Guide to Visiting Zurich: Everything you need to know
Whether you have a few days or a week (or more!), there’s no shortage of things to do in Zurich. Known for being a banking and finance center, Switzerland’s largest city is home to more than 400,000 locals. It’s also the site of the largest and busiest airport in the country, which means you will likely find the best miles redemption flying into Zurich Airport (ZRH). Located on the northern tip of Lake Zurich, Zurich has something for every type of traveler.
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How to get to Zurich
Zurich Airport (ZRH) is the airport that you’ll be flying into. Depending on your home airport, you can find direct flights to Zurich on United, SWISS, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Finnair, American Airlines and Delta. There is easy transit from the airport to the main train station – Hauptbahnhof (HB) – in downtown Zurich.
If you’re taking the train from a nearby European country, you’ll also likely land at the Hauptbahnhof.
Because we traveled with our baby, we decided it was easier to arrange a private car to and from the airport rather than navigating public transit with all our luggage. We booked through Viator and were very pleased with the arrangements. The drivers were prompt, communicative, and we had plenty of space in the vans. They also provided a car seat for the baby that they installed prior to picking us up.
- Private arrival transfer from Zurich Airport to Zurich city
- Departure transfer from Zurich city to Zurich airport
Where to stay in Zurich
Since we’re a points-focused blog, we’re going to list out the options with the big three – Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott. There are many boutique hotels or smaller chains you can stay with if the big hotel chains aren’t your style.
Marriott
- Kameha Grand Zurich
- Courtyard Zurich North – where we stayed!
- Sheraton Zurich Hotel
- Zurich Marriott Hotel
Hilton
Hyatt
The good news about Zurich is that it’s very easy to get around on public transit, so it’s hard to go wrong with selecting a location.
Getting around
The easiest way to get around is on their robust public transit system. The Zurich Transport Network (ZVV) is very easy to navigate, and they have an app you can download to your phone. We didn’t download the app, instead relying on the public transit feature on Google Maps to navigate.
Like many things in Switzerland, public transit is not the least expensive we’ve seen in other places. You can maximize your purchase by buying a 24-hour or 72-hour pass to any zone in the city. The ZVV pass gets you on trains, trams, and buses around the city. The 72-hour ZVV pass, which we purchased, was 56 CHF (Swiss Francs) per person. That ended up being just over $132 for the two of us, which we paid on our Chase Sapphire because there’s no international transaction fee and we earn 2x on all travel expenses on this card.
If you don’t like public transit, there are taxis or Uber, but those costs add up quickly. Based on our experience, we wouldn’t recommend renting a car if you’re only planning to stay in the city. Public transit is very comprehensive, and you’d likely spend a ton of time looking for parking when you could be out enjoying all that the city has to offer!
Things to do in Zurich
The nice thing about Zurich being a “smaller” city is that you can easily cover a lot of ground in only a few days and hit most of the major sights. Here are some of the things we did.
Spend time at the lake
Zurich sits on the tip of Lake Zurich. It’s approximately 25 miles long and 2 miles wide. On the day we arrived, we spent a few hours walking the path around the lake and enjoying the weather. During our time in Zurich, we frequently returned to the lake to take in the atmosphere. There is a beautiful promenade to walk along and plenty of benches when you want a rest. There were lots of people swimming in the lake and plenty of people on boats.
Visit the famous churches
The city is home to many storied cathedrals – like so many European cities are. There are four main churches in Old Town. St. Peter is the oldest parish church in Zurich and home to the largest clock face in all of Europe. The clock face has a diameter of 8.7 meters. During our visit, St. Peter was closed for construction, so we just walked by to see the famous clock.
Grossmünster is a Protestant church whose towers are viewed by many as one of (if not the) most recognizable landmarks in Zurich. Entry into the church was free. Fraumünster Church is located very close to Grossmünster and was originally an abbey for aristocratic women. Fraumünster Church is also known for being home to five windows from famed artist Marc Chagall. Entry into Fraumünster Church is five Francs for adults.
The last of the main four churches is Predigerkirche, a Lutheran church. We didn’t visit this one during our time in Zurich.
Try some famous Swiss chocolate
Don’t visit Zurich and forget to try some chocolate. There are chocolate shops everywhere, and you’re sure to find some you enjoy. When we were walking through Old Town Zurich, we stopped into Max Chocolatier. It was a pretty small shop, but the person working was very helpful. He offered us a free sample of their lemon marzipan chocolate. We also purchased some java chocolate to eat as we kept walking around Old Town.
The other place we tried chocolate was Confiserie Sprüngli. There are several locations throughout Zurich, including at Hauptbahnhof (HB), the main train station. At Sprüngli, we decided to try Luxemburgerli, which are mini macrons. They’re called Luxemburgerli because a pastry chef brought the recipe with him from Luxembourg. We ordered the box that had nine mini macarons so we could try a variety of flavors. We tried raspberry, passion fruit, vanilla, and chocolate ones that were then dipped in chocolate as an outer layer. For the “traditional” macarons, we sampled vanilla, champagne rose, chocolate absolut, lemon, and pistachio. All of the flavors were delicious.
