Day trips from Zurich
 

Please give me suggestions for some must see sights and day trips from Zurich. Will be there April 11 to April 18 and will be visiting a friend in city of Zurich. Thanks.

Zurich is very centrally located and you can visit a couple of notable sites easily by rail. My pick would be #1 Luzerne with a side trip up Mt Pilatus, I also took the train up to Stein En Rhein (at the German border), and stopped off in Schauffhausen (sp?) on the return, all were 1:30-2 hr from Zurich. I'm sure others here can provide more suggestions.

Princess<BR><BR>Rapperswil is a nice lake side town that is 35 minutes from Z&uuml;rich by train or 1.5 hours (about) by boat which is a nicer trip if you have good weather. The weather here today is blissful but no guarantee for April! St Gallen has a very interesting library with a large number of old illustrated manuscripts in a lovely building, this is around 1.5 hours. The previous poster has good suggestions also. I would also consider a trip to Bern, about 1 hour ish out of Z&uuml;rich, it is a lovely old city with interesting buildings, museums and arcades.

Go to Bern and Fribourg, both Zaehringen towns with a well conserved historical part and both on the main train axis Zurich-Geneva.

Others' ideas of &quot;must sees&quot; may differ from your own. I would suggest you do some basic research and ask yourself some basic questions before you can ask for specific recommendations. Do you want to bike, hike and be outdoors, or do you want to go to museums? Do you want to see waterfalls and rolling hills, small ancient villages, or larger lake towns like Lucerne and Zurich? Do you want to go up into the Alps or view them from a distance? Do you want to have lunch at a caf&eacute; or go on a picnic? Are you going to have access to a car or will you take the train/boat/trams? Do you want to stay overnight or come back each day? There are many options both in Zurich and few hours away. At a minimum, you should read the Destinations guide for Switzerland which Fodor's has put together on this site. You can then ask more specific questions and get better answers. (Click on Destinations above, then scroll down to Switzerland and see the various cities/regions.)<BR><BR>Also, 18 April is a public holiday here, so most museums and shops will be closed. As it is Good Friday, many restaurants may also be closed. You will need to fit this into your planning.<BR>

<BR>In addition, the Zurich Marathon will be held on Sunday April 13. This will draw thousands of people into the city.