Zurich’s Hidden Gem! How to Explore the Schanzengraben Like a Local

Most travelers to Zurich head straight for the Old Town, Bahnhofstrasse, or maybe the Lindt Home of Chocolate, but have you ever heard of the Schanzengraben?

In this episode, I’m joined by Evelyne Jeannerat from Zurich Tourism to uncover one of the city’s most surprising hidden gems: the Schanzengraben, a quiet waterway just steps from the heart of Zurich. Whether you explore it on foot or by stand-up paddleboard, this peaceful spot offers a whole new way to experience the city.

Evelyne shares why this former 17th-century defense moat is now one of her favorite places to unwind. You’ll hear about the best parts of the Schanzengraben promenade, from shady benches and historic bridges to the iconic Männerbad and nearby botanical garden.

You’ll also get insider tips on how to explore Zurich like a local, like renting a stand up paddleboard, grabbing a picnic lunch to enjoy by the water, or catching a sunset cocktail at Rimini Bar.

We also talk about the unique Zurich lifestyle: a perfect blend of city nature, culture, and laid-back charm. From early-morning swims to outdoor dining, you’ll see how easy it is to slow down and soak it all in.

Whether you're visiting for a weekend or adding Zurich to your Switzerland itinerary, this episode will inspire you to step off the tourist trail and discover one of the most relaxing walks in the city.

Hit play now and get ready to see Zurich from a whole new perspective!

Safe travels,

Carolyn

👉 Show notes - Episode 142

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Transcript

Carolyn Schönafinger: Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. If you're planning a trip to Switzerland, this is the podcast for you.

I'm your host, Carolyn Schönafinger, the founder of HolidaystoSwitzerland.com. In each episode, my expert guests and I share practical tips to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. You'll get helpful advice about traveling around Switzerland and hear about the most popular destinations, as well as some hidden gems, and we'll introduce you to plenty of wonderful experiences that you can enjoy as part of your Swiss vacation. Each episode is packed with expert tips, itinerary ideas, and inspiration to help make your Swiss vacation planning easy.

So let's dive in. Hello, Grüezi, welcome to this week's episode of the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. If a visit to Switzerland's largest city, Zurich, is part of your travel plans, you probably have a list of places you'd like to visit. They may include the Old Town, the magnificent Grossmünster, Lindenhof for great views over the city, and perhaps a visit to the Lindt Home of Chocolate. They are all fantastic things to do and well worth including in your sightseeing itinerary. But why not include a visit to one of Zurich's hidden secrets as well?

We'll be doing just that in today's episode, which is part of my live on location video podcast series, which you can also watch on YouTube. My guest, Evelyne Jeannerat, is going to take us on a very special journey to a part of Zurich you've probably never heard of. That's right, we're going to be exploring one of Zurich's best-kept secrets, and on a paddleboard, no less. Of course, you don't have to explore this hidden secret by paddleboard. You can definitely discover it on foot too. Like to know more? Well, let's welcome Evelyne to the podcast and find out where she's taking us today.

Good morning, Evelyne. Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. You're coming to us from Zurich, and it looks like an absolutely magnificent day there. Before we get started, would you like to introduce yourself and then please tell everyone where you are joining us from today?

Evelyne Jeannerat: Sure. I love that. Good morning, Carolyn, and good morning everybody. Welcome to Zurich. I'm Evelyne. I'm working for Zurich Tourism, and I'm your contact in Zurich. I'm at one of my favorite places. I'm actually a very outdoorsy person. Whenever I'm not working, I'm trying to be outdoors, be it on the skis, on the bike, or, like here, literally in on the water. We're in the Schanzengraben, one of my favorite places in Zurich.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. And what is so special about Schanzengraben that you've chosen it as the hidden secret of Zurich to share with us today?

Evelyne Jeannerat: I mean, look at it. It's like an oasis here. We're just a few meters off the bustling city of the Bahnhofstrasse. You have this quiet area, clear water, and our offices are just five minutes from here. So in the summertime, when it's a hot day, I jump here into the water and I go for a swim, or we go to dip our feet in the water. We just, we just love that.

Carolyn Schönafinger: That sounds like the perfect lunch break. Excellent.

