What's wrong with Bern?
 

I've received very helpful advice here about using Lauterbrunnen or Brienz as a base, but with alpine walks not a priority for the others in my party and our visit likely to be in April or Sep/Oct, I'm considering other options. On the basis of geography, excellent train connections and alternatives for bad weather/rest days, I would have thought that Bern would be a useful base for a family, but it seems to have little support in these forums. What do others think? Does anyone have recommendations for centrally located apartments or family rooms in Bern? (My only experience of Bern was as a hosteller about 30 tears ago.) Any advice much appreciated.

Hah!, that should have been 'years, not 'tears' - Bern was not that bad as I recall (although the bears may have other opinions).

That's what the Swiss ask when the government is acting peculiar.

There's nothing wrong with Bern. It's a wonderful small city with lots to do.

What's your priority? How long are you staying in Switzerland?

Bern is a very beautiful city - spectacular location on a rock above the river, contiguous old town which could easily serve as backdrop for a medieval film, nice restaurants, good hotels, good museums.

Compared to Zürich or Geneve, Bern has the charme of a mid-sized city - maybe that is the reason why some travellers do not like it so much.

Another good thing about Bern is the location. You can easily reach two spectacular lakes and grand mountain scenery (the Berner Oberland).

I surely recommend staying there.

If you can afford stay at the Bellevue Palace - a dream of a hotel. If you cannot afford staying there have breakfast or brunch on the hotel's terrace.

There's nothing at all wrong with Bern. We stayed there on our first two trips to Switzerland, before we discovered that we prefer staying closer to the Alps.

If hiking is not the main puprose of your trip, there is absolutely nothing wrong with staying in Bern.

I like Bern a lot (except for the bear pits, I hope they have been improved since I last saw them a few years ago). I especially like their art museum. But I probably wouldn't want to spend more than couple of days there. For a city base in Switzerland, I'd choose Basel, Lugano or possibly Montreux (which I don't know as well as the first two). Basel, of course, doesn't have the attractive setting that Bern does, but I like it better as a city and it's easy to day trip from there to Luzern, Thun, Bern, Zug, etc. or even up to Freiburg in Germany.

Thanks for your comments. We are thinking of at least 7 days, travelling by train (Swiss Pass or Eurail), going to the Jungfrau or Schilthorn on one day (I've been to Titlis) and possibly Pilatus or Rigi on another (all weather permitting of course), with the other days fairly leisurely, eg Solothurn, and on and around the lakes, including Thun-Spiez-Brienz (I remember seeing a fairy tale wedding scene at the church/ castle?? by the lake at Spiez in 1978), Montreux-Vevey, and possibly Neuchatel or Zurich. Also the possibility of a day further afield, say Brig/ Domodossola/ Locarno. The Bellevue Palace is not in our league I'm afraid.

I too loved Bern for the Aar River, the arcaded shopping (great on a rainy day), outdoor covered cafes for people-watching, the Rosengarten above the city for the spectacular views of the river bend while sipping a Radler (refreshing half beer, half sprite), the city's proximity (20 minutes train to medieval Murten-walk the walls for great views of the red tlie-topped houses and the lake), easy train connections, but NOT the heart-breaking bearpits with neurotic, pathetically bored bears circling and circling.

I love Bern. It's a very pretty city with a great old town and the covered shops are great if the weather turns bad. Many beautiful fountains, and there's a cosmopolitan sort of feel because of all the people from the embassies.

I've visited Bern during free time on business trips. There are several good museums and cultural attractions.

If such things interest you, it's possible to tour the Swiss parliament which is loosely based on the U.S. Congress (one house determined by population, the other house giving each canton equal representation). Security is tight, and reservations are required (my hotel made mine). The guide was excellent, and the Swiss history lesson was very interesting.

It's an easy day trip to Chateau de Chillon on Lake Geneva.

bookmarking...thank you

Thanks to everyone - that's very encouraging. There's something to be said for staying where tourists are not in the majority, if only to experience the local rush hour, life in the suburbs, or to check out the merchandise on the shelves, but it does depend on your priorities of course (and good transport connections). I'd also be looking at the suggestion of Basel if ready access to the three countries were a priority. Next time perhaps.

Because of the rains in the Jungfrau region, I went to Bern Thurs Aug 30 to look around, have some lunch and basically just kill some time.

Since I do NOT do hikes in the rain. I give some of you who load yourself down with all of that synthetic rain gear stuff plenty of credit for trying.

But hiking in the pouring down rain?

Ahhhh, no!!!!!!!!

I did pick up a cool Blues rock CD in Bern. This record shop in Bern was playing this cool blues rock CD so people walking out in the Bern arcades could hear the music. That was cool. Since there is so much musical rubbish out there these days ( top 40 teeny bopper rubbish), when I hear something cool, I check it out. The manager of the store knew his blues rock as we talked about the great bluesmen and blues ladies of old and current.

My Last Day in the Jungfrau region I had plenty of sun and fun as the skies opened with glorious sunshine. I did one of my favorite jaunts in the area. I did that Eigergletscher walk and walk down the ridge down to Wengenalps.

The views are just simply awesome. If there are better views of the area, I'd like to know where?

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. Bern is good place to do a rainy day in. Bern is about 45 minutes out of Interlaken and is easy enough for people to day-trip out of as well.

Now playing:

Neil Young: Be the rain

The Doors: Riders on the storm

Some random thoughts:

1. I would not go to Switzerland in April. I used to live in Zurich, and April is NOT spring in Switzerland. It is still turning into Spring. It is like March on the east coast of the US. Rainy, foggy, damp and cold. Much more so in the mountains where you want to go on day trips, it is still winter there, lots of snow and then mush, and fog obscuring mountain views. You won't have spring flowers. Even lovely Lake Geneva is not really good in April, still very brown and I have been there in snowstorms in April. The Tocino is not in bloom in April either, and tends to be rainy. Sept/Oct are fine for the mountains, more so early Oct than later.

