Moving here with kids means a long list of weekend ideas and little time to sort them. These are the places local families keep going back to in the first year: lake boats on a transit ticket, a forest wildlife park with bears and wolves, and museums for rainy days. A few are seasonal, so check each card. Here's what we checked, from Zoo Zürich to the Rhine Falls.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Opened in March 2024, the museum brings the university's zoology, paleontology, botany and anthropology collections under one roof, with more than 1,500 animals and fossils on show. A touchable, life-size Plateosaurus greets kids at the entrance, and the dinosaur rooms add tactile reconstructions.
Other rooms cover Swiss wildlife, fossils from Monte San Giorgio, Ice Age life with the Neanderthal Orsa, and how plants communicate. A cinema runs nature films.
Switzerland's oldest zoo, founded in 1869, is also the country's largest by area. It keeps 19 native and formerly native mammal species in large, near-natural forest enclosures: brown bears, wolves, lynx, moose, European bison, Przewalski's horses, wild boar, ibex, otters and marmots.
Between enclosures there are two playgrounds, one with swings and a zip line and a smaller one with climbing for young children.
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.
Knies Kinderzoo is a hands-on zoo run by the Knie circus family since 1962, with about 400 animals from 45 species by Lake Zurich. Kids can feed the elephants, ride ponies and camels, and loop the grounds on the electric zoo tram. Giraffes, cheetahs, penguins and a goat petting area round it out, with free keeper talks and a short animal film through the day.
A city-run lido on Lake Zurich with a sandy beach, rafts to swim out to, a non-swimmer area in the lake and a diving tower with 1, 3 and 5 meter boards. Younger kids get a paddling pool with sun umbrellas and water play, plus a playground.
A big lawn, barbecue spots, table tennis, slacklines, stand-up paddleboarding and food from Hiltl am Strand fill the rest.
Moving here with kids means a long list of weekend ideas and little time to sort them. These are the places local families keep going back to in the first year: lake boats on a transit ticket, a forest wildlife park with bears and wolves, and museums for rainy days. A few are seasonal, so check each card. Here's what we checked, from Zoo Zürich to the Rhine Falls.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Opened in March 2024, the museum brings the university's zoology, paleontology, botany and anthropology collections under one roof, with more than 1,500 animals and fossils on show. A touchable, life-size Plateosaurus greets kids at the entrance, and the dinosaur rooms add tactile reconstructions.
Other rooms cover Swiss wildlife, fossils from Monte San Giorgio, Ice Age life with the Neanderthal Orsa, and how plants communicate. A cinema runs nature films.
Switzerland's oldest zoo, founded in 1869, is also the country's largest by area. It keeps 19 native and formerly native mammal species in large, near-natural forest enclosures: brown bears, wolves, lynx, moose, European bison, Przewalski's horses, wild boar, ibex, otters and marmots.
Between enclosures there are two playgrounds, one with swings and a zip line and a smaller one with climbing for young children.
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.
Knies Kinderzoo is a hands-on zoo run by the Knie circus family since 1962, with about 400 animals from 45 species by Lake Zurich. Kids can feed the elephants, ride ponies and camels, and loop the grounds on the electric zoo tram. Giraffes, cheetahs, penguins and a goat petting area round it out, with free keeper talks and a short animal film through the day.
A city-run lido on Lake Zurich with a sandy beach, rafts to swim out to, a non-swimmer area in the lake and a diving tower with 1, 3 and 5 meter boards. Younger kids get a paddling pool with sun umbrellas and water play, plus a playground.
A big lawn, barbecue spots, table tennis, slacklines, stand-up paddleboarding and food from Hiltl am Strand fill the rest.
