Explore Zurich in a 6-hour Layover or in 1 Day

If you have a 6+ hour layover at Zürich airport and find yourself heading for an airline lounge or looking for a comfy seat to park yourself, you are heading in the wrong direction. Six hours is more than enough to comfortably get a taste of Switzerland’s largest city, Zürich.

Zürich is well known for its world-class galleries and museums as well as for dining, atmospheric cafés, boutiques, beer gardens, and chocolatiers. You can’t experience all of this in a lay-over but if you follow my footsteps, you will not regret leaving the airport. And, getting out to the city is a sure jet lag buster.

Getting from Zurich Airport to the City

After exiting the aircraft, follow the signs to Baggage Claim and Exit. Once you will go through passport control and customs, follow the signs for “Train”. Zurich’s main train station, Zürich Hauptbahnhof Or Zurich HB, is only a 10-minute ride from the airport making a short Zurich day trip possible. You have an option to buy a ticket to Zurich HB or buy an all-day pass from one of the blue ticket machines. The day pass is for zone 10, which includes the entire city of Zürich and zone 21, which covers the way to the airport. It is valid for all trains, trams, buses, and boats within these two zones. With the all-day pass, you can hop on the Limmat riverboat along the river near the train station and get a different view of Zurich.

Since my layover started very early in the morning, and I only had a little less than 6 hours, I didn’t take boat rides in the river. But the bonus was that I got to see the early morning sun from the top of Lindenhof – more on that later – and I had all of the city to myself.

Check out our Photo Gallery of Zurich Day Trip

Zurich Day Trip

Let’s start with our Zurich tour. After an easy 10-minute train ride from the airport, you will arrive at the Zurich HB, an architecturally beautiful station. You will see trains leaving for all major Swiss cities from here.

Remember to exit the station towards the right side – follow the signs to Bahnhofstrasse. Right at the exit, you will see this statue fountain – if you spot it, you exited in the right direction.

Walking straight from there takes you on to Bahnhofstrasse. No cars are allowed on this pedestrianized boulevard. It has trams running in the middle and extra-wide sidewalks on each side. Trees surround the street and provide shade for shoppers in the high-end boutique stores located throughout the boulevard. The long curvy Bahnhofstrasse follows the ancient course of the western city wall and happens to be one of Europe’s most expensive shopping streets, dotted with jewelers and designer boutiques.

Continue walking on Bahnhofstrasse for 5-7 minutes to the Rennweg which branches off in the left. That is if you walked non-stop, which is impossible with all the window shopping possibilities from the boutiques displaying designer goodies. As you look down Rennweg, you will see the iconic clock tower further away. Go to the end of the street where it starts to branch out into three other streets. At this junction, you will see stairs leading up to Lindenhof on the left.

Before heading up the stairs, turn right on Widdergasse to check out Augustinergasse with its romantic oriel-windowed houses. It’s a very colorful street and the windows reminded me of Malta where this structure is all too common. Walk the tiny Münzplatz and perhaps step into the beautiful and simple Augustinerkirche dating from 1274.

Now backtrack to the Rennweg and climb this short flight of stairs up the hill. You will be on Lindenhof, the oldest part of Zürich and site of a 2nd-century Roman tax collection post. It was very quiet when I arrived the early on Saturday morning. Almost no one was there except a couple of early riser tourists trying to capture a view of Zurich rooftop against the rising sun.

I heard the wide-open space gets busy during the day with mostly tourists and some old-timers hanging out in the shade of numerous trees scattered around. As you walk around, you get a great panorama over the rooftops and a view of the river with its many bridges and the iconic church as the backdrop. You will also see the Hedwig Fountain commemorating the 1291 defense of the town by the women of Zürich against Germany.

After taking pictures from Lindenhof to your heart’s desire, descend steeply via Pfalzgasse, and find yourself into a dense network of cobbled lanes, shops, and cafes.

You can get easily get lost in this western part of the old town with its many boutiques and cafes. The graceful spires both of St Peter’s, featuring the largest clock face in Europe, and the Fraumünster, a medieval church will play hide and seek with you appearing and disappearing as you walk through the cobbled picturesque alleyways. If you get a chance to go inside Fraumünster you will be spellbound with breathtaking stained glass by Marc Chagall.

Make your way through these alleyways to the Zurich Storchen, a ferry terminal in the middle of Zurich. From the ferry terminal, you get some amazing views of the old town. There are many small cafes and restaurants if you want to have a bite sitting on the riverbank while soaking in the views. Here you will also see two of Zurich’s main landmarks, the famous Fraumünster Church and Grossmünster, an iconic twin-towered Roman cathedral from 1200s.

From here, it is time to start making your way back to the train station. If you didn’t eat at the restaurants along the river, you can head to Sprungli, for a late breakfast or lunch; and shop for chocolate. From Sprungli, it’s about 5 mins walk back to Zurich HB.

Map of the Zurich Walking Tour

More Ideas for City Tour of Zurich

If you have more time here are a couple of ideas for you to add to the itinerary, which I didn’t get a chance to explore:

• Head to the Landesmuseum station for a one-hour cruise on the Limmatschifffahrt in one of the flatboats built to pass below the seven bridges that cross the river.
• Make time to spend a couple of hours exploring the exhibits, artifacts and the armory tower at the National Museum. The museum is right next to the Zurich main station. Keep it at the end of your itinerary so you can easily walk to the station for your train back to the Airport.

Photo Gallery of Zurich Layover Day Trip

Share with us what unique places did you encounter in your perfect one day in Zurich!

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