Gay Bern · City Guide

Planning a trip to Bern? Our gay Bern city guide is the page for you.

Bern

The capital of Switzerland and its second largest canton. Bern is home to around 150,000 people in its centre and just over 400,000 in its metropolitan area.

Founded by the Zähringen family in the 12th Century, Bern’s wooden buildings were devastated by a fire in 1405. It was occupied by French soldiers during the Revolutionary Wars and in 1848 it became the Federal city of Switzerland. In the early 20th Century it was an important city for socialist movements.

Today, Bern has a very low unemployment rate and a diverse economy. It is a centre of politics, culture and education. Tourists are attracted to Bern for its beautifully preserved, medieval town centre (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and great shopping opportunities.

Gay Rights in Switzerland

For gay rights in Switzerland please check out our Gay Zurich City Guide page.

Gay Scene

Compared to Zurich, Bern’s organised gay scene relatively small. There are several irregular Gay Dance Parties and a few Gay Saunas for gay men. Like most of cities in Switzerland, Bern is very welcoming to the LGBT in general.

Pink Mama Theatre is a queer theatre troupe based in Bern who perform in the city and across Europe. Gay Radio Switzerland is also based in the city. There is no regular gay Pride festival in Bern, but November’s Queersicht LGBT film festival is very popular.

Getting to Bern

Bern Airport (BRN) is a small regional airport located a few km south of the city in the town of Belp. It offers a few connections to European hubs such as London, Vienna, Amsterdam and Munich as well as seasonal connections to holiday destinations in southern Europe.

From the airport you can get take a bus to Belp train station where you can then take S-bahn lines S44, S31 and S4 to the centre. The whole journey costs CHF 7 and will take between 15-20 minutes. Tickets can be bought from the driver or in the airport. Services run from just before 6am to just after 11pm and services wait if planes are delayed.

If you are staying at a hotel Bern you can use your booking confirmation for free transport from the airport to your hotel.

There are taxis available to hire at the Terminal building or you can order a ride advance to save time on arrival. A journey into the centre of Bern will cost around 50 CHF. There are car hire companies operating at Bern airport. The drive from the airport to the city centre will take around 30 minutes depending on traffic.

It is easy to get to Bern from the larger Zurich Airport (ZRH) and Geneva Airport (GVA). From Zurich Airport you can get a direct IC train in around 75 minutes. From Geneva Airport an IC train will take you around 2 hours. Zurich Airport has a codeshare with American Airlines so a train may actually be your connecting flight

By train

Bahnhof Bern is centrally located and a great place to begin your trip to Bern. It is well connected to the Swiss rail network and also has international connections to Paris, Berlin and Milan where you can connect to the greater European rail network.