Lake Zurich

What it is

Lake Zurich is not an attraction the city contains but the body of water the city was built at the end of. It runs southeast from Zurich for a maximum length of 40 kilometres, is at most 3 kilometres wide, covers 88.66 square kilometres and sits at a surface elevation of 406 metres. Its mean depth is 49 metres and its greatest depth 136 metres. Water arrives from the Linth by way of the Linthkanal at the far southeastern end and leaves at the city end as the Limmat, passing under the Quaibrücke, which is the line where lake becomes river and where most visitors first stand beside it. Because the lake is open water with no gate and no perimeter, there is nothing to enter and nothing to book: the quays, promenades and shore paths are public ground at every hour. What a visitor actually buys, if anything, is a place on a boat. Scheduled passenger service is run by Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft AG, whose piers ring the lake and whose main Zurich departure point is Bürkliplatz, at the city end of the western quay. Treat the lake as a half day of shoreline and one boat trip rather than as a monument with an itinerary slot.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What's inside

The lake is a long, narrow, slightly curved trough with a town every few kilometres on both shores. Rapperswil, Pfäffikon, Horgen, Wädenswil, Meilen and Schmerikon are the names a timetable repeats most often, and each is a working town with a pier rather than a resort built for the view. The lake's one structural interruption is the Seedamm, an artificial causeway and bridge thrown across the narrowest point between Rapperswil and Pfäffikon, which divides the main basin from the Obersee behind it; alongside it runs the Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden, a wooden footbridge that can be walked. West of the Seedamm lie the two islands, Ufenau and Lützelau, and Ufenau has its own short shuttle service from Rapperswil. At the Zurich end the interest is concentrated on the quays: Bürkliplatz on the west side with the boat piers and the tram interchange, and the Zürichhorn parkland on the east, reached by a continuous walk along the water. The Alps close the southern horizon on a clear day, which is the single view most people come for and the one thing on this list that weather can take away entirely.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

How long to spend

The operator's own timetable answers this precisely, because every trip is a fixed round trip rather than an open-ended visit. From Zurich Bürkliplatz there are three: the mini lake cruise at 1 hour, the short lake cruise at 1.5 hours, and the long lake cruise at 4.5 hours. From Rapperswil there is a lake cruise of 2 hours, an upper lake cruise of 3 hours that runs on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and a 15-minute shuttle to the island of Ufenau. The Limmat river cruise, which starts at the Landesmuseum rather than on the lake, takes about an hour. Two hours is the sensible allowance for a first visit: the short 1.5-hour cruise, plus the walk down to the pier and the wait for a departure. That is the duration recorded for this place. Anyone giving the lake a full day should take the 4.5-hour long cruise instead, which reaches the far end of the main basin and is the only trip from Zurich with first class and the fullest catering. The mini cruise at 1 hour is the version to take when the lake is a gap between two other things rather than the point of the afternoon.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Season and crowds

The service runs to an annual timetable, and the current one is stated as Timetable 2026, valid 14.12.2025 to 12.12.2026. Within it, the trip most tied to a particular day is the upper lake cruise from Rapperswil, which the operator lists as running on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays only. The lake itself has no season and no closed day, so the question is really which day and which hour puts a boat where you want it and the Alps in view. Summer is when the lake is used rather than looked at: the water is described as very clean and rises above 20 degrees Celsius in summer, and the shore fills accordingly. Late afternoon into evening is the better light from the west quay, since the sun sets behind the city and leaves the far shore and the mountains lit. Autumn and winter bring the hazard that matters more than temperature: the operator states that in cases of extreme storms or heavy fog individual trips may be cancelled for safety reasons, and heavy fog on this lake also removes the mountain view that justifies the trip. Check the departure the same morning rather than the week before.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Tickets

