Bern Travel Guide for Women: Everything You Need to Know

Bern is the capital of Switzerland and almost nobody's first Swiss city, which is the best argument for going. Zurich has the money, Geneva has the diplomacy, Lucerne has the postcard, and Bern has the thing none of them do: a medieval old town so intact that UNESCO listed the whole of it, wrapped inside a hairpin bend of a turquoise glacial river, with six kilometres of covered stone arcades running through the middle of it.

Those arcades, the Lauben, are the single most distinctive piece of urban infrastructure in Switzerland. Built into the ground floors of the buildings from the fifteenth century, they mean you can cross most of the old town in the rain without getting wet, and they give Bern a covered, sheltered, slightly subterranean quality that no other Swiss city has.

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Bern also gave the world two things it takes for granted: Einstein worked out special relativity in a second-floor flat on Kramgasse while examining patents, and Toblerone was invented here in 1908. This guide covers the seasons, the arcades and the old town, Einstein, the Rosengarten and the bear park, the river-swimming culture that defines a Bernese summer, transport, costs, where to stay and what to pack.

Is Bern Safe for Women Travelers

Bern is among the safest capital cities in the world. Violent crime is rare, the old town is compact and well lit, trams and buses run late and are safe at every hour, and a woman eating or drinking alone attracts no attention whatsoever. For a first solo trip in Europe it is about as easy as it gets.

Routine property crime amounts to pickpocketing around the Hauptbahnhof and at the Christmas market, and that is close to the whole of it. The area immediately around the station is scruffier at night than the rest of the city, in the way station districts usually are, but it is not somewhere to avoid.

The genuine hazard in Bern is the river, and it deserves more space than the crime section. The Aare is glacial meltwater running fast through the middle of the city, and the Bernese swim in it as a daily summer habit. It looks placid from the bridges and it is not. The current is strong, the water is cold enough to affect your ability to think within minutes, and people drown in it most summers, including strong swimmers and including locals.

The rules everyone here follows: enter only at the marked access points at the Marzili or Eichholz, know which exit handrail you are aiming for before you get in, never swim after drinking, do not go in when the water is high and brown after rain, and get out at the first handrail if you feel at all uncertain rather than the one you planned. The river does not give you a second chance to change your mind.

Best Time to Visit Bern

June to August. The city at its best. Warm at 22C to 27C, the Aare open and full of swimmers, long evenings, and the arcades keeping the old town cool. Afternoon thunderstorms build over the Alps and pass quickly.

September and October. Arguably the loveliest. Mild, clear, with the sandstone glowing in the lower light and the Rosengarten still flowering into October. Fewer visitors and better prices.

November to February. Cold at minus 3C to 4C, damp, with lowland fog and several snowfalls a season that make the medieval centre genuinely extraordinary. The Christmas market runs through December under the arcades, which keeps it dry. The Zibelemärit, the onion market, fills the entire old town on the fourth Monday of November with onion braids, confetti and glühwein from four in the morning, and it is one of the great Swiss folk events.

March to May. Improving, with the Rosengarten opening in May and the city greening. Variable weather.

The Lauben and the Old Town

Bern was founded in 1191 and rebuilt in local sandstone after a catastrophic fire in 1405, then largely stopped changing, which is why the whole old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The peninsula formed by the Aare bend gave it a defensible site, and the city grew outward down it in stages, which is why the three great towers, the Käfigturm, the Zytglogge and the Nydegg church, sit at what were successively the western gate as the city expanded.

The Lauben run along Marktgasse, Kramgasse and Gerechtigkeitsgasse for six kilometres, the longest covered shopping promenade in Europe. Shops, cafes and cellar bars open off them, and the cellars themselves, once used for storage, are now theatres, galleries and bars reached by trapdoor staircases in the pavement.

The Zytglogge was the city's western gate in the thirteenth century and gained its astronomical clock in 1530. Mechanical figures perform for a few minutes before each hour, which is brief and charming, but the tour inside the mechanism is the better experience and needs booking. Einstein lived four doors down and the coincidence has been much written about.

