Visiting Zurich 2 Dec to 6 Dec-Need help!

Need help friends!!

We are a family of 3. Me, wife and 5 year old daughter are visiting our relatives who live in Winterthur (near Zurich) in the 1st week of December.

We land in Zurich at around 8 pm on 1 Dec and leave at around 9 pm on 6 Dec.

I know this is not the right time to visit Switzerland for hiking/enjoying natural beauty. Net is full of reports of how cold it would be.

My questions are:

1. Whether the weather will be cold/dark/foggy all through? Or the first week has sunny days on which we can venture out?

2. Are there places which we can go and visit despite poor weather? We have been to Lucernce, Mt. Titlis and Zurich city in our last trip.

3. Does it make sense to go at all?

ANy help is welcome.

Regards,

PP

Hi PP, and welcome to MySwissAlps,

1. There will be daylight from 8 AM to 4:30 PM. Fog can certainly occur in December, even all day long, but it might as well be sunny all day. You won't know for sure until about a day before. As for the temperature: most likely it will be freezing at night but not during the day. But that's an average. It can be much warmer or colder.

2. A boat trip on Lake Zurich or Lake Lucerne is an option, except when there's fog. There are plenty of museums in Lucerne and Zurich, e.g. the Transport Museum. And in Winterthur too: www.winterthur-tourismus.ch/en/Erlebn isse/Kultur/Museen. There will be various Christmas markets (Lucerne from December 3, and at least two will be open in Zurich). More activity tips can be found on the Zurich and Lucerne page.

3. Absolutely. Any time is a good time. You just need to be lucky with the weather and make plans accordingly. Hiking in the mountains won't be possible indeed, but there are a lot of other things you can do.

Hi Annika,

Many thanks for a razor fast reply. Pardon me for asking too many questions but I cant stop :)

1. During our last trip to Winterthur (Oct 2013), we have been to Rhein Falls, Appenzell, Mt. Titlis, Lucernce (did the boat trip) and of course Zurich.

2. This time, what would you recommend as a 2 day - 1 night excursion. Will be spending Fri, Sat and SUn with them. So we have 2 and 3 Dec (Wed and Thu) when we can branch out on our own. Maybe take the train or hire a car. Focus would be to go to a place which is remarkably beautiful ( I know whole Swizterland is beautiful) in Winter as well. Kindly suggest - Zermatt, Grindenwald, Interlaken (for excursions around it), Mt. Pilatus? Dont know what would be good that time of the year.

All help would be welcome.

Regards,

PP

Hi PP,

With one night elsewhere you'll have more options. All your suggestions would be wonderful if the weather cooperates. Zermatt is pretty far away but a great place to be. If there are low clouds you may see no mountains at all. To reduce such risks you may prefer a less isolated place such as Grindelwald. From there you can still go to the lakes or Bern if the weather is bad. If the weather is good you can visit Jungfraujoch or the Schilthorn. Another option is to travel to Chur, ride the Bernina Express, stay in St. Moritz and come back the next day via Zernez and Klosters. It's a beautiful scenic trip.

Thanks again!

Between St. Moritz and Grinderwald, what would you recommend? Considering that this is Dec 1st week.

Hi PP,

Consider this: the St. Moritz suggestion includes a lot of time on trains. It's the better option if you're looking for scenic train rides. Grindelwald is less traveling so more time to be outdoors (and you could still reach it via the scenic Golden Pass line). There might be snow in St. Moritz early December. Probably no snow in Grindelwald by that time (although possible).

With just one night, and the risk of the weather, I would pick Grindelwald, but you may of course have different priorities. Both trips are wonderful, no question about that.

Arno