Don’t make the same mistake! Zurich is a wonderful city worthy of your time with vibrant energy and a charming Old Town. With the right planning and some help from our budget travel experts, you can enjoy the city without spending a fortune.

To get started, we’ve picked some of our favorite budget accommodations in Zurich to save on your hotel bill.

More budget tips for Switzerland:

• Travel Guide: 50 Ways to save in Switzerland
• Switzerland on a budget: A 5-day cheapo itinerary
• Zurich Hotel Crush: Sleeping cheap at Zum Guten Glück

Best budget hotels in Zurich, Switzerland

All of the hotels we’ve chosen offer spotless rooms, personal service, and a great location. Rates are below $175 per night — a very nice price for Zurich!

Enjoy a stylish, hip stay at Zum Guten Gluck. Photo: Booking.com

Zum Guten Glück

Neighborhood: Sihlfeld
Doubles from $95

At Zum Guten Glück, you’ll find not only a hotel but also a beloved café and bar. Rooms are stylishly retro and impeccably clean. Rates are low because the guestrooms share bathrooms, but even the shared bathrooms are spotless. You just might want to wake early to get in a shower before the morning rush. Read the full review

Sit in the sunshine on the patio at Zurich Youth Hostel. Photo: Booking.com

Youth Hostel Zurich (Jugendherberge Zurich)

Neighborhood: Around Zurich
Doubles from $132

Whether the hostel scene is your vibe or you’re looking for a private room, the Youth Hostel Zurich is a popular spot with affordable rates. The hostel sits further afield, but it’s only a 15-minute bus or tram ride to downtown. Individual rooms have your choice between private or shared bathrooms. The hostel also offers a restaurant, bar, and lounge for guests to enjoy. Read the full review

Hotel Marta has a clean and modern style without a big price tag.

Hotel Marta

Neighborhood: Altstadt
Doubles from $173

The no-frills Hotel Marta offers clean and comfortable rooms in the heart of Old Town. While the hotel is overall pretty basic, it does offer free Wi-Fi, a plentiful breakfast, and private bathrooms. Furthermore, we really like the minimalist style of the decor. But our favorite part? The Hotel Marta is socially conscious with a mission to employ disadvantaged women in the community. Help a good cause while you save! Read the full review

The rooms at Alexander Guesthouse are absolutely spotless.

Alexander Guesthouse

Neighborhood: Altstadt
Doubles from $167

The Alexander Guesthouse offers nice rooms and outstanding service in an incredible Old Town location. The rooms are simple but come with private bathrooms and complimentary Wi-Fi. We recommend asking for a room in the front, which are slightly more spacious and are filled with natural light. Read the full review

Looking for more options in Zurich? Search our hotel listings. We have 20 cheap hotels to choose from in Zurich.

The post Top budget hotels in Zurich for 2024 appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The Swiss city ranks as one of the most expensive in the world, but visiting one of the financial capitals of the globe doesn’t have to, ahem, break the bank.

You don’t have to always stick to supermarket meals thanks to our friends at Spotted by Locals who came up with a list of five spots for Zurich cheap eats to check out when you get hungry.

More tips for visiting Switzerland:
• Zurich: The top budget hotels for Cheapos 
• Budget Guide: 50 Ways to save your trip to Switzerland
• How to save on a vacation to Interlaken

Zurich Cheap Eats

Follow these tips by Zurich locals and you’re bound to get some extra bang for your Swiss franc (about 1 to 1 USD at the time of writing).

Kafi fürDich

Stauffacher 141

This cafe has a really broad appeal, as you might be able to gather from its name — “Café for you.” At Kafi fürDich you’ll find students, movie-goers, mothers and pensioners drawn in by the excellent coffee and the concerts on Wednesday and Friday evenings. But for our purposes, you should definitely check out their weekend brunch — a scrumptious all-you-can-eat buffet that will set you back a fair CHF 26.

Related: 5 Tips for saving some serious francs in Zurich

Bombay Karachi

Stampfenbachstrasse 32

Stomach rumbling? Like Indian and Pakistani cuisine? Got a sudden urge to see Bollywood music videos? Want one of the best deals in Zurich? Bombay Karachi is for you! It’s nothing fancy — more of a take-out place — but you’ll be hard-pressed to find bigger portions and tastier food. Here you can mix and match your meal from six different dishes and of course complete the picture with rice. If you opt for the vegetarian choices, you may end up paying as little as CHF 15.

Holy Cow

Zähringerstrasse 28

Holy Cow is designed like a Swiss chalet. But what this place lacks in interior design it makes up for with reasonable price tags and a very impressive selection of 23 original burgers, including several vegetarian options (around CHF 14). The Swiss soft drink Sirup replaces international brands like Coca-Cola and comes with free refills, too — not easy to find in Switzerland.

Hotel Crush: Sleeping cheap at Zum Guten Glück

Weisses Kreuz

Falken Strasse 27

Weisses Kreuz isn’t what you would call fancy. In fact, it’s probably what some people would call an “old man’s pub’”(there is definitely a table reserved for the regulars), but that’s precisely what gives it so much charm, according to local Emma. This restaurant is a true local Swiss pub, no yodeling and alphorns, but that also means the prices are more modest. Get some sausage and “rösti” (CHF 19.50) and you just might become a regular too!

