Not sure if this is in the right section of CC and hope the moderators will move if necessary.
Our son is studying at ETH in Zurich this semester and we hope to visit him next month.
Can anyone suggest a hotel that is both close to school, and near parts of the city that would be fun for tourists?
As everything is expensive in Zurich, cost is less of a concern than location/convenience.
Thanks in advance.
We stayed here a couple of years ago: Sorell Hotel Seidenhof, Zurich. We had a great stay there, free breakfast was included, and the location made everything very walkable.
We stayed at EMA House suites and had a 1 bedroom apartment with full kitchen and laundry. It was very convenient to walk to the train station and transportation hub when the tram line out front did not go in our direction. We also walked to the old historic parts of town.
Across from the train station is a good grocery store. Restaurant prices were horrendous so we made a lot of meals and picnics.
thanks @cincy gal and @Snowball City, I will check both of those out.
The idea of being close to the train station/subway and near the downtown area is a good one.
In addition to the suggestions listed above, I have seen a couple hotels on Google maps that look good from a location perspective. Reliable internet is a must.
Any ideas if the following are any good?
Hotel Coranado
Sorell Hotel Rigiblick
Hotel Krone Uterstrasse
Sorell Hotel Rex
Zurich Marriott Hotel
Shereton Zurich
Rennaissance Zurich Tower
Sorry, can’t help with those. We were there in the summer and air conditioning was driving our decision making. We enjoyed being near the river because so many swimming platforms were being used and lots of restaurants we open along it.
Because food is expensive, do any of the ones you listed include breakfast?
As you look at the maps of the hotels, find EMA and the train station. That was about a 15 minutes walk. Perhaps that will help you with judging distances.
The zoo was really good. If you have some time you need to fill, I recommend it. The elephant area was state of the art. There is even an underwater viewing area should one of the elephants decide to go for a swim.
Lucerne was an easy hour or so by train. The ride was scenic. We combined Lucerne with a trip up Mt Pilatus. The tourism office in the train station was super helpful in explaining how to get to places and what trains to take.
I only looked at the location of the other hotels you suggested, not amenities or price. Most of them seem farther both from your son’s school and from the train station. The entry to the train station is at at the end close to the Limmat River. All of the hotels you suggested are on the same side of the river as your son’s school, which is the other side of the rider from the train station entrance. I don’t think you need to limit yourself to that. It is an easy and pretty walk across many of the bridges. Mapping showed that it is an 8 minute walk from the Sorell Hotel Seidenhof to the train station.
When I travel internationally, hotel location is key for me, and I prefer to not stay in large chain hotels like Sheraton, Crowne Plaza, etc. I like to use hotels.com for my searches and booking. I find the map function on the site to be very helpful.
Some things we enjoyed in Zurich:
Free walking tour: http://www.freewalk.ch/zurich/downtown-tour-zurich.php
Day trip to Lucerne, with the gold trip to Mt. Pilatus - boat ride on the lake, cog wheel ride up the mountain, cable car down, bus back to town.
If we had had more time, we would have taken a day trip to Winterthur.
One expensive error we made: arriving jet-lagged, we opted for a taxi to our hotel. Unfortunately, it was rush hour. Even with the driver turning off the meter for part of the trip since we spent so much time sitting, our taxi ride cost over 75 Euro. Yikes! We should have taken the train from the airport to the main station. We could have easily walked to the hotel with our luggage from there. Or we could have gotten a taxi just from the main train station. If Uber is an option, you could check the pricing for a trip from the airport to hotel. For our departure, we walked to the train station and took the train to the airport. I believe we booked those train tickets the day before our departure.
Thank to both @cincy gal and @snowball city for all the great advice.
I checked out all the hotels mentioned and others. The Sorell Hotel Seidenhof was not available on the dates of our visit, but EMA House was and so that is where we will stay.
Still trying to decide between the serviced apartment vs hotel suite at EMA. Did you stay in the serviced apartments near the main hotel?
Looking forward to this trip.
When I visit ETH, I usually stay at Hotel Limmathof. It is a 2 star hotel, so not very luxurious, but the location is great and it is (relatively) inexpensive. It is right next to the lower Polybahn terminal–which is a funicular that takes you straight up the hill to the ETH Polyterrasse. It is also walking distance to the main train station and on CentralPlatz where you can get a tram to almost anywhere.
We stayed in the main EMA building, not a satellite location.
Hope you have a wonderful time.
While we have been back a month, I just wanted to circle back and say thanks for all the great advice.
@snowball city, we stayed at a furnished apartment owned and operated by EMA House and it was fantastic.
Only a block away from the main hotel, it was 50% larger and 25% cheaper then the comparable EMA hotel room but gave us an extra bed/half bathroom and a small kitchen. The kitchen was really useful as food is quite expensive in Zurich and it was nice to go to the market and just buy food that could be prepared in the apt for some of our meals. The location was in a nice residential neighborhood, about a 10 min walk (not 5 min) from Old Town/Train station.
We were walking distance from ETH, and ironically, lived closer to campus than our son.
@motherbear332, we saw the Hotel Limmathof and your are correct it is a great location. Right on the edge of Old Town and next to the Polybahn terminal (a trolley that goes directly up the hill from Old Town to ETH), it would have saved that 10 minute walk several times a day.
@cincy gal, great advice. We managed not to take any taxis and used the train, tram and trolley everywhere. Zurich was a great walking city and we took the walking tour you suggested as well as a day trip to Lucerne.
All in all, a great trip. The most disappointing thing I learned was ETH costs locals about $600/semester.
Our son is there on an exchange program and his university took our $32K and sent him to Switzerland for $600 the spring semester…tuition arbitrage!
Yikes.
I’d suggest AirBnB or something similar From experience, Zurich can become very expensive very quickly
We stayed at the Hotel Romantik. Lovely hotel!