Evelyne Jeannerat: Yes. Schanzengraben used to be a former defense moat. So it was here from the main train station down to the lake. This is the Old City. So it was like a fortification that was like in the 17th century. In 1970, I think, I'm not too good with historical figures, but it was around 1970, the city was quite advanced already in their thoughts. Instead of building a road out of it, they made a nice, quiet promenade. It's really a peaceful haven, actually, now that you have wooden pathways, stone pathways, and you can walk all along it. Wow.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, very innovative. So, Evelyne, this is not just any normal tour along the Schanzengraben that we're going to have today, because I know that we're going to sort of walk a little bit, but also you're going to be taking us on a tour via your stand-up paddleboard, which is very exciting. But for anyone who's watching or listening and they would like to walk along the Schanzengraben, how long should they allow to do that, from start to finish?

Evelyne Jeannerat: Maybe, if I take up my map again, you can see here the Gessnerbrücke, that's actually where the walk starts. You take a little staircase down and you go down to the river. The whole walk from here to the lake is about one and a half kilometers. So if you walk fast, you can do it like in 20 to 30 minutes, but I would recommend to take your time to do it in a one to one and a half hours, or even two-hour stroll, and really enjoy the different sites on the way.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing some of those sites, so maybe you'd like to start by pointing out some of the highlights for us.

Evelyne Jeannerat: Yeah, let's just move up to the let's walk a few steps, and I'll show you one of the first sites. Good, as I pointed out. Before we have the train station, you start at the Gessnerbrücke. You walk down and in the first part, you have a very nice wooden walkway, stone walkways, where it's beautiful just to sit down, to linger, to eat a little sandwich, have a coffee to go or something, and you'll find the first place, which is the Nusselt. It's a pedestrian bridge, and it's beautiful to make some photos from there. Then you come to the men's pool, Männerbad Schanzengraben, well worth visiting to go for a swim there. And beside that, you have the Old Botanical Garden, which is just up here. Okay, all right, beautiful place also to go to sit down on a shady bench, look at the flowers. Very nice garden within the city.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Oh, wonderful. Now, I know you mentioned there the Männerbad, and I know that the bath is a very popular thing for the Swiss to do in summer. They love swimming after work. And the Männerbad is obviously for men only by the name. Is it possible for visitors to Zurich to go and visit the Männerbad? Or would you have to be a local or a member?

Evelyne Jeannerat: Any man can go in the daytime, it opens to any man. It's really the men's pool. And in the evening, it becomes the Rimini Bar. And there men are allowed to bring around their friends, their lady friends, whomever they like. We have the equivalent. So ladies have their little haven as well, which is off the Limmat. It's almost at the opening of the Limmat. It's a very beautiful bath as well. Throughout the day, just for ladies, and in the evening, there is the bar, Flussbad, called Barefoot Bar. You can have nice cocktails there as well. And it's really a place worth visiting. And we have many, many other pools, of course, in the rivers and along the lakes. As you said, we love our water, and we love to spend our time, our free time, in and at the water.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah? Well, if you've got weather like you have today, it's definitely a great, great thing to do.

Evelyne Jeannerat: Definitely, yes, and look how clear the water is.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, it's just amazing. And just five minutes from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Evelyne Jeannerat: Exactly, and even our ducks are happy in the water.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, wonderful. Okay. Well, would you like to get on to your stand-up paddle and take us?

Evelyne Jeannerat: That's a good plan.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Take us down the water.

Evelyne Jeannerat: Beautiful. Let's go.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Wow. Okay, Evelyne, you've made it onto the stand-up paddleboard, which is very impressive. What's that net or that square box hanging up there over the Schanzengraben?

Evelyne Jeannerat: You can see a couple of them here, and in the front there are three more. And the local water polo team uses that for training. So it's not just for tourists to walk around here. You can see the locals really use their waters for whatever they can. They also do kayak training on here on this river.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, what's the length from where you are today down to the start of the lake? What's that distance?

Evelyne Jeannerat: The distance from here to the lake is about 900 meters. So the first part you can't paddle up. The second part is about 900 meters. And if you go paddling fast, it takes you not even 10 minutes. If you go slowly, 15 to 20 minutes, and it feels a bit like in Venice on one of these gondolas, you know.

