If you’re into walking 20,000 steps a day, here’s a 4-day itinerary of what to do in Zurich. My friend, Kat, and I got invited to a wedding in Mallorca, an island off of Spain, so we decided to stop in Switzerland first!
WHERE TO STAY IN ZURICH:
Zurich’s city center is pretty small and super walkable. We stayed in an Airbnb right near the Limmat River across from the train station, which was perfect. You should look for a hotel or Airbnb in the area below, basically south of the main train station.
HOW MANY DAYS TO SPEND IN ZURICH:
The city is kind of small, so I’d say you can cover a lot in 2.5-3 days. We did a day trip to Lucerne while we were there.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN ZURICH:
There are buses, trams, trains, and boats for public transportation in Zurich. We found that Apple Maps had better options for public transportation routes than Google Maps for some reason.
In researching public transportation, it felt more confusing than other European cities. From what I understand, you can plan your trip and buy tickets through the ZVV app, but there are also physical ticket machines at some stops. There are different zones in the city with different prices. The tickets work for any type of public transportation, so the same 24 hour ticket works for busses, trams, trains, and boats. I’d recommend reading this blog post from The Everywhere Guide (the prices are outdated, but the info still stands).
Public transportation works on the honor system like some other cities I’ve been to, such as Prague and Budapest. There are no turnstiles like Paris. You should still buy a ticket though, because sometimes the public transit authority officers will board the bus/tram/train and ask for tickets (we got fined on Day 3).
There’s also a tourist card you can purchase called the Zürich Card that covers all types of public transportation for 24 or 72 hours. It covers admission to some tourist spots and gives discounts for others. You just need to calculate the cost and see if it makes sense for you, given that Zurich is extremely walkable for the most part and a 24-hour bus ticket will cost less than the 24-hour Zurich Card. The app is very convenient and easy to use.
A FEW OTHER THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT ZURICH:
- Switzerland uses its currency, Swiss Francs (CHF), so you can’t use your Euros (EUR).
- Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world. You won’t be able to go to a restaurant without spending $25 USD; however, they don’t often ask for a tip when you pay your bill.
- In Zurich, most people speak German. French is a lot less common. However, we did not have an issue as most people spoke a little English.
- There weren’t a lot of tourist gift shops in Zurich, the biggest shop I saw was at the Zurich airport.
- The weather is unreliable, so when in doubt, bring a rain jacket or umbrella.
DAY 1: SATURDAY, 9/14
Recently, I have started to bring burritos to the airport and eat them before my flight and I’m stuffed for hours. My flight left from LAX around 7 pm on a Friday and I landed in Zurich around 3 pm on Saturday. I flew on Swiss Air for the first time and had a good experience. They fed us two meals and a few snacks during the 10.5 hour flight. My friend Kat was flying in from New York and landed less than an hour after me, so that worked out very conveniently. We met at baggage claim and then bought a tram ticket from the kiosk outside the airport for 7 CHF.
The ride was only 20 minutes, then we just had a short walk to our Airbnb. It was overcast and definitely felt colder than 60 degrees, so I’m glad I packed my puffer jacket. We dropped off our luggage, got some water at the grocery store across the street called Alnatura, and then decided to go for a walk.
Many of the shops had already closed, but the architecture was lovely. We walked along Bahnhofstrasse, the Rodeo Drive of Zurich, with all the designer brands I had never heard of. Kat was looking for deodorant, so we popped into a pharmacy. We also needed soap for the shower, so we went to Coop, a grocery and department store with travel-sized items.
For dinner, we went to Raclette Factory. Swiss food is heavy on meat, cheese, and potatoes. It was busy, but we were still able to get a table. We ordered the classic Heidi raclette with just cheese and potatoes and the original tarte flambee, which was just a flatbread with cheese, onions, and bacon.
Kat did not fly Swiss Air and didn’t get meals on her flights, so we went to Burger King for more food. European fast-food restaurants just hit different. You order at a digital kiosk and then wait for your order to be ready. They had waffles with Nutella, so I tried one.
