There was an article about the annual Art Basel fair in the NYT which had some good information about travelling to Basel, and commended it on its 'creative pulse and overheated arts scene.' I just wanted to make note of some of the things they recommended in case I can't find this article a year from now.
Comments on any of these recommendations are welcome, as always!
Useful things to note:
- Book hotel rooms well in advance
- No direct flights to Basel from US, better/cheaper to fly straight to Zurich and take train to Basel (train costs about 34 francs, takes about an hour).
- Local tram system, Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (cheap, efficient [no big surprise there!] and easy to use)
- Easy to walk around in [central?] Basel once you master the street names.
- Les Trois Rois (beautifully restored)
- Hotel Krafft (a bit less expensive, but also beautifully renovated, with a good restaurant)
- Der Teufelhof
- Stucki Bruderholz (very expensive)
- Chez Donati (arty atmosphere, bit more affordable than SB)
- Bodega Zum Strauss (noisy, but convivial atmosphere, good for beer)
- Johann ("trendy" if you go for that sort of thing)
- Noohn ("sprawling, ultramodern, reasonably priced pan-Asian")
- Kunsthalle's Campari Bar
- Cargo Bar (river-front hangout)
- nt*/areal Basel's Lounge ("stylish electronica venue")
- Wagenmeister("punk-edged" [whatever that means])
- Bar Rouge (mellower, great views of the city)
4 comments:
As a resident, it's always interesting to see recommendations. First of all re: hotels - Trois Rois is super expensive, I wouldn't recommend hotel Krafft, and Teufelhof doesn't have tvs in the rooms I'm told. I'd recommend The Hotel Basel. TBF and I stayed there when we came house hunting 6 years age. The Hilton is good too. When you stay at these hotels you get a "mobility card" which allows you to ride all the trams and buses for free.
On restaurants - Chez Donati is just as expensive as Stucki. Bodega is way overpriced for what you get. When I was at Johann I had to send back two corked bottles of wine, and Noohn is brand new - haven't tried it yet. I'd recommend Eo Ipso, Gundeldingerhof, Zum Isaak, andGifthüttli (very close to hotel Basel).
Aah thank you Mrs TBF, I was hoping one of you 'natives' would have something to say. Everything over there looks kinda overpriced to me, even living in the DC area as I do, so it is good to hear from you. :) As the possible move time gets closer, I have been looking into hotels and bed and breakfasts too, but those are also kinda pricey. I had almost decided that the Judentherberge (Youth Hostel) was about our only affordable option. I will take a look at the Hotel Basel - and I also found out how the fellowship will help with the costs for this so I have a better idea of what we could afford.
This is the link to the official Webpage of Switzerland.
Reading all, will be rewarded with citizenship and a headache.
http://www.ch.ch/sitemap/index.html?lang=en
Basel has also an official page:
http://www.basel.ch/en/living_in_basel/locations
A fun way to learn a bit more about Switzerland, even if you are not there,
is to read a newspaper.
Local newspaper (Basel):
http://www.baz.ch/englishcorner/
National newspaper:
http://nzz.ch/eng/index.html
There is even a localized version of Google:
http://www.google.ch/
Enjoy your stay.
Your local Alphoehi
Whas'sup?
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