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Basel (German: Basel, French: Bâle) is a city in northwestern Switzerland with more than 175,000 inhabitants. It is located in the country triangle Switzerland / France / Germany and is the center of a trinational agglomeration where a total of about one million people live.
Basel has many museums and a beautiful "Altstadt".
Info
Arrive
By plane
Basel airport is located on French territory near Saint-Louis. Due to its proximity to Germany and Switzerland, this airport is called Euro- Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg.
KLM flies daily from Schiphol to Basel.
By train
Basel has two major stations: Basel SBB and Basel Badischer Bahnhof (Basel Bad Bf). The "French" station of Basel (Basel SNCF) is connected to Basel SBB, but used to be separated from it by a customs.
The travel time from Utrecht to Basel is six to eight hours.
The trains from Germany first arrive in Basel Bad Bf and then in Basel SBB. The ICE and IC trains as well as the S-Bahn from the direction of Lörrach all continue from Basel Bad Bf to Basel SBB. The other trains from Germany have their terminus in Basel Bad Bf. There is a continuous ICE train from Amsterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem to Basel SBB once a day.
The trains from France arrive at Basel SNCF (part of Basel SBB). SNCF has a number of TGV connections per day to Paris via the new LGV-Rhône-Rhin high-speed line and Dijon. There are a number of direct Eurocity trains from Brussels to Basel SNCF via Namur - Luxembourg - Metz - Strasbourg. The TER200 also runs every hour to Mulhouse - Colmar - Selestat - Strasbourg - Nancy. This train runs between Basel and Strasbourg at speeds of up to 200 km per hour.
All trains from Switzerland that run to Basel have their terminus in Basel SBB.
For information see the following sites of the relevant railways:
- Germany: Deutsche Bahn
- France: SNCF
- Switzerland: SBB-CFF-FFS
By car
From the Netherlands: via the German A61 (Linksrheinische Autobahn) to Kreuz Hockenheim, then via the A6 through the Rhine valley to Basel.Alternatively: follow the A61 to Kreuz Mutterstadt and there turn onto the A65 towards Landau (Pfalz). Take the exit 22 Kandel Süd/Strasburg (Strasbourg) and follow the provincial road B9 to the French border for about 20 km. The road here again becomes a motorway (A35) and is toll-free via Strasbourg to Basel.
In Switzerland, you need an Autobahn vignette (CHF 40 for 1 calendar year) on the motorways. Available in the Netherlands at the ANWB offices, in Belgium at the offices of VTB-BAB and at Touring's head office in Brussels and on the Swiss border.
By bus
Flixbus has a night bus connection from Amsterdam and Eindhoven on most days of the week, without transfer. This bus takes about 10 hours from Amsterdam. The flixbus stop is at the back of the Basel SBB station.
By boat
Travel around
Public transport
Basel has a very reliable network of trams and buses, provided by the BVB (green vehicles). The Baselland region is served by BLT (yellow vehicles). You can plan your trip on both networks on the SBB website, which also provides information on all (inter)national trains.
Bicycle
The Basel roads are generally well suited for cycling. Many roads have bicycle lanes, but separate bicycle paths are an exception. Please note that there are different rules and customs than in the Netherlands. For example, it is not allowed to cycle next to each other, and you are not allowed to take anyone on your luggage carrier ("Tiling Velo"), for which you are immediately addressed by fellow road users or fined by the police. Turning right at a red traffic light is only allowed in exceptional cases where it is explicitly indicated.
To look at
- Basel Zoo, Binningerstrasse 40 (5-10 minutes from Basel SBB . station). 08:00-18:30. The Basel Zoo is small in size, but not in collection. Beautiful groups of great apes, gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. A spacious elephant enclosure. Large group of okapis, rhinoceroses and hippos. CHF 21 p.p..
- Botanical Garden of the University of Basel, Spalengraben 8 (at Spalentor) (tram 3 and bus 30/33). 08:00-18:00. Small botanical garden, close to the city center, with a beautiful collection. Partly in greenhouses: tropical greenhouse with free-flying birds, succulent greenhouse with i.a. Welwitschia mirabilis, Viktoriahaus (from 1898, with pond with Victoria region. Alpine garden, garden with plants grouped by family, also many trees, e.g. Sophora japonica pendula, etc. etc. free entrance.
- Meriangarten, Progress Brüglingen 5 (tram 10 or 11 to the Driespitz stop; tram 14 or bus 36 to stop St. Jakob). 08:00 - sunset. Centrally located in the gardens is Villa Merian, an 18th century country house. Surrounded by an English landscape garden, fields and meadows, an orchard with old fruit varieties, a farm with water mill, a gigantic garden with 1500 different irises (flowering time in May). Beautiful collections Clematis and fuchsia. free entrance.
To do
To buy
Food
Going out
Basel has a rich nightlife. A current agenda of what to do can be found on Denkmal [1] and Fingerzeig [2].
stay overnight
Contact
all around
