Zurich is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and yet it flies mostly under the radar for international visitors on a typical Europe trip. We spent 3 days in Zurich on our recent summer trip to the UK & Europe, and it was one of the genuine highlights of our trip! We were visiting good friends of ours, Tim & Nat, and we experienced the Zurich trifecta: Lindt, Lake Zurich, and gorgeous Swiss mountain scenery. The icing on the cake was spotting tennis legend Roger Federer himself!
Below, I’ve shared our itinerary for 3 days in Zurich which includes visiting the Lindt Factory, exploring Zurich’s Old Town, visiting a Badi and spending time on Lake Zurich, and hiking at Felsenegg, which is in the Uetliberg mountains and has one of the best views over Zurich.
Tim & Nat have been living in Zurich for a few years, and kindly invited us to stay with them. When you’re visiting friends, it’s nice to focus less on the itinerary and more on spending time together and letting your friends show you their new home, which is always so special. As a result, I hadn’t done much research for our Zurich trip, knowing that we’d be in good hands! I couldn’t have planned it better myself, so I’m so grateful to Tim & Nat for showing us such a great time.
We visited Zurich as the second-last destination during our our one month trip in Europe & the UK. We’d come from spending 2 days in Alsace, a spellbinding corner of eastern France. After Zurich, we ended our trip with 5 days in Crete.
Train from France to Switzerland
We took the train into Zurich, from France. We were travelling from Alsace, so the easiest way to get to Switzerland was to take the train from Colmar to Zurich, via Mulhouse (a town in France). It was comfortable and efficient, and much more practical than driving. We’d first planned to hire a car and drive, but the fees to take a car from France into Switzerland are exorbitant. Our friend Tim greeted us at the train station, and we were just in time to say hi to his Mum, Annette, who had been visiting them and was boarding a train for Paris.
Mountain Cafe
After we dropped off our bags at their apartment, Tim took us for a short scenic drive in the mountains. We stopped at a cute cafe and bar tucked away in the hills, housed in a wooden chalet with a patio overlooking the countryside.
Day 1: Lindt Factory & Old Town
Lindt Home of Chocolate
Swiss chocolate is the best chocolate in the world, so a trip to the Lindt Home of Chocolate was essential! Also known as the Lindt Factory, the Lindt Home of Chocolate is a museum and chocolate factory in Kilchberg, 15 minutes’ drive south of the Zurich city centre. You can tour the museum, with chocolate tastings along the way, and end your visit at the gift shop, which is home to more varieties of Lindt chocolate than you could dream of. Despite having eaten so much chocolate along the way I felt ill (literally a kid in a candy shop), we stocked up on enough chocolate to last us…the last five days of our trip.
My favourite part of the Lindt Factory was the chocolate fountains, with milk, white and dark chocolate.
You need to book tickets to the Lindt Factory well in advance. One of my colleagues visited Zurich shortly after we did, and was very disappointed to be unable to get tickets to the Lindt Factory once they’d arrived in town.
Zurich Old Town
In the afternoon, we explored Zurich’s beautiful Old Town (Aldstat). The Zurich Old Town is very walkable, with a maze of narrow streets, historic houses and guilds, and picturesque squares.
I let the boys catch up, while I went off on a hunt for a nail salon to get my SNS polish removed. It was super grown out, and I’d assumed I’d be able to drop in somewhere along the trip to get them removed. I’d struck out in Burgundy, as I had tried on a Sunday, but figured in a major city like Zurich it would be no problem. I tried walking into three places, but they all required appointments – in Australia, nearly all nail salons are walk in, and making an appointment is futile. I gave up, and met the boys for lunch at Zeughauskeller, a traditional Swiss restaurant serving rustic Swiss cuisine, housed in a cavernous 15th century building. I had a large ruesti (rosti), which was hearty and delicious!
We walked around Zurich’s Old Town, which feels a bit like you’ve stepped back in time to the 15th century. The architecture and streets feel unmistakably Swiss, compared to the modern European boulevards we’d seen the day before on our arrival. From Weinplatz, there is one of the most beautiful views across the sparkling Limmat River of Grossmunster and historic Old Town buildings. A postcard view of Zurich!
