If you find yourself in Zurich during the summer school holiday has started, don’t despair! There’s plenty to do right in your home town. If you need a quick fix, I can recommend the Zurich Ferienplausch, a free sport “camp” organized by the city.
It runs the first and last week of the Zurich school holiday (in 2018 Jul 16-20 and Aug 13-17), from 10:00-13:00. It’s very casual. You don’t have to sign-up beforehand or register when you arrive. You don’t have to come on-time or stay until the end. They just set up the gym with lots of fun play equipment and your kids can just run around and do anything they like.
I didn’t know what to expect and I was a little worried that it would be too small time and sad, but I was wrong. I took my 9 and 5 year old boys there and invited a friend with a 10yr old boy and 13yr old girl. I’m happy to report that all were perfectly entertained for the full three hours and asked to go again.
There is no stated age limit. By observation, the kids ranged in age from about 5 to 14, with most around 7 to 10. Kids over 7 can be dropped off, though you should know that supervision is minimal. Your kids will be safe in the facility. But you don’t register your kids so no one will notice if your kid disappears. They request that an adult stays to manage kids under 7. It wasn’t crowded, but there were enough kids to make it fun. I’ll bet on a rainy day it gets quite full.
There are two locations, Oerlikon and Utogrund. We went to the Utogrund location, so I’ll tell you about what we saw there. See the website for the current locations and addresses.
In the Utogrund gym, there was a corner dedicated to unihockey, ping-pong tables, a short climbing wall, mats with climbing ropes, a big trampoline, a small trampoline with a big mat for flips, lots of balancing devices, a table with juggling equipment (e.g. balls, scarves, flower sticks), etc. Some of the stations are supervised by the staff, but mostly it’s self-serve. I asked if the gym is set up the same every day and was told that some elements like the unihockey, ping pong and trampoline always stay, but they reconfigure the mats and climbing stuff day to day. Here are some pics…
At Utogrund, there is a big track and field outside, where there were lots of funny bikes and other movement devices to try. Most kids were inside the gym, but there were a handful of kids riding the weird bikes around the track and fooling around with stilts and other things. On the field, they always have some sort of competition set up. On Monday, they had a frisbee throwing contest. If you got the frisbee into the center circle, you could enter your name for a prize drawing, winners announced at the end of the week. Outside, they offered free syrup drinks at 11:00 and 12:00.
Another bonus: the Utogrund Ferienplausch is next door to the Letzigrund pool. During the Ferienplausch hours, they open the gate between the two facilities so you can visit the pool for free. You can even stay after the Ferienplausch closes and enjoy the pool for the rest of the day, for free!
You should also get the ZVV Ferienpass for your kids. It costs CHF 25 and gives the kids free entrance to the zoo, 100 pools, and 45 museums as well as discounts to many other attractions as well as free public transport all over Switzerland. Get details here.
