ZURICH

With a hopping nightlife, filled with endless bars and restaurants, this cosmopolitan city is bustling with activity. Zurich is also set on a beautiful lake, near the mountains, and is close to a lot of other cities. It’s a very international city and you’ll find expats and students from all around the world living and working here. I love the historic center that opens up on the lake, sitting in the parks, and drinking a beer on the lakefront. The city is also very arty and full of street art and exhibitions. While very expensive thanks to all the banks in the city, Zurich is a city worth staying for many days. This travel guide to Zurich can help you visit the city on budget and fill your time!

Typical Costs

Hostel prices – Expect to spend an average of 45 CHF per night for a bed in a dorm room. You can find a few rooms as low as 90 CHF for a single, but you’re more likely to spending over 140 CHF.

Budget hotel prices – Most budget hotels will charge at least 120 CHF a night for a double room.  The majority of the budget choices are between 125-200 CHF though.

Average cost of food – Food here is expensive! You’ll spend between 50-100 CHF a week for basics like pasta, sandwich ingredients, sauce, rice, eggs, and fruits and vegetables. Supermarkets also sell pre-made meals for between 5-9 CHF. Bars and cafés are the cheapest food option, cost about 9-15 CHF for a lunch special. Restaurants with table service are around 20 CHF for lunch and 40 CHF for dinner (starter, main, and drink). If you’re dining out, you’ll spend an average of 55-75 CHF per day. For self-catering with the occasional meal out, expect to spend around 45 CHF.

Transportation costs – Taxis are expensive and unnecessary. Instead, take the bus, train or tram, and save yourself a ton of money. A one-day pass transit pass ranges in price from 5-34 CHF, depending on how many transit zones you want to cover. A single ticket for 1-2 zones is 4 CHF. You can also save money by riding a free city bicycle.

Money Saving Tips

Buy a Zurich Pass – The Zurich Pass can offer excellent value, with free airport transfers and local transport as well as free admission to forty Zurich museums. A 24-hour Zurich card costs 24 CHF, while a 72-hour pass costs 48 CHF. Tourist passes like this are always excellent value if you plan to spend a lot of time sight-seeing and will always save you money.

Ride a free bike – In Zurich, city bikes, e-bikes, and children’s bikes can be rented for free! You can pick your bike up year-round with a valid ID and a deposit of 20 CHF at either the Bike Station North (Swiss National Museum) or the Bike Station South (Postbrücke). This service is available for every visitor, but isn’t available 24/7, so checkthe website before you go.

Book your trains early – While a train ride is a cheaper way to travel than the plane, you can get even cheaper rates by booking your train ticket early. Swiss Rail also offers one-day and weekend group passes to look into.

Rent an apartment – On Airbnb, you can find private rooms for under 40 CHF, while the average price is about 73 CHF per night. Booking an apartment is a great way to get all the comforts of home, the chance to stay in a local, non-touristy part of Zurich, meet locals, and pay a fraction of the cost of a hotel room. (You can get $25 off your first Airbnb booking by using this link!)

Use Couchsurfing — With dorm rooms starting at 45 CHF per night, you need to lower your accommodation costs. Couchsurfing is the way to do it. It’s a service that lets travelers stay with locals for free (more on it here). It was a lifesaver that allowed me to keep my costs down the most. Since a lot of travelers use this service, make your requests for hosts early.

Don’t drink — Drinking is not cheap here. Most beers are around 8 CHF. (Plus, who wants to hike while hung over?) Most wines are between 10-25 CHF a bottle. If you must drink, stick to hostel bars where you can enjoy 2-for-1 happy hours and cheap drinks for around 5 CHF or buy your beers at grocery stores for as little was 2 CHF.

Cook — With sit-down restaurants costing around 40 CHF per meal per person, eating out in Switzerland can be very costly, so buy your groceries. A week’s worth of food (bread, pasta, rice, eggs, vegetables, cheese, deli meats for sandwiches, and some assorted fruit) will cost you 75-100 CHF. The major supermarkets are Migros, COOP, and Spar. COOP is the most expensive.