We walked around some more to see the city at night. I think late September is past peak tourist season, so it wasn’t super crowded. I feel like this is the European city I’ve felt the safest, even when it’s dark. We found a grocery store called Lidl, and we grabbed some water and juice for the next day.
DAY 2: SUNDAY, 9/15
We woke up to a glorious sunny day! We left the Airbnb at 8:30am and ate granola bars we had packed for breakfast. The streets were empty and we went to Boreal Coffee before walking up to Lindenhof Park for a great view of the city.
Next, we went on a long walk to Umbrella Alley, which I had added to the itinerary the day before when I was doing last-minute research on what to do in Zurich. The area was very urban and artsy. It was very small and kind of underwhelming. I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it. In this area of the city, there was a club that was already bumping at 10:30am. Next to it was Freitag Tower, which was several shipping containers stacked on top of each other. Frau Gerolds Garten is a cool outdoor garden restaurant with picnic tables, but it wasn’t open yet.
We didn’t really have any set plans besides dinner, so we took the train to an art museum called Kunsthaus Zürich, which is the largest art museum in Switzerland. We bought tickets for 24 CHF at the desk and then put our backpacks and coats in the locker room downstairs, which was super convenient. Based on photos I had seen online, I thought it was going to be a modern art museum, but it had art from probably every era, with some classic paintings by Monet, Braques, Manet, Mondrian, and more. The rooms kept going and going!
The ticket to the museum gives you access to the main Kunsthaus area, but there’s also a long underground walkway to another building, Chipperfield Building, with even more art. My favorite exhibit was in this building, Turicum Pixelwald (2021), by a Swiss artist, Pipilotti Rist. It was an installation in a large dark room with colored lights that would flash and change color to the beat of three different music pieces, which varied from classical to more modern synth beats. If you’re a museum person, you could probably spend 4-5 hours wandering through the museum. Kat and I are pretty speedy and it still took us 2 hours to get through everything.
The whole morning, we were wondering where everyone was because the streets were empty. We thought that maybe the Swiss were just late to rise on Sundays, but I was Googling restaurants for lunch and found out it was actually a federal public holiday, Federal Day of Thanksgiving, Repentance, and Prayer.
We wanted to go to a cute cafe called Mere Catherine, but it was closed. We walked along the river and none of the places looked that good, so we walked further into town and ended up at a traditional Swiss restaurant Wirtsstube Münsterhöfli, which in writing this I’ve learned is considered to be the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the city of Zurich, established during the Middle Ages. Kat and I shared a salad and Wienerschnitzel. I’ve had Wienerschnitzel in Germany before, but this one was so good!! We went at like 2 pm, but if you go during peak hours, you may need a reservation because it’s a small restaurant.
I thought about going into the Fraumünster Church for $5 CHF, but honestly, it didn’t look like anything too special, so we just saw it from the outside. We walked back toward the Airbnb and saw the little red Polybahn funicular. We found a set of stairs that led up to the Polyterrasse, a viewpoint of the city at the ETH Zurich, a university focused on STEM subjects. We walked into the main university building and then rested in the Airbnb for a little bit.
It was such a beautiful day outside, so we went back out after an hour. We shared some gelato at Vittorio Vanini, and it may have been the best pistachio gelato I’ve ever had. Then, we sat on a bench by the water and read our books.
Our dinner reservation was at Neumarkt, a cute little bistro. I feel like everything we had there was too salty, but I think we should’ve ordered better and I still recommend it, though!
DAY 3: MONDAY, 9/17
When planning the trip, I wasn’t sure if we should do a day trip somewhere else, but I’m glad we booked a train to Lucerne! I booked the tickets about 3 weeks in advance via Rail Europe, but I think there are cheaper options if you book even earlier.
