By plane

1 Zurich Airport (ZRH IATA) is Switzerland's largest and busiest airport, handling roughly 30 million passengers a year. It is in the community of Kloten and it is 10 minutes by train from the main station. The trains depart about every 10-15 minutes, during the day, but less frequently at earlier or later hours. A single ticket to Zürich HB (the hauptbahnhof, or the main station) costs Fr. 6.80. Several bus lines connect to the airport and provide access to the Winterthur region near it. There is also tram 10 from Zurich terminating at the airport, a rather slow option, but it might be faster door to door for some destinations in Zurich.

Most major airlines fly to Zurich but flag-carrier Swiss is still the biggest player at ZRH and offers the widest range of connections. Almost every large hotel in Zurich provides shuttle buses from the airport to your hotel. The stops for these buses are a short walk to the right from Terminal 1 arrivals.

Zurich Airport has high passenger costs due to several noise reduction and approach restrictions. Most no-frill airlines fly to Basel which is 1 hour away by train. EasyJet offer several flights to Germany, the UK and Southern Europe.

If you are travelling without a Schengen Visa to another destination in Europe (via Zurich airport) and if you are not a European citizen, you must not stay in Europe for longer than 90 days — even if your final destination would allow citizens of your country to stay for more than 90 days. Failure to do so will lead to very high fines (around €8100) should you try to leave Europe via Zurich airport .

Zurich Airport offers free WiFi for all guests for a maximum of two hours. A mobile phone capable of receiving texts in Switzerland is required. Travelers have to connect to the "ZurichAirport" network and register their cell phone number. The user will receive the access code via text message. After the free hour, there is a five-hour waiting period before you can access the next free hour.

By train

Regular trains to and from other Swiss and European cities leave from and arrive at Zürich HB (Hauptbahnhof), the main train station, located in the city centre at the end of Bahnhofstrasse, with easy access to mass transit. Zurich HB is served by the local S-Bahn commuter trains, InterCity (IC and ICN) connections throughout Switzerland, Italy, Germany's IC and ICE, France's TGV Lyria and Austria's Railjet with some direct connections reaching destinations as far in Eastern Europe as Budapest. While Switzerland itself does not have many high speed lines, Zurich is connected to the high speed rail networks of neighboring countries. The once extensive sleeper train network has been cut down a lot in the 21st century, but there are still some ÖBB Nightjets connecting Austria and Germany with Zurich. Non-nightjet sleeper trains also run to Zurich from Prague and Budapest.

Domestic train tickets within Switzerland are available through the SBB Website though there are few early bird discounts. International tickets can sometimes be bought through the SBB as well, but often you can get better offers through the DB website (German) the SNCF website (France) or the websites of ÖBB and Trenitalia for Austria and Italy respectively. All adjacent railways have (sometimes significant) discounts for early booking on international trains, so if you know your plans far in advance, by all means book early.

The train station and the connecting underground mall has shops, restaurants, and a grocery store which locals use when they need to do Sunday shopping, as it is not subject to the closing hours laws otherwise in force in the city. It also hosts a Christmas market and other events in the big entrance hall.

There are some 24-hour lockers in level B1 available for Fr. 6-9 per 24 hr (maximum 3 days).

Just to the east of the train station on the Bahnhofbrücke bridge, there is a large Coop supermarket open Monday to Saturday till 22:00.

By car

The region around Zurich has probably the highest density of highways in the country, which makes it very convenient to access. A1 goes past Zurich just north of the city, with two feeders into the city centre. A3 and A4 end just south of the city. The regional highways A51, A52 and A53 all also lead to Zurich. While this makes it that there are many ways to drive into the city from every direction, it also means that there is a lot of congestion, especially during morning and evening hours. Parking is also hard to get at affordable rates, so it might therefore be faster and more convenient to travel by public transport.

By bus

Twiliner is a fleet of overnight buses based in Zurich, with seats that fold flat into a bunk. There's some disturbance from bumps in the road and noise at intermediate stops, but no worse than in a railway sleeping car, for similar comfort and half the price. In 2025 their routes are from Barcelona (14 hr 15 min via Girona and Bern) and Amsterdam (12 hr 15 min via Rotterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg and Basel).

2 Bus station at Sihlquai. The inter-city bus station is two blocks away from the main train station, near the confluence of the Sihl and Limmat and serves mainly international routes by Flixbus and BlaBlaCar. It just consists of a parking lot next to a gas station (not open 24/7) (updated Nov 2024)

By boat

It is possible to reach Zurich by boat on the lake from Rapperswil (2 hours) or Horgen (45 minutes). However, this is more of a leisure boat and only offers a couple of trips each day.