Uetliberg

The Uetliberg is the wooded ridge on the western edge of Zurich, 870 m, and it is the city’s local mountain in the fullest sense: people go up after work.

The important part is the fare. It is inside city zone 110, so if you already hold a Zurich day pass, going up costs nothing at all — see Zurich transport tickets. No other view of this quality in Switzerland is free.

Getting up

The S10 leaves from Zurich main station — platform 21 or 22, at the far end — and climbs to Uetliberg station in about 25 minutes. It runs every half hour, and it is an ordinary suburban train, not a mountain railway.

From the station it is a ten-minute walk up to the summit.

Walking up from the city takes about an hour and a half through forest, and a good many people do it and take the train down.

At the top

A viewing tower of 179 steps, free to climb, which puts you above the trees for the full panorama: the city and the whole length of Lake Zurich below, the Alps along the southern horizon on a clear day, and the Glarus and Bernese ranges recognisable from it.

There is a restaurant and a hotel, and a large terrace that fills on summer evenings.

The planet trail

The Planetenweg runs along the ridge from Uetliberg to Felsenegg, about two hours, and it is a scale model of the solar system: one metre of path for every million kilometres of space, with the planets set at their proportional distances.

It is level, easy, entirely in forest with openings onto the view, and it ends at a cable car down to Adliswil, from where a train returns to Zurich. This is the standard Zurich Sunday walk and it is genuinely good.

Fog

Zurich spends a good deal of the late autumn and winter under low cloud — a flat grey lid a few hundred metres thick sitting over the whole plateau.

The Uetliberg is usually above it. On those days the city is in grey murk and the summit is in full sun with a sea of cloud below and the Alps standing out of it. Locals watch for these days and go up specifically.

If you are in Zurich in November or January and it is dreary, check whether the top is clear before writing the day off.

Sunset and New Year

The classic use is the evening: the sun going down behind the Jura with the city lighting up below.

On 31 December the trains run through the night and the hill fills with people watching the fireworks over the lake from above, which is a better view than standing underneath them. Dress for 870 m in December.

Practical

• Zone 110, so covered by any Zurich day pass or the Zürich Card.
• The last train down is late, but check it — the walk down in the dark is longer than it looks.
• Sledging in winter on the marked run, and the paths stay open.

More short trips in around Zurich, and the evening version in one day in Zurich.