Hi, we have an opportunity to visit Basel in mid-February....

Ideas, thoughts for non-skiers?

Thanks!

How many days?


If you enjoy looking at beautiful classic cars, the French National Car Museum in Mulhouse is about a 40-45 minute drive from Basel... about the same amount of time if you train + taxi from the Mulhouse station. We spent the better part of a very rainy day there. Nice cafe.

https://www.musee-automobile.fr/en/discover-the-museum/

If you run out of things to do/see in Basel, there are some realistic day trips by train. "Realistic" for me is about an hour each way. So, Luzern, Bern, Zurich, Colmar (France), Freiburg (Germany), perhaps others I'm not thinking of. You can do some searches on the Swiss rail website.

https://www.sbb.ch/en

thank you, 4 days

Basel has some of he best museums of Switzerland (40 altlogether)
It's a transport hub for all Switzerland (trains every 30 min), Alsace (up to Colmar - Strasbourg), Black Forest and the Upper Rhine Valley (Freiburg - Baden-Baden, Heidelberg.........)

Staying overnight in a Basel hotel/hostel/B and B, you will receive the Basel card, good for free public transportation in the region and discounts on museums and attractions.

https://www.basel.com/en

Before you collect the card at your hotel, you can use your hotel reservation as proof of your stay.

Basel is not a destination for skiers. It’s on the Rhine River, neighboring both France and Germany, with a very walkable old town area and, as neckervd mentions, excellent museums. The Beyeler Foundation is a favorite—the tram ride there takes you out of the city and past open fields, to a stop immediately in front of the museum. Among other destinations of special interest is a Roman settlement, Augusta Raurica (but February might not be the best time to go).

Great information, thank you!

Will sights along Amsterdam to Basel be covered in snow in early February??

Early February:
There may be some snoiw , there may be not.
Even heavy snowfall cannot be exluded, but that would be rather seldom.
The climate in the Upper Rhine Valley (Frankfuirt airport - Basel) is rather mild and warmer than in other parts of Germany.
But nothing can be excluded.

I wish! In our nearly 16 years of living here in Basel, the norm is for some light snowfall in December and then maybe just some flurries once in a while later in the winter. We had only one or two winters that had true serious cold snaps in Feb and even with those, very little snow.

It was a busy day today but will try to answer your original post in more detail tomorrow.

Basel doesn't have 40 museums, that's the entire general area. Basel has 20 something perhaps, but some are really niche (like one just for a Swiss artist, Tinguley or something like that, and one full of teddy bears and one for cartoons and one for fire fighting equipment). I really like classical music so went to that one and it was not very good, it was the worst one I've been to (compared to Vienna and Brussels especially, and Paris). I was only there one day but don't think I could spend four days in Basel alone. YOu can easily get other places to visit within a couple hours, though, Zurich is only about an hour.

Christina, you are right of course, bu most (even Swiss) people don't realize that the Fondation Beyeler is not properly in Basel or that the Schaulager or Augusta Raurica are even in other cantons.

Mulhouse also has a paper museum.

Riehen is part of Basel stadt

Riehen is an indipendant village in the Canton of Basel Stadt, like Bettingen.
It has common borders with the cities of Basel, Weil am Rhein and Loerrach, with the villages of Bettingen, Inzlingen and Grenzach-Wyhlen and - accross the Rhine river - with the village of Birsfelden.