Like I mentioned above, we were there Wednesday - Friday in mid June. The weather was warm, but not as unbearable or humid as some other cities, so we spent a lot of time outside. It is a gorgeous city with parks, lakes, and great walkability. We walked to everywhere I mentioned below from out hotel. We also were on a little bit of a buget, nothing crazy, but Zurich was definitly at the top of our price range. Everywhere we went is fairly moderate price wise.

First, where to stay in Zurich

Since Zurich is on the pricier side, we decided to stay just outside the city center in Zurich-West. It was still super walkable to Old Town and the main attractions, plus we were pleasantly surprised by how many cute bars and restaurants were in the neighborhood itself. If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly option that’s still central and well-connected, I’d definitely recommend staying here!

But if you want to be right in the middle of everything, Old Town is where we spent most of our time. It has the best mix of shopping, bars, and restaurants, so if being in the heart of Zurich sounds more like your vibe, that’s going to be your best bet.

Day 1 Itinerary

We drove into Zurich and went straight to our hotel in Zurich-West. Since we didn’t have much planned for the day, the goal was simple: walk around, eat good food, and explore.

Head into Old Town, Zurich

After unpacking, we headed toward Old Town to grab something to eat. On the way there, we passed a few bars with really nice outdoor seating just outside the city center. One of them, Bar Basso, looked like a great spot, so we stopped for a quick afternoon drink (their food looked really good too). This area had a lot of great options, so it’s a good stop if you want a break before heading into Old Town.

Shopping and Swiss Chocolate Tasting

After, we continued our walk into the city center. Old Town was full of charming streets, historic buildings, and plenty of different shops, restaurant, and cafes. You really can spend a hours exploring, which is exactly what we did. We wandered around for a while, walked along the waterfront, and stopped to check out some stores. While we were there, we also grabbed Swiss chocolate from Läderach, which I’d definitely recommend. They cut it fresh and price it by weight, so you can try a mix of flavors. My favorite was the Raspberry-Blackberry White Chocolate—so good.

After this we stumbled upon the cutest bistro located in a small ally. It’s called Mont Martre and was small but very charming. We can a little too late for the food, but the menu looked good and they had great coffee. The service was also amazing and the waitres gave us many recommendations for local bars and restaurants around the area, they we checked out later in the night.

Drinks and Dinner in the Charming Streets of Old Town Zurich

We headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner and rest before making our way back to Old Town. We didn’t have many plans and wanted something casual so we headed to a strip of bars and restaurant we had seen earlier that were also near a cocktail bar the was recommended to us. The bar we went to was called Vista Bar. It had a fun interior and great outdoor seating and good drinks. You can order food from the Italian Restarautn next door called Ristorante Toscano and they will bring it to your table at the bar. This is what we eneded up doing, as we didn’t relize many restaurants close earlier in Zurich then in some other European cities like Barcelona. After some food and drinks sitting out side enjoying the ambiance, we walked to a bar called Marea Cocktailbar, which the wiatess from earier recommended to us. This was my favorite drink spot we went to in Zurich, they had creative speciaty cocktails and an ashteitc but fun vibe. I would recomend going earlier in the night and seeing how busy it is as it was pretty packed when we went. We ended our night here, but did stop for a late night snack at Zurich Fried Chicken. Honestly, for late night after drinking food, it was pretty good if you are in the area.

This is how we spent our first day in Zurich; mostly just exploring and stopping when we saw something we wanted to check out. Out second day was much more structured.