Zürich, and every peak it reaches.
Which summit railway earns its ticket. Whether Jungfraujoch is worth the price it asks. Where the fondue justifies the detour. Every tour out of Zürich, read before you book.
Zürich sells four mountains. They are not the same day.
Mountain railways and cogwheel lines →Every one of them is a cable car, a cogwheel train and a serious ticket price. What separates them is how long the day runs, how reliable the snow is, and how badly the weather can spoil it.
Glacier all yearTitlisFrom · $98★★★★★★★★★★ 4.433 toursRotating cable car, an ice cave at the top and snow on the ground in August. The most weather-proof of the four, and usually paired with an hour in Lucerne.
Boat, cogwheel, gondolaPilatusFrom · $83★★★★★★★★★★ 4.626 toursThe round trip out of Lucerne: paddle steamer across the lake, the steepest cogwheel railway in the world up, gondolas down. The railway leg is a summer line, so the shape of the day changes in winter.
The gentle oneRigiFrom · $91★★★★★★★★★★ 4.519 toursLake steamer to Vitznau, cogwheel train through meadows, and a mineral bath at Kaltbad on the way back down. Shorter, cheaper and far less strenuous than the other three.
The long haulJungfraujochFrom · $189★★★★★★★★★★ 4.339 toursThree and a half hours each way from Zürich, the highest railway station in Europe at the end of it, and a price to match. Go on a clear forecast or do not go at all.What a first trip to Zürich is actually built from.
A chocolate hall, a lake steamer, one big mountain and a waterfall an hour up the line. These are the days almost every Zürich itinerary is assembled from, and the sensible way to book each one.
The tours Zürich books more than any other.
Every review →Ranked by how many travellers have actually been and rated them — not by what anyone would like to sell you.
1
Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum Entry Ticket
Lindt Home of Chocolate in Zurich pairs an audio-guided museum, a 9-meter fountain, and unlimited Swiss tastings for about a half to one day.
From · $22
Read our review →
2
Day Trip to Grindelwald, Interlaken & Lauterbrunnen
from $132
3
City Tour, Cruise, and Lindt Home of Chocolate Visit
from $103
4
Mount Titlis and Lucerne Day Tour
from $214
5
Bus Day Trip to Heidiland and Liechtenstein
from $115
6
Day Trip to Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe
from $367
7
City Highlights Tour by Bus, Cable Car, and Ferry
from $83
8
Mt. Pilatus Cable Car, Cogwheel Train & Lake Cruise
from $212
In Zürich, the chocolate hall outsells the mountains.
The single most-reviewed thing on this site is not a summit or a lake. It is a museum on the Kilchberg lakeshore with a nine-metre chocolate fountain in the atrium, and the tasting at the end is not a token one. Book a slot, then go and eat lunch somewhere else.
Lucerne is fifty minutes away and worth the whole day.
A covered wooden bridge from 1333, a lake that turns the colour of bottle glass by June, and three of the four mountain railways leaving from its shoreline. Most people give it two hours between trains. That is the mistake.
Two hours on foot is all Zürich’s old town asks.
Thirteen guild houses, two river banks, a Romanesque tower with Chagall glass in the choir, and the whole thing walkable between the main station and the lake. Do it early, before the Bahnhofstrasse crowds, and keep the afternoon for the water.
- 1Zurich Old Town Walking Tour: 2-Hoursfrom $16
- 2Zurich Walking Tour With Cruise and Aerial Cable Carfrom $111
- 3Zurich Old Town Walking Tourfrom $33
Lauterbrunnen is why people extend the Zürich trip.
Seventy-odd waterfalls dropping off vertical walls, Grindelwald under the north face of the Eiger, and a cliff walk bolted to the rock at First. It is two and a half hours out and it undoes anyone who booked only one day for it.
- 1Day Trip to Grindelwald, Interlaken & Lauterbrunnenfrom $132
- 2Jungfraujoch Day Trip from Zurich: Swiss Alps & Bernese Oberlandfrom $386
- 3Grindelwald Gondola Ride to Mount Firstfrom $93
What a day out of Zürich actually costs.
Switzerland is not a cheap country and the mountain days are the proof: the summit railways are the most expensive single bookings on this site. Every tour here is sorted by what it really charges, so the trade-off is at least an informed one.
Entry tickets, a walking tour of the old town, an hour on the lake. Zürich done on foot and by boat.
- 1Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum Entry Ticketfrom $22
- 21-Hour Cruise on Panoramic Yachtfrom $39
- 3Funicular Ticket to Harder Kulmfrom $49
The classic day trips: Rhine Falls, Lucerne, Rigi, the chocolate-and-cheese runs into Appenzell.
The summit days and the private cars. Titlis, Pilatus and Jungfraujoch all live up here, and the price is the ticket, not the markup.
Book these before you land in Zürich.
Most of this list can be arranged the night before from your hotel. These four cannot: they run on timed slots, seat reservations, seasonal lines and the wind.
- 01Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum Entry TicketEntry runs on timed slots and the good hours go first. Pick your slot before you travel, not on the tram out there.
- 02Day Trip to Jungfraujoch – Top of EuropeSeat reservations are required on the busiest departures, and the early trains are both the cheapest and the clearest.
- 03Mt. Pilatus Cable Car, Cogwheel Train & Lake CruiseThe cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad is a summer line. Outside the season the round trip runs the other way about, which changes the whole day.
- 04Tandem Paragliding Flight with PilotFlights are sold by slot and grounded by wind. Morning air is the calmest, so morning slots go first.
A summit in cloud is a wasted ticket. Zürich has a plan.
The one thing nobody tells you about the mountain railways: you are buying a view, and the view is not guaranteed. Check the summit webcam the night before, and if the forecast has closed in, spend the day on these instead. None of them care what the weather is doing.
Everything below leaves from Zürich HB.
Rough one-way times on the train. Anything under an hour and a half is a comfortable day out; past two hours you are committing the whole day to it, and Jungfraujoch takes the day twice over.
By place — where the day is spent
Zürich old town33 tours
Lucerne39 tours
Interlaken40 tours
Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen76 tours
Rhine Falls and Schaffhausen22 tours
Liechtenstein and Heidiland12 tours
Appenzell and St Gallen15 tours- Stein am Rhein7 tours
- Every review on the site →
By experience — what kind of day is it?
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