Switzerland » Getting to Basel

An approximate flight time to Basel from London is 1 hour and 40 minutes.

By Air

The Euroairport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is the only bi-national airport in the world. Construct on French soil about 4 km from Basel it is joined with the city through a customs-free road. Several major airlines, like Swiss, Air France or Lufthansa, serve the EuroAirport. In addition to the national carriers, easyJet is building up a larger base in Basel.

Current destinations are airports in the surroundings of Berlin, Liverpool, London, Alicante, Barcelona, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, and Rome. Another low-cost carrier is Air Berlin which flies to many holiday destinations, e.g. some Greek islands and the Canary Islands. In the arrival hall you can choose to go through the Swiss customs and take the customs-free road to Basel or to go the French customs. Some flights to the EuroAiport are described with Basel (BSL, Switzerland) as destination while flights from France (or other Schengen airports) generally write Mulhouse (MLH, France) as their destination, although it is the same airport.

From the airport, visitors can rent a car (not recommended), take a taxi (be prepared to spend at least 40 CHF) or the bus no. 50 (right outside the arrivals area) which ends at the Basel SBB train station.

By Train

Basel has two major train stations. The Basel SBB station is south of the town centered and the Basel Badischer Bahnhof (abbrev Basel Bad Bf) is to the north in Klein Basel. The Basel SBB station serves the Swiss SBB rail and French SNCF rail, with German DB trains linking to the Basel Badischer Bahnhof. Badischer Bahnhof serves the German DB rail. If you are arriving from France or Germany, you will pass through customs before entering Switzerland (which is not part of the European Union).

International train connections include:

• An ICE high speed train link from Germany (Frankfurt, Berlin)
• Fast trains from Paris, Strasbourg, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Brussels, Milan.
• Night trains from Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, Rome and other cities in France, Germany and Italy.

By Road

When arriving from Germany via the A5 highway, you pass the border control near Weil am Rhein just outside Basel and enter the city via the same highway, now named A2/3 (you're in Switzerland), which passes north of the city center and continues on to other Swiss cities, including Zurich, Bern, and Lucerne. To get to the city center in Grossbasel (the larger section of the city) look for signs to Bahnhof SBB; if you want to arrive in Kleinbasel (the smaller part on the other bank of the Rhine), look for Messe Basel.