Go veggie — Meat is expensive in Switzerland. Every Swiss resident or expat I talked to told me about how they limit their meat consumption because it costs so much. Stick to veggies and avoid buying meat for your meals (especially beef). While I was trolling supermarkets and butchers for grocery prices (travel writing is glamorous, huh?!), I found a pound of meat was 12-14 CHF. At that price, stick to deli meats for protein!

Use lunch specials — If you are going to eat out, do so during lunch, when most lunch specials at cafes and restaurants cost around 10-19 CHF. Moreover, stick to the ethnic restaurants like Chinese, Middle Eastern, Indian, or Thai for the best deals and biggest portions (and closer to that 10 CHF price). Lunch specials are a great way to get a lot of bang for your buck and to enjoy the dinner menu but at a cheaper set menu price.

Top Things to See and Do in Zurich

Taste Swiss chocolate – With several chocolate shops throughout the city, you should visit a Sprungli store and see for yourself what makes their chocolate so good. If you’re lucky, you can catch them passing out samples and snack for free.

Visit the National Museum of Switzerland – If you’re a history buff, this National Museum of Switzerland offers a detailed look into the history of the country. The exhibits are very detailed.

Walk the Old Town – Stop to eat at one of many restaurants. You can choose from cuisine of pretty much every ethnicity. Then, have a drink at a variety of pubs, and taste the city’s unique cheese and chocolates. This unique shopping district is like stepping back in time.

Explore its vibrant nightlife – Zurich may be a relaxing city during the day, but at night it comes alive with over 500 nightlife venues – pubs, restaurants, music halls. With no open-containers laws in Zurich, start your night with cheap drinks on the Limmat riverfront before moving to the bars and clubs. When you are ready to hit the town, head to Neiderdorf in the Old Town or Langstrasse just nearby.

Catch the street parade – Currently the biggest open-air techno rave in Europe. It happens on the second Saturday of August, during which time trucks which function as mobile sound systems start driving along the lake side. Every year, this event attracts nearly a million visitors who dance in the streets to music that can be heard from anywhere in the city.

Go skiing – Flumserberg is the nearest large ski-resort. It’s popular with people from Zurich, with a good range of runs for beginners and experts. Retreat to the right side of the resort if the rest gets busy.

Walk the lake promenade – Especially during summer, the lake is a beautiful place to spend the evening or the weekend. Starting from Bellevue, the boardwalk goes for about three kilometers along the lake towards Tiefenbrunnen. About halfway from Bellevue, there is a meadow that’s nice to relax in during a sunny day.

Celebrate Swiss National Day – Celebrated on August 1st, festivities are carried out in the evenings and fireworks are launched at night. Watch them over the lake, or if you’re experienced with safely-launching fireworks yourself, you can buy them in the days leading up to the national holiday and have fun. The display over the Rheinfall, one hour away by S-Bahn, is also extremely popular.

Go hiking – With Zurichberg to the East of town and Uetliberg to the West, the city has two mountains which offer good views and good hikes. While Zurichberg feels closer to town with its cemeteries and hotels, Uetliberg has has a more natural ambience with its hiking and mountain-biking trails.

Check out the Rietberg Museum – For a day of international art, head to the Rietberg Museum, which contains collections from non-European lands. Some of the highlights here come from Asia, Africa, and Oceania. There are a lot of beautiful sculptures here, and the building itself is quite something.

Take a boat tour – For a unique perspective of the city, take a tour on Lake Zurich. You can find tours for as little as 10 CHF, and bookings can be made at the pier on Bahnhofstrasse .

Visit the zoo – Zurich has a zoo that is considered to be among the best in Europe. It has more than 2000 animals from various habitats and ecosystems. A visit here can easily take up the better part of a day.