01. Introduction: I guess Edelweiss Air isn’t so expensive after all
02. Lufthansa A340-300 economy class San Diego to Frankfurt
03. Lufthansa A319 economy class Frankfurt to Zurich
04. Four Points by Sheraton Sihlcity – Zurich
05. Three tips to make your first trip to Zurich better than mine was
06. Radisson Blu Zurich Airport
07. Edelweiss Air A340-300 economy class Zurich to San Diego
Guess what? I’m rather proud of the fact that it’s been a very long time since I’ve made a bad hotel choice (well, besides the Hilton Garden Inn at PHX several months ago, but that doesn’t really count). The thing that’s so impressive about that is the fact that hotel reviews aren’t really my thing, and I only write them to help paint a complete picture of what my trips are usually like. Of course it makes me feel good to be able to help others make hotel decisions for their own travels, but the truth is that I am generally clueless when it comes to choosing overnight accommodations and it’s generally crapshoot wherever I go. A crapshoot that I’ve actually been having good luck with, I might add.
Using the powerful filtering features of hotels.com to whittle down the myriad of choices that I’m faced with for each trip helps a lot, and is very likely the reason why I’ve never ended up in the bad side of town anywhere I go. But trying to figure out Zurich was different. There’s just something about the city of Zurich that I couldn’t quite understand from the vantage point of Google Maps, and I found myself feeling as paralyzed as a deer in the middle of the road who was about to get annihilated by a truck coming straight at it at 70mph.
I generally prefer to stay in the heart of the city so that I’m free to walk around and see all the sites without having to use public transportation all the time. Unfortunately, Zurich is spread out in a way that I couldn’t really determine where the center was, which made it really difficult to make a decision on where exactly I wanted to stay. Finally, in a weak moment of defeat and disgust, I chose the SPG property that had the best deal going on at the time: the Four Points Sheraton at Sihlcity. How bad could it really be with a cool name like that?
Unfortunately, I discovered within minutes of arrival that the location of this hotel isn’t ideal for someone who is looking to stay where everything is within walking distance. It’s in a perfectly nice neighborhood, with lots of beautiful architecture and walking paths, but kind of far away from where all the action is. I had to take an Uber or a taxi to get anywhere, which was inconvenient to say the least. That being said, what is the property itself like? Let me show you the pictures…
As I mentioned earlier, the location of the Four Points Sheraton Sihlcity is a bit far away from the central part of town, but not too far out in the boonies. It actually located adjacent to a giant shopping mall and movie theater, which did seem a bit out of place to me considering that the general area seemed more residential than anything else.
The biggest advantage of being away from the central part of Zurich was the fact that it was generally very quiet and I enjoyed the walking path along the Sihl River located right behind the main building.
Would I stay here again? Most likely not, primarily because of the distance from everything that I wanted to see in Zurich (which was focused around the main train station). The suite I had was very nice, and I really appreciated how quiet it was, but it felt inconvenient to have to figure out how to get places every day by Uber or bus or train when all I wanted to do was walk.
I still can’t figure out why this hotel (and the attached shopping mall) was built in this part of the city. The quiet residential vibe of the immediate area is nice, but probably isn’t the ideal location for first-time visitors to Zurich or those wanting to be in the heart of the action. In that case, staying near the main train station would be the best bet. That’s what I’ll be doing the next time I visit…
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