New Year's Eve above Zurich

Just like pretty much every year I find it tricky to make a plan for New Year’s Eve. I feel like the expectations for that night are way high and when I finally kick myself to ask other people for plans, it is usually too late. Since this year was special anyways, we ended up celebrating with my sister. We hung out at our apartment and prepared dinner for later. Around 4 PM we went downtown and started our hike to the “house mountain” of Zurich called Uetliberg. Even though Josh and I have been living here for 2.5 years we never actually made it on top, so I was excited to see what all the hype was about.

We ended up walking up “Laternenweg” which translates to lantern path. As the name might tell, there were lanterns along the path. In general it was pretty steep for about 40 minutes. In the end it was pretty icy but I thought it was a fun adventure. Almost at the top you have to take some stairs, that bring you to the restaurant/hotel called Uto Kulm. It ended up being magical as everything was decorated with Christmas lights, there were lots of fires, music, food stands and a few people as well. Luckily we happened to buy some tiny marshmallows before, so we were able to roast a few over the fire.

So what was my thought on the hype? Is it justified? I actually really enjoyed it up there and can recommend the trip there. You can get a great view on the lake and all of Zurich. The warm and christmasy atmosphere were just the icing on the cake!

How to get there:

Hiking: There are different starting points for hiking up Uetliberg. For Laternenweg you can start by the tram stop “Abisgüetli”.

Train: There is a train form Zurich main station to Uetliberg. From there you only have to walk for about 10 minutes to the hotel.