Things to do
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Basel Rathaus
On the Marktplatz, the red facade with its painted walls and gilded detail is the town hall, and the cantonal parliament still sits inside. Walk through the arcade into the courtyard, painted from floor to roof and open through the day. Weekday mornings are the time to come, when the market stalls fill the square in front.
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Rhine Ferries
Four small ferries cross the Rhine on overhead cables between Grossbasel and Kleinbasel, driven by the current alone with no engine. The first began running in 1854, and each crossing takes a few minutes. The ferryman collects a small fare on board, and a ride is a good way to see both banks from the water.
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Museum
Antikenmuseum Basel
Greek vases, Etruscan bronzes, Egyptian coffins and Roman sculpture fill a pair of townhouses on St. Alban-Graben, across the street from the Kunstmuseum. It is the only museum in Switzerland given over entirely to the ancient Mediterranean. Pair the two on one morning.
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Archaeological Site
Augusta Raurica
The ruins of a Roman town lie at Augst, a short S-Bahn ride up the Rhine from Basel and a walk from the station. The theatre is the best preserved north of the Alps, and a reconstructed Roman house shows how a family lived. Give it half a day: the open-air site is free to walk, and the museum is ticketed.
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Basel Minster
On a terrace above the Rhine, this red sandstone church mixes Romanesque and Gothic work under a roof of coloured tiles. Inside lies the tomb of Erasmus, who died in Basel. Both slim towers can be climbed, and the Pfalz terrace behind the choir looks straight down on the river and its ferries.
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Museum
Basel Paper Mill
In a medieval mill on the canal in St. Alban, water still turns the wheel that drives the stampers. Visitors make a sheet of paper by hand, write with a quill and set type on the old presses, so allow an hour and a half. The quarter around it, with its canal, gardens and a stretch of the city wall, makes a good walk afterwards.
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Park
Basel Zoo
Known in the city as the Zolli, the zoo lies a few minutes on foot from Basel SBB station, in a green strip along the Birsig valley. It is the oldest in Switzerland and is known for breeding Indian rhinos and okapis, and the Etosha house walks visitors through the food chain of a Namibian savannah. Give it half a day, longer with children.
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Landmark
Dreiländereck
A steel pylon at the tip of the Rhine port in Kleinhüningen marks the point where Switzerland, France and Germany meet in the middle of the river. Tram 8 stops a short walk away. From the quay around it the views run across to both neighbours, and the barges heading downstream for the North Sea pass close by.
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Fondation Beyeler
Tram 6 runs from the centre to the gate in Riehen, where the museum stands in a park at the edge of the fields. Renzo Piano's long, low building hangs Monet's water lilies against a glass wall that looks onto a lily pond. Three new buildings by Peter Zumthor open in stages from autumn 2026, and to daily visitors in mid January 2027.
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Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois
Just downstream of the city's first Rhine bridge, this hotel ranks among the oldest in Switzerland, recorded as an inn in 1681. It was rebuilt in grand style in 1844 and restored in 2006. Its terrace sits right over the water, and the lobby and bar keep the grand manner of the rebuild.
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Museum
Historical Museum
Inside the Barfüsserkirche, a tall Franciscan church on Barfüsserplatz, the museum shows the city's treasures: gold from the cathedral, carved altarpieces, tapestries and fragments of a painted Dance of Death. In December the Christmas market stalls ring the church. The same museum runs a house of period rooms at Haus zum Kirschgarten and a music collection in a former prison.
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Neighborhood
Kleinbasel
The right bank of the Rhine faces the cathedral across the water and catches the evening sun, so the steps and lawns of the riverside promenade fill on summer nights. Swimmers climb out here after drifting down from Museum Tinguely, and small bars open along the bank for the season. Behind the river front the streets are livelier and less polished than the old town opposite.
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Kunstmuseum Basel
Two buildings on St. Alban-Graben, linked by a passage under the street, hold the city's art: the main house runs from Holbein and the Old Masters to Picasso and Rothko, and the new building takes the big exhibitions. A third, the Gegenwart, shows recent work by the river. It closes on Mondays, and the collection is free from five until eight on Wednesday evenings.
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Museum Tinguely
Beside the Rhine, a Mario Botta building of 1996 holds the machines of Jean Tinguely, kinetic sculptures made of scrap, several of which visitors switch on themselves. They clank, rattle and sometimes break. Drawings, photographs and archive material fill in his life, and a riverside path leads back towards the old town.
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Waterfront
Rheinbad Breite
A wooden bathhouse stands on piles over the Rhine in the Breite quarter, by the Schwarzwaldbrücke, with changing rooms, lockers and a terrace bar. It is open for swimming from May to late September. Swimmers walk upstream along the bank, climb in and drift back on the current, with a waterproof Wickelfisch bag for their clothes.
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Landmark
Spalentor
Built around 1400 in the old city wall, this western gate has a steep roof of glazed tiles and stone figures of the Virgin and two prophets above the arch. It is the grandest of the three city gates still standing. Approach it on foot down the lanes of the Spalenberg, then walk through to see the outer face.
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Landmark
Tinguely Fountain
Ten machines by Jean Tinguely spray, spin and nod in a shallow pool on Theaterplatz, set up in 1977 where the stage of the old city theatre once stood. In a hard frost the jets freeze into ice sculptures. It sits beside the Kunsthalle, a short walk from both the Kunstmuseum and Barfüsserplatz.
