A Quick Guide To Zurich Switzerland

Despite Zurich’s seemingly democratic vibe, nothing more poignantly reminds you of the fact that you are nevertheless in Switzerland than a visit to the new Swiss Finance Museum, which opened in 2017.

Located in the headquarters of the Swiss financial infrastructure operator SIX in the trendy Zürich West neighborhood, the museum’s expositions introduce visitors to financial markets and the mechanisms that make them work.

One of the museum’s most intriguing sections features a historical collection of bonds from all around the world as well as an interactive game that allows visitors to spend a simulated day brokering on the floor of the Swiss bourse.

Established in 1924, Kronenhalle Restaurant and Bar was originally a meeting place for musicians, writers, actors and artists, with the likes of Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Richard Strauss among its guests. Some of those guests paid for their tabs with artworks, which is why guests today can gaze at genuine works by Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro while dining.

The collection is worth millions, but what makes it unique is that it was assembled largely by one man, the silk magnate Gustav Zumsteg, who lived just above the restaurant until his death in 2005.

Zurich has changed rapidly during the past two decades. It’s become increasingly modern, which is why you have to look increasingly hard to find old and authentic venues.

This bookstore has been around for years, and you can find some real gems.

With your head in the clouds, enjoy the first-class view of Zurich from Clouds, the city’s highest bar and restaurant.

Located on the 35th floor of the Prime Tower, the culinary hotspot offers a casual bistro-type setting and a fine-dining restaurant that serves a mix of Mediterranean, southeast Asian, and classic cuisine.

Come here to dine in an elegant ambience and witness one of the most stunning sunsets in town.

Zurich’s art scene regained its probably most colorful museum object.

The Pavilion Le Corbusier, once named the Heidi Weber Museum and completed in 1967, was the last building designed by the great Swiss-French modernist master and intended as an exhibition space for his own projects.

It reopened after restoration, but the main exhibit here still is the pavilion itself. The colorful, four-story, glass-and-steel paneled building with a ship-like canopy roof is topped by a terrace where visitors can enjoy the views over the Zürichhorn river delta and the lake.

The interiors are filled with iconic pieces of furniture by Le Corbusier.

A beautiful villa surrounded by a fantastic, tranquil park with views across Lake Zurich. The villa was lent to the composer Richard Wagner by the Wesendonck family in 1849, and he went on to have an affair with Mathilde Wesendonck, which didn’t go down well with the family or Minna Wagner.

He fled from Zurich in 1858. Many years later the city of Zurich bought the villa, and in 1952 it was opened as a museum of non-European culture (Museum Rietberg) that curates outstanding exhibitions. In summer there are regular concerts in the park, and it’s a perfect hideaway from daily life

This is an inconspicuous building from the outside, but when entering in the morning when the sun shines through the windows, it’s a magical place.

Marc Chagall created a five-part stained-glass window and rose window for the chancel in the 1970s. He commented that whenever he created something from his heart, nearly everything went well

Swimming on the rooftop pool of this spa in the heart of Zurich is a one-of-a-kind visual experience that can probably outbid any ordinary sightseeing tour. Indoors, it also offers a total mind-soul-body recharge in a tranquil atmosphere.

Thermalbad & Spa Zurich is located inside the walls of the old Hürlimann brewery building, which dates back to 1836.

The spacious yet cosy cave-like underground halls with original stone-vaulted ceilings and relaxing, muted lighting create an intimate setting for the herbal steam rooms and pools of various temperatures with hydrojet massage tubs and underwater whirlpools.

The signature Roman-Irish spa ritual offers a two-hour long procedure involving a sequence of baths, contrast pools, body peel, and massage. The pools are filled with water that naturally ranges from 35°C to 41°C and comes from the local Aqui mineral springs, and guests can also relax in hundred-year-old wooden barrels now converted into baths.

The four floors of the complex are divided into a thermal bath open to adults as well as children and an adult-only spa zone. In addition to 3 massive wooden basins, ultimate relaxation culminates in the emerald-green Smaragd-Bad room, where you can simply dip into the shallow swimming pool and float while listening to meditative music streamed underwater.

And like the cherry on the cake, sits the 35 ̊C open-air rooftop pool. Designed with angular concrete ledges, it provides majestic views of Zurich’s skyline and, when the weather is clear enough, also the snowy Alps in the distance.