One free day, a country in every direction.
Sorted by how far the car actually goes.
Zurich sits near enough to three borders that a free day can be spent in another country and still finish with dinner back in the old town. This page sorts the private days by direction and distance rather than by name, because the useful question is almost never what there is to see. It is how long you are willing to sit in a car before you get there.
- Duration
- Most of what follows fills a day. Two of them are honestly a half day, and the pages say so.
- Pickup
- From your hotel door in Zurich, at an hour you name instead of one a timetable names for you.
- Group size
- Your party and nobody else in the car. No minimum, no coach, no stranger with a raised umbrella.
- Languages
- English throughout. German or Turkish if either is easier for the people travelling.
- Season
- Something on this list works in every month. Which direction repays the drive is what changes.
Guests arrive with a free Tuesday and a list somebody sent them, and the list is always sorted by fame. Sorted by driving time it looks completely different, and the day gets better. Here is the same catalogue arranged the second way. The full descriptions live on the tour pages; this is only the map.
CLOSE ENOUGH TO LEAVE LATE
Short drives north and south of the city. You can start these after a slow breakfast and still be somewhere worth being by mid morning.
Lucerne itself, walked rather than glanced at. Pilatus, Rigi or Titlis, one of the three, in the right direction. The same lake from a boat. The Rhine Falls and the near edge of Germany. Appenzell, which is ninety minutes east and a different Switzerland.
A MORNING IN THE CAR
West and south west, deeper into the country. These want an early departure and give back a full day.
Bern, the capital that behaves like a market town. Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. The Jungfraujoch, if the summit is the point. Gruyeres, Cailler and the Lavaux terraces, which is the French half of the country. Zermatt, which is the longest Swiss day on the list and the one we argue about most.
OVER A BORDER
Four directions, four other countries, and the reason a car beats a rail ticket on a day like this.
Liechtenstein, a principality and a half day, treated honestly. Basel, which is Swiss but stands where the German and French borders meet the Rhine. The Black Forest properly, past the edge of it that most day trips settle for. Strasbourg and the Alsace wine road. Lake Como, over the Alps and back, which is the longest thing here.
NOT DRIVES AT ALL
Two days on this list involve almost no road. The glacier landing lifts off in Zurich and puts you on ice. The Christmas market evenings run backwards from the rest, starting when the light goes. And transfers are simply the car, without a day attached to it.
CHOOSING A DIRECTION
We have exactly one day. Where should it go?
Tell us the weather forecast you are looking at and who is in the car, and the answer usually writes itself. High cloud sends the day west to a summit. Rain sends it into a town, which is where Bern, Basel and Lucerne earn their place on this list. A first visit to Switzerland with children in the party goes to the lake.
Can two of these be joined into one day?
Within the first group, sometimes, and we will say which pairs work. Across the groups, no. Joining a border day to a mountain day produces a day of driving with two rushed hours inside it, and nobody remembers it afterwards.
Does crossing a border complicate things?
It changes the planning more than it changes the day. Tell us which passports the party is travelling on while the day is still being built, and the route is arranged around that rather than around a hopeful assumption. What you actually notice is the currency in the cafe and the language on the menu.
Every one of these begins and ends at your hotel in Zurich, and every one of them is described in full among the private tours.