Leisure parks as a family: our big days out in French-speaking Switzerland

French-speaking Switzerland has no big theme park. For families, it has something better: human-sized leisure parks where you can spend the whole day without queuing three hours for one ride.

Here are the places where you lay down the blanket in the morning and head home in the evening with children who are tired in the best possible way. Prices and opening hours vary by season: check them on the official websites.

Le Signal de Bougy: 110 hectares above Lake Geneva

Le Parc Pré-Vert du Signal de Bougy, above Rolle, remains the reference on La Côte: 110 hectares of countryside with a view over the lake and the Alps, an animal park, a treetop course, a little train, minigolf and shows.

Its real strength: access to the park and to the big playground is free. So you can spend a full day there without spending anything, and add a paid activity only if you feel like it.

Le Swiss Vapeur Parc in Le Bouveret: a day of miniature trains

On the shore of Lake Geneva, le Swiss Vapeur Parc takes families travelling aboard miniature trains, in beautifully kept surroundings with real steam locomotives. The pace is gentle and it works from age 2: it is our best address for the youngest.

Right next door, Aquaparc and its slides let you build a full weekend in Le Bouveret, with an indoor fallback if the weather turns.

Le Domaine des Îles in Sion: several parks in one

This is probably the greatest concentration of activities on a single site in French-speaking Switzerland. At the Domaine des Îles you will find Les Îles Vapeur Parc and its little trains, the Parc Aventure de Sion up in the trees, plus swimming and the wide open spaces of the estate itself.

You arrive in the morning, move from one thing to the next according to everyone’s energy, and nobody gets back in the car before evening.

Thrills you won’t find anywhere else

Still in Sion, two truly one-of-a-kind experiences:

• Alaïa Bay: a surf pool unique in Europe, supervised and secure, to give your children their first real wave — in the middle of Valais.
• RealFly: the sensation of free fall in a simulator, with no plane and no vertigo, from age 5 and in any weather.

These are short activities and expensive by the hour, but the “childhood memory” effect is guaranteed. Save them for a special occasion.

Our tips for a full day at a park

• Arrive at opening time: the first two hours are the quietest, and that is when children are most receptive.
• Bring a picnic: most of these sites have tables and lawns. Eating on site quickly gets expensive for a family.
• Agree a meeting point on arrival if your children are old enough to move around on their own.
• Keep one activity in reserve for the end of the day: it gets everyone home without negotiation.
• Check the season: several of these parks close in winter or cut their hours back sharply.

Want more big days out? See our water parks and thermal baths, our adventure and treetop parks and all our Sports & Leisure activities.

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