zurich with kids?

[royalmama]

Hi all, we are thinking of travelling to Zurich for the summer hols9 about ten days) and I would love for anybody who has been there to give me some handy advice. DS1 is 8 and DS2 is 6. what would be the best things to do and any don'ts? I would really appreciate your feedback...

would you stay in Zurich itself ? They may find it a bit dull after a day or two, once the novelty of trams and a boat trip have worn off, unless you go can further afield. If you want to travel around what type of things would you enjoy?

hi LIZS, yes we probably will venture out of Zurich to the areas around it ( not too far) like the Rhine Falls, etc. We are mostly looking for areas where the boys can have fun, explore, be active.

Will you have a car or take the train . Would suggest visiting the Rigi and/or Mt Pilatus near Lucerne , both of which can be done in a day from Zurich, Basle, maybe Europa park although that is really a stopover. Are you looking for places to stay further afield or just based in Zurich itself ?

Train is most liekely option for us. Is Europa Park a resort LIZS? That would warrant a day's stay there. Also, do you suggest we base ourselves in Zurich ? Lucerne is much talked about and it may be a good idea to check it out from Zurich, but I doubt we will be venturing further to Geneva for example.

It depends what you'd prefer. Lucerne is a nice city but much smaller than Zurich. There is a transport museum there and Imax, which might be of interest to your ds especially if it rains. You could get to a variety of mountain resorts from there by train, with cablecars, summer toboggan rides , glacier in Engelberg with snow tubing etc. Europapark is a large theme park , think Alton Towers, over the German border. If you are in Switzerland for August 1st there will be late night fireworks displays and events marking Swiss National Day (such as brunch buffet in a mountain restaurant, accompanied by local music, local fairs called Chilbi).

Yes we actually aim ti be there first week of August , so seems it will be in time for the celebrations. I am just eager for the kids to enjoy it as much as myself. I just love the outdoors .

The zoo in Zurich is brilliant. We spent a day in Lucerne at the transport museum if you want to travel that far, and the Rhine Falls is on my to-do list.
I've got a MySwitzerland app and it lists attractions in the region with website links. You can get some good deals with train tickets

Why thank you NaturalBaby, I've had a look at the my Switzerland website and its is packed ..I know from experience that talking to people who have been to the place or are familiar with it fills in the gaps that are usually missing from the tourist websites. Rhine falls is definitely in our list to and. Jus fond out it also has an adventure park for active, adventure seekers. Is Lucerne very far from Zurich? I mean would we have to book a room there as well or could we jus go for the day you reckon? I have seen some of the tours on offer from Zurich and they "look" stunning!! There s one that claims to take you to Heidi land? The zoo in Zurich is the main attraction for the kids for the first day, yes of course!

Lucerne is less than an hour by train from the main Zurich HB station. You could base yourselves there for a few days and do Rigi, Pilatus, Transport museum , lake tour and Eneglberg. Heidiland is the other direction, towards Chur . Not much to see really that you wouldn't see on other alpine pastures ! You can do most "tour" itineraries by yourselves.

Thanks so much LIZS. Sounds like Lucerne would make a good base for the parts you mention and Zurich for the zoo, falls and boat trips! So do you think w e could ditch the costly tours and just do the exploring ourselves ? Seems you are saying public transportation is very reliable ?

LIZS, hope you don't mind me asking but just out of curiosity are you Swiss?

Very reliable, not cheap but clean and comfortable. Post buses will take you where trains can't reach ! Sometimes you can get a deal such as if you wanted to go up the Titlis in Engelberg or Pilatus the mountains transport might work out cheaper with a combined rail/lift ticket. If you buy a Swiss travel pass you may also get a discount on some (but by no means all) mountain trains/lifts and attractions.

No but we were expats there for a while.

Very useful to know about the Swiss pass cards...much appreciated

We stayed in Lucerne for five days last summer, had a fantastic time. As mentioned above- mt Pilatus, transport museum, lakeside lido etc. It was the second week of our holiday- I'd stupidly booked the first week, and flights and naively thought we'd just find somewhere cheap for the middle week. We stayed in a nice ( not fancy) hotel but it was eye wateringly expensive. I found nothing in the way of self catering and this was the best hotel setup. Mind you- I was looking for two rooms, if you can make do with one then it might be better.
We are going back to Switzerland this summer and doing two weeks self catering for half the price of our lucerne hotel bill!!
Having said all this, the dc loved it- Switzerland is fab, transport is amazing. We don't use the Swiss card, we've found the local passes to be better value if you use them a lot- the Bernese Oberland pass for example has nearly all the mountain railways included, whereas the Swiss pass is only 50%

Thanks OwlMother. I think we might look into self catering too actually. S by local cards do you mean for specific areas only?

Yes, although the areas can be large. We get the Bernese Oberland Card, which includes free travel on almost everything in the area ( only exclusions we found were the last stretch up to Jungfraujoch and the Schilthorn cable car) but also gives free travel to as far away as Lucerne. Other areas have similar. I hope you have better luck than I did finding self catering in Lucerne, we were slightly hampered by wanting somewhere central and easily accessed by public transport. We ended up staying in an apartment owned by Hotel Rebstock, in the same block as the hotel. This meant we had breakfast in the hotel but had the ability to cook our own dinner etc. If you do find something, let me know- I'd be interested for future holidays.

I will certainly let you know OwlMother if we manage to find something yes. Do you mind me asking how much that aprtment owned by Hotel Rebstock cost you per night?

also does the Bernese Oberland card cover Zurich ? sorry if i come across as stupid in Geography [ grin ]

No it won't reach that far . I think it covers largely the area around Interlaken (also a good base for mountains).

No, not as far as Zurich. We fly into Zurich, buy a return ticket from the airport to Luzern and then use the card from there on. But we are based beyond Interlaken so it makes sense for us.

www.regiopass-berneroberland.ch/range-of-validity/
This shows the map of the area covered.

thanks!