Three Days in Zurich With Two Kids
Castles, chocolate, a lake boat, and the night we ordered Burger King and sushi to our hotel room.
Zurich was our landing pad. We flew into it, so we spent our first three days there, and I want to be upfront that it was never going to be the emotional center of this trip. What it was is a very good place to be jet lagged with small children, and it turned out to be a much better first stop than I expected.
Here is everything we did, including the parts that did not go to plan.
Trying to survive 90 minutes in passport control (which was also very HOT). Busted out our toddler carrier to keep our 3 year old from bolting.
Read this part even if you skip the rest
Four things I wish someone had told me before we landed:
Passport control took us almost 90 minutes. There was no family line. I have seen family lines at other European airports and I assumed Zurich would have one. It does not, or at least it did not for us. Have snacks and water accessible in your carry on, not packed. I ended up putting my 3 year old in a back carrier because she was completely done.
Check whether you are arriving during the Street Parade. We did not know this was happening. It is one of the largest techno events in the world, it takes over central Zurich, and it lands on a Saturday in August every year. We had booked outside the city for unrelated reasons and it turned out to be a huge stroke of luck.
The Lindt Home of Chocolate really sells out. When the website says book ahead, believe it. It was sold out three weeks before our date and our hotel had to work some magic to get us in. I guess someone (the website) did tell me this one but I am repeating it again here!
Uber drivers are inconsistent about car seats. In Zurich proper you can request an Uber with a car seat. Outside the city it is a coin flip. Two of our drivers said they could not take our daughter without one, which is completely fair, and several others waved us in without a thought. Build in the possibility that a driver turns you down (we almost missed a train because of this). Of course, you can also stay closer to public transport and use that too- we just didn’t do that in Zurich as we prioritized being at the Lake.
Day 1: Survival Mode
Our flight out of DC was delayed and we landed in Zurich about four hours late.
Our only plan for the day was the Zurich Zoo. We had deliberately not bought tickets yet, because we knew a delay was possible on an overnight transatlantic flight (if you are from the DC area you know that just about every flight is delayed in the summer!). So when we landed late, cancelling cost us nothing.
This is the whole argument for keeping arrival day loose. You are not saving time by pre-booking your first day. You are just buying yourself something to feel bad about.
Then we did our 90 minutes in passport control, which I have already yelled about above.
We called an Uber XL, which was very quick and easy, to take us to our hotel, Alex Lake Zurich in Thalwil. This cost us about $100 USD. If you are staying in the main city, taking public transport can save a lot of money.
Why we stayed outside the city
We live in a city. Staying in the middle of another one was not a priority for us. We wanted to start this trip on the water, so we booked in Thalwil, about 15-20 minutes down Lake Zurich from the center of the Old Town.
It was the right call for us for the reasons we expected, and then it turned out to be the right call for a reason we did not see coming, which is that the EDM Street Parade was going off in the city that night. I do not think any of us would have enjoyed the noise and crowds.
If you are staying in the city— make sure you check out the train and travel pass options.
Get the kids in the water
We were in our room and settled by around 2pm. Our kids had slept decently on the plane, but jet lag meltdowns do not run on a schedule, so we did the thing I recommend on literally every trip: we got them into water.
After settling in, we went straight down and swam in Lake Zurich. I expected it to be freezing. It was roughly the temperature of our local pool at home (77 ish degrees), which was lovely for us but probably not great news for the lake environment.
It is a lake, but it is not a still one. There is real chop and there were waves. Everyone should be wearing a life jacket and/or have a float. All of Zurich that was not at the Street Parade seemed to be at the water on that beautiful Saturday afternoon. My kids had a blast and it was a great way to keep them entertained and tired enough to go to bed in a new time zone.
Then we ordered takeout…
We had planned to eat at the hotel restaurant and then I realized I had the wrong date and it was full. So I took one of the hotel e-bikes to the Coop for snacks, which is when I fell in love with how much bike infrastructure this country has. It was completely effortless.
By then the kids were getting testy and neither my husband nor I had a single restaurant meal left in us. So we called an audible and ordered Uber Eats.
Our first night in Switzerland, we ate Burger King and sushi in a hotel room. Together. As a combined order.
It worked. Fed is best when you are traveling with kids and there are no points awarded for authenticity on the day you crossed six time zones.
Who said Princess dresses are just for Disney? My daughter had a blast twirling in her favorite Rapunzel dress (felt on theme for the German speaking region of Switzerland).
The rest of the castle is set up in different historical eras. My son was fully absorbed, especially the part where he got to try on chainmail. My daughter was bored by most of it and then came roaring back to life when we found the secret dragon in the dungeon.
We had lunch again at the Cafe (the pizza was incredible), then "hiked" back down into town about 20 minutes, and stopped at McDonald's so the kids could have some protein (aka nuggets) and ice cream. Checking out the McDonald's menu in another country is one of my favorite travel rituals and I will not be taking questions. Then we Ubered back to the hotel.
