Zurich builds playgrounds kids want to cross town for: wooden climbing towers, deep sand pits, tube slides and paddling pools that fill up on summer afternoons. Several GZ community centers keep a small farm too, so kids can feed goats between turns on the slide. Here's what we checked, from the water play at Josefwiese to the giant octopus on the lake shore at Küsnachter Horn.
Blatterwiese, which locals call Chinawiese after the Chinese Garden next door, is a wide lawn on the shore of Lake Zurich. Its fenced playground has a large sand area, a climbing wall, swings and water fountains for hot days.
Around it, families picnic, use the public grills nearby, kick a ball or swim in the lake, and a kiosk sells ice cream and cold drinks.
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.
Josefwiese is a 1920s people's park beside the Viadukt arches in Zürich-West, laid out for play and sport rather than strolling. Kids get climbing frames and a paddling pool with water play.
The big lawn is for picnics, football and sunbathing, plus pétanque, table tennis, a beach volleyball court and a barbecue spot. A kiosk sells salads, grilled food and drinks.
Locals call it the Bäcki: a 1.4-hectare neighborhood park near Langstrasse, framed by Stauffacherstrasse, Feldstrasse and Hohlstrasse. Kids head for the playground and the shallow wading pool, where splashing has been allowed since the 1939 redesign.
The Quartierzentrum Aussersihl community center stands in the park, with the Restaurant Bäckeranlage inside. On summer days the lawns fill with young families from the surrounding streets.
A neighborhood park on the grounds of a former wool-dyeing works. Its landmark is a set of climbing towers with tube slides that rise into the tree canopy. A play lawn under shady trees is framed by seating steps on two sides.
Next to it sit an all-weather sports court, a bouldering wall and a rope climbing frame, plus a barbecue spot and an accessible toilet.
Fritschiwiese began as a cemetery in the late 19th century and became a public park in 1921, laid out together with local residents. Today it has a large play lawn, playgrounds, benches and a hilly landscape first designed as an adventure playground.
The paddling pool draws crowds on hot days, and neighbors use the open grass for picnics, games and small workouts.
Oerliker Park opened in 2001 on former factory land in Oerlikon. Its landmark is a blue lookout tower: a steel staircase spirals up through the treetops to a platform 35 meters up, with views toward the city center and the Uetliberg.
The park also has a large climbing frame, play equipment for small kids, a wooden deck and a long turquoise fountain with water play.
GZ Buchegg is one of the city's community centers, a short walk over the footbridge from Bucheggplatz. Donkeys, ponies, llamas and goats live in pens that families can stop by and watch, and visitors can help with the morning feeding.
Inside there's a self-run play room, a café with homemade cake where nobody has to order, and a stage for dance and theater made for young audiences.
GZ Wipkingen is a city community center on a meadow beside the Limmat. Kids run the lawn, climb the rope playground, swing, and dig in a sandpit with a conveyor belt.
The Wipkihof farm keeps mini pigs, dwarf goats, guinea pigs and chickens. On open-stable afternoons kids help in the barn, feed and pet some of the animals, and usually bake stick bread over a fire.
GZ Heuried is a neighborhood community center run by the Zürcher Gemeinschaftszentren foundation. Its Erlebnisgarten (adventure garden) keeps llamas, alpacas, goats, dwarf sheep and rabbits.
Inside, the open workshop stocks soapstone, wood, fabric, plaster, paint, beads and clay, so kids can bring an idea or pick a material and start. The cafeteria welcomes families whether or not they order.
GZ Bachwiesen is one of the city's community centers. Donkeys, ponies, goats, guinea pigs, rabbits and chickens live in pens that families can walk up to at any time, though visitors are asked not to feed them.
Inside, a café serves homemade cake and syrup for kids, and the wood workshop lets children build their own projects with staff showing them the machines, no course or sign-up needed.
A supervised building playground run by the local association VAA, where kids hammer, saw and climb on wooden huts built by earlier visitors. Tools and materials are handed out free, two people to a toolbox, and staff show how to use them. Regulars can build a hut of their own. A fire is always lit for grilling, and parents can build along or sit by it.
Irchelpark is a naturalistic park of about 32 hectares wrapped around the University of Zurich's Irchel campus. Paths loop past a lake with fish, ducks and herons, two streams, wildflower meadows and Monte Diggelmann, a small viewpoint hill.
Kids can play in the sand and boulder playground by the lake and follow the Irchel Nature Trail, whose 20 boards cover birds, frogs, bees and dragonflies.
A public playground at the Horn, the lakeside park where Küsnacht's Dorfbach stream runs into Lake Zurich. The centerpiece is a big green octopus that kids clamber over and slide down, with a nest swing alongside.
It suits confident climbers best. The play area sits right on the water, so toddlers need a close eye.
Sihlwald is a beech forest along the Sihl river that has been left unmanaged since 2000, and at 970 hectares it is the largest natural forest reserve on the Swiss Central Plateau.
By the visitor center, a wilderness playground has branch nests, rope bridges, a hollow fir trunk to crawl into and a water play fountain. Fire pits and a 2.6 km forest adventure trail start there.
