Winterthur

Introduction

Winterthur is a city in the Swiss canton of Zürich and is the sixth biggest city in the country with around 100,000 inhabitants.

Getting There

By Plane

Zürich Airport (IATA: ZHR, ICAO: LASZH) is also known as Kloten Airport and is located 10 kilometres from Zürich. It is Switzerland's largest airport and hub for Swiss International Air Lines. It is possible to fly to every major and minor airport in Europe and most international destinations from here. There is a train station located under the airport making for quick and easy connections to the city.

To/from the airport
Zürich Airport railway station is located underneath the terminal. There are trains to many parts of Switzerland. There are frequent S-Bahn Zürich services on the lines S2, S3 and S16 and of the Glatttalbahn (Zürich tram line 10). Also, there are direct InterRegio and InterCity services to Winterthur, Bern, Basel, Brig, Sankt Gallen, Lucerne and Konstanz in Germany. It also has EuroCity services to Munich in Germany. By changing trains at Zürich Hauptbahnhof most other places in Switzerland can be reached in a few hours.

By Train

Regular trains go to Zürich and places mentioned above that also serve the airport.

Sleep

Upscale

Keep Connected

Internet

Switzerland has a high rate of people with their own internet connection and computers, so internet cafes are not as common compared to other countries and compared to the past. But still you will be able to find a computer in the main cities and tourist areas, also at libraries, video rental shops, train stations or tourist information places. Wifi is widely available, though sometimes at a cost. A growing number of hotels, restaurants, coffee bars and fastfood joints now offer free wifi.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Switzerland's country code is 41 and the emergency phone numbers are 117 (police), 118 (fire department) and 144 (emergency rescue service/ambulance). Swiss phone numbers consist of the area code and a local phone number. The area code has three digits and starts with a zero, such as 022 for Geneva. The local phone number has usually 7 digits, but there are numbers with only 5 or 6 digits.

If you stay for some time, it may be advisable to buy a pre-paid cell phone card that you can use in any phone that supports the GSM standard on the 900/1800 MHz bands - they usually cost around 10-40 CHF and are obtainable in the shops of the mobile service providers Swisscom, Orange or Sunrise in most cities. Mobile network coverage is close to 100% by area, even in the mountainous, non-populated areas. There are also a lot of cheap prepaid cards for local calls from other providers. The prepaid cards of the big supermarket chains Migros and Coop for example cost around 20 CHF and include already 15 CHF airtime. The cheapest prepaid card for calls within Switzerland is Aldi Mobile. The cheapest prepaid card for international communication is Yallo. The prepaid cards can be bought online (30 CHF with 30 CHF airtime inclusive), in most post offices (29 CHF with 20 CHF airtime inclusive) or Sunrise shops (20 CHF with 20 CHF airtime inclusive).

Post

Swiss Post is the national postal service of Switzerland and has fast and reliable services. For more information about prices to send postcards, letters and parcels, both domestically as well as internationally, they have a very useful Price Calculator. Domestically, there is priority mail (arriving the following day) and economy mail which takes 2-3 days to be send within Switzerland. Stamps can be bought at the post offices or from shops and kiosks that also sell postcards. In general, post offices are open from 8:00am to noon and 2:00pm to 5:00 or 6:00pm, with a lunchbreak in between. Opening times on Saturdays are usually only during mornings. Larger cities and central post offices might keep longer hours and skp the lunchbreak. If you want to send packages internationally, you might also consider international courier companies like TNT, DHL or UPS.

External Links

• Official Website