Carolyn Schönafinger: I can see lots of other kayaks lined up there and boats. I'm imagining some days it's quite popular there on the water, but you're under a bridge there. Does that bridge have a specific name?

Evelyne Jeannerat: There are many different bridges. I'm not sure with the name of this one. The next one is the Bärenbrüggli in the back. We'll see it again. It's actually nice because you have every, let's say, 50-60 meters. You have a bridge where you can cross over again. And you have the pedestrian pathways on both sides of the river.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so you don't have to walk too far along if you need to cross to the other side, which is great, you can cross, yeah, and the water there looks so calm and so clear.

Evelyne Jeannerat: About halfway of the part that we can paddle. I was allowed to cross or go under quite a few bridges now. And with this, you can see how green it is around here, really a little oasis, really a haven within the city. And now we're gonna approach a bar. The Rimini Bar is one of my favorites as well. You're gonna see soon the camera with the colorful umbrellas in the front. So in the morning, in the daytime, it's very nice to have a coffee. And in the evening, you can have one of these beautiful Zurich Negronis and have a nice cocktail and enjoy watching people. I think they're just watching me now, if I fell in the water, they'd have quite a laugh right now.

Carolyn Schönafinger: A great spot to sit and relax and have a nice drink and just watch the beautiful, calming water.

Evelyne Jeannerat: It's nice, yeah. And you can also just sit down on your paddle and just enjoy yourself a little bit as well. Here you can see the one of our exclusive houses in Zurich, really exquisite five-star hotel, the Hotel Baur au Lac, facing out to the Lake of Zurich.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so, being a five-star hotel, probably thinking that a lot of our audience won't have the opportunity to stay there, but if they would like to enjoy a drink or a meal at the hotel, is that possible for non-guests?

Evelyne Jeannerat: Oh, believe me, I don't have the opportunity to stay at the hotel either, but there is this beautiful restaurant, Marquise, just that just opened last summer, actually, and it's for everybody. I was there having a nice lunch already. You can, you know, have a nice feeling of the hotel and of the whole environment.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, wonderful. So as you make your way down towards the lake, maybe you could share with us your top tips for how visitors can experience Zurich like a local?

Evelyne Jeannerat: Well, obviously, first of all, bring your bathing suits. You mentioned before about the different baths and so on. We love our waters. You can do the same. You can from mid-May to mid-September. Definitely, you can enjoy our rivers or lake as well, or even just dip your feet in the water when you feel hot. Then another thing is, don't rush. Don't look for shortcuts. Enjoy, linger. Discover like here. Schanzengraben, take your picnic with you. We don't need to go to restaurants and eat heavy at lunch and for dinner. So you have lunchtime. You might go to a little deli. Take a takeout, just enjoy the moment, like the locals. Another thing is, we love food.

We're talking about food. We love to be outside, so we have almost most restaurants in the Old Town, but along the lake, have beautiful terraces. We love our after-work drinks, our aperitif, as we call it, and we like to have dinner outside as well, but also in the urban area, like the Kreis 5 and so on, you will find loads of different restaurants. We have international cuisine, all that you may look for and a perfect city for foodies. For the Schanzengraben, I suggest come early in the morning, like now it's still very quiet, and I didn't get a little bit more golden color of the sun. We're early, early birds, so it's a good moment to go to enjoy the lake. Before, when we came along the lake, we saw some early open water swimmers enjoying the lake as well. And last but not least, you could also enjoy culture and combine. You know, we do what we combine our active relaxation, be it on the river or anywhere. So yeah, combine it with no. You have the Swiss National Museum just near the train station, about 10 minutes walk from here. You have the World Football Museum of FIFA. You have the Museum of Fine Art or in the evening, even enjoy the Opera House.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Very good. So yeah, you can definitely combine the best of both worlds. Have your outdoor, your nature activity, and your culture.

Evelyne Jeannerat: Good. So we're approaching the lake. We have the last bridge to take.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Fantastic. So now we're on Lake Zurich.

Evelyne Jeannerat: We're on Lake Zurich, and you can see there the boat with all the people going on to it. So there are different boat tours onto the lake, the little one-hour one or the long one, even four hours taking all the way over to the other side of the lake to Rapperswil. But a beautiful lake cruise.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, definitely. So if any of our audience members have seen you paddleboarding down the Schanzengraben today, and they think that's something that they would like to do. Is it possible for people to rent paddleboards and to do exactly what you've done?

