Cooking for Bern’s visitors: a menu in their language, kept up to date

On 31 December 2025 Bern had 138,562 residents, the fifth-largest Swiss city after Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Lausanne. It gained 567 residents over the year.¹

Statistik Stadt Bern, the City’s statistics office, counts 39 hotels and hostels with 2,858 rooms on average over the year; their occupancy rate stood at 65.3% in 2025.²

In 2025 the city’s hotels and hostels recorded 623,942 arrivals and 1,071,967 nights, their second-best year after 2024. Guests from abroad accounted for 585,672 of those nights, Swiss guests for 486,295.²

After Switzerland come Germany (104,078 nights), the United States (81,282), the United Kingdom (32,404), France (32,029), Italy (28,243) and China (27,567). Nights by Chinese guests rose by 18.5% in a year.²

Guests stay 1.7 nights on average: 1.9 nights for visitors from abroad, 1.5 for Swiss guests.²

Zibelemärit, the onion market, is Bern’s biggest market. It is held every year on the fourth Monday in November; the next one falls on Monday 23 November 2026. The stalls mostly sell onion braids, wreaths and figures.³

The market officially runs from 6 am to 6 pm, but the first sales start at 4 am. The City calls it a unique event in Switzerland and in neighbouring countries, with the first out-of-town visitors arriving at dawn.³

Over the year, hotel nights peak in summer: about 126,500 in August 2025, against 58,500 in January.²

For Bern and its surroundings the MICHELIN Guide lists 36 restaurants: 11 with one star, 10 Bib Gourmands and 15 selected addresses. Seven of them are in Bern itself.⁴

The guide’s filters flag vegetarian options at 34 of the 36, gluten-free at 27 and vegan at 18; 28 have a terrace. In town, ZOE holds a star with a vegetarian kitchen.⁴

The selection online is the 2025 edition; the guide unveils its 2026 selection on 2 November 2026, in Andermatt.^5,6

In Bern, outdoor seating on public ground (Aussenbestuhlung) starts with a call to the City’s Gastgewerbe team on +41 31 321 52 25. The team advises venues and passes their applications on to the Bern-Mittelland government office (Regierungsstatthalteramt). Its page gives no timescale.⁷

The City’s fee regulation sets a price per square metre per year: CHF 190 on the squares of the upper old town (Bärenplatz, Waisenhausplatz, Kornhausplatz and others), CHF 140 in the lower old town and CHF 95 elsewhere. Seating that cannot be used on market days pays 25% less; demonstrations or public events bring no reduction.⁸

Reviewing an application for a new venue or an extension, outdoor seating included, is billed by the hour at CHF 115. A venue may hold up to four events with music on its outdoor area each year, with a loudspeaker permit from the City.^7,8

Under its Nette Toilette scheme, the City also pays venues that open their toilets to the public.⁷