Zurich in central Switzerland is among Europe's coolest cities to visit and it offers a wide variety of attractions and activities - too many to list here! This page provides a brief introduction about what you can do in Zurich!

Excursions
Uetliberg (874m/2,867ft) - 2 hours incl. 50 min. by rail
The short railway journey is mainly through woods. From the arrival station, where you will already get a fine view of the snowy summits of the Alps, you can walk up a steep path to the nearby terrace of the hotel-restaurant.
You can go on to the top of the Belvedere Tower from where you will have a sweeping panorama of the whole Zurich district, the Limmat Valley, Lake Zurich and the Alpine range - from Säntis in the east to the Jungfrau and the Les Diablerets in the southwest - whereas the ridges of the Jura and the Vosges are faintly visible to the west and northwest on the horizon.

Rapperswil – City of Roses
This makes a beautiful one-day excursion from Zurich. Rapperswil is a small town at the opposite end of Lake Zurich. It offers unique attractions for visitors – the Rose Gardens, the Castle, the deer park on the Lindenhof and the picturesque Old Town. You can take a train in the morning along Lake Zurich to get to Rapperswil. Have lunch in one of the restaurants on the quay and in the afternoon take a lake steamer back to Zurich. (Lake steamers do not operate during winter from November to March).

Chocolate Factory
The Lindt & Sprüngli chocolate factory is a few kilometers south of the city center at Seestrasse 204. There is a free museum (ask for the extensive English notes) and a rather self-congratulatory film is screened. These facilities are not always open, however, so phone ahead for their schedule. It is well worth a visit, not least for the very generous free gift of chocolate given at the end.

Cities
Berne - Switzerland's Captivating Capital
Beautiful Bern is only an hour rail trip from Zurich. This is a city of medieval magic, listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage. Attractions include the famous clock tower, the bearpits - home to Berne's heraldic animals - and excellent shopping arcades.

Lucerne - City of Lights
One of Switzerland's most popular excursion destinations, lovely Lucerne is only 60 minutes' travelling time from Zurich. The city is renowned for its attractive townscape, historic Chapel Bridge and excellent shopping facilities.

Summer Sports
Swimming
Designated areas for outdoor swimming and sunbathing are open May to September. Well-known spots are Utoquai on the east shore of the lake and Mythenquai on the west shore. There are also various free swimming spots, such as the one just north of the confluence of the Sihl and Limmat Rivers.

Strolling
Around the shores of Lake Zürich, concrete walkways give way to trees and lawns in the Arboretum on the west bank, making the area perfect for strolling.

Winter Sports
Zurich is very close to Graubunden which boasts of such reknown resorts Klosters, Davos and St. Moritz to name only a few. You will have the opportunity for all sorts of winter activities including: skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, curling, ice climbing, sleeding, cross country skiing, snowshoe trekking, snowtubing and zorbing.

Indoor sports facilities are readily available in Zurich including swimming, tennis, squash, bowling, fitness and much more.

Entertainment
Opera House
The Zurich Opera House is without doubt one of the best known in Switzerland and indeed Europe. A varied program of productions has helped director Alexander Pereira to turn this late-baroque style building into the city's most-frequented cultural institution. Its reputation has grown steadily throughout the world ever since it opened in 1891.

Tonhalle
The Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, named for its concert hall, the Tonhalle, which was inaugurated by Brahms in 1895, enjoys international acclaim and attracts stars of world stature on the classical music scene. There are also solo recitals and chamber programs. The season runs from September through July; tickets sell out quickly, so book directly through the Tonhalle.

Zeughauskeller
In 1927 the old armory (Zeughaus) on the Paradeplatz was converted into a restaurant. Today it is a typical restaurant, sure to please its visitors with a traditional atmosphere and excellent Swiss food.

Shopping
Bahnhofstrasse
The main shopping zone is concentrated in the city center, which makes it ideal for pedestrians. The famous Bahnhofstrasse - one of the most beautiful shopping areas in Europe - is a must. Elegant fashion stores, department stores, boutiques with top quality products (shoes, furs, accessories, porcelain, jewellery and watches), banks and pastry shops.