Zurich builds playgrounds kids want to cross town for: wooden climbing towers, deep sand pits, tube slides and paddling pools that fill up on summer afternoons. Several GZ community centers keep a small farm too, so kids can feed goats between turns on the slide. Here's what we checked, from the water play at Josefwiese to the giant octopus on the lake shore at Küsnachter Horn.
Blatterwiese, which locals call Chinawiese after the Chinese Garden next door, is a wide lawn on the shore of Lake Zurich. Its fenced playground has a large sand area, a climbing wall, swings and water fountains for hot days.
Around it, families picnic, use the public grills nearby, kick a ball or swim in the lake, and a kiosk sells ice cream and cold drinks.
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.
Josefwiese is a 1920s people's park beside the Viadukt arches in Zürich-West, laid out for play and sport rather than strolling. Kids get climbing frames and a paddling pool with water play.
The big lawn is for picnics, football and sunbathing, plus pétanque, table tennis, a beach volleyball court and a barbecue spot. A kiosk sells salads, grilled food and drinks.
Locals call it the Bäcki: a 1.4-hectare neighborhood park near Langstrasse, framed by Stauffacherstrasse, Feldstrasse and Hohlstrasse. Kids head for the playground and the shallow wading pool, where splashing has been allowed since the 1939 redesign.
The Quartierzentrum Aussersihl community center stands in the park, with the Restaurant Bäckeranlage inside. On summer days the lawns fill with young families from the surrounding streets.
A neighborhood park on the grounds of a former wool-dyeing works. Its landmark is a set of climbing towers with tube slides that rise into the tree canopy. A play lawn under shady trees is framed by seating steps on two sides.
Next to it sit an all-weather sports court, a bouldering wall and a rope climbing frame, plus a barbecue spot and an accessible toilet.
Fritschiwiese began as a cemetery in the late 19th century and became a public park in 1921, laid out together with local residents. Today it has a large play lawn, playgrounds, benches and a hilly landscape first designed as an adventure playground.
The paddling pool draws crowds on hot days, and neighbors use the open grass for picnics, games and small workouts.
Oerliker Park opened in 2001 on former factory land in Oerlikon. Its landmark is a blue lookout tower: a steel staircase spirals up through the treetops to a platform 35 meters up, with views toward the city center and the Uetliberg.
The park also has a large climbing frame, play equipment for small kids, a wooden deck and a long turquoise fountain with water play.
GZ Buchegg is one of the city's community centers, a short walk over the footbridge from Bucheggplatz. Donkeys, ponies, llamas and goats live in pens that families can stop by and watch, and visitors can help with the morning feeding.
Inside there's a self-run play room, a café with homemade cake where nobody has to order, and a stage for dance and theater made for young audiences.
GZ Wipkingen is a city community center on a meadow beside the Limmat. Kids run the lawn, climb the rope playground, swing, and dig in a sandpit with a conveyor belt.
The Wipkihof farm keeps mini pigs, dwarf goats, guinea pigs and chickens. On open-stable afternoons kids help in the barn, feed and pet some of the animals, and usually bake stick bread over a fire.
GZ Heuried is a neighborhood community center run by the Zürcher Gemeinschaftszentren foundation. Its Erlebnisgarten (adventure garden) keeps llamas, alpacas, goats, dwarf sheep and rabbits.
Inside, the open workshop stocks soapstone, wood, fabric, plaster, paint, beads and clay, so kids can bring an idea or pick a material and start. The cafeteria welcomes families whether or not they order.
GZ Bachwiesen is one of the city's community centers. Donkeys, ponies, goats, guinea pigs, rabbits and chickens live in pens that families can walk up to at any time, though visitors are asked not to feed them.
Inside, a café serves homemade cake and syrup for kids, and the wood workshop lets children build their own projects with staff showing them the machines, no course or sign-up needed.
A supervised building playground run by the local association VAA, where kids hammer, saw and climb on wooden huts built by earlier visitors. Tools and materials are handed out free, two people to a toolbox, and staff show how to use them. Regulars can build a hut of their own. A fire is always lit for grilling, and parents can build along or sit by it.
Irchelpark is a naturalistic park of about 32 hectares wrapped around the University of Zurich's Irchel campus. Paths loop past a lake with fish, ducks and herons, two streams, wildflower meadows and Monte Diggelmann, a small viewpoint hill.
Kids can play in the sand and boulder playground by the lake and follow the Irchel Nature Trail, whose 20 boards cover birds, frogs, bees and dragonflies.
A public playground at the Horn, the lakeside park where Küsnacht's Dorfbach stream runs into Lake Zurich. The centerpiece is a big green octopus that kids clamber over and slide down, with a nest swing alongside.
It suits confident climbers best. The play area sits right on the water, so toddlers need a close eye.
Sihlwald is a beech forest along the Sihl river that has been left unmanaged since 2000, and at 970 hectares it is the largest natural forest reserve on the Swiss Central Plateau.
By the visitor center, a wilderness playground has branch nests, rope bridges, a hollow fir trunk to crawl into and a water play fountain. Fire pits and a 2.6 km forest adventure trail start there.
