Visiting CERN – 11 Tips That Will Help You Make the Most of the Hadron Collider Tour

As promised in my French Alps trip report, here's a more detailed review of our excellent visit to CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

I want to share several tips about what we did right and what we could have done better. Read through if you are considering visiting CERN to make the most of your time there.

What is CERN all about?

You may occasionally see the name Cern, not as an acronym. It's not the name of a town or a village, though. Rather, it's an acronym for a long title in French: Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, which translates into The European Council for Nuclear Research.

I will use CERN and Cern interchangeably throughout this post because, these days, they are both places and concepts.

The council was established in 1954 to promote scientific collaboration between European nations, which were still licking their proverbial and literal wounds from the Second World War.

They were allocated an area near Geneva where the CERN project was established on (and under) the ground. The initiative's name has since changed to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, but it's still known as Cern (and not as EONR, thankfully).

Over the years, CERN has made many amazing discoveries, some of which have led to Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry. It is best known for its huge particle collider, the Hadron Collider.

There are several underground looped tunnels where subatomic particles are accelerated in phases and then enter the largest loop of all: the Hadron Collider.

Beams of particles are made to smash into one another at specific stations within the collider, and the results are recorded to be further analyzed by scientists worldwide. It is an amazing feat of human ingenuity.

That makes visiting CERN an uplifting experience for all, not just science buffs.

Visiting CERN: Can you see the Hadron Collider?

Yes and no. You can visit Cern above the collider. The main road, which runs through the main complex that surrounds the main research station - known as The Atlas Project - is open to the public. There is a visitors center there which includes two permanent exhibitions -

Microcosm - The story of the collider and how it works, as well as a little bit about what life in Cern is for the 10,000+ scientists and engineers there.

Universe Of Particles - A cool exhibition with a very interesting futuristic design that teaches you about particle physics and, again, a bit more about Cern.

In addition to the exhibitions, a guided tour takes you "behind the scenes". I have seen photos of people wearing helmets and looking at what appears to be part of the collider.

During our visit, the guide explained that they do not take visitors down to the collider because the radiation levels there are not safe.

So, no, we did not get to see the actual collider. However, we did see several models and heard a lot about it.

Considering its actual size (about 27 kilometers long!) I don't see how you can actually "see" more than a small part of it going underground. Either way, you can't see it "working."

According to our guide (a physicist and a shift leader at Cern), there's not much to be seen. The particle beam is silent and invisible.

Who should be visiting CERN?

Cern is a must-visit for anyone who loves science, specifically physics. The exhibitions were thorough, and our guide was a professional physicist who could answer all of the questions posed by our group's science buffs.

Even if you're not into physics, the tour would be enjoyable. The exhibitions are interactive and exciting, and the entire project is moving: European nations are working together to promote science and peace.

And finally...

11 quick tips that will help you make the most of your visit

1. Book the tour

The free tour gives you that unique "behind the scenes" look into the project. Our guide was fascinating, and it was cool to walk past these gates:

The tour also takes you to a special exhibition with a 20-minute multimedia show projected on the walls and on the equipment around you. It's really cool and great fun for kids.

2. Guided tours fill up really fast

They open up for registration 15 days ahead of the date, in the morning (Switzerland time), and as far as I can see, registration closes within a couple of hours.

They re-open three days ahead of the date for latecomers, and I guess if there are no-shows, you can try to wriggle your way into a group.

3. Be prepared to take pictures on the guided tour

With all the fences and guards, we thought they might ask us not to take pictures. Quite the opposite.

Our guide said they want us to take as many pictures as possible! Keep your camera ready during the tour because photo-ops pop up literally as you walk around while visiting CERN. Like taking pictures of street signs -

4. Be prepared for a long visit

This isn't a place you can run through in 20 minutes. The exhibitions alone are worth 1-2 hours (possibly longer if you are interested in physics). The tour takes up another two hours of your time.

All in all, three hours is the bare minimum. We spent five hours at Cern and could have stayed longer if we had more time.

5. Check for opening hours

The exhibitions have different opening hours. The visitors center and the Microcosm exhibition open at 8:30, and the Universe of Particles opens at 10. There are several time slots for the guided tours.

Check your times and make sure you allocate at least an hour for each exhibition and 2 hours for the tour (including showing up 15 minutes in advance to get your badges). The good news is that everything is close by, so it only takes a few minutes to get from one exhibition to the other.

6. Bring your own food

Google Maps knows of a couple of cafeterias at Cern, which we had planned on checking out. There's nothing like enjoying a croissant while rubbing shoulders with a local version of Sheldon Cooper, right? I thought this would add to our "Visiting CERN" experience.

As it happens, these cafeterias are out of bounds for us mere mortals. The only way to get a coffee or food is at the local gas station.

It's very close to the visitors center, so it's not a long walk, but the prices are quite Swiss (i.e., high!), and the food quality is nothing to write home about - basically what you'd expect to find in a gas station store.

They have a cool espresso machine that generates so much steam while making your coffee that you might think they're running it through the Hadron Collider itself!

7. Eat and drink before the tour

If you didn't bring anything to eat, grab anything at that gas station. The tour isn't short, and you can't eat or drink anywhere during the tour. You also can't leave the tour once you start because you have to be accompanied by the guide when inside Cern. So -especially if you're traveling with kids - make sure everyone is well-fed before you start the tour.

8. Wear comfortable shoes and dress according to the weather

The guided tour has you walking about one mile on foot. It's not too bad, but it's enough to be more enjoyable with comfortable shoes. You will also be walking outside for a short bit, so if it looks like it might rain, gear up accordingly.

9. Park near the big dome

There's plenty of parking, or at least there was on the day of our visit, but you can't just park anywhere. The best place to park would be next to the big brown dome. Just east of the dome, towards the Swiss side of Cern, a big parking lot is free to park at.

10. Watch a movie about the project before visiting CERN

I wanted to get our kids acquainted with Cern before we came, and to be honest, I didn't know a whole lot about it other than that's where they had recently discovered the Boson-Higgs and that people were afraid they might create a black hole in the process, swallowing up the entire earth (which turned up to be a slight exaggeration).

The movie we watched was available on Netflix. It's called "Particle Fever" and you can buy or rent it on Amazon too.

11. Don't worry about the language barrier

Cern is technically in Switzerland and France (the border runs in the middle), but everyone there speaks English. More importantly, the exhibitions all have English labels or English narration options, and the guided tour is available in English.

That's not something you typically find in French science (or other) museums, so it's worth mentioning here.

And one last tip...

12. Have fun!

Visiting CERN is fun! The exhibitions are full of humor. There are lots of red buttons to push to see whether you actually create a black hole that can swallow up the entire earth. It hasn't happened to us, but who knows—you might just get lucky!

Have you ever visited CERN? Do you have any tips to add? Please share those in the comments section below. You can also leave me questions about visiting CERN, and I'll try to give you the best answer I can.