Zürich's badis, the lake and river baths the city runs

Zurich puts its swimming where the water already is: wooden decks bolted to the lakeshore, channels cut into the Limmat, a canal bath behind the old city wall. The pattern worth knowing before you pack a towel is that the lake baths generally charge around CHF 8 while the river baths on the Limmat are free, and that the current, not you, does the swimming at Oberer Letten. Season, gender rules, fees and step-free access vary from one badi to the next, so each entry here carries the practical facts rather than the mood.

Places in this collection

  • Strandbad Wollishofen — On the southwestern shore, far enough from the centre that the crowd is mostly local and the peak-season crush is milder than at the centra…
  • Katzensee — A small lake on the northern city boundary inside a nature reserve, shallow and compact enough that it warms up well ahead of Lake Zurich.…
  • Flussbad Au-Höngg — The river bath on Werdinsel, the island formed between the Limmat and a side channel, tucked far enough from the road to feel enclosed. Bar…
  • Flussbad Oberer Letten — A 400-metre swimming channel in the Limmat below the Letten railway viaduct, free to enter, with showers and a narrow strip of lawn along t…
  • Männerbad Schanzengraben — The oldest badi in the city, open since 1864 on the Schanzengraben canal and screened by the ivy-covered old fortification wall, a short wa…
  • Frauenbad Stadthausquai — A wooden bathhouse of 1888 on the left bank of the Limmat, women only during the day, with the Grossmünster diagonally opposite across the…
  • Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen — Built in 1950 in parkland on the eastern shore, and the badi most set up for children: a non-swimmers' pool reached by a wooden footbridge,…
  • Seebad Enge — Robert Landolt's 1959 design puts a wooden jetty out over the lake rather than a beach beside it, and it stays open through the winter with…
  • Strandbad Mythenquai — Opened in 1922 on the western lakeshore, this is the one city badi with actual sand rather than decking or lawn alone. The five-metre divin…
  • Seebad Utoquai — A wooden bathing structure on stilts off the Seefeld shore, in operation since 1890, with parts of the original swimming palace still stand…

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