Basel
Basel is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine, at the transition from the High Rhine to the Upper Rhine.
Basel is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine, at the transition from the High Rhine to the Upper Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third most populous city, with 177,595 inhabitants within the city municipality limits.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
Basel Old Town is a compact, walkable area bounded to the north by the Rhine and to the south by the Zoo and SBB main railway station. There are many museums, some with a free opening hour at the end of the day.
- 01Basler Münster
Now a Reformed Protestant cathedral, it was built from 1019, badly damaged in an earthquake of 1356, and completed in 1500 in Romanesque & Gothic style.
- 02Elisabethenkirche
Elisabethenstrasse 14 (T-jcn with Henric Petri Strasse).
- 03Kunstmuseum Basel
Huge permanent collection of 19th and 20th century works, including a whole room of Picasso, and medieval and renaissance paintings from Holbein, Grien and others.
- 04Kunsthalle Basel
No permanent collection, this is Basel's main non-commercial art space for changing contemporary art shows.
- 05Museum der Kulturen
Ethnographic museum featuring exhibits from South America, Africa, East Asia and Oceania.
- 06Antikenmuseum Basel
From Wikivoyage: Basel, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
Basel is one of the major cities in Switzerland and offer all activities of an urban centre. Most popular is the Basel Carnival but the Basel ferry is the icon. Basel ferry (behind Münster). The Basel Rhine ferry is an icon of the city and a visit to Basel without a ride on a ferry would be incomplete. It only takes two-three minutes but it offers a great view (during sunshine). The Third Man. Chase The Third Man?
From Wikivoyage: Basel, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
Basel has a thriving restaurant and café (see below Cafés) culture, and the streets of the old town are lined with outdoor seating in the summer. Not all restaurants in Basel accept credit cards (though an increasing number do). If in doubt check first. As in most of Europe, tipping is not a requirement.
- 01Brötlibar
The Brötli-Bar at the Stadthof Hotel, Barfüsserplatz, has a large selection of open sandwiches ("Brötli" to the Swiss).
- 02Hirscheneck
Traditional left-wing, punk-run restaurant.
- 03Migros
- 04Lily's Maxim
"Pan-Asian" bench table restaurant (like Wagamama but with more than noodles).
- 05SAM'S Pizza Land
Has a take away counter which serves filling Turkish wraps and pizzas for around Fr.
From Wikivoyage: Basel, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Basel
- Airports
- EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg (BSL), 7 km · Zürich (ZRH), 73 km · Strasbourg (SXB), 109 km
- Zurich → Basel76 km · quickest by road, 1h 42m · CHF9–12
- Geneva → Basel186 km · quickest by road, 3h 43m · CHF26–35
- Strasbourg → Basel115 km · quickest by road, 2h 21m · €14–19
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Basel
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Basel. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inBut these are scenic cruises taking 8 days to tour the cities along the way; they're not point-to-point ferries.
- Get aroundYou can be carried across the Rhine by Fähri, one of Basel's four small ferry boats, which, hanging at a steel rope, are silently drawn by the current between the two banks of the river.
- Go nextThe following destinations are good day trips by train from Basel: Zürich, Bern, Interlaken (see below), Lucerne (see below), Schaffhausen — all in Switzerland, 1–2 hours from the main station (Bahnhof SBB).
From Wikivoyage: Basel, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 01171 km
- 02415 km
- 03662 km
- 04734 km
- 05850 km
If you know how people move in Basel – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.