The tourist office conducts walking tours of Bern May to October. The daily meeting point is at the tourist office at 11am. The cost is 20F for adults, 10F for children 6 to 16, and free for children 5 and under. Depending on demand, this guided walking tour may or may not be offered by the time of your visit, since the focus of the tourist office's walking tours is to an increasing degree trained upon audio guides. These play a prerecorded 2-hour walking tour of Bern, which can be started and stopped at any point. Interspersed with descriptions of the Bernese monuments en route are anecdotes, folk songs, and cheerful music. They rent for 25F per day, with a 50F deposit. For more information, contact the Bern city tourist office.
Bern is accepted by many Swiss as the point of origin for several rail itineraries that are among the most spectacular in Europe. The staff at the Bern Tourist office is now capable of crafting and selling tickets for either one-way or circular itineraries that will take you through some of the most vertiginous landscapes in Europe. One of our favorites involves traveling from Bern through its Oberland region, with rail junctions in towns that include Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, and Kleine Scheidegg, then over the Jungfraujoch via Grindelwald and Interlaken, and back to Bern. Jungfraujoch, at 3,400m (11,152 ft.), has the highest railway station in Europe and offers panoramic views over glaciers and the Alps, including the so-called Ice Palace. The cost for this particular itinerary, which is self-conducted, self-guided, and self-scheduled, assuming that participants begin and end their journeys in Bern, is 238F in second class and 284F in first class.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.