2. There are LOTS of things to do in the mountain towns or the lake towns below the mountains if you don't want to hike. There are cable car and funicular rides up to the top and down to the bottom of valleys. There are lovely long ferry rides on the lakes. There are little castles at Thun and elsewhere. There are cows in the fields with their bells, there are wildflowers and birds (not in April). There are easy, gentle flat walks which people of no walking ability take with baby strollers out to scenic viewpoints, and in typical Swiss style there is a restaurant lurking nearby. There is just staring up at the mountains. (Which you seem to want to do on all those day trips you are planning to go up into the mountains.) If you stay in Laterbrunnen (I would pick Wengen actually) you will already be there. A lake town like Thun on Lake Brienz may give you the best of both: on the lake with great ferry rides, close to the mountains and great train links to other places. (Including Berne if you get a rainy day and want to hit a museum).

3. With 7 days, IMO you are much better off moving once rather than spending all 7 in one place and trying to see the entire country by train. I think you will really get tired of the train rides every day. You are talking about some long train rides. (Days are not that long in April either, so bear that in mind, take a look at sunrisesunset.com) Do the western/Lake Geneva area like Solothurn, Neuchatal, Montreux, Vevey with one base and the eastern end from another. It could be Berne, I think Thun may be preferable.

My Swiss friends always call Bern boring, like some kind of a joke. I'm not sure why, as I've never been.

I perked up at the recommendation above of adding Vevey/Montreux for a few days. Love that part of the country!

We had 22 straight days of sunshine and spring weather in Zurich last April. This September is feeling rather cool to me. We've only lived here 8 months, but one thing I'm learning is the weather in Switzerland is unpredictable and always changing...I always carry a little umbrella and can usually count on a pretty sunset even if it was rainy all day.

April or Sept/Oct in Switzerland.

To be honest, I would advise Sept/Oct before April because of the fall colours and the sharp views you can get of the mountains.

But there's no guarantee. We had an amazing April (as Gruezi mentioned) this year that we're still talking about. Especially since our summer wasn't that special. July was better than August.

Right now, it's a beautiful day with clear blue skies but a bit on the cool side. Perfect to see the mountains. Yesterday, a friend went to the Zermatt and saw the Matterhorn on a cloudless day.

The beg. of Sept. this year was quite wet and cold, with fresh snow in the mountains.

suze:

The Swiss call Bern boring because they think that Zürich is Switzerland's real capital. Compared to Zürich, Bern is a medium-sized town whose cultural scene is not as glamourous as Zürich's.

But compared to Montreux...
.. the Swiss may dislike Bern but they hate Montreux! And with reason: Many of the hotels are run-down. I had the worst hotel experience in Montreux - with a superior room in the second-best hotel in town - unbelievable bathrooms (original of the 1960ies and not cleaned since then).

Hmmm... well my Swiss friends live near Geneva not Zurich, in the french-speaking area. Actually they live in Montreux & love it there. Sorry you don't like the hotels. I'm lucky enough to stay in their fabulous apartment, so I don't know about that part.

As a general rule of thumb, the German speaking Swiss look down on most of the French speaking part because of the comparative lack of cleanliness, etc. My mother was native born Swiss-German and I still remember our first visit to Lausanne. It didn't seem as clean to me and I asked her if that was the case or just my imagination. Her reply was, "Of course it's not clean, they're French!"

I would consider Bern one of Europe's most underrated cities - especially in light of what you have heard about it in your OP

Great old city centre - if rainy there are miles of arcades to walk under.

The Aare River area - so picturesque - the Bear Pits with bruins playing around - the Bear being the symbol of Bern - walk along the river - so nice or even hop in and swim with the current (get advice beforehand though)

And no Eurailpass for you but a Swiss Pass would be excellent for that travel. If out of Switzerland buy your pass before arriving as the exact same Swiss Passes bought in Switzerland are about 18% higher last time i compared prices. RailEurope, part owned by Swiss Railways in U.S. is the major outlet in U.S. but they'd charge an $18 mailing fee for most Swiss Pass orders. I always recommend BETS (www.budgeteuropetravel.com) for their expertise and lack of mailing fees even though a RE agent. Their free European Planning & Rail Guide you can request on their site has a good chapter on Switzerland trains and also on the Jungfrau area. www.swisstravelstystem.com has lots on Swiss trains, lake boats, etc.

Beauty of Swiss Pass is that it also gives 50% off all cabelways and mountain trains not covered by Swiss Passes - (25% only on Jungfraujoch trains however.)

sundown~ Oh believe me, the feeling's mutual... You should hear what the french-speaking Swiss have to say about the Swiss-Germans!!!
;-)

The Röstigraben: the Rösti trench between the French and German speaking areas. Lots of stereotyping is involved and neither really like each other all that well due to this. Thankfully, this love/hate relationship is not too serious and because of democracy, everyone has the same voice. It's much like comparing the East Coast with the West Coast USA.

Now the Swiss don't really think that Zürich is the real capital. We're quite proud of our voting process and government. All of our politicians are based in Bern. Zürich has the money and banks. It has lots of hip bars, great concerts and infrastructure and is the place to find the newest trends. It's rather like comparing Washington DC and New York City.

Crossing the Rostigraben:

several times from trains crossing this Franco-Germanic Suisse line i've especially looked at wood piles by houses.

Immaculately stacked on the German side with each log uncannily the same length and stacked in very straight piles

i can tell the French side by the noticeably more haphazzardly stacked wood piles.