I’m quite dumbfounded. I can get that some people think that nothing is closer to a Swiss city than a very small village with some Swiss flags on chalets. But the general agreement and excitement on this take is too much for me.
And I don’t want to suffer alone.
It’s just a normal american town with a few hotels and restaurants made to look like chalets?
Which makes it a really stupid answer to the question since Zurich isn’t exactly famous for its chalets lol
I just checked the place out on google street view. It looks quite depressing tbh.
Also there’s an old SRF Dok about this town if anyone cares to know more about it
I mean I kind of get it – Zurich is indeed a rather small city and is probably closer to the quaint New Glarus than an actual US metropolis. It is also a really hard or strange request from OP, I can’t think of any city similar to Zürich as so much of it’s politics, culture and city planning is just straight not found in the USA. For this reason I can see how an obvious (and lazy) answer would be a “Swiss”-y city like New Glarus.
I kind of doubt thou that OP is going to be happy with New Glarus as they seem to have liked the more urban aspects of life in Zürich while New Glarus seems to be an almost disney-fied version of a swiss rural town.
So yes, I agree with you that the take of “New Glarus looks like a Swiss city” is really strange, especially if you would have an actual look at how much 19th century stonework Zurich has as a foundation, not some wooden chalets.
I’m not surprised at all. When I lived in America more than a few people were amazed to hear that I went to university in Switzerland. They didn’t think Switzerland had universities, as the population was all in small mountain villages and such. I am not joking.
What’s not to love about CH! We always vacation there when we fly over to visit relatives in Germany. For some reason it’s cheaper to fly into Zürich.
what an insane question lol i’m american but i go to switzerland for work…it’s just different lol you’re not going to experience switzerland in the us
Sounds like they are excited about Switzerland which is great 🙂
This “New Glarus” thing is pretty silly. It’s just an anecdotal town where they enacted a super restrictive building code. They want to live in a little europaparc attraction.
Closest American city lifestyle-wise to Zürich is probably places like Boston, Toronto, Seattle. Gotta make abstraction of the lack of proper transit though.
it literally looks like an american theme park version of Switzerland lmao.
Nothing to do with Zürich though
The YouTube channel “The Black Forest Family” has recently posted a video, where they explain, why cities in the US will not be like places in Germany (the same goes for Switzerland). It seems to be that zoning laws prohibit a mixed usage in most places, so if you live in suburbia, you’ll never encounter a bakery, butcher or grocery in the midst of residential places.
These “walkable” towns everywhere in CH are very comfy and everything is close by, while in the US you have to go by car, if you want to buy a sandwich. I think, this amazes a lot of tourists.
Many towns in the United States were originally settled by German and Swiss settlers. Texas has many of these towns but I still wouldn’t say they are remotely similar to anything in Switzerland.
Let’s go there and judge their ghackets mit hörnli
i’m American. I lived in Lausanne for 6 months but traveled around Switzerland a bit when I could. I can confidently say there is nothing even remotely close to Switzerland in the US. Most Americans picture Switzerland as this cold, always snowy, mountainous place where everyone is skiing all the time and every village looks like tourist chalets. (I have also been asked on several occasions if people “speak Swiss” there. Or it is confused with Sweden). Other than that, people don’t really know much about Switzerland in the US, except maybe the general perception of Switzerland having a lot of privacy in terms of banks, data, etc. It’s simply not possible to find the true Swiss culture in the US, only stereotypes.
Now add “public transportation infrastructure like Zürich” in North America
… and you’ll get cricket sound
People should never make a decision to move here based on summer weather. It’s like that 2 months out of the year. Otherwise it’s chilly to cold and cloudy af.
Well i lived in Wisconsin before moving to Zürich. New Glarus is nothing like Zürich. Madison, WI is much closer in feel to Zürich.
New Glarus doesn’t even have 3000 people living there it is much closer to a small mountain town than to Zürich
Leavenworth, WA has a Swiss vibe too
honestly like denver is probably closer
You should probably ignore Americans on the internet
First of all: How the f does one fall in love with freakin Zürich? I have been to quite a lot of cities in the world and believe me, Zürich is not a beautiful place. Just look at all the lovely concrete and the even lovelier locals you encounter.