For even more chocolate, check out the Lindt Home of Chocolate for a tour! We didn’t do this during our visit, but plan ahead if you’d like to go. We took a look at tickets and dates were sold out a few days in advance.
Get your kicks at the FIFA museum
If you weren’t aware, Zurich is the home to FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) Headquarters. The organization operates the FIFA Museum, which first opened in 2016. The museum includes memorabilia from every Men’s and Women’s World Cup. There are various interactive exhibits, like soccer pinball or where you can do a goal celebration. Try out seats from different World Cup stadiums as you learn about how each World Cup played out. One of our favorite things was the display of jerseys from every country that’s a member of FIFA.
Stroll down Bahnhofstrasse
The main street in Zurich that Hauptbahnhof (HB) train station lets out to. In true Swiss form, this is one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. You can window shop (or actually buy things) at Bulgari, Cartier, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and more. If you want to buy an authentic Swiss timepiece, you can check out Beyer, Blancpain, Breguet, Tissot, Vacheron Constantin, or even Swatch on Bahnhofstrasse.
Just off Bahnhofstrasse on a side street, you’ll find Orell Füssli, a multi-floor bookstore. They have a wide range of books and a fairly large English section. Since this was our baby’s first trip out of the United States, we decided to start a tradition of buying him a children’s book from the country we visit. We picked out Heidi, originally published in 1880/1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
As you’re strolling down Bahnhofstrasse, take a slight detour to visit Augustinergasse, one of the streets in Altstadt (Old Town). One of the most historical streets in Zurich that dates back to medieval times, it’s known for its well-preserved bay windows and colorful buildings.
Walk on up to Lindenhof
If you make your way to Augustinergasse, keep walking to hit St. Peters Church. Then, continue up to the Lindenhof, the top of hill that’s the historical site of a Roman fort. Now you’ll find an open area with seating, a large chess board, and wonderful views of the Limmat River.
Where to eat in Zurich
We are admittedly not foodies. When we travel, we are not seeking out the Michelin-star restaurants or trying to eat at all the hot spots in our destination city. Here are just a few places we tried that you might want to consider while visiting Zurich.
- Thai Bogie – solid Thai food served out of an old train car. They also have a fair amount of outdoor seating. Thai Bogie is in a pretty quiet neighborhood and was a nice place to relax after a busy day of sightseeing. We shared the Pad Thai with chicken.
- Babu’s Bakery and Coffeehouse – a place so nice that we went here twice. P2 called their cranberry roll “probably my favorite thing I ate in Zurich”. He also picked up an Americano to drink while we walked around.
- Bean Bank Coffee – Bean Bank sells beans from specialty roasters across the world. We stopped by their location in the business district of the city where P2 grabbed a flat white.
- Moudi – Moudi is a Lebanese restaurant that a friend recommended to us that’s located near Paradeplatz. We ordered a mezze plate to share that came with three types of hummus and four small dishes. They have a nice outdoor seating area on a quiet waterway.
- Hiltl – the world’s oldest vegetarian restaurant, Hiltl is buffet style where you load a plate with your food and pay based on weight. There’s a variety of options from curry to shakshuka to burgers & french fries, you’ll be sure to find something you like – even if you’re not vegetarian or vegan. Hiltl is where we sampled rösti, a traditional Swiss food made from grated potatoes. We also tried a delicious passion fruit lemonade made in-house.
- Sternen Grill – P2 makes it a habit to get currywurst where he can (particularly when we’re traveling in Europe). This stems from our trip to Berlin for our honeymoon several years ago. He set his sites on the Sternen Grill, located near the Zurich Opera House and just off the lake. It’s a small spot with relatively limited seating, but the currywurst earned his approval.
Money-Saving Tips
As we mentioned in our introduction, Zurich is a pretty expensive city. If you’re looking to save money while visiting Zurich, here are a few ways you can do that.
Use public transit – we sung the praises of the Zurich Transit Network earlier in this post. And while $132 for two 72-hour unlimited city passes is more expensive than other cities we’ve been to, it’s substantially cheaper than the other transportation options in the city. We never had any issue getting anywhere we wanted to go by using the trains, so use these passes as much as possible.
Shop at grocery stores – when we travel, we typically pick up groceries for our room to have easy access to food for snacks and light meals (peanut butter and jelly, granola bars, etc.) Our hotel was located near a Coop Supermarket, which made it really easy to run out when we needed food. Beyond the peanut butter sandwiches we made for breakfast, we also took advantage of the grab and go meals at Coop. They had sandwiches, salads, poke bowls, and more. My favorite item was a pesto pasta salad with tomato and mozzarella.
Split meals at restaurants – at a few of the restaurants we visited, we were able to split and entree and still feel full after the meal. In some cases, we ordered one appetizer and one entree, but that still saved us more money than if we’d bought two separate entrees. Since the hotel in our room was pretty small, these allowed us to not have leftover food with nowhere to put it.
Summary
So there you have it! Just a small list of what you need to know from our trip to Zurich.
We truly had an incredible time and would recommend you add Zurich to your travel itinerary.
Have you visited Zurich before? What would you add to the list of things to do?
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