Hi there,
I am leaving next week with my family (2 children 12 and 7 and my husband) to do some island hoping in Greece. On our return we have a 5 hour stopover in Zurich.
Is that enough time to leave the airport and do a little tour? If so where would you recommend we go?
TIA
I would just stay put. Zurich is not in the mountains and is essentially a business community. Good airport though.
It takes all of 12 minutes to take the airport train into downtown Zurich. You easily could have a walk around the old center, maybe take the cable car to Felsenegg Mountain for the views. Take a look at Lake Zurich. The Lindt Chocolate Museum is another attraction.
You obviously won’t have time for all of this— but plenty of time for a couple of them.
you will need to allow enough time to stash your bags, train into town, do whatever you plan to do, train back to the airport, pick up said bags, clear immigration/customs. it will be close, but only you know your own comfort level.
You would probably have time to walk from the train station to the lake, and back. Perhaps a quick eat.
So, you have 2 responses and 2 somewhat differing opinions.
Bottom line, it comes down to your tolerance for risk and how good you are
at making your way around a place you may not have been to before.
Obviously, if you are delayed getting into Zurich, you should probably bail
on the go-into-Zurich idea.
I would offer that getting into Zurich is not the concern; getting back is.
Depending on the wanderings you take downtown, you may take a
different route to get back to the Bahnhof. That's where getting turned
around/delayed becomes a concern.
Since you have a long flight (or two) ahead of you after the stopover, if
it's hot outside and you get all sweaty and worked up, is that the state
you want to be in for a long flight?
You probably have 2 hours available to you downtown (I'm swagging 1
hour to get out of airport/downtown, 1 hour to make it back from your
destination to the airport, and 1 hour for security/immigration).
So far the responses seem to be based on the assumption your trip from Greece to Home is all one ticket, so that any checked bags will automatically be transferred to the next flight. Is that the case?
.....and 1 hour for security/immigration
That is an optimism I do not share.
I too would have serious misgivings about allowing only one hour for security/immigration. I have arrived in Zurich, but not departed from there. Realizing that all airports will not be the same, I will tell you that the last time we departed from Berlin it took every bit of 2 hours to clear security/immigration.
OP, as it goes with many of the posts asking these types of questions, the
info you are getting is about at the limit of the amount of information you
have provided. Any other tidbits you might want to provide would help
everyone to refine their comments.
I agree with joe32F and TravelBug79 as far as the risks go; but all of this
is general knowledge. If Zurich has E-gates for passports and yours are
for a country that works for, and you're flying business class, the answer
is a lot different than if you're from Russia and are in the back of the plane.
If ZRH has FastTrack, you would want to research that and see if it works for
you. If you like to watch planes, getting passes for the lounge for 5 hours
would be a great use of $.
Also, 5 hours is in the gray zone anyways. 3, no way you should leave the
airport. 7, you definitely have time. 5, well......
Thank you for all the suggestions/information. It is a 5 hour stopover from Athens to Toronto. We will be checking our bags in Athens so I am assuming we will not need to get them until we land in Toronto. We will be arriving in Zurich at 8:45am and depart at 1:25pm for Toronto.
If the recommendation is to not leave the airport what is the best restaurant in the airport for breakfast and of course some swiss chocolate?
Thank you so much
ZRH is a big airport with plenty to do. https://www.flughafen-zuerich.ch/en/passengers/shopping-and-enjoy/eat-and-drink/restaurants
it depends on which terminal you will be coming into. once you leave the main gates and go to E, there isn't much to do, so consider staying in the main terminals before going out to the E gate (there is passport control once you go downstairs so that takes time too).
There is a Sprungli cafe and plenty of other places to eat and get chocolates as well as a Migros supermarket (but that is not airside so you'd have to clear security again).
the website is pretty good so take a look at the link I posted above.
arriving in Zurich at 8:45am and depart at 1:25pm for Toronto
That is 4 hr 40 min.
Kind of a generous rounding to call it 5 hrs. And when you factor in the fact that to make a 1:25 departure, the plane has to be all buttoned up before that, your layover time shrinks even more.
Leaving the airport is looking to be a not optimal choice.
4 hours and 40 minutes……No, there’s not enough time. Have a nice breakfast, buy some Swiss chocolate to take home.
Not that I am recommending it, but, access to the Swiss Business Lounge in Terminal
E for 2 adults and 2 children is around $215. I will say that as lounges go, it's nice.
Find a way to get into a lounge, and lounge. Amex Plat works for some, Priority Pass works for others, or you can buy a daypass.
There is a very nice lounge with coffee, drinks, breakfast items, snacks in the Alpine Garden Capsule Hotel at Zurich airport. It is quiet, relaxed, across the street from Swiss check-in 2.
https://www.flughafen-zuerich.ch/en/passengers/shopping-and-enjoy/eat-and-drink/bars-and-cafes/alpine-bar
Of course, this is landside, so you would have to go through security again to get back to your flight home, and you will also have to go through Schengen exit passport control regardless.