Sternen Grill

Theaterstrasse 22

If you believe there are few better things in life than a sizzling sausage together with a beer, you just cannot miss Sternen Grill. Prepare for crowds, bratwurst (CHF 13.80), cervelat, crusty bread rolls (Bürli) and homemade mustard — their spicy one, which will “hit your nose like thunder”, like local Ana Maria longingly warns; be sure to wash it down with their famous Sternen Bier. A must for visitors and locals alike since 1963.

The post Cheap Eats in Zurich: 5 Local spots for less appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Located upstairs from a restaurant-bar of the same name, Zum Guten Glück is that rarest of Swiss birds: a cheap and stylish place in Zurich to bed down for the night.

Related: All budget hotels in Zurich

Rooms: Simple & stylish

My room was spotless, with a single bed with a pillow and duvet – comfortable and austere in its simplicity, a single golden spotlight above the bed for reading.

The floor, painted gray, is offset with a woven black-and-white rug with a diamond pattern. Two stools, a pile of towels, and a vintage bedside table complete the selection. A well-designed white globe of a lamp hangs above, illuminating everything. My window overlooked an internal courtyard displaying a horizon of cars, bikes, and maintenance equipment: utilitarian but not unpleasant.

The interior of Room 4. Photo: Courtesy of Zum Guten Glück

Amenities

This is not luxury by any definition. There’s no television in the room. (But honestly, does anyone watch television on a television anymore? There is a fast internet connection at Zum Guten Glück for that in any case.)

For this nightly rate, you will also have to share a toilet and a shower. And while in a general way I prefer to have a private toilet and shower, it’s no huge loss to share both from time to time, especially in a guesthouse as aesthetically pleasing and inarguably inexpensive as this one.

A Low price for an expensive city

Part of the magic of Zum Guten Glück is, of course, the thrill of getting away with such a low nightly rate in Zürich. It certainly felt like a steal after my two meals in the city – the first, at the vegetarian restaurant Hiltl, set me back around 30 CHF ($31; €27) for a plate of vegetarian buffet items and a glass of wine; the second, at a mediocre sushi restaurant, cost me about 80 CHF ($82; €73) for two smallish plates of sashimi. Neither of these restaurants, it should be said, would be considered expensive in the context of Zürich.

Room 9 with a king-sized bed. Photo: Courtesy of Zum Guten Glück

Glancing back at the Zum Guten Glück listing on EuroCheapo, I find a distinctly mediocre review. This forces me to acknowledge, again, that my enthusiasms are sometimes only my own and nobody else’s. Then again, things change. The main criticism in the original review is of the sullen staff, but the people I interacted with at the guesthouse were both friendly and helpful. Perhaps the staff has either turned over or been retrained since the original reviewer’s visit.

The neighborhood

The guesthouse’s hodgepodge of a neighborhood, Wiedikon, houses a synagogue and a handful of interesting shops. It’s adjacent to the southern end of Langstrasse, rather satisfyingly the seediest bit of central Zürich, which heaves with nighttime activity. A few blocks from the guesthouse is the Wiedikon train station. Trains from Wiedikon take all of two minutes to reach Zürich’s main train station.

Learn about booking rooms at Zum Guten Glück.

The post Zürich Hotel Crush: Sleeping cheap at Zum Guten Glück appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

There’s not much you can do, but there is some hope. Try these five tips to help ease the spending:

1. Your best food friend: Coop

The dominating Swiss supermarket chain is Coop (pronounced “cope”). Unlike many European grocery stores, Coop stores are quite large and offer lots of variety. It’s the perfect place to peruse an assortment of fine local chocolates (about two bucks a bar), not to mention the ideal spot to shop for meals to go.

2. Buy the ZurichCARD: Save on transportation, food, museums

I’m not usually one to recommend these touristy offers, but the ZurichCARD is your ticket to a cheap weekend in the city. Buy the 72-hour card for $40 or the 24-hour card for $20 and enjoy care-free, unlimited public transportation anywhere in and around Zurich. Not only that, but the card also gives discounts on nightlife admission, free drinks at restaurants and free entrance to all the museums in Zurich. As the Zurich tourism site says, “So much pleasure for so little money.”

3. Eating out? Shop around

I found meals purchased in department store cafes to be freshly prepared and reasonably priced. From coffees and cakes to salads and warm meals, it’s a Euro thing that’s quite enjoyable and tasty. Department store cafes usually have three to five stations offering the five food groups (complete with spice shakers and fresh herb offerings) at a lower price than nearby restaurants.

4. Continuing on to neighboring countries? Save up

Interestingly, Switzerland is surrounded by countries that offer dramatically cheaper prices for many of the things tourists are interested in. Germany, Austria and Italy carry similar mountain and seasonal souvenirs, while France offers even better food at a lower price (Paris excluded). Thus, while in Switzerland, be frugal with spending francs and wait to enjoy a satisfying splurge with a Swiss neighbor on shopping, dining and sightseeing.

5. Wander

Sure, it’s the oldest tip in the cheapo book, but strolling through this walkable city won’t cost a franc. Take in the amazing scenery. The mountains, lake, and old city quarters are best admired out in the fresh alpine air. Winters can bring crisp, clear and sunny days. Bundle up, slap on some shades and get out there! (Just watch for those patches of ice.)

The post Zurich: 5 Budget Tips for Saving Some Serious Francs appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.