Niederdorf
During the day this is a pedestrian zone and a shopper's paradise with lots of boutiques hidden away in a patchwork of alleys. At night the many bars, restaurants and street artists turn the Niederdorf into an exciting center of entertainment for a colorful public.

Events
Zurich shakes off any remains of winter with the spring festival and parade, Sechseläuten, held on the third Monday of April. During the Züri Fäscht, held once every three years at the start of July (the next one is July 2007), a huge fairground takes over central Zürich, topped off with a lavish fireworks display. The Zürcher Festspiele, mid-June to mid-July, concentrates on music and the arts, while the emphasis of the month-long Theaterspektakel is, you guessed it, theater. In early August, the beats get going with Street Parade, a large-scale electronic music event with international DJs on the decks, and the Züri Jazz Woche takes over the stage in early September. In November, Expovina, held on boats on the Bürkliplatz, offers samples of international wines, and Fasnacht brings lively musicians and a large, costumed procession.

Flea market Bürkliplatz
This established flea market is the perfect place to hunt for that cuckoo clock for the folks back home. The stalls offer a range of goods, mostly antiques, and the variety of food stalls will keep you energized for shopping. The market is open 6am-3:30pm every Saturday, May to October; it's near the northwest bank of Lake Zürich, off the bottom end of Bahnhofstrasse.

Fleemarket Kanzlei
Just a 15-minute walk from Hauptbahnhof, the main train station, this low-key flea market attracts a young artsy-kitschy crowd of bargain shoppers. Amid the piles of secondhand records, clothes, bicycles and what-have-you on offer every Saturday, there is an outdoor café with fresh pastries and kick-start coffee, and a wine bar where you can wind down at day's end. A small cinema nearby shows independent films in a comfortable, velvet-couch fashion.

Museums & Art
Kunsthaus Zurich
The Kunsthaus surprises visitors with attractive exhibits and a high-carat permanent collection. It was completely renovated between 2001 and 2005 to improve exhibition room security and conditions for the artworks. The museum now also provides access to wheelchair users.
In addition, the museum houses selected sculptures and panels from the Middle Ages, exquisite paintings of the Dutch and Italian Baroque period as well as highlights of 19th and 20th century Swiss painters. This includes the most famous group of works by Johann Heinrich Füssli and Ferdinand Hodler. Among the museum's international focal points are the largest Munch collection outside of Norway, important works by Picasso and the expressionists Kokoschka, Beckmann and Corinth, a significant group of works by Claude Monet, among them two water lily paintings, and the Chagall hall. Younger tendencies are represented by Rothko, Merz, Twombly, Beuys, Bacon and Baselitz.

Marc Chagall Windows - Fraumünster
Located between River Limmat and Bahnhofstrasse, the Münsterhof is dominated by the graceful, slender-spired Fraumünster, a beautiful church that boasts a breathtaking series of stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall and Augusto Giacometti that should not be missed. In 1967, Marc Chagall – then 80 – accepted the commission to make new stained glass for the five 10m-high choir windows. The stunning artistry of the windows he produced makes them one of the highlights of Zürich.

Swiss National Museum
The castle-like building houses the most comprehensive collection of artifacts pertaining to Swiss cultural history. Especially worth mentioning are the ancient wheels, which were found in Zürich and are considered to be among the earliest ever found, the Celtic artifacts and those of the early Middle Ages. Especially worth visiting are the historical rooms as well as the monumental fresco by Ferdinand Hodler Retreat of the confederates at Marignano. Several times a year, topics relevant to society are dealt with in special exhibitions that are put together in cooperation with other museums.

Rietberg Museum
The Rietberg Museum is set up in the former Wesendonck Villa in the middle of a park and next to Lake Zurich. It contains valueable collections formed by Baron van der Heydt; statues from India, Cambodia, Java, China, Africa and the South Sea Islands. The collection of Japanese prints, works of art from the Near East, Tibet and pre-Columbian America, paintings from the Far East, a collection of Swiss masks and some Flemish and Armenian carpets complete the exhibition.

Museum für Gestaltung
Temporary exhibitions, based on themes derived from the applied arts, architecture, grafic art and industrial design, are held in these galleries.

Art Galleries
Zurich includes more than a 100 Art Galleries that are spread over the entire city.