10 tips for your winter city trip

Why not go on a city trip in win­ter? The alleys are emp­ti­er than usu­al and there’s plen­ty to dis­cov­er both indoors and out­doors. We present our favourite activ­i­ties dur­ing the cold­er months. 

Admire street art and investigate plants in Basel

Most win­ter days in the low­lands are grey and dull. Not in Basel – the city’s façades are colour­ful­ly adorned with street art and graf­fi­ti. You can explore the colour­ful works of art either on your own or on a guid­ed tour for CHF 29. The works are not only beau­ti­ful to look at, they also make you for­get the win­ter blues.  

Trop­i­cal feel­ing in win­ter? Absolute­ly! Vis­it the Botan­i­cal Gar­den at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Basel and mar­vel at plant species from around the globe – for free! The Trop­i­cal Green­house opened in 2023 and the Cloud For­est Green­house, with sta­ble tem­per­a­tures year-round, is the first of its kind open to the pub­lic in all of Europe. Watch out or you may just take root. 

Slurp hot chocolate & do some stargazing in Zurich

Fan­cy an extra bit of cosi­ness? Then you should def­i­nite­ly check out the best hot choco­late spots in Zurich. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, the Sprüngli on Parade­platz is a hus­tle and bus­tle. If you want to observe peo­ple while enjoy­ing your hot choco­late, you might be hap­pi­er at the Bar­che­t­ta – if you like to take it easy, you can linger in the inner court­yard of the Milch­bar. Bye tristesse – hel­lo hap­pi­ness! 

The Ura­nia Stern­warte obser­va­to­ry in the heart of Zurich prac­ti­cal­ly glit­ters. There, astro fans and those who want to become one have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ven­ture a glimpse into the uni­verse. The impres­sive dome of the obser­va­to­ry opens to the pub­lic every Thurs­day, Fri­day and Sat­ur­day. Make sure to book your tick­et in advance. Great views are guar­an­teed! 

An adventurous treasure hunt & 3 for 1 in Lausanne

The best way to get to know the Olympic cap­i­tal is on an excit­ing trea­sure hunt. Choose one of four routes and decide whether you want to com­plete the adven­ture on foot or by bike. What are you wait­ing for? 

Do you pre­fer to take things a lit­tle more leisure­ly and talk shop about art? Then Plate­forme 10 near the train sta­tion is the right choice for you. With a muse­um pass for CHF 25, you can explore three muse­ums: Pho­to Elysée, mudac – Musée can­ton­al de design et d’arts appliqués con­tem­po­rains and Musée can­ton­al des Beaux-Arts de Lau­sanne (MCBA). With 25,000 square metres of space, you’ll have plen­ty of room to explore.  

Sipping tea and practising pirouettes in Bern

Läng­gass-Tee teashop is as much a part of Bern as the Zyt­glogge Tow­er. 😉 It’s not just worth a vis­it to see the exquis­ite blends. Make sure you climb the incon­spic­u­ous spi­ral stair­case and treat your­self to a deli­cious tea with fresh­ly baked goods or an entire tea expe­ri­ence with dif­fer­ent vari­eties. The per­fect expe­ri­ence! 

Call­ing all ice fans: From 16 Decem­ber to mid-Feb­ru­ary, the Bun­de­splatz fed­er­al square will be trans­formed into a gigan­tic ice rink. Prac­tise your pirou­ettes right in front of the impres­sive back­drop of the Fed­er­al Palace. In the cosy chalet, employ­ees serve deli­cious fon­due, mulled wine, tarte flam­bée and many oth­er tasty drinks and dish­es. Get skat­ing! 

Combine city and mountain experiences in Schaan-Vaduz

Have you ever been to Liecht­en­stein? If not, now’s the time! Explor­ing the cap­i­tal, Vaduz, has nev­er been so easy: The Adven­ture Pass, for CHF 25, gives you admis­sion to 30 attrac­tions. From a vis­it to the Walser Muse­um, to tast­ing fine qual­i­ty wines, to a roy­al cin­e­ma in the cas­tle. What are you wait­ing for? 

Grant­ed, we can’t leave out the fan­tas­tic moun­tains – in Liecht­en­stein, a city trip com­bined with snow sports is far too prac­ti­cal! The Mal­bun ski resort is just 30 min­utes from Vaduz. There’s no bet­ter way to com­bine a city trip with fun in the snow. Besides ski slopes, the moun­tain also boasts win­ter hik­ing trails, a curl­ing rink, lla­mas for trekking, win­ter hik­ing trails and an ice climb­ing wall. Quite nice, isn’t it? 

Since one day isn’t enough to explore these great cities, why not stay overnight at our cool youth hos­tels in Basel, Zurich, Bern, Lau­sanne and Schaan-Vaduz? There, you prof­it from numer­ous ben­e­fits, such as dis­counts on admis­sion or free use of pub­lic trans­port. You can thank us lat­er. 😉 

Change of perspective

Dis­cov­er the Swiss cities from the per­spec­tive of a per­son affect­ed by home­less­ness. 

Lets go!