Grandparents or old friends in town? You need outings that work for a toddler and a seventy-year-old on the same afternoon. These are the ones we reach for: the famous sights the visitors came to see, each with something to keep the kids busy. Here's what we checked, from the boats on the lake to the elephants at the zoo.
Zoo Zürich covers 27 hectares on the wooded Zürichberg. The Masoala Rainforest is a miniature Madagascar rainforest under one roof, with red ruffed lemurs, Aldabra giant tortoises and an 18-meter treetop walkway.
The Lewa Savanna holds giraffes, white rhinos and Grévy's zebras around baobab trees that double as feeding stations. At the Kaeng Krachan Elephant Park, kids can watch Asian elephants swim past an underwater viewing window.
The Swiss National Museum fills a turreted 1898 building, styled like a French Renaissance chateau, beside the Platzspitz park. Its galleries run from prehistory to the 21st century, with a section on knights, an Armoury Tower and a diorama of the Battle of Murten.
The family exhibition has three themed rooms (an Oriental Palace, a sailing ship and a railway) where kids solve puzzles, dress up and listen to stories.
Kunsthaus Zürich is Switzerland's largest art museum by area, spread across Karl Moser's 1910 building and David Chipperfield's sandstone extension, linked by a passage under Heimplatz. The collection runs from the Middle Ages to today, with Monet's huge water lilies, Giacometti sculptures and Swiss painters like Hodler.
Children get their own free audio guide: wherever a penguin marks a work, it tells stories and sets riddles about it.
A football museum on three floors, right by Bahnhof Enge. Kids stand next to the original FIFA World Cup Trophy, walk along a 35-meter rainbow of national-team shirts from all 211 FIFA member associations, and watch World Cup finals footage on a 180-degree cinema screen.
The visit ends at a giant pinball where kids test their ball skills in five games and chase a spot on the leaderboard.
The museum sits next to the historic Lindt factory, where chocolate has been made since 1899. A 9.3-meter fountain holding 1,400 kg of chocolate greets visitors as they arrive.
The audio-guided route follows cocoa from farms in Ghana to the Swiss chocolate pioneers, with tasting stations along the way and a pilot plant showing how bars are made. Kids get an audio tour of their own.
Technorama is a hands-on science center where most exhibits are built to touch and try. Kids spin tops and pendulums in Mechanikum, kick and crank wooden marble runs, play with magnets and currents, and build machines from everyday materials in Tinkering.
Staffed labs let kids run their own chemistry, physics and biology experiments, and an outdoor park opens from late March to late October.
Lindenhof is a gravel square under lime trees on a moraine hill above the Old Town, with a view across the Limmat to the university buildings. People play chess under the trees, and the square hosts pétanque tournaments and theater.
It was a Roman fort from 15 BC. The fountain recalls the legend of Zurich women who, in 1292, dressed in armor to fool a Habsburg army.
A walled Chinese temple garden on the lake's east shore by the Blatterwiese, a gift from Zurich's partner city Kunming, opened in 1994. Inside, winding paths and ornate bridges circle a pond with a small island, past pavilions, a palace, an artificial mountain and a zigzag bridge.
It's a quiet stroll, not a play space, so it suits kids happy to explore slowly.
Zürichhorn is a lakeside park on the east shore of Lake Zurich, where the wide Chinawiese lawn runs down to the water under old trees. Kids head for the big playground, hop the stepping stones across the pond, and look up at Jean Tinguely's Heureka sculpture.
The Chinese Garden and the Pavillon Le Corbusier sit at the park's edges, and lake boats stop at the Zürichhorn landing.
Zurich's local mountain rises to 871 meters, with forest trails, a 70-meter observation tower at the summit (178 steps) and views over the city, the lake and, on clear days, the Alps. The Planet Trail is an easy two-hour walk to Felsenegg through a scaled-down solar system.
In winter a toboggan run drops through the forest toward Triemli, and in November the top often sits above the fog.
A ridge walk from Uetliberg to Felsenegg that maps the solar system to scale: every meter of path stands for 1 million kilometers. Kids follow it from the Sun past the eight planets to dwarf planet Pluto.
At Felsenegg the view stretches over Lake Zurich to the Alps, and the IceAgeCam next to the restaurant gives an interactive look at the same view through the ice ages.
ZSG runs the public boats on Lake Zurich and the River Limmat: 17 ships calling at 31 landing stages, all part of the ZVV transit network. Lake round trips leave from the Bürkliplatz pier, from a short loop to a half-day cruise. River boats on the Limmat start at the Landesmuseum. The «ZSG Tour» audio guide app narrates the mini lake and river cruises.
Urania Observatory is a 51-meter tower at the western edge of the Old Town, opened in 1907 as Switzerland's oldest public observatory. Tours take place in a creaking wooden dome that turns to open a slit to the sky.
Guides explain the planets with screens and computer simulations, and on clear nights kids look through the original 12-tonne Zeiss telescope.
Rhine Falls is the most powerful waterfall in Europe, 150 meters wide and 23 meters high. From Schloss Laufen castle, a footpath and steep, narrow stairs lead past the thundering water to the Fischetz viewing platform.
Boats cross the basin and run out to the rock in the middle of the falls, which visitors can climb. A riverside path loops around the whole basin.
Sauriermuseum Aathal shows real dinosaur skeletons, six of them from the museum's own digs, alongside trilobites, a crocodile, flying and marine reptiles, 290 pieces of amber and 108 meteorites. Replicas and models fill in the rest of the age of dinosaurs.
Outside, the DinoGiardino garden has dinosaur models, a dig pit, a slide, a small carousel for toddlers, two grill spots and covered picnic tables.
