How to Spend 3 Days in Zurich and hike in The Alps without a car

When my husband first brought up the idea of going to Zurich, I couldn’t get excited about it. We’ve been to Switzerland a couple of times already. On our first trip, we visited Lucerne, Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen Valley and spent most of our time in Murren, which is until this day was one of our most beloved destinations. We later took our kids there again; it was probably the only time we ever came back twice to the same place.

Everything I read about Zurich paled in comparison to Switzerland we had remembered from these trips. Yes, it was on the lake and surrounded by mountains, but nobody online was writing anything exciting about the city other than it was expensive and full of rich bankers. I never expected to fall in love with it over a short weekend visit.

About This Itinerary

We went to Zurich at the end of August. Because we only had two full days, we decided to spend one day hiking and another exploring the city. Since Zurich doesn’t really need a full day, we were also able to fit in a side trip to the nearby Rapperswil, which was a great decision!

We spent a long time researching hikes near Zurich. Many online articles were pointing to the same tourist spots like Mt. Rigi, Titlis, etc. While the pictures looked amazing, we were concerned about crowds. Especially, since we were planning hiking on Saturday. At some point, we came across Glarus region. We couldn’t find much information about it online, which was a good sign. We were worried about being able to get to good hikes without a car, but when we read about Braunwald and Panoram Trail there, we instantly knew that this was our kind of place.

3-Day Zurich Itinerary

Day 1 – Getting to Zurich and City Walk
Day 2 – Hiking Panoramawanderung trail in Braunwald
Day 3 – Town of Rapperswil
Highs and Lows

Day 1

Getting There

My husband was traveling to Zurich for business. Our plan was for me to join him at the end of the week, spend the weekend together and fly home on Monday (which happened to be a holiday). Because I work full time and don’t get many days off, maximizing the use of weekends and holidays is high priority for us when we plan our trips. I took Friday off and caught an afternoon flight to Zurich on Thursday.

My flight landed in Zurich (Zurich Kloten International Airport ( ZRH )) early morning. I went through immigration very efficiently (they barely looked at my passport), and then I needed to figure out how to get to our hotel (Four Points Sheraton Sihclcity), which was located outside of the city center. We read that Zurich public transportation was extremely good, so I wasn’t going to spend a fortune on a taxi.

I am not great with directions and finding places, and I am spoiled: when we travel, I just follow my husband who somehow knows which turn to take in the city he has never been to. It turned out that I didn’t have to worry. The train station was just across the street from the airport and the signs helped me find it. The nice lady from the ticket office guided me through buying my single way ticket to Zurich main station (Zürich Hauptbahnhof, or Zurich HB) from the machine for CHF 6.80 in 2^nd class, and my credit card worked! The trains to the main station run every 10 minutes and it is only one stop away.

I did have a little difficulty finding my next transportation – tram #13. On top of it, the ticket machine at the tram stop asked for my credit card pin, which didn’t exist. I had no cash with me, and I started panicking a little, but I must have had good Carma that day: an English-speaking young lady bought me the tram ticket! I tried to give her dollars, but she only laughed at me. I was already starting to like it here. After several stops, I got off and the hotel was right across from the tram tracks.

I even made it in time for breakfast!

The picture speaks louder than words…

City Walk

We started the old town walk around 5pm as my husband still had to work that day. We decided to follow A Self Guided Walk because in all my research it looked like the best way to quickly see all the highlights. We later came back to some of our favorite places.

Jenna did a really good job describing the points of interest and it was very easy to follow. The old town is beautiful, full of character and history. There were lots of restaurants along this route but all very expansive. We finally settled on this place Beer Garden & Grill.

Great location, right on the river, outside seating. Food was good but not great; we each had whole small roasted chicken and fries plus dessert. Paid CHF 57. There are no cheap places to eat in Zurich unless you buy food at the supermarket. If you need to use the restroom at this restaurant, you need to pay CHF 2 and they give you a voucher, which you can then exchange for your food. Make sure you use the restroom before you pay for your food.

That is my only complain about the city (in addition to it being very expensive 😊) – not a lot of public restrooms and they are not free, even at the train station. The only free restrooms you can find in Zurich are actually on trains.

Tip: take a water bottle with you and fill it up at any of the water fountains along your walk. The water tastes wonderful.

Day 2

Hiking Panoramawanderung trail in Braunwald

We had breakfast at the hotel and got on the 8:45 am train to Linthal Braunwaldbahn (CHF 55.60 roundtrip/person, 1.5 hours). The train was full of locals wearing hiking clothes. Many people got off before us once the train entered Glarus valley. There are other hikes there, so much more to explore!

From the train station, we took a gondola (included in the price of the train ticket) up to the car-free resort village of Braunwald. There is a TI near the gondola, so get your free map there and ask for trail recommendations on depending on your fitness level. We then took another gondola (CHF 9.80 one way/person) to the trailhead. The views and the sounds (cowbells and of course, cows) were breathtaking.

We decided to do the yellow Panorama trail. Loved every minute of it. There are wild blueberries, raspberries and cranberries along the trail. So, you if don’t feel like spending a big chunk of your travel budget on the lunch at the 2 restaurants along the trail, you can always snack on the berries. The hike took us about 4 hours, it was fairly easy. You can get tap water at any of the 2 restaurants on the way. Bring a rain jacket as the weather can be unpredictable.

We didn’t take the gondola down; instead we walked for additional 45 minutes to Braunwald and took just one gondola ride back to the train station.

You can also hike down to Lake Oberblegisee (we later saw Instagram pictures), but we didn’t have time for but maybe on our next trip…

Tip: if you take Yellow Panorama Trail, the suggested route is walk it counter-clockwise.

Day 3

Town of Rapperswil

This was a more relaxing day. Got an 11am train to Rapperswil, the city of Roses (CHF 17.20 one way/person). The ride took only 30 minutes.

This is a very lovely car free town, great for kids. We visited the rose garden (free entry), took millions of pictures of the castle, took a stroll along the lake, and crossed to the other side of the lake over the foot wooden bridge.

We had a very good lunch at Carfe Rosenstaedter, located right on the central square. We had a cheese pie which is a specialty of this restaurant and a fresh salad (CHF 42 for two). The food was delicious.

Came back to Zurich on the 4:30 pm boat (CHF 17.20 one way/person), which took 2 hours. Lovely views of the small towns along the route and a nice breeze made the end of our day trip to Rapperswil an unforgettable experience.

Tip: buy a round trip ticket at the train station which includes boat ride as well and it would be several CHF cheaper than buying single way ticket for the train and boat. Another advantage of a round trip ticket is that you can get off the boat at several islands on the way to explore them and then catch the next boat going in the same direction.