How this list was made
We searched YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Apple Podcasts and the main Swiss and expat forums for English-language sources covering moving to and living in Switzerland, then kept the ones with a real audience and evidence they are still publishing. We favoured people who live here over people who visited, and material aimed at adults planning a permanent move. Anything with no upload or post in twelve months was dropped. Language removed more candidates in Switzerland than anywhere else we have covered: this is a country of four languages and almost everything at scale is in German, French or Italian.
Audience figures. Every YouTube subscriber count was read off the channel's own page on YouTube on 18 September 2026. Every Instagram follower count was read off the profile itself on the same day. Every video on this page was confirmed by YouTube's oEmbed service to belong to the channel shown, a check that has caught mismatches on several of our country pages. Podcast episode counts and latest episode dates came from Apple's lookup service rather than the rendered Apple Podcasts page, which returns dates that are wrong by one to two years. The five TikTok figures are Social Blade approximations, because TikTok does not serve us profiles directly. Forum statistics were read from each forum's own public data on 18 September 2026.
Upload dates. Three of the ten YouTube cards carry a date taken from the channel's official feed and are exact. YouTube does not publish a feed for the other seven, so for those we read the age YouTube itself displays and converted it, which means a card saying August 2026 is accurate to the month rather than the day. Four cards deliberately do not show the channel's newest upload, because the newest was a short clip or off the subject, and each of those cards says so.
Two things we could not get, and did not invent. Reddit refused us access on the day we built this page, from every route we have, so the single Reddit card carries no member count. Facebook publishes no member figure for any Swiss expat group and no dated third-party source publishes one either, so this page lists no Facebook group at all rather than quote a number somebody guessed.
What is not here, and why that matters. We went looking specifically for English-language coverage of Swiss residence permits, the non-EU retirement route, Lex Koller restrictions on foreigners buying property, and how American, British and Canadian pension income is taxed once you are resident. On video there is nothing. In writing, every detailed source is an immigration law firm, a relocation agency, a residency-by-investment outfit or a tax practice earning a fee on the answer. We have said so on the page rather than pad it with their content marketing.
Rejected, so nobody has to repeat the work. Two brand-new faceless YouTube channels are currently publishing Swiss cost-of-living and retirement videos at high speed: one joined on 8 September 2026 with four videos and a couple of hundred total views, the other on 13 August 2026. Both use the format that ranks. There is also a Switzerland Travel Podcast that publishes daily and belongs to an operator running around a hundred format-identical country shows with invented local hosts, which we have now identified in five countries. None of them is listed here.
Nothing on this page is paid for and no creator was contacted for inclusion. No creator imagery is copied to our servers: every embed is the platform's own. Where a source sells something, whether that is a guide, a course, financial advice or a relocation service, the card says so.
Latest: When a Swiss Travel Pass TOTALLY Makes Sense (and when it definitely doesn't) · 12 September 2026
Instagram and TikTok
Eighteen Instagram accounts and five on TikTok. Twelve of the eighteen are official tourism boards, which is the true shape of Switzerland's English social layer rather than a shortcut on our part: only four people at listable scale are documenting their own life here, and all four are in Zurich. Every follower count was read off the profile itself on 18 September 2026. The five TikTok figures are Social Blade approximations, because TikTok does not serve us profiles. Handles do not match across platforms here, so each card carries the exact one.
Christina Fryer, New In Zurich
A British woman living in Zurich who has run NewInZurich.com for years. Takes brand and hotel collaborations, which are visible in the feed
88,300 followers, read off the profile on 18 September 2026, and the single best account on this page for our readers: a Briton who moved, stayed, and now publishes what is open, what is worth booking and what the city expects of you. Posting daily. If you want one account to follow while you decide whether Zurich is liveable rather than visitable, this is it.