Grandparents or old friends in town? You need outings that work for a toddler and a seventy-year-old on the same afternoon. These are the ones we reach for: the famous sights the visitors came to see, each with something to keep the kids busy. Here's what we checked, from the boats on the lake to the elephants at the zoo.
Zoo Zürich covers 27 hectares on the wooded Zürichberg. The Masoala Rainforest is a miniature Madagascar rainforest under one roof, with red ruffed lemurs, Aldabra giant tortoises and an 18-meter treetop walkway.
The Lewa Savanna holds giraffes, white rhinos and Grévy's zebras around baobab trees that double as feeding stations. At the Kaeng Krachan Elephant Park, kids can watch Asian elephants swim past an underwater viewing window.
The Swiss National Museum fills a turreted 1898 building, styled like a French Renaissance chateau, beside the Platzspitz park. Its galleries run from prehistory to the 21st century, with a section on knights, an Armoury Tower and a diorama of the Battle of Murten.
The family exhibition has three themed rooms (an Oriental Palace, a sailing ship and a railway) where kids solve puzzles, dress up and listen to stories.
Kunsthaus Zürich is Switzerland's largest art museum by area, spread across Karl Moser's 1910 building and David Chipperfield's sandstone extension, linked by a passage under Heimplatz. The collection runs from the Middle Ages to today, with Monet's huge water lilies, Giacometti sculptures and Swiss painters like Hodler.
Children get their own free audio guide: wherever a penguin marks a work, it tells stories and sets riddles about it.
A football museum on three floors, right by Bahnhof Enge. Kids stand next to the original FIFA World Cup Trophy, walk along a 35-meter rainbow of national-team shirts from all 211 FIFA member associations, and watch World Cup finals footage on a 180-degree cinema screen.
The visit ends at a giant pinball where kids test their ball skills in five games and chase a spot on the leaderboard.
The museum sits next to the historic Lindt factory, where chocolate has been made since 1899. A 9.3-meter fountain holding 1,400 kg of chocolate greets visitors as they arrive.
The audio-guided route follows cocoa from farms in Ghana to the Swiss chocolate pioneers, with tasting stations along the way and a pilot plant showing how bars are made. Kids get an audio tour of their own.
Technorama is a hands-on science center where most exhibits are built to touch and try. Kids spin tops and pendulums in Mechanikum, kick and crank wooden marble runs, play with magnets and currents, and build machines from everyday materials in Tinkering.
Staffed labs let kids run their own chemistry, physics and biology experiments, and an outdoor park opens from late March to late October.
Lindenhof is a gravel square under lime trees on a moraine hill above the Old Town, with a view across the Limmat to the university buildings. People play chess under the trees, and the square hosts pétanque tournaments and theater.
It was a Roman fort from 15 BC. The fountain recalls the legend of Zurich women who, in 1292, dressed in armor to fool a Habsburg army.
A walled Chinese temple garden on the lake's east shore by the Blatterwiese, a gift from Zurich's partner city Kunming, opened in 1994. Inside, winding paths and ornate bridges circle a pond with a small island, past pavilions, a palace, an artificial mountain and a zigzag bridge.
It's a quiet stroll, not a play space, so it suits kids happy to explore slowly.
Zürichhorn is a lakeside park on the east shore of Lake Zurich, where the wide Chinawiese lawn runs down to the water under old trees. Kids head for the big playground, hop the stepping stones across the pond, and look up at Jean Tinguely's Heureka sculpture.
The Chinese Garden and the Pavillon Le Corbusier sit at the park's edges, and lake boats stop at the Zürichhorn landing.
Zurich's local mountain rises to 871 meters, with forest trails, a 70-meter observation tower at the summit (178 steps) and views over the city, the lake and, on clear days, the Alps. The Planet Trail is an easy two-hour walk to Felsenegg through a scaled-down solar system.
In winter a toboggan run drops through the forest toward Triemli, and in November the top often sits above the fog.
A ridge walk from Uetliberg to Felsenegg that maps the solar system to scale: every meter of path stands for 1 million kilometers. Kids follow it from the Sun past the eight planets to dwarf planet Pluto.
At Felsenegg the view stretches over Lake Zurich to the Alps, and the IceAgeCam next to the restaurant gives an interactive look at the same view through the ice ages.
ZSG runs the public boats on Lake Zurich and the River Limmat: 17 ships calling at 31 landing stages, all part of the ZVV transit network. Lake round trips leave from the Bürkliplatz pier, from a short loop to a half-day cruise. River boats on the Limmat start at the Landesmuseum. The «ZSG Tour» audio guide app narrates the mini lake and river cruises.
Urania Observatory is a 51-meter tower at the western edge of the Old Town, opened in 1907 as Switzerland's oldest public observatory. Tours take place in a creaking wooden dome that turns to open a slit to the sky.
Guides explain the planets with screens and computer simulations, and on clear nights kids look through the original 12-tonne Zeiss telescope.
Rhine Falls is the most powerful waterfall in Europe, 150 meters wide and 23 meters high. From Schloss Laufen castle, a footpath and steep, narrow stairs lead past the thundering water to the Fischetz viewing platform.
Boats cross the basin and run out to the rock in the middle of the falls, which visitors can climb. A riverside path loops around the whole basin.
Sauriermuseum Aathal shows real dinosaur skeletons, six of them from the museum's own digs, alongside trilobites, a crocodile, flying and marine reptiles, 290 pieces of amber and 108 meteorites. Replicas and models fill in the rest of the age of dinosaurs.
Outside, the DinoGiardino garden has dinosaur models, a dig pit, a slide, a small carousel for toddlers, two grill spots and covered picnic tables.
