Switzerland is a country I’d wanted to go to for a long time and it’s known for being expensive, but as we found some extremely cheap flights to Basel we thought that would partly offset the extra cost. We were also lucky to find a very reasonably priced hotel in the centre, which combined with free public transport made it seem much more affordable.
One of Switzerland’s largest cities, Basel is at the point where Switzerland, France and Germany meet and some of its suburbs are in those other two countries. On arrival at the somewhat appropriately named EuroAirport you are actually on French soil, but exit following the signs to Switzerland and the bus will quickly whisk you across the border. As mentioned, we had free public transport. Whilst transport isn’t actually free, it is for hotel guests in Swiss cities. Our hotel gave us a pass which entitled us to use the buses and trams, and as long as you can produce proof of accommodation if requested then transport from the airport is also free, provided that you stay within the Swiss parts of Basel.
The centre of Basel is very pleasant with pedestrianised streets and plenty of interesting buildings, there are also nice walks by the river Rhine.
Basel is known for having many museums, especially of art. Rather than go to one of the larger museums we decided to go to two smaller ones – the Cartoon Museum and the Paper Mill Museum. Both were very enjoyable and not too busy, and offered something a bit different to the standard museum fare. The Paper Mill had old preserved equipment and hands on activities, we’ve been to several of these industrial museums and they’re always good (others we’ve visited include the Industrial Gas Museum in Athens, the Electricity Museum in Lisbon and the Rice Museum in Valencia).
I was fascinated by the fact that Basel has a tripoint where three countries meet, and so we got the tram to the north of the city where you can visit Dreiländereck, a monument next to the river near to where Switzerland, Germany and France converge.
After seeing the monument we walked up the road and across the border to Germany. Coming from the UK it always feels quite a novelty to wander so easily into another country! Just across the other side is a shopping centre where the prices were considerably cheaper and I’d imagine it’s well used by the inhabitants of the Swiss part of the city. There was also a fantastic Chinese buffet restaurant which had views across the river to France – the French suburbs of Basel were just a short walk across the adjacent footbridge, the Passerelle des Trois Pays. There are trams to this area from the centre of Basel but it’s important to remember to get off at the border, as once across you’ll need to pay the fare because it’s in Germany, and the free travel offer to visitors therefore no longer applies.
Eating out in Basel was expensive, so as well as the cheaper buffet in Germany we managed to find a reasonably priced pub-style restaurant offering traditional Swiss food near the river docks back in Switzerland. It had a very cosy feel with wood panelling. I had the potato based rösti topped with a fried egg followed by cassata for dessert. Now cassata can refer to more than one type of dessert, the best known being the Sicilian cake with ricotta cheese. This however was the cassata I remember from my childhood – layers of ice cream with candied fruit, and very nice it was too. It definitely added to the retro feel of the evening.
We were in Basel in the run up to Fasnacht, the annual carnival. Whilst we didn’t see the parade itself there were lots of displays in the shops and it seemed to be quite a big event, the largest in Switzerland.
On our final day we visited the Markthalle, an indoor market area with various restaurants and the fairly unusual and fun feature of a slide between floors – something I have since seen in the Mall of Berlin, although that one was closed due to covid precautions.
As the shops were so expensive we didn’t buy anything on our meanderings around the centre (not that we’re really into shopping anyway) but there was plenty to look at without spending any money.
And finally, we normally ignore the ubiquitous airport Toblerone bars, nice though they are, but it seemed appropriate to succumb to their delights whilst in their spiritual home! I can recommend a short break in Basel as a little taste of Switzerland, with the advantage of cheaper options for eating available across the nearby border so that it doesn’t break the bank.
rhtravels 