Hi all,

I am new to Zurich and am currently living in one of those short term executive style apartments in Oerlikon. I like the area but my wife and two kids (3 and 4) will shortly be coming over too -- so I need to find a new place. Can anybody recommend a good area/town to live that might satisfy the following criteria:

<30mins on the train from Zurich HBF
2 bedroom apartment for < 2600 CHF
Nice area with some atmosphere, shops restaurants etc.

Bonus: near some nursery slopes so kids kept occupied learning to ski.

<I read the 'best rental suburb post' and thought if the criteria were expanded to include the nearby towns there might be some more good suggestions>

Thanks in advance
Toby

Winterthur will get you to Zurich main station in your time scale and the rentals will certainly come in at your requirement. Compared to Zurich it will feel smaller and more parochial but it does have a good selection of bars and restaurants. Compared to Schaffhausen (near where I live) it feels live a city. It's got culture (14 galleries), parks, restaurants, expats, easily accesible countryside - but you'd need to drive for some skiing.

The Affoltern am Albis area is really great, just under 30 mins to Zurich HB and plenty of park & ride facilities if you need to drive to the station. Appartments are much cheaper then in Zurich. I like it as an area to bring up kids, very friendly and quite a lot of English speaking people. Slopes are less then an hour away.

There is no skiing, but I would recommend the Wettingen/Baden region. There are fast trains twice an hour from Baden that take only 15 minutes to Zurich main station (Hauptbahnhof), with S-Bahn trains twice an hour as well from both stations. Wettingen has rather low taxes for the area -- and Aargau is lower than canton Zurich.

Thanks for the tips, I will take a look at them.

From the relative number of posts on this thread and the suberbs thread,
can I assume that most people prefer the suberbs to the surounding towns?

Anybody out there with small children who has experience of living in Zurich and outside?

I lived in the city with my first son. The city, if you are in the suburbs, is actually quite good for kids. We lived in Wollishofen which has good facilities for kids such as lots of parks and good schools. When we came back to Switzerland last year we decided it would be preferable for us to bring our kids up in the countryside rather then a city. One of the main factors in this was wanting to live in a house rather than an apartment. In the village where we are we can let out 5 year old walk to his friends house by himself and go outside to play by himself which we would not have been able to do in the city so he is much more independent than he would have been if we stayed in Wollishofen. Both have their good points and bad but I am happy where we are now as only 30 mins to Zurich and 20 to Zug. Biggest downside is getting home after a big night out.

What about region Wädenswil / Richterswil?

Zürich's about 30 mins away by motorway or train.
Flat prices are around the price you mentioned.
Nice location on the Zürisee
There are plenty English / German play schools / creches around
For kids Brunni (with special kids ski school) is 25 mins away
There's even a snow creche at Einsiedeln about 30 mins away
Adults - Flumserberg & Hoch-Y-Brig are not so extensive - but ok and they are about 30-35 mins away.
Let me know if you want more info..
Roobarb