If you haven’t visited Switzerland’s most populous city, you’re more likely to associate the name with banking than the buzzy, urban hot spot that it is. That’s a shame, because contemporary Zürich has a kind of pulsating energy not usually found in Switzerland. Here are 10 essential Zürich experiences.
If you’re looking for a totally Swiss gift, head straight to elegant Bahnhofstrasse, which is home to the city’s best luxury shops, selling everything from watches and clocks to chocolate and ready-to-wear fashion. It’s also home to dozens of banks, and their vaults –located beneath the street — are said to be crammed with gold and silver.
Zürich has a thriving cafe culture and there are literally hundreds of restaurants serving all types of local and international cuisine scattered across the city. Niederdorfstrasse, and the backstreets nearby, are a good place to begin. They’re filled with wall-to-wall cafes, restaurants and bars of every description.
Zürich really comes into its own during its Mediterranean-like summer. Green parks lining its lake fill quickly on sunny days. Between May and mid-September, outdoor swimming areas are open around the lake and along the Limmat River. These are usually rectangular wooden piers with a pavilion covering part of them. Most offer massages, yoga and saunas, as well as snacks and drinks.
Spend at least a few hours exploring the cobbled streets of the pedestrian-only old town lining both sides of the Limmat River that bisects Zürich. You never know where a turn down a quiet alley will lead — perhaps a 16th-century guildhall, a tiny boutique or courtyards and fountains.
Zürich’s Kunsthaus museum underwent a major overhaul less than a decade ago and is home to a rich collection of Alberto Giacometti stick-figure sculptures, along with Monets, Van Goghs and other 19th- and 20th-century art. Swiss artist Ferdinand Hodler is also represented.
Speaking of strolls, it seems on Sunday afternoons that all of Zürich heads to the lake to walk leisurely around it — or when it is completely frozen in winter, as pictured in this old photograph. There are sometimes human traffic jams, but it is definitely a worthwhile cultural experience that’s been local custom for generations now.
Despite its straight-laced banker reputation, Zurich knows how to throw a wild party. On the third Monday in April, Zürich celebrates the arrival of warmer weather with Sechselauten, which includes a costumed parade and the ignition of fireworks-filled snowman come dusk. In August the city rocks out to the techno Street Parade, one of the largest of its kind. All-night parties around the city follow the three-hour parade.
Switzerland is famous for its chocolate, and the mother off all chocolate shops is Sprungli on Bahnhofstrasse. It’s a Zürich institution and must for chocoholics.
Zeughauskeller, also on Bahnhofstrasse, is another Zürich legacy with a giant menu boasting 20 different kinds of sausage plus a lot of beer choices to wash the meat down. Beyond sausage, it serves numerous other Swiss specialties of a carnivorous and vegetarian variety.
Beginning just west of the central train station, Züri-West — Zürich’s former industrial area — is now one of its hippest neighborhoods day or night. It’s most popular late at night, when its extravagant night club scene gets going close to midnight.