Second: New Glarus? Yeah sure, it has a lot of people with Swiss ancestry but from the pictures I have seen, it has very little to do with Zürich.
I wouldn’t say that there aren’t many cities in the world that are comparable with Zürich. It might sound strange but the only place that gave me Zürich-vibes abroad was Charleroi in Belgium (but much less wealthy) and maybe, just maybe Frankfurt am Main. Other wealthy cities (Singapore, Vancouver, NYC, London, Sydney) just have completely different vibes compared to Zürich.
Dont be scared about the people negative response, they just dont like zurich. Its worst with aargauer tho beware 😂
So you’re in search of a locale that boasts the sophistication of Zurich but with a side of the quintessential American fast-food charm – where every scenic mountain view comes paired with a frappuccino, and a serving of Swiss culture is topped off with a Big Mac around every bend?
Having just come back from a 60+ day holiday based in Zürich I will attest that it’s unique features will not be replicated in the US. I just need to find a way to make my trips there longer.
Switzerland is smaller than New York. Embrace it!
Smaller country is a better country 😛
Privileged
If I wanted to live in America, I’d try to move to America, but not to look for an as dirty and poor town with homeless people in Europe. That’s just weird. If you really liked the European way of life, why not to move here, especially if you don’t have any property where you currently live. If not Switzerland, because yeah, probably it’s hard to move here, etc, then any other Western European country is your choice
But maybe Americans just don’t want to learn any other language except “American” lol
I find the comments to be quite negative, yes it’s nothing like Zürich but cmon, I think there’s some wholesomeness in a village in the US attempting in keeping its roots to Switzerland, it may be done awkwardly but it’s the thought that counts in my opinion. They have no need or no reasons to do it yet they are proud to showcase their roots.
The negative comments is like shitting on a kid because they can’t do the same work as an adult
27 comments
I’m quite dumbfounded. I can get that some people think that nothing is closer to a Swiss city than a very small village with some Swiss flags on chalets. But the general agreement and excitement on this take is too much for me.
And I don’t want to suffer alone.
It’s just a normal american town with a few hotels and restaurants made to look like chalets?
Which makes it a really stupid answer to the question since Zurich isn’t exactly famous for its chalets lol
I just checked the place out on google street view. It looks quite depressing tbh.
Also there’s an old SRF Dok about this town if anyone cares to know more about it
I mean I kind of get it – Zurich is indeed a rather small city and is probably closer to the quaint New Glarus than an actual US metropolis. It is also a really hard or strange request from OP, I can’t think of any city similar to Zürich as so much of it’s politics, culture and city planning is just straight not found in the USA. For this reason I can see how an obvious (and lazy) answer would be a “Swiss”-y city like New Glarus.
I kind of doubt thou that OP is going to be happy with New Glarus as they seem to have liked the more urban aspects of life in Zürich while New Glarus seems to be an almost disney-fied version of a swiss rural town.
So yes, I agree with you that the take of “New Glarus looks like a Swiss city” is really strange, especially if you would have an actual look at how much 19th century stonework Zurich has as a foundation, not some wooden chalets.
I’m not surprised at all. When I lived in America more than a few people were amazed to hear that I went to university in Switzerland. They didn’t think Switzerland had universities, as the population was all in small mountain villages and such. I am not joking.
What’s not to love about CH! We always vacation there when we fly over to visit relatives in Germany. For some reason it’s cheaper to fly into Zürich.
Come and visit your namesake for Bern, CH if you are over this way. New Bern, NC. This is one of my favorite little towns in NC. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Bern,_North_Carolina
what an insane question lol i’m american but i go to switzerland for work…it’s just different lol you’re not going to experience switzerland in the us
Sounds like they are excited about Switzerland which is great 🙂
This “New Glarus” thing is pretty silly. It’s just an anecdotal town where they enacted a super restrictive building code. They want to live in a little europaparc attraction.
