Sustainable Basel tips

Would you like to pay a visit to Basel while keeping your environmental footprint as small possible? That’s a great idea – and we have just the sustainable travel tips to provide you with inspiration along the way!

Sustainable travel

Basel is a city that is convenient to reach using environmentally friendly means of transport such as trains. Everything is right close by in the city centre, making it easy for you to explore Basel on foot or by bike.

Der Zugverkehr am Abend beim Bahnhof SBB

Getting there the climate-friendly way

If you take the train, you can quickly and easily travel to Basel from many European cities and be directly in the city centre within minutes of your arrival.

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BaselCard, the sustainable card for visitors

The BaselCard lets you travel free of charge on all public transport – starting with the trip to your hotel to check in after you arrive in the city. And for just CHF 20 a day, you can use an e-bike to get around.

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Durch Basel auf dem Fahrrad.

Bike city Basel

Compared with all other Swiss cities, Basel has the highest share of trips taken by bicycle. With a dense network of cycling routes, paths and other infrastructure, Basel is seeking to become the country’s most bicycle-friendly city.

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Car-free city centre

The City Park & Ride combo ticket allows you to park your car in a multi-storey car park and benefit from an hour of free parking while you inexpensively continue your journey on the tram or bus. 

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Sustainable accommodations

You can sleep with a clear conscience here by staying in a hotel, hostel or B&B that is committed to environmental, economic and/or social sustainability. The BaselCard is also free with every booking.

Aussenansicht des GAIA Hotels Basel.

Gaia Hotel

This four-star hotel pursues a strategy of zero waste and uses organic products exclusively.

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DASBREITEHOTEL on the Rhine

This “integration hotel” puts its focus on sustainability from a social welfare and environmental standpoint, employing people with disabilities and offering guests the opportunity to rent bicycles as well as use charging stations.

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Ein Zimmer in der Jugendherberge Basel.

Basel Youth Hostel

In the Hotel Rating 2021, this architecturally charming hostel in Basel was named one of five most beautiful buildings of its type when compared with Switzerland’s other sustainable youth hostels.

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Aussenansicht des Hotel Restaurants Teufelhof.

Hotel der Teufelhof

With its own production facilities, a non-profit association for labour integration and its cultural engagement, Teufelhof Basel is committed to supporting the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability.

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Wining and dining sustainably

A growing number of restaurants in Basel are primarily offering cuisine made with organic ingredients from the region and also helping to prevent food waste.

Zum goldenen Fass

All the dishes on this restaurant’s concise menu are carefully chosen to include natural and sustainable products – without long transport routes, as the ingredients all come from Basel and the surrounding region.

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Das vegetarische Restaurant Tibits.

Tibits

Everything served in this cosy buffet eatery is vegan or vegetarian and nearly everything on offer is organic. Sustainability is a key component of the restaurant’s philosophy.

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Cantina Don Camillo

A vegan four-course meal, natural wines and a cordial atmosphere are a matter of course at this restaurant.

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Das Cafe Unternehmen Mitte.

Unternehmen Mitte

With the sworn credo of making the best out of the simplest of ingredients, the largest coffee house in Basel operates an organic restaurant as well as a mobile coffee bar on the Rhine.

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Buvette7 – Flora am Rhy

Buvette7 opened in spring 2023 as Basel’s first buvette with a Net Zero strategy.

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Zero-waste takeaway

Have you got your own lunch box with you? Over 60 restaurants and cafés offer takeaway food and drink in reusable containers. These establishments can be identified via the “Basel isst abfallfrei” (“Basel eats out with zero waste”) sticker at the entrance, or they can be found online on this map:

abfallfrei.ch

Discover Basel sustainably

Decelerate your visit on a sustainable basis by taking climate-friendly means of transport that cause no harm to humans, animals or the environment we all share. Workshops and special guided tours will enable you to gain even more insight into the sustainable projects in Basel. 

Tour the city with Basel by Bike

You will be able to quickly explore the most beautiful and unmissable places in Basel as you are taken on a guided bike tour that ranges far beyond the core of the city centre.

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AUE

Take a guided tour in Erlenmatt

In northern Basel, a former freight depot has been transformed into a vibrant new quarter. The new area sets the standard for sustainable development in the city and offers a glimpse of Basel’s future.

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Take a guided tour with StadtHonig

Learn more about biodiversity in the city as you accompany a beekeeper on a visit to a bee colony in the middle of Basel.

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Velotaxi

A bicycle taxi will conveniently bring you directly to your destination or take you on a relaxing sightseeing tour of Basel.

Auf den vier Basler Fähren (hier die Münsterfähre «Leu») lässt sich der Rhein bequem und nur durch die Kraft der Strömung überqueren.
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The four ferries that cross the river using only the natural power of the river's current connect the larger southern part of the city (Grossbasel) with the northern side of the river (Kleinbasel).

The Rhine ferries

The four ferries are each attached to a long wire cable and are driven by the flow of the Rhine itself.

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Das Restaurant Seegarten im Park im Grünen Münchenstein.

Basel is a “green” city

Basel’s parks and gardens are designed and maintained in a manner that is particularly sustainable, and the conferral of the Green City Switzerland award is an acknowledgement of this environmental effort.

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Other activities: