1st August – Swiss national day fireworks viewing?
Dev is excited about celebrating Swiss National Day on August 1 and will arrive in Zurich around 1:30 PM before heading to Bern. He wants to know the best places to see fireworks and join in the festivities.
- Check if Zurich will have fireworks on August 1, as they are typically held at the lake, starting around 10 PM.
- Consider using the Swiss Travel Pass for easy travel to various cities where you can find celebrations.
- Look into Neuchâtel and Montreux for additional fireworks displays; Neuchâtel’s starts at 10:15 PM and Montreux at 10:30 PM.
AI-generated summary-
Hi,
I heard 1st August is a special day for Swiss people as they do celebrate in grand manner in every parts of Switzerland.
I will be landing in Zurich airport on 1st August 2018, around 1.30pm. From there, I will be travelling to Bern and will stay there.
May I know where is the best place to view the fireworks and enjoy the celebration?
Regards.
Dev
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Hi Dev,
If you are arriving at Kloten at 13h30 on August 1 (a Wednesday this year) you still have time to get to many places. Here is one link that you might find helpful: http://www.expatica.com/ch/ab out/Swiss-National-Day-1-August_103060.html But be double-careful to check the actual date for events you might be interested in as they may be on a different day ! I read that a very popular fireworks display is at the Rheinfall, but that it is on July 31 !
Are you going to be using a Swiss Travel Pass ? If so, then you have the freedom and time to get almost anywhere if your prime interest is fireworks. If you do some Googling with the words Feuerwerke, August 1, and the name of any city you think you might want to go to, or in French, feux d’artifice, 1 Août, or Fête Nationale, and a city name, you will probably find all kinds of possibilities.
If you want to get into the swing of things as soon as possible, then Zurich will be your best bet, as it is only minutes away from the Airport. When you arrive, just check to make sure they will be having a fireworks. If so, it will undoubtedly be down at the lake, with shells being launched from a number of barges anchored off from the shore at the end of the lake. I was there for the 2000th anniversary of the Roman founding of Zurich and the fireworks were all set to music coming from a number of loud-speakers set up along the lake shore.
Perhaps somebody who is living in or presently visiting Zurich right now can confirm whether there will be fireworks there on August 1.
You wish to go further afield, two other places I will mention are Neuchâtel and Montreux, and for each of these places, I will attach a pdf of their activities. In the case of Neuchâtel, there is a funiculaire on the bottom level of the train station that will take you right down to about 100 metres from the Jeunes Rives, directly beside Lake Neuchâtel. The fireworks start at 22h15 (10:15 PM). In Montreux, the quai (dock) on Lake Geneva is a similar distance from the train station, and their fireworks start at 22h30 (10:30 PM). I just checked these two links, and they both work. A neat thing about Montreux is that you will see other fireworks going off at different places along the shore of the Léman (Lake Geneva).
http://www.neuchatelville.ch/ fileadmin/sites/ne_vil le/fichiers/Programme_ 1er_aout_2018.pdf
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