I'm traveling to Switzerland for two weeks in June and have booked 12 nights lodging already, with just the final two nights undecided. I'll be checking out of a hotel in Grindelwald and taking the train up to Zurich to stay two nights before flying home from ZRH. I'll have afternoon/evening on a Sunday, then all day Monday to explore the area. I've been thinking of going to Rhine Falls, but other than that I'll just be relaxing and reorganizing my belongings for my flight at 11:45am on Tuesday. So rather than getting a hotel near Zurich HB, I'm thinking of staying in Winterthur. Besides taking a little longer to get to the airport, are there any downsides to staying in Winterthur?
Posted by
Bern, Switzerland
1048 posts
Sure Winterthur is fine as a stop over. My mother-in-law RIP came from Winterthur ;-).
Posted by
Switzerland
412 posts
What concerns do you have? Winterthur is a nice small city (although 6th largest in Switzerland actually) with plenty of shops and restaurants as well as a surprising number of very good museums. Not touristy at all, it’s a popular place for commuters to live and has great train connections. It only takes 2-3 minutes longer to the airport than from Zurich HB, still only 12-13 mins, so I wouldn’t really even consider that a downside.
Obviously Zurich is bigger, but I don’t see a real negative to staying in Winterthur as an alternative - and even if you end up deciding to go into Zurich, it’s only 20 minutes away.
Posted by
OP
14 posts
Thank you for the replies! I really have no concerns with staying in Winterthur; I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't some reason to not stay there, or that I'd be missing out on something by not being in Zurich. (I've read that Zurich isn't very interesting, so at the beginning of my trip I'm going right from the airport to Lucerne and not staying in Zurich at all.)
I've found a place to stay in Winterthur that I think will work out great, and it is less expensive and gets better ratings than similar properties in Zurich. And, like you say, if I want to visit Zurich for a few hours, it's not far.
Thanks again.