The 17 community centres, called Gemeinschaftszentren, are co-funded by the city. They function as a meeting point for the residents of a district and can be visited by anyone for free. They usually have a playground for kids and a little café-bar, many offer organised activities and some even have some farm animals to watch and stroke. A visit is sure to be fun for you and your kids, not just because you are likely to meet other families there.

Here we list some cool and more central ones, see www.gz-zh.ch for all locations. They are usually open 10:00 - 18:00 (17:30 in winter) and some 14:00 - 17:00/18:00 on the weekend:

• GZ Schindlergut, Kronenstrasse 12, tel. (+41) 44 365 24 40
• GZ Wipkingen (on the river), Breitensteinstrasse 19 a, tel. (+41) 44 276 82 80
• GZ Wollishofen (on the lake), Bachstrasse 70, tel. (+41) 43 243 11 37