Just moved to Switzerland
Curated by Larisa, who moved to Zurich in 2017 and also posts as @larisa.lately. Paid restaurant and brand collaborations appear regularly
55,300 followers. Nine years of one person's life in Zurich, which is long enough that the account has stopped being about arriving and started being about living. Strong on where to eat, where to walk and where to go for a weekend, with saved collections by canton. She has not published her nationality anywhere we could find, so we describe her as a long-settled foreign resident rather than guess.
Tanya, Swiss Family Fun
The Zurich-based American behind the Swiss Family Fun website and YouTube channel. Sells guides and itinerary planning
42,500 followers, and unusually for an account this size the comment count is high relative to the like count, which is what a real community looks like rather than a bought one. Every hike is posted with the practical detail underneath: the transport, the timing, the surface. Twenty years of doing it in this country.
Harry Meier, The Curated Zurich Guide
Harry Meier, thirteen years in Zurich. Openly takes collaborations and the feed shows them
192,000 followers and the strongest engagement of any Switzerland account we measured, by a wide margin. Food, wellness and culture in Zurich, presented as guides rather than posts. His bio does not state whether he is Swiss or a long-settled foreigner and we are not going to invent an answer, but the recommendations are consistently local rather than touristic.
Markus Manfredi, Swiss Around
Markus Manfredi, a Swiss photographer. Substantially commercial: many posts carry paid-partnership disclosures, marked Anzeige
2.9 million followers, the largest Switzerland account of any kind, and the work is his own photography rather than reposts, which is what separates it from the aggregator accounts we left off. Treat it as beautifully made advertising: the places are real and the routes are worth noting, but a good share of the posts are paid for by the destinations in them.
The Swiss Outdoor Collective
Eleven named friends from Switzerland posting as a collective. Runs a shop and paid photography workshops, and carries brand partnerships
199,000 followers. Alpine days out photographed by people who do them, including a lot of the shoulder-season and bad-weather Switzerland that the boards never show. It is a collective rather than a person, so no individual is accountable for what is posted, and it sells things. Listed because the picture of mountain life here is more honest than the official version.
Switzerland Tourism
The national board's own account, confirmed from its profile: Morgartenstrasse 5, Zurich, linking to linktr.ee/myswitzerland
1.2 million followers. Worth following for one reason: it is the cheapest way to see the whole country through the seasons before you commit to a canton. Note the handle. @switzerlandtourism and @myswitzerland both exist on Instagram and neither is the live official account: the first has under 2,000 followers and stopped posting around 2019.
Zurich Tourism
Zurich Tourism's official account, confirmed from its own bio and from zuerich.com
313,000 followers, posting daily in English and German. The most useful board account for a reader who will land in Zurich, because a good share of it is what is open this week rather than what is beautiful in general.
Geneva Tourism
The Geneva Tourism and Conventions Foundation. Confirmed from geneve.com
87,700 followers, in English. Read the handle carefully, because this is the trap on this page: @visitgeneva on Instagram is NOT the board. It is a private individual's curation project with under 5,000 followers that stopped posting around 2021. Confusingly, @visitgeneva IS the board's handle on TikTok. The board on Instagram is @genevatourism and nothing else.
Lucerne Tourism
Lucerne Tourism's official account, confirmed from luzern.com
73,000 followers, in English, posting most days. Central Switzerland is where a large share of English-speaking retirees actually settle, because it combines lake, mountains and a real year-round town, and this is the only board account covering it.
Bern Welcome
Bern Tourism, trading as Bern Welcome. Confirmed from bern.com
76,700 followers. Mixed German and English, and the card says so because you will notice. Bern is the capital, it is markedly cheaper than Zurich or Geneva, and almost nobody publishes about it in English, so a board account is what there is. Note the handle is @ilove_bern, not @visitbern.
Basel Tourism
Basel Tourism's official account, confirmed from basel.com
158,000 followers, bilingual English and German. Basel is a serious cultural city on the French and German borders, with the museums to prove it and none of the lump-sum tax arrangements the resort cantons offer. The handle is @baselswitzerland, not @visitbasel.
