Hi all,
New to Forum, new to Switzerland. Myself and my family are moving to Basel in June 21. Four of us including a 14 year old and an 11 year old. Which areas should we and should we not consider looking to live? We'll be working and schooling in Basel. Ideas and guidance welcome.

Dear Swiss JK,

i recommend avoid Klein basel and the area in St.Johann behind the Voltaplatz.

Hi and welcome This is of course very personal in the sense that different people prefer different things, but I can share quickly my view:

1. We prefer to be closer to the city, but not in the city itself this is why we looked into Allschwil and Binningen. Both are within 10 min with public transport from downtown Basel which is important for us.
2. If you will do so, make sure you visit both as SOME areas of both Allshwil and Binningen are right under the path of the planes and it could be noisy. We are in a part this is relatively quiet, but just bear that in mind
3. If you definitely prefer the city, look in the Bruderholz and Kannennfeld areas: green, nice middle-class and quiet areas. If you tend to like a bit more noise, international and still quite nice Gundeli is something to consider. I personally tend to dislike Kleine Basel, some people rave about it.
4. You didn't mention anything about schooling for the kids. If you plan to put them in local schools and they speak German then you have a bit more choice. If you plan to put them in the international schools, you're probably better off living closer to those. BIS is in Reinach, Academia is actually in the city

Good luck!

Hi, and welcome to the forum! I hope you find a great place in Basel and get settled in well. If you're after fun social sport, check out the underwater hockey team there ... I know a few of them, and they're nice people. The sport's fun as well, as long as you enjoy being on the bottom of a pool with a snorkel.

Welcome to Basel.
We lived in Upper Kleinbasel (Clara) for just over 2 years. The thing to bear in mind about Kleinbasel is it has a red light tolerance zone with clubs and contact bars (Webergasse) and it's very noisy during the night. The area around the park at Claramattweg is a bit iffy after dark as some of the red light girls take clients in there (the neighbours to the rear of our building used to tell us about it). Lower Kleinbasel around the Klybeckstrasse area is bad for drug dealers, but it had a poor reputation when my OH moved across here in 2014, he was in an AirbnB there for the first 6 weeks and didn't like it.

However, we still go back to Clara for shopping, meals and the cinema as we miss the buzz.

We moved to Breite, up from the Rheinweg between St Alban and Gellert. Very quiet and pleasant with local parks and a good mix of ages and nationalities as a lot of residents work at Roche.

Check the map here: https://www.tnw.ch/fahrplan-linienne...tz-basel-agglo to see how near everything is.

But bear in mind that Rheinfelden, Bubendorf and the Liestal area are fine too.

Basically, avoid Basel city, Pratteln, Birsfelden and out in the sticks, and you'll be fine. But if you target those, you'll probably be fine as well. The worst of these area is no inner city ghetto. Will your children be educated in local schools or international schools?

Depends a bit on what you're looking for. My family and I moved to the Basel area about a year ago. There are some nice suburb like areas and some good spots in Basel itself.

What sort of environment are you looking for?

OP, like most have pointed out , choice of area depends on your requirements

• Children know German and/or do they go to German/Local school?
• Your work location ? you may want to stay at an area where you take just 1 tram/bus to office
• Prefer to stay in city or suburbs?

I second the opinion to first move to a temporary accommodation or visit Basel before move and look at areas yourself, there are not too many bad areas , it could just be that some areas may just not suite your needs

I'd personally consider Riehen to move with a family...

First decide the school. Then that will narrow down the areas as you don't want to cross Basel to do a school run, unless of course you're happy to let kids do a 30 min school run alone on bike/public transport (it's possible).

I actually lived in the Voltacentre for a while - I would concur. I wouldn't live in Basel at all - but especially not in St. Johann. I would also particularly avoid the Clara area, especially with kids (full of sex workers).

Personally i'd live in Rheinfelden. Much nicer than Basel, lower taxes (in Aargau), well connected (less than 10 minutes on the train). There's an international school there too.

Thank you all for the kind welcome and guidance, really appreciated. The best parts from the advice so far is to pick the school first. Ours will be attending an international school because of poor (for now ) German, so that will clearly influence us. Also some great tips on areas to avoid. So thank you all so much for your helpful replies.

Thank you

If you plan to stay for a few years, it would be a good idea to consider putting in public schools precisely so that the kids can learn German. At that age, they can still pick it up very quickly.

Sorry but I disagree. The children are 11 and 14. So if they can manage to pay the school fees for two teenagers they should do it. Otherwise at least for the older young. It's too late for a local school

I lived in Basel when I was a teenager, it's a lovely city. Can recommend either end of the 10 or 11 tram for families.

Why avoid Birsfelden? I go there shopping and it seems to be a nice community with quiet and tidy side streets. I don't think it can be that bad to live in because the property division of UBS have built beautiful apartments not far from the town centre. People had started moving in earlier in the year.

I also like Birsköpfli Park and the walk up to the Kraftwerk. One downside is in summer the local bit of the Birs gets an influx of picnickers who come on the 36 bus, they leave an absolute mess behind as they just dump all their rubbish by the bins

Nonsense. It's not too late at all. They will learn quickly and have over half a year to cram before even arriving.

It is very "international", I personally like that, but not everyone else does. The parks in the area are indeed very fantastic, plus the pool at St Jakob is quite nice for the Summer. The neighborhood Migros and Spar are open on Sunday, this is advantageous.

The advice given about the number 10 tram line is very good - either direction outside of the city is very nice to raise a family. I like Arlesheim and Oberwil the most...Riehen is also perfect for families. Reinach is where the International School is and can recommend that suburb too.

Just listing my opinion on the "worst" places in the Basel area to live. But all communities have nice areas.