This vast twin-towered medieval church on the east bank of the River Limmat dominates Zurich’s skyline.

Standing directly opposite its larger cousin on the west bank of the river lies this beautiful church featuring stunning stained-glass windows by Augusto Giacometti and Marc Chagall.

You pass Rodin’s sculpture Gates of Hell to enter, but inside this unmissable museum you’re in fine art heaven. Its vast array of Swiss and European paintings and sculptures includes the world’s biggest collection of Alberto Giacometti works.

Near the train station, this absorbing museum tells you just about everything you need to know about Swiss history from prehistoric times to the present day.

Two 19th-century buildings set within a park house an impressive collection of non-European art.

A piece of Madagascan rainforest has been recreated in Switzerland at this park-like zoo, where other attractions include snow leopards, Andean bears and 20 species of monkeys.

Characterised by dome-like greenhouses, Zurich University’s botanical gardens take visitors on a journey from alpine meadows to tropical rainforests.

Sitting on the banks of the Limmat, Zurich’s city hall is housed in an impressive baroque building. Guided tours are available.

Take a breather from city life at this local mountain, easily accessible by train from Zurich main station. At 869m (2,850ft), it affords great views over Zurich, with hiking and biking trails for energetic visitors.

Zurich is the place to see what is arguably the most beautiful police station entrance in the world. When the orphanage on Bahnhofquai was converted into a municipal administration building around 1900, Augusto Giacometti was commissioned to paint the walls and vaulted ceiling of the entrance hall. He decorated it with lavish blooms and today it is affectionately known by the people of Zurich as the Blüemlihalle (floral hall).

This atmospheric 200-year-old pub and restaurant in the Niederdorf is where Swiss literary legend Gottfried Keller liked to drink.

One of the best known nightspots in the city, this place comprises four bars packed with Zurich’s rich and fashionable.

This former shipbuilding plant in Zurich West now houses an avant-garde offshoot of the famous Schauspielhaus theatre, fine restaurant LaSalle and Moods, the best jazz club in the city.

For a special night out, take in a ballet or opera performance at this world-renowned venue built in 1891 on the shore of Lake Zurich.

The birthplace of the Dada art movement remains a lively place to spend an evening, with a bar, art exhibitions and regular events.

A Zurich institution, this elegant but unpretentious restaurant has served up its excellent classic cuisine to a cross section of Europe’s artistic society for decades.

Zurich may be in the Swiss-German part of the country, but this restaurant by the Grossmünster specialises in the flavours of Romandie canton Vaud.

This renovated former riding school in Zurich West serves modern seasonal cuisine to a hip young crowd.

This long-standing vegetarian restaurant is hugely popular for its buzzy atmosphere, fantastic buffet and reasonable prices.

The best place to start exploring Züri West is on Geroldstraße, where a jumble of shipping containers between the railroad tracks and
a Salvation Army hostel looks like a pile of building blocks abandoned by a giant child. This fantastical mix of beach club, urban gardening project and street art gallery is called “Frau Gerolds Garten.” There’s a circus tent in amongst the containers, and vegetables and herbs flourish in old wine vats. Two years ago, Marc Blickenstorfer and a consortium of partners opened this trendy place, and right now, the “hotspot king” is standing on top of the containers, looking down onto the tracks and the trains that regularly rumble past.

Twenty years ago, no one would have dreamed of spending a night out in Zurich West – even though it was only a ten-minute streetcar ride from Zurich’s central station. They used to make cogwheels and soap there, and process lakes of milk in factories surrounded by high fences. When the factories closed, the abandoned buildings were initially used for illegal parties, then the architects and artists arrived. Today, agencies, law firms and hotels occupy the former industrial spaces, but the old ambience remains. A good example of this is the Puls 5 complex located
in a former foundry. Offices, restaurants and shops now occupy one part, but the old factory atmosphere still clings to the huge production hall, the true heart of the complex with its steel joists and industrial crane. Trade fairs and fashion shows sometimes take place here during the day, and in the evenings, inline skaters use the football field-sized concrete floor as a giant skating rink. The former Löwenbräu brewery has also been successfully transformed to house the Kunsthalle art museum and several galleries. Atop the old brick building, two new residential and office blocks gleam red and black.

The best place in Zurich West is probably Gerold Chuchi, which shares its premises with the Hive techno club. When the weekend is over and the partygoers have gone home, tables and chairs are set up on the dance floor and the space becomes a restaurant. One of the initiators is Dresden-born Sebastian Woloschanowski, 34, aka Wolo, who is anything but modest when he talks about his “pop-up restaurant:” HE serves the cheapest pasta in town, made with an 85-year-old Sicilian pasta machine!

The Gerold Chuchi gives onto the 126-meter-high Prime Tower. Through the full-length windows of its top-floor bar, the old town and lake, and beyond them the glorious Alps, seem close enough to touch. Annette Gigon designed the tower with fellow architect Mike Guyer. Is she proud of having built Switzerland’s tallest building? Not this modest, soft-spoken architect. Somewhat sheepishly, she admits having been a little bit nervous at first, wondering what it would look like up close – and from a distance? Today, she knows that most people in Zurich like it.