We just can’t seem to catch a break when it come to finding an apartment for the Zurich leg of this year’s Europe trip! As we did last year, we’ve been using Airbnb to find places to stay for this trip and they’ve all been a breeze to book except for Zurich. The owner of the first place we wanted to book didn’t get back to us within the 24-hour limit and the owner of the second place didn’t get back to us at all. Rude! To be fair, the first person did get back to us a couple of days later and said that she couldn’t confirm availability that far out, which stinks because the calendar for her apartment said it was available. But not to worry because we found a third place, emailed about it, and got it booked. Great! But a couple of weeks ago, that guy emailed me saying that he’s losing the lease on that apartment before our trip, so we can’t stay there.
Womp!
So, loyal blog followers, I need your help! There aren’t a ton of affordable places in Zurich (it’s a very expensive city), so do you have any recommendations on places to stay while we’re there? As a reminder, Zurich is our last stop and we’re only there for two nights, so we’re totally open to staying in a hotel if there’s an affordable one there in a relatively decent location.
So there we are, WordPress friends. Give me your best suggestions!
That One Guy Who Travels 
We had a good stay at the Hotel Adler. It’s a nice location in the old-town part of Zurich, and not a bad walk from the train station. I’m not sure it counts as affordable these days, as we were there back in ’09. It didn’t seem terribly fancy at the time, but the location may make it a bit precious still. If you’re flying out from there and want to look for cheaper places, you might consider a hotel closer to the airport and then commute into the city for sightseeing.
It’s too bad you don’t have more time in Switzerland. Zurich is a nice city, but the more interesting parts of the country are places like Lucerne and Bern and the smaller towns near the Alps. We spent a week in Interlaken one year just making day trips around and had an amazing time of it.
Any chance you’re going to be there over August 1st, which is Swiss National Day? It’s a big deal there, and fun holiday to visit for.
Looks like a great place, but also a bit pricey. We may just have to suck it up and spend more than we were originally planning to though. Zurich is an expensive place! I would love it if we could spend more time there, but we kind of stuck it on to the end of the trip, so we knew we wouldn’t have much time there. Oh well – it will just give us a reason to go back sometime. 🙂
We won’t be there for August 1st though! We’ll be there in mid-September.
Yeah, Switzerland is expensive all over I’m afraid. We were just at the Adler for one night making a connection, so we needed to be central if we were going to see anything.
Still, I’d say it’s definitely worth a trip some time. David had to coerce me the first time we went — I’m usually a city vacationer so I wasn’t sure about a week in a small town in the mountains. However, the second time we went didn’t require any coercion!
Considering how often we both like to go to Europe, perhaps we’ll run into you guys over there one of these years. 🙂
Yeah, I’m more of a city vacationer too, but at the end of the day, there probably aren’t many places I wouldn’t visit. 🙂
And yes, maybe we will run into each other some time! On our trip last year, we got to meet up with a friend of ours in Paris who just happened to be there for work. You never know! 😀
I stayed in Zic Zac Rock Hostel when I went back in 2003. I shared a triple room with 2 mates, it was clean, cheap and central – we were shocked to read some negative reviews when we got home. Ideal if it’s still around!
Thanks for the suggestion! I just checked them out and they’re apparently fully booked (already!) while we’re there. Dang!
We are staying at Hotel Bristol while we are in Zurich. It has good reviews, the rooms are well appointed and has free breakfast. We booked a triple room because there are 3 of us, but I though the rate was fair. It’s not fancy, but nice.
That looks like a nice option! I don’t mind a hotel that’s a bit on the no-frills side. Decent bed, good water pressure, and strong wifi are my ideal must-haves, especially for a short stay.
I don’t have any recommendations to offer you (as I’ve never been to Zurich) – but I agree with you on your hotel “must haves”!