Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Zurich: the world's most expensive city?


It was 2:00pm at Delta HQ when my phone rang.  It was Kristin. "We have to make the 4:30 to Zurich, Bermuda is completely booked up for tomorrow."  It was Memorial Day weekend, and we needed to use the extra day off as extravagantly as possible.  I asked no questions.  Within minutes, I scrambled to close up my work.  I cleaned out my teapot, saved my excel files, and raced home to pick up Kristin.  Within two hours, we were boarding a flight for Zurich.  Working for an airline has its benefits, the contours of which I am just beginning to explore.

Zurich is the top city on the Economist cost of living index, but we found it easy to stay there on the cheap.  We booked our 4 star hotel through Priceline "pick a price" for about $140 after tax, we dined on Bratwursts and pretzel rolls (a personal favorite), and used Zurich's superb train and subway system to get around when foot travel was not in option.  

I did not find it prohibitively expensive at all. In fact, I was not nearly as fatigued from sticker shock as I have been in the past in places like Singapore, London, or the Kathmandu International Airport - where I once bought a Kit Kat bar for something like $5.

Anyways, here are some pictures from our spectacular trip to Zurich:

























 

17 comments:

  1. Should have booked a free ticket to Spain to see your ol' pal! Free lodging! Anyway, Zurich is beautiful, but so painfully efficient... scary trip through involving about 10 of their customs officials!

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  2. The best time, according to my own expereinec, to visit Zurich is around Easter, during the Festival of the Guilds, when people are demonstratively bruning a huge snowman- saying goodbye to the winter and greeting the spring. During this colourful event many craftsmen with old history and in typical for their region costumes are proudly and slowly crossing the main street and the observers throw flowres at them. A celebration of flowers, history and success.

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  3. Wonderful photos with such rich coloring. I am convinced you can figure out how to travel on the cheap almost anywhere if you're willing to do a little searching and sacrifice a few luxuries. After all, there are people living in those cities that don't make very much money, so if they can do it, why can't we?

    Looks like you had some amazing travels, and Zurich is definitely on the list of places I'd like to see in the next few years.

    Cheers!

    Ryan

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  4. I had never known that Zurich was supposedly the most expensive city to live or travel in, but then again I don't know what sort of things are taken into account to measure that. Your pictures of the city are absolutely gorgeous and definitely make me want to see the city in person. I didn't know that Zurich had so many water ways; it makes it look so similar to Venice but cleaner! Amazing; thanks for the information about the costs.

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