Three days in Zurich: buttoned up until it gets in the water
Two nights by the old town, with a swim in the Limmat, a mountain train from the main station and Chagall's windows on the way out.
- Length
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Where you stay
- Zurich
- Places
- 6 across 3 days
Zurich has a reputation as a city of banks, and it is one. It is also a city where office workers carry a waterproof bag to work in July, drop into the Limmat upstream of the old town and let the current take them home. Both things are true at once, and the second one is the reason to give it three days rather than an afternoon between flights.
Everything worth walking to sits in about two square kilometres around the Limmat, and the main station is at the top of it. Trams run every few minutes, the mountain train leaves from a platform inside the station, and no day here needs a taxi.
Three days is enough for the old town, one hill, one great museum and at least one swim, without ever moving hotel.
Highlights
- The view from the Lindenhof, the gravel terrace where the Romans put their fort and Zurich now plays chess
- Swimming in the Limmat at the Letten baths, which is what Zurich does with a hot afternoon
- The S10 from inside the Hauptbahnhof to the top of the Uetliberg in twenty minutes
- Zwingli's Grossmünster, the church the Swiss Reformation started in
- Marc Chagall's windows in the Fraumünster choir, which you are not allowed to photograph
Where to stay
Zurich, two nights
Stay on or near the old town, either side of the river. The east bank lanes are livelier at night and the west bank is quieter and closer to Paradeplatz, and both are ten minutes on foot from the main station, which matters on the morning you leave.
The city is smaller than its reputation: about 430,000 people live in it. What makes it feel bigger is that it is the hinge of the Swiss rail network, so half of Switzerland passes through the Hauptbahnhof, and the lake and the hills start at the edge of the built-up part rather than an hour beyond it.
Day by day
Day 1 in Zurich
The Lindenhof, a swim in the Limmat, dinner in an old arsenal
Arrive, leave the bags, and walk five minutes uphill from the station into the old town. The Lindenhof is a gravel terrace under lime trees with old men playing chess on it and the whole city below, and it is the fastest way to work out how Zurich is laid out: river through the middle, old town either side, lake at the far end, hills behind.
Then walk north along the water. The Letten baths are a fifteen minute stroll upstream, and on a warm afternoon they are full of people who have finished work early. You get in at the top end and let the river carry you down to the steps, then walk back up and do it again. Showers and lockers are there, but bring a padlock of your own.
For dinner, come back into the centre to the Zeughauskeller, which is exactly as touristy as it sounds and still worth an evening. The building went up in 1487 as an arsenal and the sausages arrive on boards.
- 13:00
Arrive at Zürich Hauptbahnhof
TravelTrains from the airport take ten minutes and arrive underneath the main hall. Left luggage is on the lower level if your room is not ready.
- 15:00
Lindenhof
LandmarkA flat hilltop above the lanes, once a Roman fort, now shade trees, chess boards and the best view you get without leaving the old town.
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- 16:30
Oberer/Unterer Letten
VisitPublic river baths on the Limmat. Jump in upstream, float down, repeat. Free lockers, but you need to bring your own lock.
- 19:30
Zeughauskeller
EatSausages, stews and rösti in a 1487 arsenal with long shared tables. Loud, generous, and no bookings for small groups late on.
With more time: If it is too cold for the river, the same walk upstream ends at a stretch of bars with tables on the water, which is where the city goes instead.
Day 2 in Zurich
Up the Uetliberg, then the Grossmünster and the Kunsthaus
Go up the hill first, while the air is clear. The S10 leaves from the SZU platforms at the far end of the Hauptbahnhof and takes about twenty minutes to the top of the Uetliberg, where a viewing tower gives you the city, the lake and, on a good day, a long line of Alps behind it. The Planetenweg starts here: twelve kilometres of ridge walk with the planets set out along it to scale, and you can walk as much of it as you like and drop back down to a station.
Back in town in the afternoon, the Grossmünster is the church where Huldrych Zwingli was made the people's priest in 1519 and where the Swiss Reformation went from an argument to a fact. It is austere inside, deliberately so, and the tower stairs are narrow and worth it.
Finish at the Kunsthaus, five minutes uphill. It has the Giacomettis and the Hodlers you would expect from a Swiss collection and a great deal that you would not, and it is big enough that two hours is a decision rather than a rush.
- 09:00
Uetliberg
NatureA hill above the city with a viewing tower on top and the Planetenweg ridge path running off it. Twenty minutes on the S10 from inside the main station.
- 13:00
Lunch back in the old town
EatCome down hungry. Anywhere in the lanes east of the river will do, and a stand-up sausage is a legitimate Zurich lunch.
