Zurich hotels in old town area
 

We are looking for a central hotel in the pedestrian area of the old town. So far I have narrowed down the choices to:
Adler
Alexander
Hirschen
Limmatblick
Limmathof
Scheuble

Based on their websites these all seem to be in the same price range (around $150 US for two people) although the Limmathof is a little cheaper.

I'm leaning towards the Limmatblick because their website shows they have river view rooms (even some with balcony).

I've searched old posts and found some reviews of some of these but nothing too current. Any input would be great about these hotels and the streets surrounding them (i.e. some people complained about this area being noisy).

We will only be there for one or two nights (on the weekend) in mid September (hopefully won't need AC then since I've read that some of these places might not have it).

Thanks in advance for any advice.

ttt

I lost your post, glad you topped it. I live in Zurich. Most but not all the streets in the old-town are pedestrian-only, but there is some noise even in the cooler months (esp on a Saturday night, the University is just up the hill and drunken undergraduates abound. . .) If you get a warm September day and have windows open, it will be noisy at night. My view on the hotels you are considering are:

Hirschen. Great location for sightseeing, shopping and restaurants. If you have a choice, take a room facing Grue Gasse which is a narrow side street, not on Neiderdorf whch will be noisier.

Adler. Great location, hotel gets good reviews. Ask for a room on a high floor. If there are courtyard rooms, I would take these as they will be the quietest. If you can, avoid the lower floor rooms looking onto the Hirschenplatz square in front of the hotel.

Hotel Alexander. The location is great, this could be noisy as well. It is not far from the Schuble. Ask for a room on a high floor or a courtyard room if they have them.

Hotel Scheuble. The Scheuble is well located about half a block from the river and not too far from a tram stop. The hotel is on a a fairly busy street with cars, if you can get a room facing the back or one of the side streets that might be better.

Limmathof and Limmatblick. These are right on the busiest street in the old town (Limmatquai), with cars and trams. I live about a half mile down Limmatquai further toward the lake and I think you will find the rooms noisy (it took me some time to adjust, and I used to live in Hong Kong.) The Limmathof is close to the tram interchange and this could be very noisy. Neither of them look especially attractive from the outside IMO, although I have not been inside either of them. They do look on the river, but because of their setback from the street, you would only have a view directly across the river, I don't think you would be able to see the lake or the Alps or much of the city.

Hi. For what it's worth, we stayed at the Limmathof in 2001. Very small rooms, with tiny baths. Depressing registration area and hallways. Our room was in the back so it was not too noisy. Breakfast was fine. We stayed here because it was about the cheapest in the Altstadt. Had I to do it over again, I'd pay more and stay at a nicer place. Actually, since I'm not fond of larger cities, I'd probably stay in Lucerne.

My husband and I stayed at Hotel Adler in November, 2003. We had a nice room and bath on the 4th floor overlooking courtyard. The staff was very helpful with directions, tour information, etc.
We liked the location. Easy walk to many attractions as well as the train station. Would stay there again.

Thanks for all the advice. We will be staying in Lucerne later in the trip but we need to be in Zurich for at least one night after our arrival.

Usually when we travel to big cities in Europe we find that hotels in the old town areas have more charm but is this area in Zurich too noisy or crowded on the weekend? We want to be within walking distance of the train station. This is why is narrowed down our choices to the above hotels. Would we be better off at the Leoneck, that hotel seems to get good reviews also? Or something on the other side of the river?

We stayed at Hotel Leoneck last October. It is a fairly easy walk from the train station, a little uphill the last part.
Our room was pretty large compared to most European 'budget' hotels we've used. All was in good order, clean, and quiet at night. The trams do make a turn down below but even that seemed to settle down by 10-11pm. They have a private garden area in the back that was nice for a short afternoon rest.

The only caveat is the breakfast - we don't eat large breakfasts so we opted for the included continental breakfast. You have to be sure to ask at the desk to get a little ticket or marker. This continental breakfast consisted of: cup of coffee + one croissant. Period. No jam, no butter, no juice. Don't try to avail yourself of the buffet table to get any of these extras.

The full breakfast was offered at additional price, but I don't know what it was. There is a Starbucks between Leoneck and the Bahnhof, at foot of the hill.

The location was walkable to all parts of central Zurich (we did not use a tram or taxi at all). It was a reasonable price and a clean room. I would have no problem booking at Leoneck again.