Ticino Turismo
Ticino Tourism's official account, confirmed from ticino.ch
106,000 followers. Posts alternate between Italian and English, so expect roughly half of it to need translating. Ticino is the Italian-speaking canton and the one our readers ask about most after Vaud: palm trees, lakes, Milan closer than Zurich, and the steepest health-insurance premium rise in the country in 2026.
Valais Wallis Promotion
The canton of Valais's official promotion body, based in Sion. Confirmed from valais.ch
121,000 followers, posting in English, French and German. Valais covers Zermatt, Verbier and Crans-Montana, and it is where the most accessible lump-sum tax arrangements and the holiday-home quotas sit, so it is worth watching for reasons beyond the scenery. The TikTok handle is different: @valaiswallispromotion.
Interlaken Tourism
Interlaken Tourism, confirmed from interlaken.swiss
110,000 followers, in English. Between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz at the foot of the Jungfrau, which is the postcard most people have in their head when they say Switzerland. Worth following to find out how busy that postcard is in July. TikTok is a different handle: @visitinterlaken.
Zermatt Matterhorn
Zermatt Tourism, confirmed from zermatt.swiss
420,000 followers, the largest regional board account in the country, bilingual English and German. A car-free village at 1,600 metres with the Matterhorn above it, and one of the few Swiss mountain towns with a genuine year-round population rather than a season. Note the dot: @zermatt.matterhorn here, @zermattmatterhorn on TikTok.
Graubunden
Graubunden Ferien, the canton's official tourism body. Confirmed from graubuenden.ch
152,000 followers. The bio is German only and the posts are German first with English alongside, which we would rather you knew now. Graubunden is the largest and least populated canton, covering Davos, Arosa, Flims and the Engadin, and it is where the Swiss go when they want mountains without the international crowds.
St. Moritz
St. Moritz Tourismus. We could not find a social link on stmoritz.com, but the profile links to booking.stmoritz.com, the town's own booking domain, which settles it
286,000 followers, in English, following nobody, which is how an institutional account behaves. Listed with one caveat worth reading: there is a second account, @stmoritz_topoftheworld, whose bio also claims to be official and which has nine followers. This is the live one. There is no credible St. Moritz TikTok.
Switzerland Tourism on TikTok
The national board's TikTok, confirmed from myswitzerland.com
Approximately 509,900 followers, from Social Blade on 18 September 2026. The same destination marketing as the Instagram account in the format that suits it better. Same handle on both platforms, which is the exception here rather than the rule.
Swiss Around on TikTok
Markus Manfredi's TikTok, the same photographer as the Instagram entry. Commercially partnered
Approximately 2.1 million followers, from Social Blade on 18 September 2026. Short-form Swiss landscape work from the country's largest creator. We could not confirm the date of his most recent TikTok upload, but his Instagram was current when we checked, so the creator is not dormant.
Zurich Tourism on TikTok
Zurich Tourism's official TikTok, confirmed from zuerich.com
Approximately 64,300 followers, from Social Blade on 18 September 2026, with six uploads in the fortnight to 17 September, so it is genuinely maintained rather than parked. Short city clips, useful for seeing what a Zurich street looks like on an ordinary Tuesday.
Just moved to Switzerland on TikTok
Larisa's TikTok, the same Zurich creator as the Instagram entry
Approximately 18,300 followers, from Social Blade on 18 September 2026, across 211 videos. Zurich lifestyle in short form. Smaller than her Instagram but the same voice and the same city.
New In Zurich on TikTok
Christina Fryer's TikTok, the same British Zurich resident as the Instagram entry
Approximately 4,756 followers, from Social Blade on 17 September 2026, and by some distance the smallest account on this page. It is here because the cadence is real: uploads on nine separate days in the first half of September 2026. Small audience, high relevance.