- 14:30
Grossmünster
ReligiousZwingli's church, Romanesque and stripped bare by the Reformation it started. Climb the tower for the view down onto the old roofs.
- 16:00
Kunsthaus
CultureThe city's main art museum: Giacometti sculpture, Hodler painting and a strong international collection. Allow two hours.
With more time: With more time, the lake boats leave from Bürkliplatz and a short round trip at the end of the afternoon gives you the city from the water for the price of a transport ticket.
Day 3 in Zurich
Chagall's windows and Paradeplatz on the way to the train
Keep the last morning close to the station. The Fraumünster is a former convent church on the west bank, and the reason to go in is the set of choir windows Marc Chagall designed for it: deep blue, red and green, best in morning light, and firmly no photographs.
From there it is five minutes to Paradeplatz, where the big banks and the country's most famous confectioner face each other across a tram junction. Sprüngli's upstairs room does breakfast and lunch, the display case downstairs is the real attraction, and the little Luxemburgerli macarons are what people carry onto trains.
The Hauptbahnhof is a five minute walk up the shopping street from there, which makes for an easy last hour.
- 10:00
Fraumünster
ReligiousA former convent church with five choir windows by Marc Chagall. No photographs inside, which is why people actually look at them.
- 11:15
Sprüngli Paradeplatz
EatThe flagship confectioner on Paradeplatz. Coffee and cake in the upstairs room, a box of Luxemburgerli downstairs for the journey.
- 13:30
Train from Zürich Hauptbahnhof
TravelTen minutes to the airport, an hour to Lucerne or Basel, three and a bit to Milan. Platforms are announced late but the trains leave on the minute.
With more time: With a later train, the Swiss national museum sits directly behind the station and gives you the whole country's history in about ninety minutes.
Before you go
Getting in and getting around
Zurich Airport is ten minutes from the Hauptbahnhof by train, with departures every ten to fifteen minutes through the day, and a single ticket costs a few francs. There is no reason to take a taxi or an airport shuttle unless you are arriving at four in the morning.
In the city the network is ZVV: trams, buses, suburban trains, the lake boats and a couple of funiculars, all on the same ticket. Buy a day pass rather than singles, and check it covers the zone you are travelling into before you board the Uetliberg train, which climbs out of the city fare zone.
Nothing in this trip needs a car. Distances in the old town are measured in minutes on foot, and the two outings that leave it, the hill and the river baths, are both easier by train and tram than by anything with wheels on a road.
What it costs
Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in Europe and does not apologise for it. A beer, a plate of sausages or a museum ticket each cost noticeably more than the equivalent in Munich or Milan, and the tap water is excellent and free, which is the one saving available.
The river baths, the hilltops and the churches cost nothing, so a day here can be cheap if you decide it will be. It is the eating that gets you.
When to go
June to early September is when the city is in the water and the lake boats are running, and it is the version of Zurich worth planning around. Bring swimwear even if you do not expect to use it.
In winter the Limmat is out of the question and the Uetliberg is often in cloud, but the museums and the old town do not mind the weather, and the city is quieter and cheaper to sleep in.
Zurich rewards a short stay because it does not make you travel to get to anything. The hill, the water, the old town and the trains all touch each other, and the day you leave you can still be swimming at nine and on a platform at one.
It is also the easiest place in the country to start from. Lucerne, Basel and Bern are all about an hour away, and the Alps are two, so a long weekend here turns into a Swiss trip with very little effort.
Or make it a longer trip
These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.
Make it your trip
Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.
Common questions
- How many days do you need in Zurich?
- Three is the right number for a first visit: one for the old town, one for a hill and a museum, and a short last morning. Two works if you skip the Uetliberg, and four only makes sense if you are using the city as a base for day trips to Lucerne, Schaffhausen or Winterthur, all of which are inside an hour by train.
- Can you really swim in the river?
- Yes, and it is the most Zurich thing you can do. The Limmat runs clean and cold out of the lake, the public baths along it are free, and from June to September they are busy from late afternoon onwards. The current is quick, so get in above the exit you intend to use.
- Is Zurich too expensive for a short break?
- It is expensive, mostly in restaurants. The churches, the hills, the lake shore and the river baths are free, museum tickets are ordinary European prices, and a supermarket picnic by the water is a normal Zurich evening rather than a compromise. Copy this plan and swap a dinner for one and the three days cost a good deal less.
- Is the Uetliberg worth it if the weather is grey?
- Not really. The point is the long view south to the Alps, and in cloud there is nothing up there but trees. Check the webcams before you buy the ticket and use the morning for the Kunsthaus instead, then take the hill on the last day if it clears.