The ride into Bern presents a robust highway system, more densely packed residential areas, more industrial buildings and significantly more graffiti than I’d seen elsewhere on my Swiss travels. And while it was the least aesthetically pleasing train ride of my 23-day Switzerland itinerary, the city itself turned out to be quite beautiful. There’s a mix of gothic and baroque architecture with Bernese flags proudly flying on every facade throughout Bern’s Old Town (Aldstadt) — and exploring it all on foot is just one of many things to do in Bern.
9 things to do in Bern (if you’ve only got 24 hours)
I had just 24 hours in what most consider Switzerland’s capital city (even if that’s not technically how the Swiss themselves see it), and the weather didn’t want to co-operate for most of it, but it didn’t stop me! The result are these nine things to do in Bern. The best news? There’s no transportation required to hit everything on this list. I walked everywhere, easily.
1. Stay at Hotel Bern.
Located right in the city centre, it’s hard to believe it’s part of the Best Western Plus portfolio. Without knowing that, you’d think you landed in a chic boutique hotel. No shade to Best Western, because my kids will tell you we’ve stayed at some really good ones, but it’s typically got a very solid two- to three-star vibe with unremarkable décor. This feels higher end from the moment you hit the lobby. Plus, a good breakfast is included.
2. Take a tour.
I highly recommend the combined clock tower and UNESCO city tour through Bern Tourism (you can find them all listed here). As a former architect, my tour guide was fascinating from both historical and architectural perspectives. I learned that Bern was founded in the 1100s and its iconic clock tower (the Zytglogge) — originally a large gate and part of the city’s fortification — was built in 1405 after a fire destroyed the entire city, which is now considered “Old Town.”
The clock is still wound by hand every day and its interior clockworks are a work of genius, which you’ll only get to see on a private tour like this one. Its current iteration, which took three years to build in 1530, was crafted not by a clockmaker but an ammunitions-maker. It is super cool to be inside with all of the gears when it chimes on the hour.
We toured the bank square, where the parliament building sits. And this is where I learned that Bern is not the capital of Switzerland. That, in fact, there is no capital by the usual definition we’d use in North America. But it does house parliament and, therefore, the rest of the world thinks of it like a capital. It’s also the heart of the Röstigraben divide between French and German cultural and linguistic influences that generally determine the direction of government and policies (with the German side almost always carrying more weight than the French).
Since Mother Nature wasn’t kind the morning of my tour, we went inside the towering Bern Minster (Berner Münster), too — a gothic cathedral that started construction in 1421 but didn’t see completion until 1575 — or 1893 if you factor in the spire. It has an astonishing annual budget of CHF 2 million for restorations (that’s about USD$2.6M or CAD$3.5M!). The spire is more than 100 metres tall, making it the tallest cathedral in Switzerland.
3. Watch the Zytglogge chime.
This time, from the outside. I found it beyond fascinating to watch all of the little mechanisms on the façade after knowing how it works behind the scenes in the tower.
4. Look out the Bern Minster spire.
It’s quite a climb to the top, so bring along a full bottle of water and wear your most comfortable shoes. There are a couple of spots on the way up where you can take a breather if you need one, but most of the stairwell is winding and narrow so you’ll need to keep moving if it’s busy.
The view is worth every step and panting breath, though:
5. Admire (or jump into) the Aare River.
On my tour, we went to the edge of a city wall — just behind parliament on the Mattentreppe near the Mattelift platform, which connects the Munsterplatforn with the Matte district — and looked out over the gorgeous Aare River, which is Insta-famous thanks to stories of people commuting home from work by jumping into the river and being carried home by the current.
My tour guide said this isn’t really true but that locals do all use an app that measures the water’s temperature and current in real time, marking whether it’s safe on a given day for swimming. Had the weather been nicer during my visit in mid-July, he said we definitely would have seen people jumping in and relaxing in the natural lazy river.
Put your bathing suit on under your clothes and pick up a dry bag at nearly any store in Bern’s Old Town if you want to give it a try (but ONLY if locals are jumping). Dry bags are for sale everywhere here because swimming in the Aare River is such a common activity for tourists and locals alike. Your phone and wallet will thank you.
6. Don’t get stuck in the rain on a Monday.
Sadly, my lucky streak with the weather in Switzerland ran out during my 24 hours in Bern. I’m glad my packing list for Europe in a carry-on included a rain poncho because I sure made great use of it. Fortunately, most of Bern’s Old Town is built with covered passages and arcades — also sometimes called “mews” — allowing you to walk good distances protected from the elements, even though you’re still very much outdoors. So you can really get to just about everything in this area and stay pretty dry even if you don’t come prepared for rain.
When some of my plans (like a visit to the Rosengarten) were dashed, I looked up “things to do in Bern in the rain” and the only options were museums and galleries — all of which are closed on Mondays. So, consider yourself warned and plan your visit accordingly.