The fountains. Eleven Renaissance figures stand on columns down the middle of the old town streets, painted and gilded, including the deeply strange Kindlifresserbrunnen, the child-eater fountain, whose meaning nobody has satisfactorily explained. All the fountains run drinkable spring water and there are over a hundred across the city.

The Bern Minster has the tallest spire in Switzerland at 100 metres, climbable up 344 steps for the best view of the old town and the Alps beyond on a clear day.

Einstein in Bern

Albert Einstein moved to Bern in 1902 to work as a technical expert third class at the Swiss Federal Patent Office, having failed to find an academic post. He lived at Kramgasse 49 from 1903 to 1905, and in that year, his annus mirabilis, he published four papers that changed physics: on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and mass-energy equivalence.

Einstein House at Kramgasse 49 is the second-floor apartment, furnished as it would have been, small and unassuming. Twenty minutes, and the interest is in how ordinary it is.

The Einstein Museum inside the Bernisches Historisches Museum on Helvetiaplatz is the substantial treatment: 1,000 square metres covering the physics properly alongside the life, the politics, the pacifism, and the letter to Roosevelt. Allow two hours. The Historical Museum around it is also strong on Bernese and Swiss history including the Burgundian war tapestries.

The Zentrum Paul Klee, on the eastern edge of the city in a Renzo Piano building of three steel waves, holds around 4,000 works and is the largest single-artist collection in the world devoted to one painter. Klee was born just outside Bern.

The Rosengarten, the Bears and the Green City

The Rosengarten sits on the hill across the Aare, a former cemetery converted to a rose garden in 1913, with 200 rose varieties, 200 iris varieties and rhododendrons, flowering from May to October. The view back across the river to the old town inside its bend is the classic Bern image. The walk up from the Nydegg bridge is steep and takes fifteen minutes; bus 10 goes up if you would rather not. Best in the last hour of daylight.

The BärenPark. Bern has kept bears since 1513 and the city takes its name from them in the founding legend, in which Duke Berchtold V named it after the first animal he killed on the hunt. The old Bärengraben, a deep concrete pit, drew sustained criticism from animal welfare organisations for decades, and in 2009 the city replaced it with an open hillside enclosure running down to the river, which is a substantial improvement and among the better urban bear facilities anywhere. The bears are most active in the morning and hibernate from roughly December to March.

The Bundeshaus. The Federal Parliament building above the Aare, with free guided tours when parliament is not in session, and a fountain display of 26 jets on the square in front, one for each canton. Bring your passport.

The Botanical Garden and the Gurten, the hill south of the city reached by funicular, are both easy green escapes.

Swimming the Aare

This is the thing that most distinguishes a Bernese summer, and it is a genuine local ritual rather than a tourist activity.

From roughly June to September, when the water reaches 18C to 22C, Bernese of every age walk upstream along the bank, get into the river, and float back down with the current past the Federal Parliament to the Marzili, where they climb out on handrails. Office workers do it in the lunch hour. The whole thing takes about twenty minutes.

The Marzili is the free public riverside baths below the Bundeshaus, with lawns, changing rooms and a pool for people who would rather not brave the river. Eichholz further upstream is the quieter alternative.

The safety rules, which are not optional. The Aare is glacial meltwater moving fast, and it kills people most summers. Enter only at marked access points. Identify the handrail you intend to exit at before you get in, and take the first one you reach rather than the one you planned if anything feels wrong. Never swim after drinking, which is the factor in a large share of incidents. Do not enter when the river is high and brown after rain. Do not swim alone if you have not done it before. And take a waterproof bag, which everyone uses to float their clothes down with them.

Day Trips

Interlaken and the Bernese Oberland. Fifty minutes by direct train, and the gateway to the Jungfrau region: Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, the Jungfraujoch at 3,454 metres. Bern makes a genuinely good base for this if you would rather sleep in a city than a resort.

Thun and Lake Thun. Twenty minutes, with a castle, a beautiful old town and boat trips down the lake to Interlaken.

