In this “Travel SMART” series of articles we discuss real-world travel plans for exploring popular locations in a cost-effective manner. SMART evaluates the Staying options, Mobility, Attractions, ROI (Return-On-Investment) and Transport options for planning the trip. This article focuses on travel plan based from Zurich, Switzerland.
Transport options – Zurich, the largest city and capital of Switzerland is a hub for railways, highways, and air traffic. Both Zurich Airport and Zürich’s main railway station are the largest and busiest in the country. The city is also connected via major highways from Germany and Austria on the east, rest of Switzerland and Italy from the south and France and Germany from the west and north respectively.
Staying options – For our stay in Zurich we opted for the Hilton Garden Inn Zurich Limmattal. This locations, a few miles outside the city center, was easy to drive in to avoiding the busy city center. The local public transport stop is just 2 mins walk and that gives you access to connection around Zurich and further via the Zurich HBF central station. Having a Hilton Honors membership afforded us free breakfast which was a both cost-saving and healthy choice! We highly recommend this location if you are driving into the city.
Mobility – Zurich is easily navigable by walking and via public transportation. For visitors passing through the city, a half-day trip can allow exploring several of the popular attractions in the city. The Swiss SBB transport app allows adding an online payment option and seamless transfer among train, bus, boat and trams.
Attractions – Navigating Zurich by foot or using any of the public transports via SBB app is smooth and easy. Some of the popular activities are as follows.
- A boat tour in Lake Zurich
- Lindenhof – Enjoy panoramic view of central Zurich from the park and church terrace of this neighberhood
- Grossmunster – 9th century monastery founded by Charlemagne and later converted to a large cathedral in 12th century.
- Fraumunster – Church of a former abbey for aristocratical women from southern Germany which was founded in 853 by Louis the German for his daughter Hildegard.
- Enjoy a traditional Swiss lunch by lake Zurich
Additionally nearby popular cities of Lucerne, Basel and St. Gallen are all within 1-2 hours of drive or train ride. You can venture further to Lake Constance region that borders Germany, Switzerland and Austria to explore scenic villages like Appenzell, German tourist towns like Lindau and Friedrichshafen and Austria’s only port city Bregenz!
Further south of Zurich lies the famous Jungfrau region. On a day trip you can visit the lake side resort town of Interlaken, then explore the Jungfrau region village of Grindelwald, ride cable car to Eiger and Jungfrau wher Europe’s highest railway station is located. Then travel to the other side of the mountain range to scenic Lauterbrunnen to watch a waterfall dropping down thousands of feet below!
ROI (Return On Investment) – One important factor when evaluating Zurich is the high valued Swiss Francs (CHF) which is typically higher than US Dollars and most other currencies. We found the following steps made our travel plan for Switzerland Visit using Zurich as a base gave us a high ROI!
- Use the SBB app with an added credit card online that avoids international fees.
- Save on meals by option for a hotel with free breakfast options.
- Save on Overall transport cost by using a combination of public transport using the SBB app (pass vs single trip ticket as applicable) and using a rental car when having 2 or more people to save on long distance train costs.
- Rent car from Germany, Austria or Northern Italy and drive into Zurich. The drive time shouldn’t be more than few hours.
Enjoy the pictures below for a quick glimpse of Zurich attractions.
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