Family holidays in Switzerland done differently: Two Lakes Tour

When it comes to Rap­per­swil, I’m only famil­iar with Knies Children’s Zoo, and I prob­a­bly wouldn’t have been able to name a sin­gle fam­i­ly-friend­ly activ­i­ty in Zug. Same? Then be sure to read on to find out what the two cities have to offer for kids and your fam­i­ly hol­i­days in Switzer­land!

Swiss Youth Hostels: Our home for family holidays in Switzerland

Dur­ing our trip, we spend the night at the Rap­per­swil-Jona and Zug Youth Hos­tels, both of which are beau­ti­ful­ly sit­u­at­ed close to the lake. Plus, the two youth hos­tels are per­fect start­ing points for any activ­i­ty and can be eas­i­ly reached by pub­lic trans­port.

We opt­ed for one of the spa­cious fam­i­ly rooms with its own show­er and WC. And did you know that break­fast is always includ­ed in the room rate – no mat­ter which cat­e­go­ry you book. Both youth hos­tels also have a cosy lounge with toys, games and table foot­ball as well as beau­ti­ful, spa­cious gar­dens. In Zug, you can even bar­be­cue in the gar­den. In Rap­per­swil-Jona, I would rec­om­mend book­ing din­ner as there aren’t that many restau­rants in the area. The per­fect way to wind down the evening with the kids.

Rapperswil – Knies Children’s Zoo and much more!

The best-known fam­i­ly des­ti­na­tion in Rap­per­swil is prob­a­bly Knies Children’s Zoo. It’s there­fore a must for us and we learn a lot about the zoo ani­mals thanks to the many infor­ma­tive demon­stra­tions. One big plus for us is that the zoo is just a nice walk along Lake Zurich from the Rap­per­swil-Jona Youth Hos­tel. Plus we save 10% on the admis­sion fee! By the way: The children’s musi­cal «Hans im Glück» will be per­formed at the children’s zoo from 12 July to 10 August. By stay­ing at a youth hos­tel, you can also save 10% on your tick­ets!

Besides Knies Children’s Zoo, there are of course many oth­er activ­i­ties for fam­i­lies in the region:

• Rap­per­swil Cas­tle: Rap­per­swil Cas­tle offers a fan­tas­tic view. But that’s not the only rea­son why the climb is worth it: There’s a deer park and a play­ground next to the cas­tle and, of course, you can vis­it the cas­tle itself. We espe­cial­ly like the castle’s colour­ful rose gar­den.

• Bäch­li­hof farm expe­ri­ence: The Bäch­li­hof is a par­adise for the whole fam­i­ly. The kids can look for­ward to a farm-themed play­ground and pet­ting zoo, while you enjoy region­al spe­cial­ties at the restau­rant. Don’t for­get to stock up on oth­er treats at the farm shop! In July, you can even pick your own blue­ber­ries.

• Alpa­mare: If the weath­er doesn’t want to coop­er­ate, then Switzerland’s most famous water park – the Alpa­mare – is just a stone’s throw away by pub­lic trans­port from Rap­per­swil-Jona Youth Hos­tel. Psst… you get 10% off the admis­sion price here too thanks to your overnight stay at the youth hos­tel!

Zug – more than a tax haven!

Our jour­ney con­tin­ues on to Lake Zug. To get to know Zug, we take a leisure­ly stroll from the youth hos­tel along the beau­ti­ful lake­side prom­e­nade: We start with an aper­i­tif at the BadiBar lido bar and stand with our feet in Lake Zug, feed the deer in the Hirschgarten and «dive» into the water on the lake­side steps with­out get­ting wet. Our walk con­tin­ues through the old town until we reach Zug Cas­tle with its muse­um. There are spe­cial offers for kids here – the play­room and dress­ing room in par­tic­u­lar are absolute high­lights. Here’s anoth­er insid­er tip for you: If you’re a teacher and host your class camp at Zug Youth Hos­tel, you will get a 20% dis­count on admis­sion to Zug Cas­tle.

But Zug has much more to offer for fam­i­lies:

• Lake Zug round trip by boat: Dis­cov­er the region from the water on an approx­i­mate­ly 2.5‑hour boat trip on Lake Zug. What’s par­tic­u­lar­ly great is that the kids can solve a vari­ety of puz­zles on the ship – so time flies by.

• Choco­Dro­mo Choco­late Muse­um: A vis­it to the Choco­Dro­mo from Aeschbach Choco­lati­er is a great option when the weath­er is rainy. You can eas­i­ly reach it by S‑Bahn from the youth hos­tel with­out hav­ing to walk far or change trains. In the lov­ing­ly designed exhi­bi­tion, you can sam­ple lots of treats, learn all about how choco­late is made and even cre­ate your own bar.

• Zugi­blub­bi Adven­ture Trail on Zuger­berg: The trip up Zuger­berg is worth it for the view alone. But there’s anoth­er spe­cial high­light here for fam­i­lies: The Zugi­blub­bi Adven­ture Trail is about 4.5 km long, pushchair-friend­ly and packed with activ­i­ty and puz­zle sta­tions. This enter­tain­ing hike also offers plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties for breaks (includ­ing bar­be­cue spots), and the kids can let off steam in the play­ground.

• Freiru­um: The Freiru­um is just a few min­utes from the youth hos­tel and is basi­cal­ly a per­ma­nent indoor street food fes­ti­val in Zug. Per­fect for fam­i­lies: Every­one gets what they’re in the mood for, and every­one is hap­py. 😊 Freiru­um also has a large tram­po­line park – a good option when the weather’s bad (note: cur­rent­ly under ren­o­va­tion).

Bottom line: Our Two Lakes trip

On our Two Lakes trip, we got to know two cities from com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent sides and dis­cov­ered the fam­i­ly-friend­ly activ­i­ties they have to offer. It’s great to vis­it Rap­per­swil-Jona and Zug as a com­bined trip, but the cities are also worth explor­ing on their own. Per­son­al­ly, I am pleas­ant­ly sur­prised that we reached all the activ­i­ties with­out any prob­lems on foot and by pub­lic trans­port. That’s anoth­er plus for me. What I par­tic­u­lar­ly liked about the youth hos­tels is that they are so close to each of the lakes and that we were able to spend a lot of time in the large gar­dens.