons and the heritage icons. — Beach bars and heritage.

Tap a point: the pop-up

The name, preceded by the layer's icon.
Facilities — harbour name (expandable): when the place bears a harbour's name, that harbour's facilities confirmed by an official source (slipway, crane, pump-out, fuel) and the harbour master's office phone number.
The practical note when known: access from the beach or the nearby harbour, season, booking.
A row of links: the website ↗, the phone number (one tap calls) and “View on Google Maps ↗”.
Sources and position (expandable): where the place comes from and how its position was obtained — official address, OpenStreetMap or read off the map.
Set course makes it your destination in “Where to?”; Start from here, your starting point.

For harbour restaurants, the note says how to come alongside when known; a beach bar is usually reached from the beach or the nearby harbour.

The pop-up for the Buvette des Bains, at the Bains des Pâquis: Pâquis harbour facilities, website, phone, Google Maps, sources and position, Set course. — A beach bar's pop-up: links, sources, Set course.

How the data is cross-checked

Each place was looked up municipality by municipality and confirmed on its own website, the municipality's or the tourist office's, then placed at its official address where there is one; nothing comes from Google Maps. Anchorages and coves are aligned with the depth grid: the pop-up gives the measured depth at that point. No quality judgement: no ratings, no reviews, no rankings.

Beaches: “Beaches and water access” is the official map, “Mapped beaches” comes from OpenStreetMap (ODbL licence); the two are kept separate.

The map layers in this menu

Beaches (v90: at the top of the section): “Beaches and water access” is the CIPEL's official map, read online; “Mapped beaches” comes from OpenStreetMap, built into the app. When a webcam is less than a kilometre away, the pop-up gives its link.

Beach bars, harbour restaurants, hotels and campsites were checked one by one against an official source (their website, the municipality, the tourist office). Each entry names the source, says where its position comes from and how far it is from the water; for harbour restaurants, it says how to come alongside. Nothing here has been checked on site. Anchorages are aligned with the measured bottom; the holding and the mooring buoys still need checking.

Heritage, museums, parks, viewpoints, wine cellars and leisure, looked up in every lakeside municipality, mostly by the water. Sites worth the detour a little further away, up to 2 km — the Château d'Allaman, Chaplin's World, Les Aigles du Léman — are filed in their layer, and their entry says they are more than 500 m from the lake.

The distance is calculated on the swissBATHY3D grid, which doesn't always pick up shoals in bays: it may be slightly overestimated near a sandy beach.

Sources and rights. Places: their website, the municipality's or the tourist office's, checked in October 2026; official beaches: CIPEL. Anything marked OpenStreetMap comes from OSM contributors and remains under the ODbL licence.

🏖 Beaches and water access

Beaches and water access points officially listed around the whole lake. When a panoramic webcam is 1 km or less away, the entry gives its link (list from the Webcams layer, Weather section).

Tip. When a webcam is less than a kilometre away, the pop-up gives its link: you can see how busy the beach is before you go.

Good to know. The water quality shown is a CIPEL classification, not a same-day analysis: after a thunderstorm, it may be worse.

Source: CIPEL — International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva

🏖 Mapped beaches works offline

Beaches and swimming spots mapped by contributors, including small coves that official lists ignore. Built-in file: works offline. When a panoramic webcam is 1 km or less away, the entry gives its link (list from the Webcams layer, Weather section).

Good to know. Crowd-sourced: a “beach” here may be an informal access point, unsupervised and with no guaranteed right of access.

Source: OpenStreetMap and its contributors, ODbL licence · extract of 21.09.2026

🍹 Beach bars and restaurants works offline

Beach snack bars, bars and restaurants, looked up municipality by municipality all the way round the lake.

101 places on the map (19 Geneva, 20 La Côte, 17 Lausanne and Lavaux, 18 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 27 French shore), 98 with a website, 44 with a phone number, 41 with a practical note (access, season…).

Tip. Access is often from the beach or the nearby harbour: the note says so when it is known.

Good to know. Many are seasonal. Access from the water has not been checked: most are reached from the beach or the harbour.

