Winter in the city: Discover Bern and Zurich in winter

To expe­ri­ence win­ter, you don’t always have to head to the moun­tains. Some­times a trip to the city is just as excit­ing. Not con­vinced yet? Nina and Eve­lyn take you on their «Win­ter in the Cities» trip and show you how to spend a per­fect win­ter day in the cities of Bern and Zurich.

«Winter in the City»: Bern

The weath­er is per­fect for our «Win­ter in the Cities» trip: It’s freez­ing cold, but when we arrive in Bern, the sun is shin­ing for us.

Before we explore the city cen­tre, we head high up on the «Güsche», as the peo­ple of Bern call their local moun­tain. After a short tram ride, we arrive in the dis­trict of Wabern. From there, the Gurten­bahn takes us to around 858 metres above sea lev­el. The funic­u­lar rail­way runs every 15 min­utes and the jour­ney reveals that there is even a dust­ing of snow wait­ing for us at the top. So cool!

Once at the top, we take a win­ter walk. The view of the city and the moun­tains behind it is impres­sive­ly beau­ti­ful. Along the way, we find an aban­doned «Füdli­bob,» as Nina so nice­ly calls it, and we just have to test it right away. Climb­ing up the hill for a short but fast descent – it was worth it!

Frozen, we warm up in the Restau­rant Gurt­ners with a local Läng­gass tea and tasty Älpler­ma­gro­nen, a creamy Swiss mac­a­roni dish. Exact­ly what we need­ed in this cold. We are lucky enough to score a table right by the win­dow, so we also have the best views of the city of Bern. Sim­ply bril­liant! After a sol­id break and with a full stom­ach, we say good­bye to Gurten and set off for the city.

Once we arrive in the city cen­tre, we stroll through the alleys of the old town. Our goal: The arti­fi­cial ice rink on Bun­de­splatz. Every year from mid-Decem­ber to mid-Feb­ru­ary, you can do your laps on the ice in front of the impos­ing par­lia­ment build­ing. It’s even free of charge if you bring your own skates, as admis­sion to the ice rink is free. Instead of skat­ing, we treat our­selves to our donut here, which we couldn’t resist along the way. After all: There’s always room for dessert.

To round off our win­ter day in the cap­i­tal, we pay a vis­it to Bern Youth Hos­tel. It’s just a six-minute walk below the Fed­er­al Palace and, thanks to its ide­al loca­tion, it’s the per­fect start­ing point for your «Win­ter in the Cities» trip. When will you set off?

«Winter in the City»: Zurich

At Zurich Youth Hos­tel, we enjoy orange juice, crispy bread and a fra­grant cof­fee! Now noth­ing stands in the way of our tour through what is prob­a­bly Switzerland’s most famous city. We are clever and get a Zürich Card. It allows us to trav­el free of charge on pub­lic trans­port for 72 hours and also enjoy numer­ous oth­er ben­e­fits.

For us, one thing is clear: We want to go to the Swiss Nation­al Muse­um. The exhi­bi­tion «colo­nial – Switzerland’s Glob­al Entan­gle­ments» aroused our inter­est. In no time at all we immerse our­selves in the sto­ries of the past – read­ing, see­ing and hear­ing about per­son­al expe­ri­ences and impor­tant per­son­al­i­ties. After tak­ing in so many impres­sions, it’s time for our lunch break.

After two refresh­ing falafel wraps and a deli­cious dessert at the muse­um café, we con­tin­ue our jour­ney – after all, we also want to expe­ri­ence a bit of win­ter. We board the Uetlibahn, which takes us to Zurich’s local moun­tain. A short walk and you’re at the «Top of Zurich».

The mag­ic of win­ter awaits us: The branch­es of the trees are cov­ered with a shim­mer­ing lay­er of ice, it’s snow­ing light­ly and you can feel the cold. An orange punch is the per­fect solu­tion. The view almost makes us for­get about the cold while we enjoy our boost of vit­a­min D. This win­try atmos­phere can be reached in just 20 min­utes from the main sta­tion – and all at a real­ly afford­able price.

We observe the expanse and spot a hot-air bal­loon pass­ing by. After amus­ing con­ver­sa­tions about air­craft and a some­what frozen nose, we make our way home.

We agree: These two days were a bril­liant alter­na­tive to an expen­sive week­end ski­ing in the moun­tains. The cities also have their own charm!