Zurich

Zurich is a city in transition. Once considered a staid financial hub populated by buttoned-down bankers, the city is now reinventing itself as a vibrant, trendy and ultra-modern metropolis. The bankers are still there, but the air of old-time formality is well and gone. Today, the parks, squares and thoroughfares of this beautiful and affluent lakeside city are filled with everyone from young kids on bicycles to pensioners on Segways. Zurich also offers old-world charm in the form of the medieval Old Town with its cobbled streets, historic houses and soaring church towers. Nature lovers will enjoy the green public parks, the bustling bodies of water and the easily accessible mountain panoramas that surround Zurich.