Zurich in July$ - pair with what city?
 

Hi! Visiting friends second week in July in Zurich. With my 17 year old daughter. Flights to Zurich from East Coast are expensive!! Thought we'd get less expensive flights to/from Paris b/c she'd love to go there first, but thinking way too crowded first week in July this summer due to Olympics. So any thoughts on another city we could fly in/out of & spend a couple of days? We have been to Amsterdam, London & Barcelona in recent years, so those cities aren't in the running. Thank you!!

Either Constanz and the lovely towns around the lake or Mulhouse and the Alsace region up to Strasbourg.

Of course there are many, many cities worth visiting, but your main limitation is trying to find affordable flights from the US. Aside from London, Paris, and Amsterdam, usual relatively affordable gateway cities are Rejkjaivk, Brussels, Lisbon, Munich, Frankfort and and sometimes Olso, Stockholm, and Copenhagen (though the reduced prices to Scandiavia are mostly in the spring, not summer. A new discount airline, Play, flies to Athens.

Prague and Krakow are two of my favorite cities in Europe, and you can get to Zurich from there on Eurowings and maybe other discount European airlines as well.

Don't overestimate the fare differencies for flights. IMO only Barcelona, London and may be Paris and Lyon are really cheaper.
But the travel from there to Zurich would cost much more than the amount you economized with the cheaper flight.
The fares to most airports around Zurich (BSL, GVA, STR, FRA, MUC, MXP, SXF) are more or less the same than those to Zurich.

If you only have a couple of days, I'd keep it simple, fly in/out of Zurich and go somewhere in Switzerland. 'Where' depends on your interests... another city for museums, art, etc., a mountain or lake town for scenery and cable car or boat rides...? The Swiss transport system is so good, the entire country is within easy reach of Zurich.

I paired Zurich with Munich one year. We took the train with no issues. Airfare these days are expensive so look at a few different airports to see if that helps. Milan used to be cheaper due to airports taxes but not sure if that is true any more. It’s always better to look around and go from there.

According to Matrix by Google, a July1 to July 15 RT NYC-Zurich with Tap Air Portugal would cost $1040. That's reasonable for high season.

You have tons of options. If you're willing to fly open jaw, fly into Milan -- Turin is a city worth exploring, won't be as packed with tourists as some other places, and there is a direct bus to Turin from Malpensa airport. You don't have to go into Milan itself. From Turin it's an easy train trip to Zurich -- you take the train from Turin to Milano Centrale, then hop on another train direct to Zurich. Scenic ride, pleasant way to travel. Not too expensive if you buy a saver ticket in advance.