What's going on everybody? This is Island Hopper TV and today we've got the best things to do in Zurich, Switzerland
The first part of the video we're going to explore around the city center in the Old Town and then we're going to actually head out on some day trips out to some waterfalls and into the Alps
Zurich is often called the finance capital of Switzerland and considered one of the most tech-friendly cities in all of Europe
Located just north of the Alps, let's explore this beautiful city's Old Town first
Zurich began as a Roman settlement over 2,000 years ago, and you can still see traces of the Roman walls
Also, it has a medieval heart to it. The old town is known as Alstad
It's the oldest part of Zurich. You will find many beautiful buildings. They're called guild halls, and this was built during the 14th and 18th century, reflecting Zurich's merchant history
I would say this is the heart and soul of the city. If you can get a hotel around here, great
The hotels tend to be a little bit more pricey the closer you are to the Old Town
So take that into consideration when deciding where you want to stay. While in the Old Town, you can actually go out to the Lindenhoff Hill
This is a great lookout over the city, Old Town, looking out over the river
When I was there in the middle of August, they were doing a river swim
It's called the Limmat Schwimmen. And I will say after walking up to the top of this lookout point in the hill
I felt like I needed to go for a swim. It was a bit hot in the middle of August in Zurich. I was quite surprised. It was pushing 30 degrees Celsius
That's around 90 degrees Fahrenheit. But anyway great views up here now. We're gonna walk along Bahnhofstrasse
This is actually the main street in Zurich. This has got shopping
It's got a big tram network that just goes right through the middle of it. It's right next to the station
They say this is a shopping area area, one of the main areas for shopping around Zurich if you want to get some of the more
designer clothes. They've got cafes, restaurants. This is what people consider to be the main road
in Zurich. Very walking friendly. Actually, when I'm in Zurich, I like to rent a bike. They have
the Uber bikes here and they have a few other companies, but I just get the Uber bike. It's
really easy. It's an electric powered pedal bike, so it's really useful for going up hills
and I really enjoyed just riding bikes around Zurich. Amazing experience. You got to do it
And then there's the Grossmünster Church. There are three different churches in the area of the
Old Town that are famous, Grossmünster being one of them. I would say that when I was there this
August 2025 a few of them were under renovation and construction Hopefully they done soon maybe by next summer Like the Fraunenster Church which is across the river you can see it It got an old clock tower up top It was founded in 853
The name actually translates to Women's Minster, which was established by King Louis the German for his daughter, Hittelgrad
And there's a famous noblewoman's abbey. For centuries, it was a powerful abbey for aristocratic women
Today, it's really known as one of the landmarks of Zurich with its green tower and the clock
Then there's just simply the river walk. There's bridges that go across the river
You can walk on either side of the river and it takes you to the lakefront
But the river walk is really peaceful. It's a good morning walk or sometimes in the evening time do some people watching
Just hanging out on some of the bridges, really. I mean, it's just a really nice experience here just walking the river right around the old town
And you can see here the people are actually getting in the water and swimming. I mean, it was so hot this day
I really wanted to jump in the river. I don't know what it would have taken, but that river looks beautiful to swim in
As with all of Switzerland lakes and rivers, just that color is so inviting, isn't it
In fact, you can actually do a lake cruise. The lake itself is 40 kilometers
That's 25 miles from Zurich City all the way out to the very end where they call it the
Town of Roses. Do a short cruise for about an hour and a half for about four franc
That's a pretty good price. Now here we are at Wettleberg. This is a hill that you can go up there, hike, and get some panoramic views 360 degrees around
Zurich, Lake Zurich, and just see what's going on down below. Also another way to get around Zurich is by tram
They obviously have great trains in Switzerland, but riding the tram really efficient way to get around Zurich
They have many different lines and an excellent way to go long distance in the city
If you don't want to walk then you also have the Bahnhofstra, which is actually an opera house
So they've got this opera here in Zurich right there on the lake
beautiful place to go watch a show get dressed up and then be a part of the
aristocracy of Zurich. Relaxing along the lake promenade, that's definitely something you're gonna want to do. Maybe you have a picnic or hang out at one of
the little beach areas, especially in the summertime. Wintertime is a whole
different vibe in Zurich, but I would say you definitely want to hang out around
the lake, feed some swans. They've always got these beautiful black and white