Evelyne Jeannerat: Definitely. This is a rented paddleboard that I'm having. I took it from the swimming pool Mythenquai, and they rent paddleboards and kayaks by the hour. So that's no problem at all. You just go into the pool, you go to us to to rent the paddleboard, and you can do exactly the same thing.

Carolyn Schönafinger: So do you have a favorite time of the year to visit Schanzengraben? And I'm kind of guessing it might be summer because of beautiful weather, but maybe you're going to surprise me.

Evelyne Jeannerat: If you want to swim or paddleboard or something, then desperately, it's spring to autumn. But you can do it until mid-October, end of October. Our autumns tend to get longer due to the whole climate situation. Myself. I also like to come in winter. As I said, I have my office nearby. I come down for a little walk in winter, just, just to come out to a peaceful area and have a little stroll. And, you know, just change my mind of all the work and things.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, fantastic. So basically, that's alongside the river that you've been on the path is on both sides, is that correct? And you can just cross over the bridge, any of the bridges, if you want to swap from one side to the other.

Evelyne Jeannerat: It's not everywhere on both sides, just next. To the water. There are parts where you have both sides, but you have other parts where you could go up to the Botanical Garden, or you would just walk an inside street, but there is actually on the left-hand side facing from the lake up on the left-hand side, there's the hallway along the water.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, fantastic, and we'll include a map and a link to that, to that Google Map that you were showing us that will be in the description, so people can click on that and find the exact route. Well, it's been excellent visiting the Schanzengraben with you today. Why, in your opinion, is it a must-visit for everyone who comes to Zurich?

Evelyne Jeannerat: I would say it's like a microcosm of Zurich. You have history in the Schanzengraben, you have nature, you have culture, you have conviviality, and you just have a Zurich lifestyle. So, you know, take your time when you come here, take it easy. I think behind any bend, you have new surprises, and that actually counts for the whole of Zurich. So come to Zurich. Take your time in Zurich. It's well worth it.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Definitely. And even though it's Switzerland's largest city, it doesn't feel like a city. I don't think it's just so relaxed. And as you said, there's so many hidden secrets wherever you go.

Evelyne Jeannerat: That's the reason for me that, you know, after having lived abroad for many years, I came back to Switzerland. I come back to Zurich because, you know, it's a cosmopolitan city, but at the same time, you're just close to nature, and you have this kind of boutique city feeling.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, and the chance to go on a stand-up paddleboard during your lunch break. What could be better? Thank you so much, Evelyne, for the wonderful tour. It's the first time I've ever chatted to anyone while they've been on a stand-up paddleboard. It's a first for me, and I'm sure it will be very interesting and informative for everyone watching who is planning a visit to Zurich. Thank you.

Evelyne Jeannerat: Thank you very much, Carolyn, and welcome to everybody who wants to come to Zurich.

Carolyn Schönafinger: I'll share a secret with you. I stumbled upon the Schanzengraben by mistake a few years ago, but I had no idea it actually had a name. I found myself walking alongside a waterway with boats bobbing up and down and willow trees arching over the pathways. It was idyllic, a really tranquil part of the city just a few minutes from all the action. But it wasn't until Evelyne mentioned that one of her favorite hidden secrets in Zurich was the Schanzengraben, and she showed me some photos of it that I realized I'd already been there, and now I'll definitely be going back.

If you've enjoyed learning about the Schanzengraben and would like to know more about it, I'll include a link to the Zurich Tourism website and a really helpful Google Map in the show notes for this episode. There are lots of other podcast episodes with more Zurich suggestions for you too. Have a listen to episodes 390 and 136, just to get started, and my suggested two-day Zurich itinerary will help you make the most of your time in the city. Links to all those resources and more can be found in the show notes too.

As I mentioned earlier, this episode is part of our YouTube series of podcasts recorded live on location in Switzerland. If you'd like to watch Evelyne's tour of the Schanzengraben and if you haven't seen any of the previous episodes, be sure to check them out on the Holidays to Switzerland YouTube channel. The show notes are at holidaystoswitzerland.com/podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in today until next week. Tschüss!