Grossmunster is a 13th century Romanesque church in Zurich’s Old Town, and a symbol of Zurich. It was built as a monastery church, but in the 16th century served as starting point of the Reformation. Today it is a protestant church and one of the four landmark churches of Zurich, alongside Fraumunster, St Peterskirche and Predigerkirche.
Dinner in Europaallee
In the evening, we went into town to Europaallee, a new neighbourhood in Zurich near the main train station. We had dinner at Miss Miu, a modern Korean restaurant which is one of Tim & Nat’s favourites. It was delicious, and a spot I never would have found on my own as a tourist.
Lindenhoff Lookout
After dinner, we walked through the Old Town, looping through the historic streets until we reached Lindenhoff Lookout. It’s one of Tim & Nat’s favourite spots in the Old Town, for its beautiful views over the town and the Limmat River. It looked like a fairytale!
Day 2: Lake Zurich, Badi & Roger Federer!
Lake Zurich
We were very lucky on our second day, to get to spend it on stunning Lake Zurich. Tim & Nat’s friend Stef has a boat, and was generous enough to take us all out for the day on the lake. We zipped around at first, on a mini tour, and then we anchored somewhere in the middle of the lake for an afternoon of swimming and relaxing. Lake Zurich is one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure if I’ve ever swum in a lake before, and I’d imagine it as being cloudy, possibly dirty and generally questionable, but Lake Zurich is nothing like that. The water was crystal clear, beautifully fresh but not too cold, and surrounded by a stunning backdrop of Swiss mountains. I can see why Tim & Nat love living in Zurich!
Badi Time at Lido Richterswil
After a day on the boat, there was no better place to end the day than one of Zurich’s many beautiful badi. A badi is an outdoor swimming pool on Lake Zurich, often with picnic, BBQ & restaurant facilities. We visited Lido Richterswil, also known as the Richterswil Badi, for drinks before returning to Tim & Nat’s place for dinner with friends.
We were just settling in to a glass of rose, when we spotted none other than Roger Federer, a few tables over. I didn’t take a photo, because he’s not an animal in a zoo, but it was so exciting just to see him! I used to play tennis, and my Mum and I are both big fans of Federer. He was more or less left alone while he dined, but as soon as he stood to leave, he was slowed down for around twenty minutes, taking photos and chatting to fans. He was so good natured about it, and often even offering to take the photos himself or to take additional photos to make sure the fans were happy.
Dinner with Friends
When I lived in New York, my friend Sally introduced me to her friends Victoria & Bryn. Victoria & Bryn moved to Zurich not long after Tim & Nat did, so I connected them, and the rest is history! It was so lovely to see Victoria & Bryn, and also for David to meet them, as he hadn’t in New York. We just wished Sally could have been there too!
Day 3: Felsenegg
Felsenegg Lookout on Uetliburg
Our final day in Zurich had come too soon! We had a slow start in the morning (dinner was fun!), before heading to the nearby Uetliburg mountain range for a gentle hike. We took the cable car from Adliswil to Felsenegg, which is a lookout with beautiful panoramic views over Lake Zurich and the city. We did a short hike, which looped back to the Felsenegg restaurant, which has equally impressive views.
The hiking trail was very quiet, and despite the restaurant being lively, we passed few other people on the trail. We saw cows and bulls roaming the verdant Swiss hills, and found a beautiful shop selling handmade knick knacks, set up in a caravan and operating with an honesty box system. There seems to be such a high degree of public trust in Switzerland, it is really striking.
Visiting beautiful Felsenegg was a perfect way to end our 3 days in Zurich, with views over the city and some of the fresh air and landscapes that Switzerland is famous for. I loved our time in Zurich, and would definitely return to Zurich or to other parts of Switzerland in the future!
Next Stop: Crete
It was time for our final stop of our month in the UK & Europe – Crete! It was my third trip to Greece, and we were excited to visit a new region of the country, having visited Athens and the Cyclades before. Crete is enormous, and nearly a country of its own, so we had five days there to finish our trip.