Bern in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Bern covers 22 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Bern rewards a detour.

Day 1

Morning

1. Zytglogge (Clock Tower): Bern's most iconic landmark, a medieval astronomical clock tower from 1530 that performs an animated spectacle four minutes before every hour, a UNESCO World Heritage centrepiece.
2. Federal Palace (Swiss Parliament): Switzerland's magnificent parliament building (1902) above the Aare, the seat of the Federal Assembly and Federal Council, with a dome visible from across the city and free public tours.
3. Bern Old Town & Arcades (UNESCO): Bern's medieval old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, features 6 km of continuous covered arcades (Lauben), one of the most extensive medieval arcade systems in Europe.
4. Einstein's House (Kramgasse 49): The apartment at Kramgasse 49 where Albert Einstein lived from 1903-1905 and developed the special theory of relativity, now a museum showing his life and work in Bern.
5. Bern Münster (Cathedral): Switzerland's tallest cathedral, a magnificent late-Gothic church begun in 1421 with a 100-metre spire, extraordinary tympanum sculptures, and a terrace with sweeping Aare valley views.
6. Bear Park (BärenPark): A large natural hillside habitat at the foot of the Nydegg Bridge where Bern's official bears roam, the city has kept bears since 1513, making this the world's longest-running bear tradition.

Afternoon

1. Zentrum Paul Klee: The world's largest museum dedicated to Paul Klee, Renzo Piano's wave-shaped building on the Schöngrüne hill, holding 4,000 works by the Swiss-German master of 20th-century modernism.
2. Rosengarten (Rose Garden): Bern's most beloved hilltop park, 200 varieties of roses and irises, a panoramic restaurant, and the finest views of the old town, Federal Palace, and Münster from above the Nydegg quarter.
3. Aare River Swimming: Bern's beloved summer tradition, swimming in the crystal-clear glacially-fed Aare river, letting the current carry you through the old town bend, practised by thousands daily in summer.
4. Gurten Hill & Funicular: Bern's local mountain, a 858-metre wooded hill reachable by historic funicular, offering panoramic views of the city, the Bernese Alps, and hosting the city's beloved open-air music festival.
5. Kunstmuseum Bern (Fine Arts Museum): Switzerland's oldest public art museum, a remarkable collection spanning medieval art to the present, including the world's largest Hodler collection and major works of Impressionism and 20th-century art.

Day 2

Morning

1. Bernisches Historisches Museum: Switzerland's second-largest historical museum, a neo-Gothic castle building housing Celtic, Roman, medieval, and Swiss collections, plus the Einstein Museum exploring his life and work.
2. Zibelemärit (Onion Market): Bern's most beloved annual festival, held every fourth Monday in November, when up to 100 tonnes of decorated onion braids fill the old town streets in a centuries-old tradition unique to Bern.
3. Jungfrau Region (Day Excursion): The world-famous Bernese Oberland alpine region, Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe at 3,454m), Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, and the iconic Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau trio visible from Bern.
4. Kornhausbrücke (Granary Bridge): One of Switzerland's most elegant steel arch bridges (1898) spanning the Aare gorge north of the old town, offering dramatic views of the river, the medieval city walls, and the Rosengarten hill.
5. Bärengraben & Nydegg Quarter: The historic Nydegg quarter at the tip of Bern's old-town peninsula, site of the original medieval castle, the Nydegg Bridge, the Bärengraben, and the start of the riverside path to the Rose Garden.
6. Bellevue Palace: Bern's grandest hotel, a Belle Époque palace (1913) adjacent to the Federal Palace, with terraces overlooking the Aare valley and the Alps, traditionally the address for heads of state and diplomats.

Afternoon

1. Kirchenfeld Museum District: Bern's museum quarter on the Kirchenfeld plateau, a grand late-19th-century residential district housing the Natural History Museum, Swiss Alpine Club Museum, and the Swiss Shooting Museum.
2. Emmental Valley (Day Excursion): The archetypal Swiss pastoral valley east of Bern, rolling hills, farmhouses, traditional cheese dairies, the home of Emmental cheese, and the charming village of Burgdorf with its medieval castle.
3. Bern City Market (Bärenplatz & Münsterplatz): Bern's main outdoor markets, held on Tuesday and Saturday mornings at the Bundesplatz, Bärenplatz, and Münsterplatz, offering local produce, flowers, and seasonal specialities in the heart of the UNESCO old town.
4. Käfigturm (Prison Tower): Bern's 13th-century second city gate, later used as a prison and now a civic meeting place at the western edge of the old town, marking the expansion of medieval Bern in the 1300s.
5. Bern Tram Network & City Transport: Bern's beloved tram network, one of the few surviving and expanding historic tram systems in Switzerland, threading through the covered arcades and old-town streets since 1890.

Full Bern guide and all stops → · Other itineraries: 3 days