6 Best Shopping in Bern, Switzerland

About 100 arts-and-crafts stands fill the Münsterplatz on the first Saturday of the month between March and December. In December, the market also happens on the first Sunday and the third Saturday and Sunday.

Münstergasse, between Zytglogge and Münster, offers meats, dairy products, bread, fish, fruit, veggies, and more every Tuesday and Saturday.

The Bärenplatz is filled with fresh produce, herbs, and flowers every day except Sunday between May and October.

This awning-covered warren is the place for handmade soaps, antique copper pots, silver jewelry, handmade hammocks, tie-dyed scarves, and toys, including helium-filled balloons. Open on Tuesday and Saturday year-round, the market also opens on Thursday between April and October.

Throughout December, hot mulled wine adds spice to the arts and crafts, colorful decorations, and seasonal produce lining the stalls set up around Old Town during the Weihnachtsmarkt, open daily from late November till December 24th. 

The Zibelemärit is a remnant of a 15th-century Autumn Market that lasted two weeks; 19th-century farmers' wives, notably from Fribourg, developed the habit of coming to Bern on the first day of the market to sell their excess produce, particularly onions. Today half the 200 stalls that line the City Center on the fourth Monday in November display a vast assortment of items made with onions—everything from wreaths to alarm clocks to soup. Some say the best time to browse the annual market is just after it opens at 4 am, when stalls are candlelit; you may be treated to a predawn dusting of snow, and confetti battles—a major part of the festivities—do not yet rage.