General Info
- To find public transport connections and book tickets, get the SBB mobile app. (Google Maps is also great for connections, but you can’t buy tickets in there).
- Inside of the city of Zurich, it doesn’t make sense to drive around by car. Take public transport instead. When in Rome… ;)
Exploring Zurich
- Must-do in summer: Take a swim in the lake and/or the river.
The water is super clean as it comes directly from the mountains. There are many great spots to take a dip and it’s allowed to do it anywhere (except for a few exceptions). Some spots I can recommend:
- Lake of Zurich
- River Limmat
- Dynamo (jump from the blue bridge)
- Oberer Letten (crowded with young hip people and often music and drinks)
- Werdinsel (super beautiful, suitable for kids, and also has areas for toddlers)
- Be sure to walk around the oldest part of the city, called Niederdörfli
- You can have a “homemade” hot chocolate, made from real chocolate at this cute cafe Café & Conditorei 1842. Be sure to sit upstairs.
- It’s nice to go up the Polyterrasse to have a view overlooking the city. If you do, be sure to have a peak inside of the ETH building. The renowned technical university (=Federal Polytechnic School) where Albert Einstein studied and later became a professor.
- If you enjoyed the ETH building, you can also have a peak inside the building next door, the “University of Zurich”. Albert Einstein was a professor there as well :D
- Here’s a very brief history of where Albert Einstein studied and taught: link
- Be sure to have some Luxemburgerli at one of the Sprüngli stores. You can for example go to its biggest store at Paradeplatz. While there, be sure to take a selfie in front of the historic Credit Suisse building before they remove the “Credit Suisse” name (as the bank got acquired by UBS).
- Have a glass of wine, champagne, or cocktail at Jules Verne Panoramabar.
- Take the boat on the river Limmat for a couple of stops. See here. For example from Landesmuseum (close to the main station) to “Bürkliplatz”. It’s the same ticket for the boat as for the other public transport vehicles.
- Walk along the lake. Start at Bellevue, where you can see the beautiful Opera house, and walk along the river, all the way to Zürihorn / Chinawiese. While you are there, I recommend having some food at Fischerstube, overlooking the lake of Zurich. Afterwards, you can either take the tram back from here, or the boat back from here.
- In the rare chance that you’re into football (the real kind, not the American version in which they rarely use their feet 😜), you might be interested in checking out the FIFA museum. The museum is located in Zurich as FIFA is headquartered in Zurich.
Restaurants in Zurich
Cheese Fondue