The lake costs nothing. The boats are priced as ordinary public transport, on Zurich's ZVV zone tickets rather than on a separate attraction ticket. From Zurich, the operator publishes second-class adult fares of CHF 7.20 for the mini lake cruise, on a single ticket for zones 110 and 140; CHF 9.40 for the short lake cruise, on a single ticket for zones 110, 140 and 150; and CHF 28.00 for the long lake cruise, which requires an all-zone nine-hour pass. Children from six pay CHF 3.60, CHF 4.70 and CHF 14.00 respectively. First class exists only on the long cruise, at CHF 46.20 for adults and CHF 23.10 for children. From Rapperswil, the upper lake cruise and the lake cruise are both CHF 18.80 second class for adults and CHF 9.40 for children, on 24-hour tickets, and the Ufenau shuttle is CHF 4.70 and CHF 3.30. The Limmat river cruise is CHF 4.70 and CHF 3.30 on a single zone 110 ticket. The Zürich Card, at CHF 29 for 24 hours or CHF 56 for 72 hours and CHF 19 or CHF 37 for children, is listed on the same fare page. Small dogs carried in bags travel free; otherwise a reduced second-class fare is due.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Getting there

No car is needed and a car is a nuisance here. The Zurich departure pier is Bürkliplatz, and the operator gives its own walking distances: 700 metres from Stadelhofen, 900 metres from Enge and 1500 metres from the main station. All three are short, flat, waterside or near enough, and Bürkliplatz is itself one of the city's main tram interchanges, so almost any central tram reaches it without a change. For drivers the operator names the Hyatt car park as the nearby option, which is the only reason to bring a car and not a good one on a summer weekend. The southern half of the lake is reached by train: Rapperswil, where the second set of round trips begins, sits at the far end of the main basin and is a straightforward rail journey from Zurich, so a common plan is boat out and train back rather than a return sailing. The Limmat river cruise leaves from the Landesmuseum beside the main station instead of from the lake. On accessibility the operator states that all its stations and boats, except the Limmat boat stations, are wheelchair-accessible with a maximum boarding width of 80 centimetres, and that the crew helps with boarding and disembarking.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What to watch out for

Weather is the one thing that can turn a planned crossing into a walk along the quay: the operator states that in cases of extreme storms or heavy fog individual trips may be cancelled for safety reasons. Fog is the likelier culprit outside summer, and it takes the view with it even when the boat sails. The second trap is duration. The long cruise is 4.5 hours and the upper lake cruise 3 hours, and both are round trips, so anyone who wants a shorter day should either take the 1.5-hour short cruise or plan a rail return from a shore town rather than assume a quick way back. Catering is offered only on the short and long lake cruises, so the mini cruise and the Rapperswil trips are not the place to plan lunch. First class exists only on the long cruise. Boarding width is capped at 80 centimetres for wheelchairs and pushchairs, and only a limited number of folded pushchairs can be carried on the Limmat boats, which is the narrowest constraint in the whole system. Smoking is permitted only on outside decks. The operator also publishes which vessel is allocated to which departure for the coming five days, which is worth reading if the historic steamers are the reason for the trip.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Photography

The operator sets no photography ban and asks one thing of passengers: to respect the privacy of others when taking pictures or filming. On a crowded deck that is a real constraint rather than a formality, because the good compositions all point back along a bench of strangers. The picture almost everyone is after is the same one, and it is a weather lottery rather than a skill problem: the length of the lake with the Alps closing the far end, taken from an open deck on a clear day. Heavy fog removes it entirely, and the operator warns that heavy fog can also cancel the sailing. Shoot from the outside decks rather than through saloon glass, which is where the smoking rule conveniently puts most of the standing room anyway. From land, the west quay at Bürkliplatz faces the sunset side, so late afternoon light comes across the water rather than into the lens, and the walk east to the Zürichhorn gives an uninterrupted foreground of water with the city stacked behind it. At the far end, the Seedamm causeway, the wooden Holzbrücke and the low profile of Ufenau are the subjects that read as this lake and nowhere else.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Where it is

• 45 min

  182 min walk

  Huhn

  • High
  • Historic monument
• 20 min

  185 min walk

  Loorenkopf tower

  • Notable
  • Viewpoint
• 20 min

  191 min walk

  Adlisberg

  • High
  • Viewpoint

External links

• View on Wikidata