Dear All,

I have been in Basel for almost a month now and I think hubby and I are ready to explore beyond. I want to go to France and buy some stuff for the house, nothing big because we have no car yet.
I was wondering to which area we should go shopping and whether it is better to take the bus at Schifflande or go to the airport and get a bus from there?
Any ideas will be more than welcome!

PS: Maybe some restaurants would be nice too THANKS!

Hallo Angelo,
have you already been to Germany? Weil am Rhein and Lörrach?
The choice of goods to buy is very broad, with a great set of prices to match!
Quite a few good restaurants too, for after the shopping..

I would also recommend Germany, in particular Freiburg which has a lively and vibrant city centre and is very easy to get to by train (Bad Banhof). However if you really prefer France, you should skip Mulhouse (which is OK but nothing special) and head straight for Strasbourg.

Thank you Both.

Castro: My question would be then is it far to Strasbourg from Basel?
And if I do go to Germany can I also take the bus or only the train?
BTW silly question: Is my train disount card also valid for my hubby or not?

THANKS!

Angela

Strasbourg is too far for small shopping - of course a nice city to visit on the weekend.
You can look up the connections to Weil am Rhein and Lörrach on www.sbb.ch.
Weil am Rhein is virtually a part of Basel city, should not take you more than 20 mins to get there.
Lörrach is directly connected with the S-bahn from Basel Badischer Bahnhof or SBB.
The half fare card is valid only for you, and also gives you a 25% discount on travel in Germany.

Dear Sankbhat,

Thanks! I will check the connections then and make a weekend trip to Weil am Rhein. I just want to do small shopping, I see things here are very expensive and there is not a lot of variety (except supermarkets that are a lot better than in NL).

Thanks!

Angela

As sankbhat said, you can use local transport to get to Weil am Rhein and Lorrach, but for Freiburg you will need to jump on one of the frequent trains to Freiburg (about 40 mins). Its definitely worth spending the day in Freiburg, plenty of shops and lots of nice cafes and restaurants (I recommend Jaipur if you like Indian).

It might also be worth you signing up with mobility.ch which is a car sharing type scheme for Switzerland. Its a very economical form of car rental and will let you get to those big homeware stores in the retail parks off the highway (Germany and France).

Try Pizzeria da Luca in Weil am Rhein, just around the corner from the big shopping mall there.

And Ganges restaurant (Indian) right in front of Lörrach station.

And if you're after stuff for around the house, there's a big hardware store (Bauhaus) , which is just opposite Haagen S-Bahn station - just a few stops north of Lörrach, but on the same line out of Basel (there is only one).

For those of you with a car, the light-industrial area in Binzen (NW of Lörrach) is also handy. in Binzen there's also another big hardware store (Hornbach).

I wondered about this -- is it okay/allowed to take a Mobility car over the border?

Otherwise wouldnt make sense, though I can't tell you for sure! I've taken it over the border quite a few times, also to drive to Basel Airport, which is in France. I also know a couple of Mobility stations which are right next to the borders.
The best thing would be to check with their help center to make sure!

It is no problem taking the mobility car across the border. I had to inform the mobility company prior to making the first journey and they sent me an agreement to my request. Just by mail.

This was mainly for insurance purposes I believe.

Now there is no mention of this in the FAQs - but I would do it anyway to cover yourself.

Check out section 9 in this link
http://mobility.ch/pages/index.cfm?d...ub=731&id=2239

Hey Guys,

According to the sbb.ch Wel am Rhein is 1.5 hours away and Freiburg 2 ...SO I decided Lorrach which is 20 minutes, anything of special interest there?

I am planning to go tomorrow!

Wish me luck!

Angela

Weil am Rhein is not 1.5 hours away! If you take tram 8 till the end and either walk or take the German bus (buy a multi-zone ticket in Switzerland or a ticket in Euros from the German bus driver). If going by bus, you'll be in Weil am Rhein in about 5 minutes, perhaps a smidge more if there's traffic.

Dearest Evilshell,

THanks for the info, I got that information on sbb.ch
One more question: We take tram 8 then till "klein huningue" stop right?
Then walk or take the German bus? We both have multizones abbonementen are they also valid?
Also anything especially worth seeing, shops? restaurant?

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!


Angela