Practical Tips

Getting a telephone line:

Land line

You need to go through SWISSCOM to get a land line for your phone. You will find the necessary information at the following link

You will also find a Swisscom Shop in the center of Zurich located at the

Swisscom-Shop
Füsslistrasse 6
8001 Zürich Kreis 1
+41 44 294 8675

They will help you take care of all the formalities.

After establishing a line with Swissom, you are free to choose another carrier for cheaper calls.  You can compare the prices at the following link

Mobile line/Cell Phone

For a mobile phone, you may choose to use three of the main providers: Swisscom, Orange and Sunrise.
You may want to see the options they offer at the following links:
Swisscom
Salt
Sunrise


Internet
There are many providers for Internet. You may choose to go through cable or a telephone line depending on where you live.

The cable provider is Cablecom


General Opening Hours in Switzerland
This is a brief look at the normal opening times. Stores, Post Offices and Offices have different opening times according to the size or location of the business.

Shops

Mo,Tu,We,Fr    08h00  - 18h30 (smaller stores and boutiques might open at 09h00)
Th                     08h00  - 21h00 (smaller stores and boutiques might close at 18h30)
Sa                     08h00 - 17h00 (smaller stores and boutiques might close at 16h00)
Su                    CLOSED

At Rail City ZURICH in the main train station, you will find many different stores that are open 365 days a year until 21h00, including a grocery store, a flower shop, a cd store, a hairdresser, a pharmacy, restaurants, etc... You will find a list of the stores here with the exact opening times.

Post Offices

Mo, Tu, We, Th, Fr  08h00 - 12h00 h and 13h00 - 18h00
Sa                            08h00 - 11h30
Su                            CLOSED

Office Hours

Mo - Fr   08h00 - 12h00 and 13h00  - 17h00
Sa, Su    CLOSED

Electricity

Embassies

You will find a listing of the Foreign Embassies in Swizerland
http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/forrep.html

Useful Expat Links

www.expatica.ch
www.xpatxchange.ch
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/index.html
www.englishforum.ch

Yahoo Discussion Groups

This group is for those families living in the Zurich area.
Messages will be posted to members regarding activities for families in Zurich and life here in general. It is meant to be a place to share information about living here as a family.

This group is for anyone living in the Zimmerberg and Sihltal
areas of Zurich... Adliswil, Hirzel, Horgen, Hütten, Kilchberg, Langnau, Oberrieden, Richterswil, Rüschlikon,
Schönenberg, Thalwil, Wädenswil,

For those living in or moving to the ZURICH area:

http://www.internations.org/zurich-expats?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expats-in-Zurich/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Families-in-Zurich
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expats-in-Winterthur
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expat-Moms-In-Switzerland/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expats-in-Switzerland/