7. Eat chocolate.
Bern is sort of home to Switzerland’s chocolate-making industry, with Lindt’s first factory and Theodor Tobler, who got his start by working for Lindt, creating Toblerone here.
Find your way to award-winning chocolatier Casa Nobile for a chocolate tasting at its Old Town location (also called “Nobile Cioccolateria Bern”); you’ll need to book this ahead of time and plan to spend at least an hour or two learning about its long-term suppliers and partners in countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic where they pay higher wages than what “fair-trade standards” suggest.
Compared to large-scale, global operations like Lindt, Casa Nobile has just 20 employees and two locations. Awarded “best chocolatier in Switzerland” in 2015, its size is remarkable because they’re considered one of the world’s Top 10 chocolate-makers. And with good reason — the chocolate is simply divine. Even in its 71 per cent plain bar, rich with complexity, boasts a smoothness you don’t often get in dark chocolate once it passes the 60 per cent mark. They will send you away with samples from your chocolate-tasting session, so you’ll be glad one of the best things to do in Bern is walking everywhere.
If you miss out on booking a tasting or you want to try another Bern chocolate shop, I enjoyed the most buttery dark chocolate ever at Confiserie Tschirren AG.
8. Visit the Bern art gallery.
The Kunstmuseum Bern is an art gallery showcasing contemporary art and works from Swiss and Bernese artists. Modern art is really not my thing, but I love ogling its oddities nonetheless and the Kunstmuseum is full of them. It was wonderful to see a few Impressionist pieces in one of the rooms, which is my favourite.
Even though I had limited time before setting off to Zürich, one doesn’t mind seeing only part of a gallery when entry is free (thank you, Swiss Travel Pass). And if you don’t have one, staying overnight in Bern for even just one night entitles you to a Bern Ticket; these give you unlimited local transit access and similar benefits to the STP, though not quite as robust.
Learn more about the different Swiss travel passes, the Swiss Travel Pass price and how to use it during your visit to Switzerland.
9. Grab a bite.
I took a chance and picked a well-reviewed restaurant just a minute or two from my hotel in case I need to run back in the rain. Thankfully there was a tiny little cocktail table tucked into the bar with a spare barstool at Vierte Wand — the only table available for the rest of the night. It’s a restaurant-bar-theatre space, but there were sadly no performances that lined up with my visit.
I ordered a plate of ah-mazing sourdough with a tomato-fused butter accompaniment, which arrived with the cutest bottle of house made chili oil — the perfect side for my Rindertartar (beef tartare). This was the kind of sourdough that would go for $15/boule back home and I swear the serving was half a boule.
Just beware of ordering TAP water here. That was a four-franc mistake! Even though it comes out of the same source as the free fountains you can find all around Bern, the server told me that in many Swiss restaurants they charge up to CHF 12 *per person* for tap water. With that in mind, I got in the habit of bringing my own water bottle and just ordering wine or cocktails for the rest of my time in Switzerland.
9. Wander the weekly market.
It runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays from May through October from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. In North America, we’d call this a farmers’ market — but the Bern Weekly Market is much grander in terms of scale and there doesn’t seem to be the same kind of price-fixing I see at home. But if you think grocery prices where you live are soaring, a farmers’ market in Switzerland will give you some perspective.
For example:
- jam (250g for CHF 11.80/500g for 18.80 = CAD$32!)
- tomatoes (CHF 12/kg = $20.50!)
- blueberries (250g for 9.50 = $16!)
- potatoes (CHF 5.80/kg = $9.94!)
There are deals to be found, though. Bread, cheese, herbs to plant at home and eggs are all very reasonable. If you’re limited on time, the most beautiful market stalls can be found on the Bundesplatz in front of the Bundeshaus as well as in the Münstergasse.
Don’t stop at Bern! Be sure you also check out these posts for more Swiss inspo: things to do in the Swiss Riviera, everything you need to know about Saas-Fee, Switzerland and a fab hotel in Saas-Fee. And if you’re bringing your kids to Switzerland and want to carve out some adult-only travel time, consider the Leysin American School summer program.
Now that you’ve had a quick taste of Bern, it’s time to get back on a train and keep exploring spectacular Switzerland.
Train travel continued to be an absolute breeze in this country; Bern’s transit hub is massive, but all of the signage is so clear and the timing so precise that I managed to make my train to Zürich, despite arriving on the platform with only a minute to spare. There’d have been another one not far behind but his was an express train and cut off a significant amount of travel time as I continued on to my next destination. More to come on Zürich in a future post.
DISCLAIMER: Bern Tourism helped organize several aspects of my stay; however, they did not compensate me for my posts nor did they request any specific content or approve anything ahead of time.
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