Hiking
- If you’re into hiking, there’s a fantastic scenic hike above Zurich! It’s a single, short train ride that brings you up into the mountains above the lake and then you can walk along the mountain ridge. It’s stunning and such a great activity! You can then take a mountainside gondola back down – super fun! 😀 There’s also a restaurant up top that does traditional Swiss food and beer. YES!
- Take a hike on the Planetweg trail. It’s cool, it’s a scale model trail of the solar system! And at the top is the “top of zurich”
- Take the ferry around the lake, you can hop on and hop off the different stops to explore. Also go to Lucerne area it’s close by! Ebenalp is gorgeous, you can cable car up and hike down (stop in apenzell on the way). Also lake konstanz, borders 4 countries
Food
- If you like chocolate and sweets, I would recommend going to Spruengli at Paradeplatz, they have the best fresh Truffles (Chocolate Candies) and little Petit Fours. My favorites are Truffe Du Jour (dark) but a lot of people like the Champagne Truffes. You could head from there to Niederdorf (Old Town), lots of little restaurants, pedestrian-friendly and great little Boutiques. I would for sure go to the lake for a little bit. And if you want to have a photo op where you can see most of the city from a Panoramic View you can head up to ETH/Uni Zuerich. There is also a market with fresh stuff and flowers at Buerkliplatz
- Go to Teuscher chocolate shop and eat the champagne truffles 😍 Also, Sprungli is a great brunch place – delicious – but go early because it’s crowded. Make sure that you walk by the river – really stunning views! You can probably do the city itself in a day, and then take a day trip out to the mountains. We did one at Mt. Pilatus and really liked it
Entertainment
- Nightlife (including gay nightlife) is excellent, though the drinks are eye-wateringly expensive.
- For museums the Kunsthaus is one of the best art galleries in Europe and the Swiss National Museum contains whole rooms from various locations in Switzerland that were brought there and reconstructed.
- For walks Niederdorf (the old town) is a gem, the lake setting is magnificent (you can swim in the summer) and the two overlooking mountains have superb views.
- There are many interesting sites people don’t know about: the original Cabaret Voltaire (birthplace of the Dada movement) now a cafe, Marc Chagall’s stained glass windows in the Frauenkirche, the house where Lenin lived before he returned to Russia and the grave of James Joyce who died in