Hello all,

My husband is due to start a job in Zurich and we're about to visit for a week to start to look for apartments. We have a 1 year old daughter and I'll be a stay at home mum at least for the first year (we'll be doing intensive german lessons when we get there).

Can anyone help us out in terms of narrowing down the neighbourhoods we should search in? We currently live in a Cambridgeshire village and I usually do an activity with my toddler every day. Ideally we'd live somewhere where there are lots of mums & toddlers groups and green space for walking etc. Hubby currently commutes 2 hours each way into London (when the trains actually run on time) so even an hour commute to his new job (ETH) would be a huge improvement - although a big factor in the move was hopefully spending more time with his daughter and less on the train.


We think we're looking at 2,500 to 3,000 in rent (the latter is the upper limit, obviously we'd prefer less!), and any advice on where the taxes are lower would also be helpful. We are starting to figure all of this out for ourselves but of course any help would be great.

Hi

Living around the edge of Lake Zurich is very pleasant. The further you are away from Zurich, the cheaper the rent becomes.

As far as travel time is concerned, to give you some idea, Waedenswil to ETH (Höngg campus) is about an hour by train/bus.

Places nearer to Zurich such as Horgen and Thalwil have shorter journey times.

Most of the towns along the South side of the lake have nice walking paths along the lake and great walking paths in the woods behind.

The North side towns get more sun.

Some people live north of Zurich but living next to the lake with the mountains as a backdrop puts a smile on your face every morning.

There are loads of threads on this sort of thing so have a look around and you should find more info.