Fribourg. Twenty-five minutes, and the point at which Switzerland switches from German to French, with a medieval old town in a river gorge.

Emmental. The valley east of Bern where the cheese comes from, with show dairies and rolling farmland.

Gruyères. An hour and a half, a walled hilltop village with a castle, the cheese, and inexplicably a museum of H.R. Giger, who designed the Alien.

What to Pack for Bern, Women's Packing List

Four seasons, a covered old town, and a river you may swim in.

Base layers

A merino wool base layer for Bern at 160gsm covers the full annual range without reading as technical kit, which suits a capital where you walk from a museum into a good restaurant, and it resists odour across several wears on a hand-luggage trip. Two tops for a week.

Mid layers

A light fleece for shoulder seasons for spring, autumn and the evenings. For winter and for any day trip up into the Jungfrau region, where you gain nearly 3,000 metres, add a Columbia insulated hooded jacket.

Outer layers

A packable rain jacket for Switzerland, with the Bern-specific caveat that the arcades mean you will use it less inside the old town than anywhere comparable, and exactly as much as usual the moment you head for the Rosengarten, the riverside or the mountains.

Footwear

waterproof walking shoes for cobbles and riverside paths for the medieval cobbles, the worn sandstone arcade paving that is slick when damp, the steep Rosengarten climb and the river paths. Add merino wool socks for city walking, three pairs. One dressier flat pair for the evening. No heels on the cobbles.

Accessories and practicalities

A universal adaptor covering the Swiss Type J socket, which differs from the standard European Type C and is the most common Switzerland packing error. A refillable bottle, since the hundred-plus fountains run drinkable spring water. Swimwear and a quick-dry towel for any trip between June and September, plus a waterproof dry bag if you intend to float the Aare, which is what everyone uses to carry their clothes downstream.

Switzerland is in Schengen but not the EU, so EHIC and GHIC cover is limited and travel insurance is worth holding.

Getting Around Bern

On foot. The old town is a kilometre and a half end to end and this is how you will do almost all of it.

Trams and buses. Bernmobil runs a punctual network. Bus 10 goes up to the Rosengarten, which saves the climb.

The free transport ticket. Bern hotels issue guests a Bern Ticket covering all public transport within the city zones for the length of the stay, free. Ask at check-in, because plenty of visitors never find out and buy tickets unnecessarily.

Trains. Bern Hauptbahnhof is one of the best-connected stations in Switzerland: Zurich in an hour, Geneva in under two, Interlaken in fifty minutes, Basel in an hour.

From the airport. Bern has a small airport with limited connections. Most visitors fly into Zurich, which is two hours by direct train, or Geneva, which is under two.

Bicycles. Bern Rollt lends bikes free for a few hours with a deposit, and PubliBike operates a share scheme. The old town is cobbled and the hills are real.

Costs, What to Budget

Bern is expensive, as all Swiss cities are, though slightly less so than Zurich or Geneva.

Budget: 100 to 160 francs a day. Hostel dorm at 40 to 65, supermarket food from Coop or Migros, the free Bern Ticket, and the free things, which are substantial: the arcades, the fountains, the Rosengarten, the bear park, the Marzili and the Bundeshaus tour.

Mid-range: 250 to 400 francs a day. A hotel at 160 to 280, restaurant meals, museum entries.

Luxury: 600 francs a day and up. The Bellevue Palace, where the Federal Council houses its guests, from 400.

Accommodation runs 40 to 65 francs for a hostel dorm, 160 to 280 for a mid-range double, and 400 upwards at the top. Rates rise around parliamentary sessions and major conferences rather than around tourist seasons.

Meals. A restaurant main is 28 to 45 francs. The lunchtime Tagesteller at 20 to 28 is much the best value and is how the city eats at midday. A coffee is 4.50 to 6, a beer 7 to 10.

Attractions. The Einstein Museum and Historical Museum together are around 18 francs. Einstein House is around 7. The Zentrum Paul Klee is around 20. The Minster tower is around 5. The Rosengarten, BärenPark, Marzili and Bundeshaus tour are free.

