A few hours in Zurich

Zurich is unusually good for a short stop. The old town starts five minutes from the main station, the airport is ten minutes further, and there is left luggage at both.

If you have a whole day, use the one-day route instead.

First, the luggage

Lockers at Hauptbahnhof, several sizes, card-operated, on the lower level. There is also a staffed counter. Do this before anything else — the routes below assume your hands are empty.

From the airport, the train to Hauptbahnhof is 10 minutes and runs every few minutes. A layover of four hours is comfortably enough for the two-hour route below; three hours is tight but possible.

Two hours

Station to the lake and back, on foot, without hurrying.

1. Out of the station and down Bahnhofstrasse — 15 minutes end to end.
2. At the bottom, Bürkliplatz and the lake. Turn and look back at the towers.
3. Cross the Münsterbrücke, pausing on it for the view up the Limmat.
4. Up into Niederdorf on the east bank, and back north through the lanes to the station.

That is about 3 km and leaves time for a coffee.

Three hours

The same, with one thing added. Choose:

• The Fraumünster and Chagall’s five choir windows — twenty minutes inside, and the best single thing in the city. Queues build after eleven.
• The Grossmünster tower — a modest fee and a lot of stairs, for the roofs, the river and the lake.
• Lindenhof — the terrace above the river where the Romans put their customs post, five minutes’ climb, free, and the best view in the old town.

Four hours

Add the water or the art:

• A short lake cruise from Bürkliplatz, about ninety minutes round trip, covered by a day transport pass.
• The Landesmuseum, directly opposite the station, which means you can leave it until the last hour and still make your train.
• Uetliberg, if the day is clear — 25 minutes up on the S10 from the main station on an ordinary city ticket, half an hour at the top, 25 minutes down.

In bad weather

The Landesmuseum and the Kunsthaus are both indoors and both within fifteen minutes of the station; see museums in Zurich. The station itself has a good food hall, open late and on Sundays when the rest of the city is shut.

Practical

• You may not need a ticket at all — everything on the two- and three-hour routes is walkable. Uetliberg and the boat need one.
• Sunday — shops shut, museums open, station shops the exception.
• Watch the clock, not the map. Zurich HB is large; allow ten minutes inside it to find the platform.