Geneva's international district: Palais des Nations tours and the Red Cross Museum

The short answer

The Palais des Nations and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum are two different visits run by two different bodies. The Palais is a working United Nations building that visitors see on a guided tour, and UN Geneva's visit page describes itself as "the official and only website for guided tours".[1] The museum, at Avenue de la Paix 17, is a separate institution with its own tickets.[5] Both are in Geneva.

The deciding fact for the Palais in 2026 is scarcity. UN Geneva says that, because of the renovation, its tour offer is limited and subject to change, that individual tours sell out quickly, and that available dates are released on its booking platform on the 20th of every month for the following month.[1] The museum has no such rule on the pages XTOUR read; it is in the middle of its own, smaller transformation.

The Palais des Nations tour, as UN Geneva runs it

Booking and the badge. After buying tickets, every person in the group has to register for an access badge through the link on the ticket; each then receives a digital badge with a QR code, which is scanned on the day to enter. Passports or identity cards are checked at the entrance gate, and the page lists which documents it accepts. It asks visitors to be at the meeting point in their booking confirmation 30 minutes before the tour, for security screening and the transfer to the Visitors' Centre.[1]

The tour itself. UN Geneva says the tour lasts about an hour and covers the conference rooms of the historic parts of the building, the history of the League of Nations and a walk in Ariana Park. Because delegates meet where visitors walk, the page asks tour members to stay with the guide and keep noise down, and warns that meetings can close rooms and change the route without notice. It describes the tour as about two kilometres of walking that can be difficult for people with reduced mobility, and says parts of the route will be harder to access during the renovation.[1]

Where to go. The visitors' entrance is Pregny Gate, at 14 Avenue de la Paix, in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross building. UN Geneva names Appia and Nations as the public-transport stops, and on 9 October 2026 its page warned that Tram des Nations roadworks around the Palais were affecting car access and public transport. Visitors may not park inside the grounds.[1]

Days without tours. The page lists the UN Geneva holidays in 2026 on which there are no guided tours, and says the Visitors' Service may close at short notice.[1] Of the dates listed, only 25 December was still ahead when XTOUR read the page on 9 October 2026.

Why the building is under scaffolding

The renovation is the Strategic Heritage Plan, approved by the UN General Assembly in 2015 and scheduled to finish in 2028. UN Geneva's progress notes say Building A, with the Assembly Hall, reopened in July 2025, Building E closed for renovation in September 2025, and the historic buildings S2 and B are due to be completed in 2027.[3] XTOUR's reading is that the tour route described today is a renovation-period route, and that the limits on individual tours belong to this period, not to the Palais permanently.

What the Palais is

The League of Nations first had its secretariat in the Hôtel National on the lakeshore, today's Palais Wilson. In 1926 its Assembly approved an international architecture competition; 377 projects were submitted in 1927, and because no single one could be agreed, five architects were appointed to work together: Julien Flegenheimer, Camille Lefèvre, Henri-Paul Nénot, Carlo Broggi and József Vágó.[2] A library, funded by a US $2 million donation from John D. Rockefeller Jr., made the project too large for the lakeshore plot, and the Palais was built instead in the 46-hectare Ariana Park, which Gustave Revilliod had bequeathed to the City of Geneva in 1890.[2]

The foundation stone was laid on 7 September 1929, the League moved in in 1936, and when the League was dissolved in April 1946 the building passed to the United Nations.[2] UN Geneva's park page adds that the City of Geneva made the park available to the UN "for as long as the UN exists", and that the Palais stands just behind the Ariana Museum.[4]

The Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum

The museum's history page traces it to proposals made in 1963, the centenary of the International Committee of the Red Cross; it was built after a 1979 architecture competition for a site near the ICRC headquarters on the Colline de Pregny, opened on 29 October 1988 and reopened on 18 May 2013 after two years of work.[8]

What you will see in 2026 to 2028. The museum says it is redesigning its permanent exhibition in phases between 2026 and 2028 while staying open, with the current exhibition remaining in place as changes are made and temporary walls moving from one phase to the next. The new permanent exhibition is due to open in 2028, for the museum's 40th anniversary and the bicentenary of Henry Dunant's birth.[6] The home page already shows "Humanitarian action, here and now" under its permanent-exhibition heading but describes it in the future tense, as "the new exhibition".[5] XTOUR's reading is that a visitor now sees the existing exhibition partway through that change. The temporary exhibition listed on 9 October 2026 was "Humanitarian, by design?", on the objects of humanitarian work such as first-aid kits, tents and prostheses.[5]

Tickets and visiting. The prices page sells one combined ticket for the permanent and temporary exhibitions, lists the groups that pay a reduced rate or nothing, and says the museum is closed on Mondays.[7] Group guided tours of the permanent exhibition last an hour and must be booked at least 14 working days ahead, according to the museum's guided-tour page.[9] The access page describes reaching the museum on foot from Place des Nations through the Parc de l'Ariana, and by bus to the Appia stop, the same stop name UN Geneva gives for the Palais.[1][7]

The Portail des Nations and the rest of the district

Geneva Tourism's page on the Portail des Nations describes it as a centre at the entrance to the Palais des Nations, along the Allée des Drapeaux, with interactive installations over almost 1,000 square metres on global challenges such as climate, health and human rights, and an immersive experience modelled on how the United Nations takes decisions. The tourism board says it can be visited without the usual constraints of institutional visits and that its ticket office is open.[10] XTOUR has read no page of the centre's own, and UN Geneva's visit page does not mention it, so how it relates to the UN tour, and its hours and prices, are unknown to XTOUR.

The Broken Chair sculpture on the Place des Nations, the ICRC's own buildings and the many other organisations in the district are not covered here, because XTOUR read no official page for them. Geneva's December festival has its own explainer: the Escalade, as the Swiss list describes it.

What XTOUR does not know

• XTOUR does not publish tour fees, museum prices or opening hours.
• Which tour languages are offered to individual visitors, as opposed to groups.
• XTOUR does not know how long the transfer from Pregny Gate to the Visitors' Centre takes, or the travel time from the city centre.
• Whether the Tram des Nations works will have finished by your visit.