Source: Official source for each place (its website, the municipality, the tourist office, the canton), rechecked in October 2026 and named in the pop-up; position taken from the official address (geo.admin.ch, IGN); distance to the water calculated on swissBATHY3D · October 2026

🍽️ Harbour restaurants works offline

Harbour restaurants you can reach by boat.

57 places on the map (5 Geneva, 6 La Côte, 18 Lausanne and Lavaux, 10 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 18 French shore), 46 with a website, 18 with a phone number, 39 with a practical note (access, season…).

Tip. Access is usually via the harbour's visitor berths.

Good to know. Own pontoon not checked: access is usually via the harbour's visitor berths.

🏨 Waterside hotels works offline

Waterfront hotel-restaurants.

12 places on the map (2 Geneva, 2 La Côte, 1 Lausanne and Lavaux, 3 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 4 French shore), 12 with a website, 11 with a phone number, 2 with a practical note (access, season…).

Good to know. A private pontoon is listed for only two of them.

⛺ Campsites works offline

Lakeside campsites, handy for a stopover by kayak or small boat.

18 places on the map (1 Geneva, 2 La Côte, 1 Lausanne and Lavaux, 3 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 11 French shore), 18 with a website, 17 with a phone number.

Good to know. Three campsites are more than 500 m from the lake (up to 2 km): their pop-up gives the distance.

⚓ Anchorages and coves works offline

Anchorages and coves, each moved to the nearest measured bottom between 3 and 15 m. The pop-up gives the nearest official place name and the known regulations (reserves, French waters).

Tip. The pop-up gives the measured depth at the point; check the holding and shelter on site.

Good to know. No wind shelter is confirmed by a source, so it is no longer shown. The adjusted point says nothing about the holding, aquatic plant beds or mooring buoys. On the French side, the Lake Geneva regulations only allow boats to stop at authorised anchorages: check before you drop anchor.

Source: Names: Gemini list, checked in October 2026 against official place names (swissNAMES3D, IGN) and OROEM / Natura 2000 reserves; depth: swissBATHY3D · October 2026

🏰 Heritage works offline

Castles, old towns, churches, islands and monuments by the water.

41 places on the map (6 Geneva, 12 La Côte, 8 Lausanne and Lavaux, 5 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 10 French shore), 41 with a website, 13 with a phone number.

Good to know. Some castles are private and can only be seen from outside: the pop-up says so.

🏛️ Museums works offline

Lakeside museums, and a few further away, up to 2 km, such as Chaplin's World or the Ariana: the pop-up gives the distance.

22 places on the map (3 Geneva, 6 La Côte, 2 Lausanne and Lavaux, 7 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 4 French shore), 22 with a website, 21 with a phone number.

Good to know. Opening hours and prices not given.

🌳 Parks and gardens works offline

Lakeside parks and gardens.

16 places on the map (5 Geneva, 1 La Côte, 3 Lausanne and Lavaux, 1 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 6 French shore), 16 with a website, 6 with a phone number.

Good to know. Opening hours not given.

👀 Viewpoints and walks works offline

Viewpoints, quays and promenades.

6 places on the map (2 Geneva, 2 Lausanne and Lavaux, 1 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 1 French shore), 6 with a website, 1 with a phone number.

Good to know. Access from the water has not been checked.

🍷 Wine cellars and vineyards works offline

Wine cellars and vineyards within walking distance of the lake.

2 places on the map (2 Lausanne and Lavaux), 2 with a website, 2 with a phone number.

Good to know. Short list: wine cellars are rarely less than 500 m from the water.

🎡 Leisure works offline

Mini golf, swimming pools, rowing boats and excursion boats, tourist trains, casinos.

31 places on the map (6 Geneva, 2 La Côte, 4 Lausanne and Lavaux, 7 Riviera and Valais Chablais, 12 French shore), 31 with a website, 21 with a phone number.

Good to know. Many are seasonal.

What this menu tells you, and what it doesn't

What it tells you. Places checked one by one, with their source and distance from the water.

What it doesn't tell you. Nothing has been checked on site: opening hours, seasonal opening and access from the water need confirming.

Navleman is a navigation aid, not an official nautical document: the official chart, the storm warning lights and the authorities' instructions always take precedence.

Open the Lake Geneva map