We got up early and stopped by Alnatura for some breakfast. It was sprinkling outside and everyone was using umbrellas, but we toughed it out. Like an airport, there are screens that show what track your train will be departing from. The track numbers are TBD until about 20 minutes before departure, so there isn’t really any use in getting to the train station super early.
The ride to Lucerne is less than an hour. We left the station at 9:10 am and arrived by 10 am. A lot of people actually stay in Lucerne, so many people had suitcases. We stepped out of the train station, and it felt a little colder than Zurich. The town looked so cute as we walked along the Reuss River. I saw people entering the big church along the water, so we walked in too. It was Jesuitenkirche, a Catholic church. It wasn’t massive, but the interior felt unique because it was mostly painted white and pink! A lot of light was coming in, so it was bright inside, unlike most churches, which are dark inside. It was gorgeous.
I didn’t do a lot of research on Lucerne and figured we’d just walk around. We walked across a bridge to the other side of the river and there were a lot of shops. Kat got some chocolate at Läderach. The other big chocolate brand in Zurich is Sprüngli.
Then, we wandered up some stairs to a park. We ended up walking along Museggmauer, an old city wall that connects several towers. We climbed up the Schirmerturm and Zytturn towers and got a great view of the city below. There were a lot of children around for some reason, I’m not sure if that’s normal or if it was a field trip.
For lunch, we went to Hotel Restaurant zum Weissen Kreuz which served pizza and pasta. I got lasagna and Kat got some risotto. We walked back through the shops and stopped into some more. We went to Bäckerei Macchi for hot chocolate, then we walked back to the train station to catch the 3:35 pm train back to Zurich. We were there early and saw there was another train going back to Zurich 20 minutes earlier than our train, so we hopped on that one, thinking maybe our ticket time didn’t matter that much, like in New York or Connecticut (we were wrong).
The officer approached us literally as we were pulling into the Zurich train station and told us we got on the wrong train. He was nice and fined us 35 CHF each, which is less than the normal 90 CHF fine. You live and you learn.
We rested in the Airbnb before it was time for our dinner reservation at zum Kropf, which had traditional Bavarian food. The inside of the restaurant was beautiful, but the water cost almost 10 CHF. I wasn’t too full, but the desserts sounded delicious.
After dinner, we went to Lidl and got some protein bars and drinks and planned the next day since we had already seen most of the things I planned. After some research, I decided we should get the 24-hour Zürich Card, which cost 29 CHF and covered all forms of public transportation in several zones of the city, including the airport. We purchased it on the app and scheduled it to activate at 9:30 am the next morning.
DAY 4: TUESDAY, 9/18
It was misty and grey in the morning. We walked to Franzos Coffee Shop for breakfast. It was the only place that I saw where people spoke French instead of German. Kat and I both got some eggs for some protein because our next stop was bound to give us a sugar rush. We were headed to Lindt Home of Chocolate, the world headquarters of the iconic chocolate company!
We took a train to Kilchberg, about a 20-minute ride, then walked like 7 minutes to the factory. You do need to book tickets in advance, as they will sell out, especially on weekends. I bought ours 10 am tickets for 17 CHF each about a month early. From the outside, I already knew it was going to be stunning. I felt like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The interior lobby has an incredible giant whisk and chocolate sculpture. Similar to Kunsthaus, there are lockers so you can leave your coats and bags inside. Everyone can grab a little audio tour guide remote and program which language they want. From there, you can just tap the audio guide at different icons to hear about the chocolate-making process and how Lindt came to be.
Of course, the best part was getting samples of chocolate. We got to taste molten white, milk, and dark chocolate with little tasting spoons. There were also these motion-sensor machines that dispensed pieces of chocolate when you put your hands underneath them for unlimited chocolate samples. Toward the end, there were large bowls of the iconic Lindt truffles and you got to take one of each flavor! By the end, we were full of chocolate and spent an hour inside.
There was a large gift shop where you could get personalized chocolate bars with chocolate writing on the back, as well as every flavor of Lindt chocolate you could think of. There was also a cafe with food and other chocolate desserts, but we weren’t ready to eat.
