Zurich

Not really the mountains

Zurich sits on the Swiss Plateau at the northwestern end of its own lake, and it would be dishonest to call it an Alpine destination: the city’s elevation is around 408m, its immediate surroundings are lake, farmland and low wooded hills, and higher ground, such as the Glarus Alps or the peaks above Lake Lucerne, means a train journey out of the city. What Zurich does have is the largest international airport in Switzerland and its largest railway station, which is the honest case for it as a stopover before the Alps rather than as a destination.

The Uetliberg and Lake Zurich

The city’s own high point is the Uetliberg (871m), a wooded ridge on its southwestern edge reached from Zürich Hauptbahnhof by the S10 line, with a short walk from the station to a summit tower that gives a view over the whole city, the lake, and the Alps beyond. A ridge path, the Albisgrat-Höhenweg, runs on from the summit along the Albis chain, wooded rather than alpine and mostly along the forest edge; MySwitzerland lists the Uetliberg to Felsenegg route at 10km, which makes it a walk rather than a viewpoint stop. On the lake’s opposite shore, the Pfannenstiel (853m) is a wooded ridge between Lake Zurich and the Greifensee, its highest point about 13km from the city.

Lake Zurich stretches southeast from the city for around 40km, worked by passenger boats of the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft that run between Zürich Bürkliplatz and Rapperswil. Rapperswil, where the Seedamm causeway carries the railway and a road across the lake’s narrowest point, is reached by boat or by S-Bahn, and beside the causeway a reconstructed wooden footbridge crosses to Hurden; its castle, built around 1220, stands on the Lindenhof hill above the old town.

Season and access

There is no walking season to plan around here: the Uetliberg is accessible year-round by train. Zürich HB is the largest railway station in Switzerland, with services across the country, which makes the city better understood as a gateway and a stopover than as a mountain destination in its own right. For a walk along the Albis, ZVV suggests the train from Selnau to Adliswil and the Felseneggbahn cable car up to the Felsenegg, then the Planetenweg to Uetliberg station and the train back to Selnau.