Places to visit in Bern, Switzerland
28 places to visit in Bern, Switzerland, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Jungfraujoch, Old City of Bern, Zytglogge and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Bern volume.
3 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 6 Famous places to visit · 19 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Bern (3)
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Jungfraujoch
A glacier saddle at 3,463 metres between the Jungfrau and the Mönch, sitting on the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier. A railway tunnels up through the Eiger to reach it, ending at the highest railway station in Europe.
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Old City of Bern
The medieval heart of Bern, built on a narrow hill wrapped on three sides by the Aare. Its layout has barely changed since the 12th to 15th centuries, much of it was rebuilt in sandstone after 1405, and long arcades run beneath the houses.
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Zytglogge
A medieval tower built in the early 13th century that has been a guard tower, a prison and the city's clock tower. Its astronomical clock and mechanical figures perform just before the hour strikes, a show that draws a crowd in the old town.
Famous places to visit in Bern (6)
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Eiger
A 3,967 metre mountain whose north face rises more than 3,000 metres above the valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. It is the eastern end of the ridge that runs across the Mönch to the Jungfrau, and its dark north wall is one of the most famous climbs in the Alps.
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Federal Palace
The domed seat of the Swiss parliament and government, a symmetrical complex just over 300 metres long at the edge of Bern's old town. The terrace behind it looks down to the Aare and, on clear days, across to the Bernese Alps.
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Jungfrau
A 4,158 metre summit of the Bernese Alps on the line between the cantons of Bern and Valais. With the Eiger and the Mönch it forms a great wall of rock and ice above the Bernese Oberland, one of the most familiar sights in the Swiss Alps.
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Oeschinen Lake
A mountain lake at 1,578 metres above Kandersteg, formed by prehistoric landslides and ringed by cliffs and peaks. It is up to 56 metres deep, and since 2007 it has been part of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Reichenbach Falls
A waterfall dropping 250 metres above Meiringen, reached by an old funicular. Arthur Conan Doyle chose its upper fall for the struggle between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty in The Final Problem.
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Schilthorn
A 2,970 metre summit above Mürren and the Lauterbrunnen Valley, reached by cable car. Its revolving summit restaurant, Piz Gloria, appeared in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the terrace faces the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.
Hidden gems in Bern (19)
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Aare Gorge
A narrow chasm the Aare has cut through a limestone ridge near Meiringen, carved by meltwater as the last Ice Age ended. Walkways run for about 2 kilometres between cliffs up to 50 metres high, and at its tightest the gorge is only a metre wide.
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Bachalpsee
A small mountain lake at 2,265 metres, about an hour's walk from the First cable car above Grindelwald. A natural dam splits it in two, and on a still day the higher part mirrors the Schreckhorn and the Wetterhorn behind it.
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Ballenberg Open-Air Museum
A spread of more than 100 old farmhouses, barns and workshops that were taken apart across Switzerland and rebuilt here near Brienz. Walking its paths is like crossing the country's regions in an afternoon, from timber chalets to stone houses.
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Bear Pit
A pit at the eastern edge of the old town beside the Nydegg Bridge, where the city has kept bears, the animal on its coat of arms, for centuries. Since 2009 the bears have mostly lived in the larger BärenPark along the river bank next to it.
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Bern Minster
A Gothic cathedral begun in 1421 whose 100 metre tower was only finished in 1893, making it the tallest cathedral in Switzerland. The main portal holds a carved Last Judgement, and the climb up the tower ends with a view over the old town's rooftops.
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Einsteinhaus
The second floor flat on Kramgasse where Albert Einstein lived with his wife and young son from 1903 to 1905. It was here, while working at the patent office, that he wrote the papers of his miracle year, including the theory of relativity.
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First
A minor summit on the slopes of the Schwarzhorn, best known as the top station of the cable car from Grindelwald. It is the start of easy walks to the Bachalpsee and the end of the long ridge hike from Schynige Platte over the Faulhorn.
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Harderkulm
A viewpoint and funicular station at 1,322 metres on the forested Harder ridge above Interlaken. From the top you look down on the town between its two lakes, Thun and Brienz, with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau lined up across the valley.
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Kleine Scheidegg
A mountain pass at 2,061 metres right beneath the Eiger, where the trains from Grindelwald and Wengen meet the Jungfrau Railway. Its name means minor watershed, since it only divides the two arms of the Lütschine river.
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Lake Brienz
A deep, green-blue lake about 14 kilometres long just north of the Alps, fed by the Aare at its eastern end and by streams falling from steep forested slopes. Interlaken sits at its western tip, and paddle steamers cross to the woodcarving village of Brienz.
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Lake Thun
An Alpine lake in the Bernese Oberland named after the town of Thun on its northern shore, and the largest Swiss lake lying entirely within one canton. Castles at Thun, Oberhofen and Spiez look out over its water toward the snow peaks.
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Lauenensee
Two small lakes at 1,381 metres in a quiet valley above the village of Lauenen, near Gstaad. The larger one covers under 9 hectares, set among marshy meadows below the surrounding peaks.
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Männlichen
A 2,343 metre mountain between the valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, reached by cable car from both sides. The ridge is a natural balcony facing the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, and the start of a gentle walk down to Kleine Scheidegg.
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Oberhofen Castle
A lakeside castle complex with outbuildings and a park on the shore of Lake Thun, one of Switzerland's heritage sites of national significance. Its small tower rising straight out of the water is one of the best known views on the lake.
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Schynige Platte
A mountain ridge and viewpoint at about 2,000 metres above Lake Brienz, reached by an old cog railway from Wilderswil. It is the starting point of the classic high trail over the Faulhorn to First, with the big peaks of the Bernese Oberland in view all the way.
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Staubbach Falls
A waterfall that drops 297 metres from a hanging valley over sheer cliffs just west of Lauterbrunnen village. Much of the water turns to spray before it reaches the bottom, which is where the name, dust stream, comes from.
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Thun Castle
A 12th century castle with four corner turrets standing on a hill above the old town of Thun. Its great keep now houses the castle museum, and the views from the top take in the lake and the Bernese Alps.
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Trümmelbach Falls
Ten waterfalls inside a mountain in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, carrying glacier meltwater from the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau down about 140 metres. Tunnels, galleries and stairways have let visitors climb beside the roaring water since the late 19th century.
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Zentrum Paul Klee
A museum for the painter Paul Klee on the edge of Bern, set under three long steel waves designed by Renzo Piano. It holds about 40 percent of everything Klee painted, the largest collection of his work anywhere.
Collecting in Bern
What are the best places to visit in Bern?
LOQAH lists 28 places in Bern. The best known include Jungfraujoch, Old City of Bern, Zytglogge, Eiger and Federal Palace. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Bern?
28, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Bern?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Bern before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Bern and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
More in Switzerland
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