Beer in Geneva is most expensive in world

Costly in Switzerland – bottled beer, especially at a bar Keystone

Thirsty beer lovers need deep pockets in Geneva, where bottles of beer are the most expensive in the world, according to an international comparison. Zurich came 11^th. 

At an average of CHF5.90 ($6.35), a 33cl bottle of beer in Switzerland’s second-largest city topped a list of 75 cities around the world published on Tuesday by GoEuro, a German travel search engine. 

The study compared six supermarket beers (five international brands and a local brew) and the average price in bars. 

Although a bottle of beer in Geneva supermarkets (CHF1.75) was cheaper than in eight other cities – tying with Los Angeles and far behind Oslo, where the average price of supermarket beer is CHF3.22 – the eye-watering price of a 33cl bottle of beer in Geneva bars (CHF10.06) meant that when the two figures were averaged, Geneva (CHF5.90) jumped to the top, just beating Hong Kong (CHF5.76). 

Hong Kong is the dearest place to drink beer in bars, with a bottle costing on average CHF10.15. 

The relatively low price of beer in Zurich bars (CHF7.04) pushed it into 11^th place when supermarket and bar prices are averaged out. 

Overall, Geneva and Hong Kong were followed by Tel Aviv, Oslo, New York, Singapore, Miami, Helsinki, Tokyo and Abu Dhabi. 

If it’s cheap beer you want, head for Krakow in Poland, where a bottle of beer averages CHF0.58 in supermarkets and CHF2.52 in bars. Krakow was found to stock the cheapest beer on GoEuro’s list, fractionally cheaper than Kiev and Bratislava. 

However, Bratislava’s bars were the cheapest – at CHF2.07 a bottle, beer in the bars of the Slovakian capital (which uses the euro, almost at parity with the franc) costs roughly a fifth of that in Geneva.