The Zurich Insider
Private Switzerland
The zurich
Insider team
About
The Zurich Insider
The Zurich Insider is a Zurich-based private travel company creating private tours, day trips, multi-day journeys, transfers, and itinerary design across Switzerland.
Founded by Samantha Aeschbach, we combine local knowledge, cultural context, thoughtful planning, and a carefully selected network of guides and partners to create experiences shaped around each guest.
Meet Samantha Aeschbach
Founder & Host, The Zurich Insider
Hello, and welcome. I am Samantha, founder of The Zurich Insider. It is a pleasure to meet you.
I was born in Zurich but grew up in Italian-speaking Switzerland, with family roots in French-speaking Switzerland and Jewish-Polish heritage on my mother’s side.
From an early age, I experienced Switzerland not as a single story, but as a meeting place of languages, cultures, histories, and identities.
Hospitality and tourism were my first professional love. My path later led through hotels and cruise ships, interpreting, volunteer work, and international public service. For more than 13 years, I served as a Swiss vice consul, working across continents, cultures, and circumstances.
That experience taught me to listen closely, adapt thoughtfully, and help people feel at ease—qualities that now shape the way I welcome and host travelers.
When I returned to Zurich in 2018, I began rediscovering my home city with fresh eyes. Its character reveals itself gradually: in the relationship between old and new, in everyday rituals, in its sharp humor, and in the stories that give familiar places a deeper meaning.
The Zurich Insider brings together my Swiss roots, international perspective, love of hospitality, and enduring curiosity about people and places. Whether I welcome you personally or one of our carefully selected guides hosts your experience, the intention remains the same: for you to feel genuinely welcome and to experience Switzerland with greater understanding and connection.
And yes, chocolate may occasionally play a role—although Switzerland has many other pleasures to discover.
I look forward to welcoming you.
Samantha
Background & Selected Qualifications
Switzerland Travel & Tourism
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Switzerland Travel Expert 2025/26
Switzerland Tourism—training undertaken since 2022 -
Swiss Travel System Excellence Expert 2026
Swiss Travel System AG—training undertaken since 2022 -
Diploma in Tourism & Hotel Management, Lugano, Switzerland, 1995
Planning, Hospitality & Intercultural Experience
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Diploma in Systemic Mindfulness Training, Coaching & Consulting, CTAS, St. Gallen, Switzerland
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More than 13 years of international public-service experience as a Swiss vice consul
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Professional experience in hospitality, interpretation, international settings, and private travel
Safety & Field Training
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First Aid—BLS-AED-SRC, 2023
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NOLS Wilderness First Aid & Epinephrine Auto-Injector Training, 2023
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Crisis Management, field safety, security, and protection training through Swiss and international institutions
LOCATION
Based in Zurich, Switzerland
on a Personal Note
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A professional expat who has lived in 18 countries
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A traveler whose journeys have taken her through more than 75 countries
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Convinced that curiosity, food, and humor are essential travel companions
Meet the team
The Zurich Insider works with carefully selected guides, drivers, specialists, and local partners across Switzerland. We choose each for local knowledge, professional judgment, clear communication, and the ability to host private guests with warmth and discretion.
Depending on your route and interests, your experience may be led by Samantha, by a specialist local guide, or through a carefully coordinated combination of guides, transportation, and local arrangements.
We match the right people and format to the journey rather than applying one standard model to every guest.
The Zurich Insider’s origin
The Zurich Insider began not as a business plan, but through a series of conversations. An architect pointed out stories in familiar streets; an underwater archaeologist, a medieval church scholar, a graffiti enthusiast, and a historian each revealed another layer of Zurich.
Those encounters led to years of reading, researching, walking, and listening. A question gradually took shape:
"How could Zurich’s historical depth, contemporary life, and overlooked details be shared in a way that felt engaging, accessible, and genuinely personal?"
In late summer 2019, that question became The Zurich Insider.
The early tours combined landmarks and lesser-known places, researched context and spontaneous conversation, history and everyday life. The purpose was never simply to see more, but to help travelers understand where they were and make their time feel well spent.
Today, The Zurich Insider creates private tours in Zurich and tailor-made day and multi-day journeys across Switzerland, supported by carefully selected guides and trusted local partners.
The destinations may vary, but the approach remains the same: we listen first, prepare carefully, communicate clearly, and leave room for the unexpected.
“What might you discover when you look beyond the obvious?”
How We Work
Private Travel, Prepared With Care
A meaningful private journey begins with listening.
From your first inquiry, we take time to understand what brings you to Switzerland, what interests you, how you prefer to travel, and what will make your time feel well spent. Samantha stays closely involved in shaping each experience, whether she welcomes you personally or one of our carefully selected guides hosts your tour.
We bring together local knowledge, thoughtful preparation, and a comfortable pace. Familiar highlights may be part of the day, but so are easily overlooked details, the conversations that add context, and the unexpected moments that make a place feel more real.
Rather than applying a fixed script, we match the guide, route, pacing, transportation, and practical arrangements to the journey in front of us. The aim is simple: for you to feel genuinely welcomed, well informed, and free to experience Zurich and Switzerland in a way that feels personal.
What guides us
Curiosity & Connection
We believe travel is, above all, a human exchange.
Through stories, conversation, and attentive listening, we help guests encounter Switzerland through its history, culture, architecture, traditions, and everyday life. We approach each experience with professional knowledge, openness, warmth, and, when the moment is right, humor.
Our curiosity is ongoing. We continue to read, research, listen, and learn, because every place has more to reveal when you return with better questions.
Thoughtful Preparation & Local Knowledge
Good planning should create ease, not rigidity.
We prepare carefully, communicate clearly, and work with knowledgeable guides, trusted drivers, local specialists, and rooted independent partners across Switzerland. Depending on your journey, we may recommend walking, public transportation, scenic rail travel, private vehicles, local guides, or a considered combination.
We favor choices that suit both the guest and the place: realistic pacing, practical continuity, and experiences connected to local character rather than a rushed list of sights.
Integrity & care
Trust is built through honest advice, clear communication, and respect for the people involved.
We explain what is included, what is possible, and what may depend on availability, weather, opening hours, transportation, or other changing conditions. We work with partners who share our standards of professionalism, reliability, and hospitality.
Sometimes care also means saying that an idea needs adjusting—or that it is not the right fit. We would always rather offer an honest recommendation than promise an experience we cannot deliver with confidence.
Private Means Private
Our experiences are designed for your party alone.
We respect our guests' privacy and do not routinely publish photographs, names, personal stories, travel details, or itineraries without clear permission. Participation in an experience does not itself give us permission to use identifiable images or recordings for marketing.
We treat your inquiry and travel plans discreetly. We share information with guides, drivers, and partners only when it is reasonably necessary to plan and deliver your confirmed experience. The attention remains where it belongs: on your time in Switzerland.
Where Might Switzerland Take You Next?
Whether you already have a clear idea or are only beginning to imagine your time in Switzerland, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Tell us about your dates, group size, interests, and starting point, and we will help you find the right private experience or journey to begin with.
