It will be relative . . . if you come from somewhere renowned for fun, you may find Zürich a bit dull. If you come from somewhere quiet, Zürich may offer more.

I lived in London before I moved to Zürich. I still pop back for the occasional weekend. I have more fun in one of those than in approximately three months of living in Zürich.

I'm using my life in London as a comparison. That's the main reason. However, it's also because of the things I like doing. My big interests outside work are live music and dining. Zürich has a reasonable gig scene, but it's nothing compared to London - very expensive (typically CHF25+ vs GBP10 in London for a mid-range gig). And Zürich gets the bands the year after they hit the scene in the UK (it used to be two years, so things have improved). On the other hand we can see some very good bands in much smaller, more intimate venues.

For dining, I'm constantly disappointed by the expensive, lacklustre restaurants here. London throws up new, exciting places all the time and at many different price levels. There has been quite some momentum in the London food scene for the last ten years. On the other hand, if people ask me to recommend somewhere to eat here I always hesitate and if I do mention somewhere it's always with significant caveats. You'll hear the phrase, "good, for Zürich".

There are some things fairly unique to Zürich though. In the summer, the lake and the river come alive. The water is clean enough to swim in and when it's warm enough people enthusiastically plunge in.

And in the winter, you can easily go skiiing for the day with ease.

Finally, you can get away to other, more lively, cities with ease. Fun weekends in places like Milan or Strasbourg are an easy train ride away.

St. Albans is also boring. So I guess you're not missing out from much (apart from easier access to London).

Hi,

I am Brazilian as well, and I can tell you that if you miss our culture, you will find plenty of activities here.

Of course it follows the usual Brazilian style when abroad (Axe/Funk/Samba parties), which me and my wife (also from Brazil) didn't like much at the begin (we are from Paraná, which does not exactly follows Rio/Bahia life style ), but lately there were several "nice" concerts in Zurich/Geneva/Lucern, from "sertanejo" to nice "MPB", like Marisa Monte, for example.

At the end it depends on what you like, but honestly it's been quite fun to attend to these parties, and get to know new people.

PM me if you would like more info about our community...

Cheers,

Gustavo
PS: I didn't read the whole post, so sorry if I missed something important...

well, I don't know what you consider boring or for that matter what you are interested in.
However, I partely grew up here, partely in the States and I've travelled quite a bit and I don't find Zurich boring at all. Nightlife wise, there is a lot going on, (I would say the most anywhere in Switzerland) if you know where to go that is right for your age group, however it's not like the partymile at the beach in barcelona, everything is just smaller, for me that does not make it boring. also a great thing here is, that Switzerland is tiny, and has a lot of beautiful nature and cultural things to see and to, which are all not too far away. also for people who don't have a car (for ex. a student like me) it's great, the public transport is so good, gives you a lot of independance, not like a lot of places in the US where you NEED a car.
The only downside I see, is that it could not be too easy to get to know people here, since most are not very open, it's not like in the US wehre you can just talk to strangers, at least not most.

Zürich was established as a trading and traffic post. And it is the Zwingli-Stadt
and this pic here may give you a rough idea what that gentleman thought about entertainment and pleasure

Am I missing something?

The Swiss Reformation leaders (Zwingli, Calvin etc) weren't much fun. Similar to Puritans . . .

In Zürich, even a cat killing a mouse is reported. And as already Margaret Christie remarked there also is crime in smaller places. Sure, crime is heavily reported in Zürich and Geneva and Basel but possibly a bit less in Bünzen and Brienz. For the simply reason that the media people reside in the relatively larger places and are not exactly thrilled about crime in places they hardly know. Racial crimes happen everywhere, so why not here ?

That's true. There is bottled water, and milk.

Dan

I think Phil meant reported to police rather than reported in the media.

Where the media people live would have no effect on this.

OP,

Warning, answers given above like "life is what you make it" and "you need to make your own fun" are the kind of answers that are always given by people living in a place, that is very likely, boring. At least I suspect, for you, anyway.

Dan

How can a city of several hundred thousand people be boring?

Genuine question. I just don't get it.

I know Zurich isn't London or New York, but it's hardly boring, surely?

Well I guess that's obvious. But I was answering in terms of what most people expect from a city that size. To clarify, I would say that Zurich is not boring, but it's more boring than I expected.

Dan

"Location: Glarnerland"

How so?

I've lived in Manchester, Birmingham and Athens, so I'm no country bumpkin, but when I visit Zurich, I see bars and cafes full of people, busy restaurants, concert halls, theatres, people swimming in the river, drunken girls celebrating their hen nights, weirdoes roller blading down the street, bemused tourists, old ladies in fur coats, performance art, lake cruises, sports events, shops, nightclubs, kebab houses and sushi bars. Saturday night around Hardbrucke isn't much different from the Bigg Market in Newcastle.

The way some people on the forum write, you'd think it was Uttoxeter...

Any of the kebab shops in Uttoxeter is probably better than any of the kebab shops in Zürich.

It's true.

Zürich is more interesting than Birmingham.

still i dont get what you find boring/interesting?

fashion/blogging about fashion: have you googled that?
fashion/designer/young designer/labels zurich/switzerland?


have you ever been to a place/city where this wasnt the case, being around people?

what zurich is really lacking is space! everthing here is more or less set.
there is no (not much) deserted factory buildings where parties are held that spread by word on the street. and if there was one, it will be turned over soon in a)offices and b) flats. the clubscene is changing, a couple of clubs will close down or already did. you cant go into another "borough" like knightsbridge to eastend or brixton or clapham and find different people, styles, vibes.zurich is smaller, its quickly explored though there is quiet a lot of hidden gems that you will/can discover if you know your way around.

it is not boring per se, it has less variety compared to other cities. thats all. many claim that zurich is boring but if you dont know german, you miss a lot of flyers telling you of like seasonal bars, new openings, new this, new that... some people dont put that into the account. if i go to live in barcelona and i cant speak no spanish, for sure i miss out loads of cool stuff. all these facebook invites/pages, news will pass me by. important fact to make your life mor exciting so at least keep your eyes open and ears to the ground if you can.

I saw at least 4 groups of people celebrating bachelor and bachelorette parties in Bern and they looked like they were having so much fun that I wanted to joined them!

On Friday, the street were we were (have no idea the zone, to be honest!) was full of people (drunk), a drunk march asking for Gravitty Totall (still no idea what it meant) and dancing salsa until 5am.. Obviously, comparing that night out with a night out in Baden.. It was glory!

Definitely not a big city as I think of them, but it's all about perspective...compared to Zug, well it's a bustling mega-tropolis.