6.5 hours in Zurich on a layover worth it?

What are you doing with you luggage?

Is your flight all on one ticket so any checked bags you might have will be taken care of?

Assuming your flight arrives on time, accounting for the time to deplane , get to the train station, wait for a train travel to town and reverse the process I can see having about 3 hours of time 'in town', at most. If you have to deal with checked bags or store and retrieve carry on bags the time in town time shrinks a bit more.

Depending on which 6 hours of the day you are there, would factor into the 'worth it' assessment.

Three.or four hours in Zurich’s Altstadt near the train station is certainly better than six hours at the airport. The train into town takes 12 minutes. The airport train station is underneath terminal B.

I researched the train system a bit more. Seems to be a typical European arraignment with a train station under the terminal. $15 for a round trip ticket, 10 minutes each way, a dozen trains an hour (those stops are part of most local train routes).

Luckily I travel light and will only have a carry-on backpack. Sounds like an easy way to do a 6:20 layover compared to spending 4 hours in the Frankfurt Airport (my other option).

Certainly doable, but you do need to allow around 1 hour to deplane, store your carry on luggage if you have any and get out of the main part of the terminal to the train station in the airport (around a 20 minute walk). Then in reverse I'd allow 3 hours (20 minutes to walk to security lines, get your bags, go through security, etc.) to have a safe 2 hours prior. So all in all that's around 2 hours to explore by the time you take the train. Not bad, but not enough time to do anything more than just walk around a bit. Zurich is a nice city, but it's more of an international banking city than a traditional Swiss location, so I wouldn't necessarily go way out of my way to see it.

We did this once on a similar layover. The train station is right in the airport and it is very easy to figure out (we also speak German and are comfortable with trains). Notably, you will need to also factor in immigration coming and going from/to the airport in addition to security. We just walked around a bit, had lunch and then returned to the airport. Wasn't really much to see - we just wanted to stretch our legs a bit.

I would guess that you will have THREE hours to explore, not four. But yes, wor4h it to see several highlights. Pick up a free city map from the TI in the Zurich Hbf. Niederdorf is a nice area to explore in the old parts. Have lunch.

I would do it. And if I could do just one thing in Zurich it would be a boat tour on the lake.