swans. They do have water sports like swimming, sailing, boating, kayaking, stand paddle boarding and canoeing all on the lake Like I said here a look at the beach which means swimming in the river swimming out here in Switzerland I saw it in Basel when I went up
there. I saw it around other areas of Switzerland, people getting in the water to cool off. Speaking
of cooling off, you can go into the National Museum, or if you need to warm up because we're
coming into the winter months, going into the National Museum and learning more about Switzerland
the history, craftsmanship, and artworks of Switzerland from the beginning all the way up
until present day. You learn a lot about old Switzerland, which was interesting for me
It is upstairs a bit, so you do have to go up the stairs quite a ways. They do have elevators for
those of you who are not into taking stairs, though. The ticket price is 13 Swiss francs for
adults and 10 Swiss francs for children. They do have a museum pass, which includes 21 museums if
you want to look that up online. It's called the Zurich card which includes many museums and other
activities. Now let's do some exploring and speaking of great value get the Swiss travel
pass if you know you're going to be spending a lot of time like as in three days or more in
Switzerland. This includes the train, bus, and boat, unlimited travel, and it works with public
transportation in 90 towns and cities across Switzerland. There's many beautiful train rides
that I took and you can get the Swiss pass for one person flexible for three days and it's in
second class for 279 francs so getting all around on these beautiful trains very efficient. I would
suggest taking a day to go up to Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald from Interlaken. You could even do
a city tour while staying in Zurich of Lucerne. Lucerne is about an hour and a half away you just
go through Zug and then you're in Lucerne and walking around here very beautiful they say this
is probably the most beautiful city in all of Switzerland it depends on what you like some
people like Geneva or Bern but I personally think Lucerne is really the most beautiful it's also on
a lake the station is right there in the town so right when you exit out of the station you're there
and you can see this lion that's carved out of stone they also have the bikes here so maybe you
can cruise around the lake and the town on one of those. Here's an example of what you could do. You
could go to Lucerne. You could spend four hours walking around, eating, checking out the lion
going around the lake, and then heading up to Grindelwald through Interlochen and then spending
the day up there in the afternoon and then coming back to Zurich. But look how beautiful Grindelwald
is If you just wanted to go from Zurich to Grindelwald skip Lucerne it about two hours and 38 minutes by train to get up there And trust me it worth it Beautiful hikes beautiful scenery
Unbelievable. Another trip you could do is a 50-minute train ride up to the Rhine Falls
This is along the headwaters of the Rhine River, which goes through Germany
As you guys know, it is the largest waterfall in Europe by volume, not necessarily by height
There's a castle nearby and vantage points, lookout decks. Some of the food that I had while here was pizza, sausage like they eat in Germany
or maybe even some Donner kebab, which I had a couple times. It's famous here
Really fondue and other cheese is what Swiss is known for. You know, the Swiss cheese
They eat a lot of potatoes here in Switzerland, I would say. But cheese, sausage, bread, potato, and maybe like a steak or something like that for dinner
Really famous. Now we're going to the FIFA Museum. For those of you who love football, also known as soccer
this is actually where the FIFA Museum is located just outside of Zurich
Could be fun for some of you. And hey, I got an idea. If you wanted to pick up another country
this is actually one of the smallest countries in the world, Liechtenstein. I actually came out here
it took about an hour and a half to two hours on the train you had to make a couple crossover
stops but then once you got here you were just right in the middle of this city in lichtenstein
and you can hang out here get a bite to eat see what's going on and learn more about what is
considered the safest place in all of europe and my final thoughts and everything you need to know
about visiting zurich so you can arrive from another country or you can arrive at the airport
If you do arrive at the airport, it's a 10 to 15 minute train from the city to the center
And obviously it's a great base camp. It is very expensive. That's something you have to factor in
You can find cheaper places around Switzerland. I even found that Basel or Bern, maybe even Geneva, are a little bit more affordable
Sometimes even going and staying in Interlochen, you'll save money instead of staying in the
heart of Zurich. But staying in Zurich is a great base camp
good location close to the airport and pretty much everything around can be done from here it's a
very small compact city easy for walking and biking if you are considering visiting switzerland and
you want to go around to all the best places watch our full switzerland travel guide next i'll put a
link right here at the end so you can watch right here click that link