Ask any Zürcher or Zürcherin about their hometown’s cultural landmarks, contemporary art museums and architectural monuments and you’ll be directed – perhaps in the local Swiss-German dialect, but more probably in perfect English – to the number 4 tramline, dubbed ‘Design Line 4’, of the ZVV public transport network. Equipped with a go-anywhere, 24- or 72-hour Zürich Card, including free or reduced entry to 43 museums, you jump on the tram – which runs from Tiefenbrunnen through to Bellevue, Central and Zurich main station, all the way to Altstetten Nord – and Central Europe's most connected city reveals itself.

Highlights include the quirky, colour-blocked Pavillon Le Corbusier; the Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland’s biggest art museum, now with a striking CHF206m, David Chipperfield-designed extension under construction / opening 8-9 October; the Cabaret Voltaire (aka Dadaist HQ); the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, one of the greatest examples of Neues Bauen (New Objectivity) architecture anywhere in the world; the Kosmos arthouse cinema; the Löwenbräukunst-Areal, home to world-class curators such as Hauser & Wirth and Galerie Barbara Seiler; and the ZHdK campus, once an unlovely dairy processing site now repurposed as a creative hub for art and design students.

A cultural, creative and gastronomical powerhouse, where quality of life is enviably high and sustainability is part of the modern mindset, Zurich boasts a superb public transport network, a cleanly efficient joy that keep roads quiet and largely traffic-free. Many of the city’s 430,000 inhabitants choose to walk and cycle to get around. Outdoor life – from eating and drinking alfresco to swimming in Lake Zurich and the River Limmat – is central to the vibrant and peaceful, smart and tidy, artistic and cultivated local lifestyle.

One week before Art Basel opens for business, Zurich is the hot spot for the international art scene and art enthusiasts. For three days, Zurich Art Weekend’s schedule is packed with exhibitions, guided tours and lectures in the city’s museums and galleries, as well as special events such as artist cocktail receptions, and workshops at the interface between art and science. Highlights include the installation of Walter De Maria’s The 2000 Sculpture, first shown at the Kunsthaus in 1992, at Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie; and Grieder Contemporary’s ‘Enchanted Forest’, an exhibition that features recent works by Michel Comte and Melli Ink. The fourth edition Zurich Art Weekend runs 17-19 September 2021. Zurich’s institutions work together to welcome the visiting and resident public, with ZAW VIP pass-holders, as well as Art Basel First Choice and VIP card-holders, benefiting from free admission or reduced entrance rates at all participating locations. 

A whole host of the city’s most architecturally intriguing and structurally spectacular buildings, both historical and contemporary, are accessible to the general public during the Openhouse Zurich weekend. Visitors get a chance to see behind the scenes and façades of around 80 outstanding private houses and apartments, theatres, churches, museums, offices, studios, workshops, and schools – free of charge – gaining unique insight into how people live and work in Switzerland’s first city. Our recommendations? Werkhalle Und Büros Lehni AG; Atelier und Wohnhaus Stiftung Thomas Dubs; and the sculptural Hammam Basar + Salon. See openhouse-zuerich.org for a full list of properties and more details. Openhouse Zurich runs 2-3 October 2021.

So prime your Zürich Card for action and head for Design Line 4. Go where you like, whenever you like. In Zurich, as the Dadaists liked to say, everybody dances to their own boomboom.