Grüzi or hello everyone.
I am new to the Forum and i am Hoping to find some input from people who are already living in Switzerland so I can get an idea what life is like in CH.

About us:
We are a German/English speaking family of four (our son is 4 and our daughter 7 months) and we live in Melbourne / Australia.
My husband is a paediatric specialist and has the opportunity to go to Switzerland.
I am a journalist/ PR expert (native tongue is German AND English) and I am looking into working again when living in CH. Currently I am at home, but I am also an author, so I have been busy with publishing. However, I would love to work in an office environment again.

Now - life in Australia is magnificent. It's very expensive (even for a doctor family!) , but we don't have an Aussie passport, so the are drawbacks to our life here. No Medicare, full daycare payment etc. And on top of all that, we have most of our aging family still in Europe. So traveling to Europe once or twice a year with two kids is NOT a joyride, let me tell you!

So we thought we take one of the job offers my husband has in Switzerland, at least for a few years, teach the kids what a real roman pizza tastes like, show them that "gothic" is an architectural style and not dark punk and travel a bit around the continent while sending them to school there.

Now my question is - WHERE is the best city in Switzerland for a big city girl like me (who obviously doesn't do clubbing anymore but in my heart, I still love the vibe )?

Now everyone will scream "Zurich"! But is it really the best city for a family? Or would we struggle to find a spacious home (we have a house with a garden now)? And kindergarten or schools?

How are cities like Bern or Basel? (Basel I somehow don't feel is right as if in Switzerland I want to be able to do a spur of the moment skiing trip on a weekend).

I am really struggling to find answers to where it would be best. I know we will probably earn a good salary, but from what I understand, housing is a killer.

How much do you have to earn to be really comfortable?

Ah soooooooo many questions! I can't wait to start my conversations with you.

Greetings from sunny Melbourne.

D

Welcome to EF.

Thanks!
Do you think I need to post my questions in another thread as well?
Hmm... Possibly. I am an absolute forum - newbie ;0

To start off with, welcome to the Forum

Presumably your husbands opportunities for work are in affiliation with a particular research institution/hospital, so this is influencing the choice of where to live? Or are these the collegial conference type offers "come to Switzerland, You can work with us"?

At what age are you planning for the 7month old to start school Granted she/he may not be so far off nursery age by the time you would arrive, but full-time care and supplemental care for the older one will require a good salary, if the other salary is covering living expenses.

Search the threads, the preliminary reading to more detailed questions will keep you plenty busy

Oh yes, I feel overwhelmed already!

My 7 month old would be at home or with a "Tagesmutter" or Aupair. I don't think I will start working straight away, if I can help it … it really depends on what I can find.

Husband has several "actual" offers, so at the moment, we are spoilt for choice.

I will read through some threads now … a day task! )

Nice cities with reasonable rental are Berne and Lucerne (Bern and Luzern) or Fribourg or Solothurn

Try and read these 2 books before you decide,

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Working...in+switzerland

http://www.amazon.com/Swiss-Watching-Inside-Land-Money/dp/1857885872/?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395787802&sr=1-2&keywords=swiss+watching+inside+europe%27s+landlo cked+island

.

I was a "city girl" for years but you would never know it now.

A spacious home and garden in Zurich will be expensive.

Not sure where your husband's offers are but you might want to consider canton Aargau.

Start by doing some searches on these websites to give yourself an idea of what rental prices would be like.

www.immoscout24.ch
www.immostreet.ch
www.homegate.ch
www.home.ch

As others have said trying to rent a house in a city is both difficult and expensive. There are fewer houses for rent anyway as most people live in apartments here so if you can find one the rent will be at the top of the price range. Look to rent in the suburbs or even the villages a few kilometres out where there's more likely to be houses to rent available and at more reasonable prices. For example on immoscout24 if I put in to rent a 4.5 room house in Fribourg I get only 1 result, while if I enter my village I have a choice of 5. Yet I'm only 8k from Fribourg so quite easy to reach if you want a night out in the city. Look for properties in a radius of 10-15k from whichever city you're checking so you can see the various differences. Expanding my Fribourg city search to a radius of 15k will give me 14 properties to investigate.

Also consider how hubby is planning to get to work. If public transport then use the www.sbb.ch website to get detailed info on travelling from a particular city/town/village to the nearest train/bus stop to his proposed workplace. This will give you both how long the journey will be and how frequently that particular route is running. If he's thinking of driving, again find the workplace on a map and then investigate properties with a view to avoiding having to go through the city centre during rush hours.

How close are you to qualifying for Australian citizenship? If you are finding life in Australia magnificent, then surely there is a possibility you might want to return there some day and this would be easier if you have citizenship.

If you want a house and garden, then look in Kanton Aargau which is approx. half the price of Kanton Zurich. Hospitals aplenty there as well with large Kantonspitals in both Baden and Aarau. Train connections into Zurich are also very good.

Bear in mind that acquiring Aargau license plates will make you suddenly (and mysteriously) lose all your driving skills, develop a strong urge to buy tuned out rice cars with obnoxiously large mufflers and acquire a mullet.

At the same time, people will keep a large distance from you on the roads and will be positively surprised if you do adhere to the traffic laws.

Live in the Suburbs of Zurich.., we call them the Zurich Highlands..