From Zurich airport into the city

Zurich airport is 10 km from the middle of the city, and the answer to how to get in is short: take the train.

The train

The station is directly under the airport terminal — follow the signs down from arrivals, two levels, no walking outside.

Trains run to Zürich Hauptbahnhof every few minutes, take 10 to 13 minutes, and many continue to Stadelhofen and Zurich Oerlikon. From the main station most hotels are a short tram ride or a walk.

Buy the ticket at a machine before boarding, or in SBB Mobile. There are no barriers, nobody checks as you get on, and inspection happens on board — see getting around if you are tempted to chance it.

You need a ticket covering zones 110 and 121. The machine sells it if you simply select Zürich HB as the destination; the app does it automatically.

What it costs

A single is modest — comparable to a coffee and a pastry. A 24-hour pass covering the same zones costs about twice that and includes every tram, bus and boat in the city, which almost always makes it the better buy on arrival day.

If you have a Swiss Travel Pass or Half Fare Card, the journey is covered or halved.

Many Zurich hotels give arriving guests a Zürich Card or a transport pass as part of the room rate. Ask when booking, not on arrival.

The other options, and why not

Taxi — around 20 to 30 times the train fare, and no faster except late at night. Zurich taxis are among the most expensive in the world.

Uber and ride-hailing — cheaper than a taxi, still many times the train, and the pick-up area is a walk from arrivals.

Hotel shuttles — a few of the airport hotels run them; city hotels do not.

Hire car — see driving in Switzerland. For a city stay it is an expense and a parking problem, not a convenience.

Onward from the airport

The airport station is a full national railway station, not just an airport link. Direct trains run to:

• Lucerne — about an hour
• Bern — about an hour and a quarter
• Basel — about an hour and ten
• Interlaken — about two hours with one change
• St. Gallen, Winterthur, Chur — direct

So if your first night is not in Zurich, you do not need to go into the city at all. Check the departure board in the arrivals hall.

Checking in on the way out

Several Swiss stations offer airport check-in for certain airlines, and the station-to-station luggage service will send a bag to the airport ahead of you — see getting around. Worth knowing on the last day, when it turns a morning of dragging suitcases into a morning of walking around.

Practical notes

• Left luggage at the airport and at the main station, both card-operated.
• The airport is in a different canton (Zurich, but the fare zones differ from the city core) — hence the two-zone ticket.
• Trains run from roughly 05:00 to midnight, with a limited night service on Friday and Saturday. Outside those hours a taxi is the only option, and it is expensive.