The bee
Dinner that night was at our hotel, right on the lake, peaceful and lovely, until my son got stung by a bee.
Though he didn’t have a reaction, he was extremely upset so that ended the evening early for us. As mentioned in an earlier post, the bees are everywhere so be prepared.
My husband and I ended up drinking wine and eating cheese from Coop in bed watching Top Chef, which is arguably a better night than the one we had planned.
Day 2: Lenzburg Castle
We knew we wanted to do a castle. My daughter (3) is deep in a princess phase and my son (6.5) is entirely about knights and sword fights, so this was the rare activity with unanimous buy in. We got the Lenzburg Castle recommendation from Busy Toddler and it was one of the best decisions of the trip.
Getting there
Because we were based outside the city, Ubering made more sense for us than working out train connections. I want to be clear that this was not cost efficient. It was a line item we had budgeted for on purpose because the time and hassle it saved us was worth more than the money. Round trip it cost about $180 USD. There are trains available though from Zurich.
Our driver dropped us at the parking lot and we walked up the hill about 10 minutes to the castle.
The castle itself
Perfect. Genuinely perfect for this age range. I classify this as a “must do” activity.
We started with snacks at the very nice cafe, then went to the children's area, where the kids stayed for almost two hours. Sword and shield crafts, a dress up area, toys, climbers, books, and a pile of other things built specifically for small people. Be prepared for no air conditioning, which is a theme in Swiss buildings that are several hundred years old.
Day 3: Chocolate & Fondue
This was our “big day” in Zurich where we planned to check out the town and hit the main tourist areas.
Lindt Home of Chocolate
One of the classic Zurich things to do, and conveniently it is in Kilchberg, right up the lake from where we were staying. Another point for the Thalwil base and a cheap and easy Uber ride.
Book this very early. Ours was sold out at least three weeks out and we had to beg our hotel got us tickets.
They hand out headphones in a range of languages including a kids version in English, which my son loved. My daughter was bored, honestly. It was also very hot inside and crowded. I loved the white chocolate tasting fountain but my kids were so overstimulated that we barely tasted the rest of the samples. We did the whole thing in under an hour and were ready to leave.
I am glad we went. I would not build a day around it.
Fondue tuk tuk tour of Old Town
My favorite thing we did in Zurich!
We booked this tour through Viator. As a brief aside, I absolutely LOVE Viator. I have used it for all my tours and tickets for a few years now. These are affiliate links here because it was one of the only travel brands I have personally used and loved (and won’t shut up about). You can book a lot through them and see real reviews before booking. I have never had a bad experience with them including food tours in Portugal, skip the line tickets in London, and a private tour of San Francisco that I bought my parents for Christmas. Pro tip- if you have the American Airlines shopping extension, you may also be able to get miles with Viator. We got over 4,000 AA miles for booking this tour. I’m telling you this even though it probably counteracts my affiliate link because it is a great way to build airline miles.
We were able to chat in advance with our driver, Daniel, and arranged for him to pick us up at the Lindt factory AND he had two car seats for the tuk tuk! The kids weren’t going to eat the fondue so they were free.
Daniel was hilarious and actually engaged with our kids rather than talking over their heads to us. The fondue was outstanding and there was local wine too. The tour ran about an hour through Old Town (after an initial 30 minute drive up the lake) with a steady stream of history, including a stop at a 600 year old fountain fed by the mountain. Cannot recommend it enough.
Drinks, a knife, and the boat home
We got drinks by the river afterward at a spot with a ship the kids could climb on, which bought us a solid stretch of adult conversation. Then we did some shopping because my husband wanted a Swiss Army knife.
Then we took a lake boat back to our hotel (arranged through them), and this ended up being one of the highlights of the entire Zurich leg. Being out on Lake Zurich at that hour was just staggeringly beautiful. Both kids loved it, we all sat still for the first time in three days, and it doubles as transportation, which is my favorite kind of activity.
Dinner was Coop snacks in the room. Zero regrets.
So, is Zurich worth it?
Here is my honest verdict.
Zurich is a great place to start a Swiss trip but I would not fly across an ocean for it on its own.
It is beautiful, it is clean, and it is strange in a specific way if you have spent time elsewhere in Europe ( Switzerland stayed neutral through the 20th century wars, so nothing here was bombed and rebuilt).
But as a city, it did not floor me. Possibly we are jaded because we live in one. If you are going to Switzerland specifically for history and old-city atmosphere, I suspect Bern or Lucerne would deliver more of what you are after. We also missed the Zoo and our kids were not interested in the FIFA museum, those might have swayed our opinion.
However, Zurich made sense for us as the arrival city because it was closer to our other destinations than Geneva. Three days there was exactly right for arrival: enough to do the classics, not so much that we were forcing it. If you fly into Zurich, stay a couple of days, check out the lake if it is still warm enough, and then go find the mountains. OR maybe add one more day and do one of the 4-countries in one day tours. We regretted not doing this or at least going to Liechtenstein. Maybe next time!
Next Up: Wengen and the Jungfrau region