Closest American city lifestyle-wise to Zürich is probably places like Boston, Toronto, Seattle. Gotta make abstraction of the lack of proper transit though.
it literally looks like an american theme park version of Switzerland lmao.
Nothing to do with Zürich though
The YouTube channel “The Black Forest Family” has recently posted a video, where they explain, why cities in the US will not be like places in Germany (the same goes for Switzerland). It seems to be that zoning laws prohibit a mixed usage in most places, so if you live in suburbia, you’ll never encounter a bakery, butcher or grocery in the midst of residential places.
These “walkable” towns everywhere in CH are very comfy and everything is close by, while in the US you have to go by car, if you want to buy a sandwich. I think, this amazes a lot of tourists.
Many towns in the United States were originally settled by German and Swiss settlers. Texas has many of these towns but I still wouldn’t say they are remotely similar to anything in Switzerland.
Let’s go there and judge their ghackets mit hörnli
i’m American. I lived in Lausanne for 6 months but traveled around Switzerland a bit when I could. I can confidently say there is nothing even remotely close to Switzerland in the US. Most Americans picture Switzerland as this cold, always snowy, mountainous place where everyone is skiing all the time and every village looks like tourist chalets. (I have also been asked on several occasions if people “speak Swiss” there. Or it is confused with Sweden). Other than that, people don’t really know much about Switzerland in the US, except maybe the general perception of Switzerland having a lot of privacy in terms of banks, data, etc. It’s simply not possible to find the true Swiss culture in the US, only stereotypes.
Now add “public transportation infrastructure like Zürich” in North America
… and you’ll get cricket sound
People should never make a decision to move here based on summer weather. It’s like that 2 months out of the year. Otherwise it’s chilly to cold and cloudy af.
Well i lived in Wisconsin before moving to Zürich. New Glarus is nothing like Zürich. Madison, WI is much closer in feel to Zürich.
New Glarus doesn’t even have 3000 people living there it is much closer to a small mountain town than to Zürich
Leavenworth, WA has a Swiss vibe too
honestly like denver is probably closer
You should probably ignore Americans on the internet
First of all: How the f does one fall in love with freakin Zürich? I have been to quite a lot of cities in the world and believe me, Zürich is not a beautiful place. Just look at all the lovely concrete and the even lovelier locals you encounter.
Second: New Glarus? Yeah sure, it has a lot of people with Swiss ancestry but from the pictures I have seen, it has very little to do with Zürich.
I wouldn’t say that there aren’t many cities in the world that are comparable with Zürich. It might sound strange but the only place that gave me Zürich-vibes abroad was Charleroi in Belgium (but much less wealthy) and maybe, just maybe Frankfurt am Main. Other wealthy cities (Singapore, Vancouver, NYC, London, Sydney) just have completely different vibes compared to Zürich.
Dont be scared about the people negative response, they just dont like zurich. Its worst with aargauer tho beware 😂
So you’re in search of a locale that boasts the sophistication of Zurich but with a side of the quintessential American fast-food charm – where every scenic mountain view comes paired with a frappuccino, and a serving of Swiss culture is topped off with a Big Mac around every bend?
Having just come back from a 60+ day holiday based in Zürich I will attest that it’s unique features will not be replicated in the US. I just need to find a way to make my trips there longer.
Switzerland is smaller than New York. Embrace it!
Smaller country is a better country 😛
Privileged
If I wanted to live in America, I’d try to move to America, but not to look for an as dirty and poor town with homeless people in Europe. That’s just weird. If you really liked the European way of life, why not to move here, especially if you don’t have any property where you currently live. If not Switzerland, because yeah, probably it’s hard to move here, etc, then any other Western European country is your choice
But maybe Americans just don’t want to learn any other language except “American” lol
I find the comments to be quite negative, yes it’s nothing like Zürich but cmon, I think there’s some wholesomeness in a village in the US attempting in keeping its roots to Switzerland, it may be done awkwardly but it’s the thought that counts in my opinion. They have no need or no reasons to do it yet they are proud to showcase their roots.
The negative comments is like shitting on a kid because they can’t do the same work as an adult