Explore Zurich by region

Zurich works best as a base with a very wide reach, and this destinations hub is built around that idea: the city itself, plus nine day-trip regions that fan out from it by train. Zurich & Around covers the compact old town split by the river — Niederdorf's narrow lanes on one bank, Bahnhofstrasse's shopping and banking on the other — along with the Grossmünster and Fraumünster church towers, the Lindenhof terrace, the Kunsthaus and Landesmuseum museums, the Uetliberg ridge walk above the city, and the lake itself, plus two easy extensions within the canton: lakeside Rapperswil with its castle, and the former industrial town of Winterthur.

Central Switzerland is the closest big-name region, roughly forty-five minutes away by train to Lucerne, with the Kapellbrücke covered bridge, the Lion Monument and the Swiss Museum of Transport, plus Lake Lucerne cruises and the Rigi and Pilatus summits, Titlis above Engelberg, the Stoos funicular, Einsiedeln's abbey and Zug on the lake of the same name — all genuinely doable as a day trip.

The Bernese Oberland is further out, built around Interlaken as a hub, with Grindelwald and the Jungfraujoch — the "Top of Europe" — Lauterbrunnen's waterfall valley, Mürren and the Schilthorn, Wengen, the lakes of Thun and Brienz, and the quieter Adelboden, Kandersteg and Gstaad; a Jungfraujoch day from Zurich is long and expensive, and an overnight in the valley makes for a far less rushed trip. Bern & Northwest Switzerland groups the capital's arcaded old town and bear pits with Basel's museums and Rhine bathing culture, plus Aarau and Solothurn.

Eastern Switzerland & the Rhine Falls covers Europe's largest waterfall near Schaffhausen, the medieval town of Stein am Rhein, the UNESCO abbey library in St Gallen, and the Appenzell hills below the Säntis. Liechtenstein & Graubünden stretches from tiny Vaduz and the Heidiland/Walensee area to Chur, Davos, Klosters and the St Moritz/Engadine valley — St Moritz is a long day trip and a much better overnight. Zermatt & Valais, under the Matterhorn, is car-free and roughly three hours away by train, realistically an overnight rather than a day trip once travel time is weighed against time on the ground.

Ticino, Switzerland's Italian-speaking south around Lugano, Bellinzona and Locarno/Ascona, is close to the same story. Lake Geneva & Gruyères covers Montreux, Vevey, the hilltop village of Gruyères, Lausanne and Neuchâtel, and the Black Forest & Lake Constance region crosses into Germany and Austria for a genuinely different, cross-border day out. Each destination page below sets out realistic train times and whether a day trip or an overnight is the better call.