At CERN, you will hear first-hand about what’s going on at the forefront of physics. You will also have the opportunity to see the scale of the engineering and technology required to help us answer some of the questions such as:
- what are the basic building blocks of matter?
- how did the Universe begin?
Book a visit
You will need to book your visit through the Visit CERN website.
Visits and tours to CERN are free but you will need to book up to nine months in advance.
You will need to fund travel and accommodation for your visit. Neither STFC nor CERN provide funding for visits.
Science Gateway, CERN’s visitor centre, is open Tuesday to Sunday and entry is free.
School visits
CERN is a working lab, so what you see will depend on what is available at the time of your visit.
Your visit will be restricted to one ‘itinerary’. This is a half-day guided tour that might include one of the following:
- Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment control rooms
- magnet assembly hall
- antimatter factory (where antiatoms are produced and studied)
- computer centre which handles data from the LHC
Underground visits to the LHC experiments are rare, and visits to the LHC itself are not available.
When booking your visit, you can request a particular itinerary but this is not guaranteed.
If you’re travelling with a large group (more than 24 people), having your own transport will give you access to a greater range of activities.
To get the most out of your visit, we have teaching resources to help you prepare your students.
Related activities and attractions
There are lots of other science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities in and around Geneva.
Contact the Geneva Tourist Office for more information.
Last updated: 5 August 2025