Zurich with children

Zurich is easy with children, mostly because the transport is easy and a good deal of what there is to do is outdoors and free.

Start with the money: under six travel free, and six to sixteen travel free with a Junior Card accompanied by a parent. See Switzerland with children for the national picture.

The zoo

Zoo Zürich is the main paid attraction and it earns it. The Masoala Rainforest is an 11,000 square metre glasshouse holding a slice of Madagascar — lemurs, chameleons, birds and butterflies moving freely around you, at 25 °C and high humidity, which is a considerable novelty in February.

The Lewa Savanna, opened in 2020, does the same for East Africa with giraffes, rhinos and zebra.

Allow half a day. It is on a hill east of the centre; tram 6 from the main station.

Water

In summer this is what Zurich does, and children love it.

The Badis — public bathing places on the lake and the river, most of them cheap or free. Seebad Enge and Strandbad Mythenquai are the lake ones with grass and shallow water. Oberer Letten is the river swim, where you get in upstream and let the current carry you down; older children find it thrilling and it is safe within the marked stretch.

Boat trips from Bürkliplatz are covered by a day pass, and a round trip of an hour and a half suits short attention spans.

Uetliberg

The city’s own mountain, 25 minutes by train on an ordinary ticket, with a tower to climb, forest paths and a sledge run in winter. See Uetliberg.

Free, essentially, and the best value in the city.

When it rains

Technorama at Winterthur — 25 minutes by train, around 500 hands-on exhibits, and the best science museum in the country. This is the answer to a wet day and it will fill one.

Landesmuseum — the national museum has a good children’s section and the building is a castle, which helps.

Zoologisches Museum — university collection, free, small, and full of animals in cases.

Spielzeugmuseum — a toy museum in the centre, small and free.

Kulturama — human evolution and natural history, aimed squarely at school groups and good with primary-age children.

Nearby

Rapperswil — an hour by boat down the lake, with a children’s zoo attached to the circus museum, a castle and a wooden bridge across the water. The boat is half the pleasure.

Rhine Falls — 50 minutes, with a boat out to the rock in the middle of the falls. Loud, wet and memorable.

Swissminiatur — further, in Ticino, but the whole country at 1:25 with 3.5 km of model railway is the best two hours available to anyone under twelve.

Practical

• Family carriages on intercity trains have a slide and climbing frame inside the coach, marked on the platform display.
• Restaurants are relaxed about children; most have high chairs and a children’s menu.
• Supermarket food halls in the main station solve most meal problems, open late and on Sundays.
• Public fountains run drinking water everywhere. Carry a bottle.