Currency and tipping. The Swiss franc, not the euro. Cards work everywhere. Service is included by law so tipping is not expected; rounding up is normal. Official information is at bern.com.

Where to Stay in Bern

The Altstadt. Inside the medieval old town, under the arcades, walking distance to everything. The most atmospheric choice and where the character hotels are. Some buildings are old with narrow stairs and no lift.

Around the Hauptbahnhof. Practical, central, with the widest choice of mid-range and chain hotels, and five minutes' walk into the old town. Slightly scruffier immediately around the station at night.

Länggasse. The university quarter northwest of the station, residential, good value, with student-priced food and a short walk in.

Kirchenfeld. Across the Kirchenfeld bridge, the embassy and museum quarter, quiet and elegant, near the Historical Museum and a ten minute walk from the old town.

Marzili. Down by the river below the Bundeshaus, quiet and green, with the swimming on your doorstep in summer.

Hostels. Bern has a well-regarded youth hostel down near the Marzili and a couple of central options. Look for female-only dorms, keycard access and lockers, and confirm whether the Bern Ticket is included, which most properties provide.

What to look for. Whether the Bern Ticket is issued, which almost all registered accommodation provides and which is worth real money. A lift, since old town buildings are frequently walk-ups. Double glazing if you are on Kramgasse or Marktgasse, which are lively into the evening. And air conditioning for July and August, which is not universal in Swiss hotels.

Essential Resources for Women in Bern

Emergency numbers: Police 117. Ambulance 144. Fire 118. The pan-European 112 works from any phone and is the safest default. For a river incident on the Aare, call 144 immediately.

Tourist police: Switzerland has no separate tourist police force. Bern city police handle incidents and you can report at any station to obtain the documentation an insurance claim requires. Bern Tourismus in the Hauptbahnhof assists visitors with reporting and translation.

US Embassy: Unusually among the cities we cover, the US Embassy for Switzerland is in Bern itself, at Sulgeneckstrasse 19, 3007 Bern, telephone +41 31 357 7011, a short tram ride from the old town. Website ch.usembassy.gov.

Main hospital: Inselspital, the Bern University Hospital, Freiburgstrasse 18, +41 31 632 2111, is among the largest hospitals in Switzerland with a 24 hour emergency department and English-speaking staff. Swiss healthcare is excellent and costly, and because Switzerland sits outside the EU health arrangements that cover member states, travel insurance matters here rather than being a box to tick.

Official health authority: Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, bag.admin.ch.

US State Department travel advisory: Switzerland travel advisory.

UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/switzerland.

Official tourism authorities: bern.com, the official Bern tourism board, and myswitzerland.com nationally.

Solo women safety assessment: Bern is among the safest capital cities in the world for a woman travelling alone, and one of the easiest places in Europe for a first solo trip. Violent crime is rare, the old town is compact and well lit, trams run late and are entirely safe, English is widely spoken, and eating or drinking alone anywhere here draws no attention at all. Pickpocketing around the main station and at the Christmas market is essentially the only routine crime. The real hazard is the Aare, and it is worth taking seriously precisely because the city makes it look casual: this is fast glacial meltwater that drowns people most summers, including strong swimmers and including Bernese who have done it for years, and alcohol is a factor in a large share of those incidents. If you swim, enter only at the marked Marzili or Eichholz access points, identify your exit handrail before you get in, take the first one you reach if anything feels wrong, never go in after drinking, and stay out entirely when the water is high and brown after rain.

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Related Reading

For the season by season packing detail, see the Bern packing list for women. For the country as a whole, see the Switzerland travel guide for women. For the other Swiss cities, see the Zurich travel guide for women and the Interlaken travel guide for women. For packing across every destination we cover, see the travel packing guide for women.

You can read more about building a merino-first travel wardrobe on the Roman Trail merino wool base layer guide. Browse the full collection at Roman Trail women's merino base layers, available in eight colors with free two-day shipping and a two-year satisfaction guarantee.

If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.