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Bern
Federal city of Switzerland

Bern

Bern, or Berne, is the de facto capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".

Plan a trip to Bern→From Bâle / Mulhouse

With a population of about 146,000, Bern is the fifth-most populous city in Switzerland, behind Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Lausanne. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 36 municipalities, had a population of 406,900 in 2014. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000.

Get in

Getting to Bern

Situated in the middle of Switzerland, Bern is easy to reach from all parts of the country.

  1. 01
    Bern-Belp Airport
  2. 02
    Bern Railway Station

    In a mall surrounded by cafes and other shops.

See

Worth seeing

Bern is full of history and museums. It also has quite a bit of public art, all of which is marked on a walking map which is available from the tourist office in the train station for free.

  1. 01
    Bern Historical Museum

    Large historic museum, combining under one roof one of the country's most important ethnographic collections together with the Bernese historical collections from prehistory to the present day.

  2. 02
    Bundeshaus
  3. 03
    Zytglogge

    It has been a guard tower, and a prison for women convicted of having sex with priests, but since the 15th century, it's been a clock tower with an elaborate astronomical clock.

  4. 04
    Einsteinhaus

    Kramgasse 49, webmaster@einstein-bern.ch.

  5. 05
    Kunstmuseum
  6. 06
    Swiss Alpine Museum

    A museum describing all aspects of the Swiss mountains: geology & tectonics, glaciers, weather, wildlife, agriculture & settlement, and alpinism and winter sports.

Do

Things to do

  1. 01
    Gurten

    The Gurten is a lovely hill just outside the city.

  2. 02
    Rosengarten

    Little park with a splendid view over the old town.

  3. 03
    Gurtenfestival

    In July the Gurten hill is host to an open-air festival with many national and international music acts.

Eat

Where to eat

Eating in Bern (or almost anywhere in Switzerland for that matter) can be an expensive proposition for foreign tourists. Be sure to "shop around" before deciding on a restaurant as many of them cater to foreign tourists (especially those serving traditional Swiss food) and have inflated their prices accordingly.

  1. 01
    Restaurant Zunft zu Webern

    Gerechtigkeitsgasse 68, fax: +41 31 312 20 67.

  2. 02
    Coop Restaurant Bern Ryfflihof

    Very wide variety of dishes, a nice curry station, salad bar and lots of desserts.

  3. 03
    Lo stuzzichino da Mohan

    The food, dessert and the service are good.

  4. 04
    Tong Fong

    It's a delicious Asian take-away restaurant.

  5. 05
    Sous le Pont

    A nice restaurant in the Reitschule complex which serves excellent dishes.

How locals move

Getting around Bern the local way

  • Get aroundAll hotel bookings in Bern include the “Bern-Ticket", which allows the free use of public transport within the city (zones 100 and 101) for the duration of the stay, including the Gurten funicular and transfer from and to the airport.
  • Go nextYou can make day trips to beautiful locations like Spiez, Thun, Interlaken, Grindelwald and all the way up the Jungfrau to Jungfraujoch.
  • Go nextOther pleasant day trips are to Biel, Fribourg, Gstaad, Murten, Neuchatel and Solothurn.
  • Go nextGeneva, Basel and Zurich can easily be done as day trips but deserve a longer stay.

From Wikivoyage: Bern, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.