We took the train back to Zurich and went into the Grossmünster church. It’s free to enter and you can also walk up to the top of the tower. I really wanted to go up, but it didn’t work out with the rest of our schedule and you can’t ascend on Tuesdays.
Because we had unlimited access to public transportation with the Zürich Card, we took the tram down to the Chinese Garden. The strangest thing about Zurich was the massive amount of Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese restaurants. I didn’t see a lot of Asian people, but the Swiss love Asian food.
This part of town seemed more happening and where offices were compared to the old town. The garden felt really random, but apparently Zurich is sister cities with Kunming, the capital city of the province of Yunnan in China. There was free admission, but no one else was there when we went. The garden wasn’t very large, but it was pretty and peaceful and there were a lot of koi in the pond.
We kept walking and came across Pavillon Le Corbusier, a tiny art museum dedicated to the work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The coolest part was probably just the outside. Admission is usually 12 CHF, but it’s included with the Zurich Card, so we did get our money’s worth lol but I would not recommend going inside otherwise.
There’s a lovely promenade along the water, so we walked until we got back toward more shops and restaurants. We were starting to get hangry and wanted something healthy (but not Asian food, so weird how many restaurants there were!). We found Tibits, a cute pay-by-weight vegetarian/vegan buffet.
Unfortunately, I got sick pretty immediately after lunch. I want to say it was the kimchi, but I grabbed spoonfuls of so many random vegetable dishes. Kat was completely fine, but I was unwell for a few hours and we just hung out in the Airbnb. Thankfully, I brought some off-brand version of Immodium from back home and after a while I was feeling okay.
At 5 pm, we took the train to Uetliberg, a mountain part of the Albis range, not the Alps. We walked up a gravel trail that took about 10 minutes to the top. It wasn’t too steep so I was stunned by the views once we got to the top. There are other trails up there as well, but we weren’t trying to hike.
There was a restaurant and hotel at the top. There’s also an observation tower. The first platform is free to walk up to, but then after that you can pay a small fee of about 2 CHF to go through the turnstiles and walk up the flights of stairs to the top. Not many people were going up, but we thought why not? It was extremely windy at the final platform but the panoramic views were awesome. I only wish that it was a little sunnier. I’ve also seen beautiful photos with fall colors, but we were there too early for that.
We took the train back around 6:30 pm and then I quickly grabbed a croissant and water from a Coop grocery store and Kat went to Goodys Smashburger. Thankfully my digestive system was good to go by the time I went to bed. I’m sad because we were supposed to go to Zebra Bar for fondue but alas, everything can’t always go to plan.
DAY 5: WEDNESDAY, 9/19
Our Zürich Card expired at 9:30am, so we got up early and took the tram to the airport around 8:30 am. Our flight wasn’t until 11:45 am, but we had to check our suitcases since they were too big for Condor’s baggage restrictions. We had to wait in line for 1.5 hours just to check our bags, so I’m very glad we got to the airport 3 hours early.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Lindt Home of Chocolate (book tickets early)
- Taking the train up to Uetliberg
- Wienerschnitzel at Wirtsstube Münsterhöfli
- Gelato from Vittorio Vannini
- Kunsthaus Museum
- View at Lindenhof Park
WHAT I’D CHANGE
- Do more research on what to do and eat in Lucerne
- Don’t try to get onto an earlier train
- Figure out how to get to the Alps
COST BREAKDOWN:
- Roundtrip flight from LA to Zurich: $1,284
- Public transportation (including our fine): $107
- Food: $292
- My half of the Airbnb: $300
- Attractions/Zürich Card: $85
- Miscellaneous (soap, toilet paper): $10
TOTAL SPENT: $2,078
Here’s a map of everywhere we went in Zurich and Lucerne!
CHECK OUT MY OTHER EUROPEAN ADVENTURES:
My First Time in London
3 Days in Paris
24 Hours in Nice
