Getting around Basel
It's easy to see Basel's main attractions on foot, particularly around the Old Town. However, like most Swiss cities, Basel has an excellent public transport network that operates frequent and reliable services throughout the urban and suburban areas. Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVB) (tel: +41 61 685 1414; www.bvb.ch) operates the city's many green trams and buses, most of which operate every few minutes during the day and every 15 minutes late in the evening (although some lines only operate at rush hour). You can buy single tickets and multi-trip tickets. Day cards and two-, three-, four- and seven-day tickets are also available.
As a supplement to the public transport network there are four ferries crossing the Rhine between the city's bridges. They are operated by the Basel Ferry Association (www.faehri.ch), and they travel across the river without a motor, propelled only by the force of the current.
There are several taxi companies in Basel, and it is never hard to get hold of a taxi. Companies include Taxi Zentrale AG (tel: +41 61 222 2222; www.taxi-zentrale.ch/), 33er taxi AG (tel: +41 61 333 3333; www.33ertaxi.ch/) and Taxiphon-Genossenschaft Basel (tel: +41 61 444 4444; www.taxiphon.ch).
Driving in Basel is not recommended, as inner-city streets can be confusing and are shared with trams, which have the right of way. Parking in the old city is relatively expensive and scarce. However, there is a network of clean, safe (and payable) public garages on the outskirts of the city centre, generally open 24 hours.
Car hire is available from Avis (tel: +41 61 325 2840; www.avis.ch), Europcar (tel: +41 61 205 9090; www.europcar.ch/en), Hertz (tel: +41 61 325 2780;www.hertz.ch), Alamo (tel: +41 61 325 2903; www.alamo.ch), Sunny Cars (tel: +41 848 19 96 00; www.sunnycars.ch) and Sixt (tel: +41 61 683 5989; www.sixt.ch).
Basel is a bicycle-friendly city, with many well-marked bicycle lanes and even traffic signals and left-hand turn lanes for bikes. Helmets are not required (although recommended), but lights and bells are. You can hire bicycles from Rent A Bike (tel: +41 61 272 0910; www.rentabike.ch) at the SSB railway station.
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