From May to September, Basel spends its afternoons by the river. Locals pack their clothes into a Wickelfisch, a fish-shaped dry bag, and float downstream past the old town (strong swimmers only). Kids get the river from safer angles: engine-free ferries, boat trips, a pool built into the Rhine, garden pools and riverside parks with water play. Here's what we checked, from the ferries to Rheinbad St. Johann.
Rheinbad St. Johann, known locally as the Rhybeli, is a wooden river bathing house built in the 19th century below the Johanniterbrücke. Two 24-meter pools sit in the Rhine itself, next to a sun deck with free umbrellas and an Italian kiosk serving pasta, pinsa and espresso.
Swimming is unsupervised and only for strong swimmers, and the club that runs it says the layout does not suit small children.
Four ferries carry foot passengers across the Rhine between Grossbasel and Kleinbasel. Each hangs from a cable over the river and crosses on the current alone, with no engine. Each has its own name and landing: Wild Maa at St. Alban, Leu by the Münster, Vogel Gryff at Klingental and Ueli at St. Johann. Kids can watch the river push the boat from bank to bank.
Basler Personenschifffahrt runs passenger ships on the Rhine from the Schifflände landing stage in the old town. The Panorama Sightseeing Cruise passes the cathedral, the Roche towers and the Tinguely Museum, then heads into the Rhine port, where cranes load goods onto freighters.
The longer Rhine Panorama & Locks Cruise travels upriver to Rheinfelden, passing through the locks at Birsfelden and Augst on the way.
Gartenbad St. Jakob, the outdoor pool locals call the Joggeli, has a heated 50m pool, a family pool with a 1m diving pit, a non-swimmer pool and a paddling pool. Kids can go down several slides, including a speed slide, or jump from a diving tower with platforms up to 10m over its own pit.
There are also two beach volleyball courts, a kiosk and a restaurant.
Gartenbad Eglisee is an outdoor pool complex in Kleinbasel with a 50 m pool for confident swimmers, a non-swimmers' pool, a toddler pool, and a diving pool with 1 m and 3 m boards. There is also a beach volleyball court and a restaurant.
It is the city's only pool with a women-only section, the Frauenbad (locally the Fraueli), with its own 50 m and non-swimmers' pools.
A large open-air pool complex with four pools. The 50m swimmers' pool has a 6m climbing wall, a 3m diving tower and a 1m springboard. The non-swimmer pool has a slide, a current channel and water play, beginners get a learning pool with its own slide, and toddlers have a paddling pool. Around them are lawns, a beach volleyball court, outdoor fitness equipment, a kiosk and a restaurant.
A natural swimming pool designed by Herzog & de Meuron, where the water is cleaned without chemicals and the basins look like a planted lake ringed by wooden decks.
Toddlers get a shallow splash pool with water play, and non-swimmers a pool with a beach and slide. Older kids swim laps in the 25-meter pool or jump from the 1-meter board and 3-meter platform.
Solitude Park runs along the Rhine beside the Museum Tinguely, with old trees, a big lawn, and park chairs and benches facing the river. Kids head for the playground with its paddling pool, the table tennis tables, and the Jean Tinguely fountain. Sculptures and changing artworks from the museum stand around the grounds, and the Schöpfli im Park café sits on the lawn.
Opened in 1992 and redesigned in 2011, St. Johanns-Park has a playground, ground-level water jets, a football pitch with goals and a big lawn. Kids climb two sculptures shaped like a pig and a goose, a nod to the animals that once grazed outside the St. Johanns-Tor.
Spilruum St. Johann, an open meeting point for kids, is here too, along with the kleiner Wassermann park café.
An 18.7-meter iron pylon from 1957 stands on the Rhine harbor quay in Kleinhüningen, marking where France, Germany and Switzerland meet. Its shape, by sculptor Wilhelm Münger, recalls a ship's propeller: three iron blades twist as they rise, with the three national flags at the base.
The true tripoint sits about 150 meters away in the middle of the Rhine.
Parc des Eaux Vives is a 350-meter artificial whitewater river with class II rapids, just across the French border from Basel. The flow is adjustable and the obstacles movable, and a calm warm-up basin suits first-timers. Kids raft, kayak, ride hydrospeed boards or stand up paddle with the park's instructors, then use the return channel to get back to the start. The Timonerie clubhouse sits by the course.
A 32-hectare landscape park built for the 1999 garden show, near the point where Germany, Switzerland and France meet. Kids head for the Tatzelwurm playground, where they walk through the mouth of a 60-meter concrete dragon and work Archimedes screws to make it spray water from its nostrils. The water gardens hold turtles and water birds, and a farmyard by the Sundgau House keeps dwarf goats and rabbits.
The Basler Rheinschwimmen is the SLRG Basel's yearly swim down the Rhine, a sporty, easygoing event for swimmers big and small. Everyone gets in at Schaffhauserrheinweg and swims downstream to the finish by the Johanniterbrücke.
It suits kids who already swim confidently, since the Rhine is a natural river with a current, not a pool.
Basel starts Swiss National Day a night early with a huge street party along both banks of the Rhine. Families sit at festival benches by the water, eat from more than 90 food and drink stalls, and catch live concerts, alphorns included.
Around 100,000 people come, and the fireworks pack the bridges. It suits kids who enjoy crowds and a late night.
From May to September, Basel spends its afternoons by the river. Locals pack their clothes into a Wickelfisch, a fish-shaped dry bag, and float downstream past the old town (strong swimmers only). Kids get the river from safer angles: engine-free ferries, boat trips, a pool built into the Rhine, garden pools and riverside parks with water play. Here's what we checked, from the ferries to Rheinbad St. Johann.
Rheinbad St. Johann, known locally as the Rhybeli, is a wooden river bathing house built in the 19th century below the Johanniterbrücke. Two 24-meter pools sit in the Rhine itself, next to a sun deck with free umbrellas and an Italian kiosk serving pasta, pinsa and espresso.
Swimming is unsupervised and only for strong swimmers, and the club that runs it says the layout does not suit small children.
Four ferries carry foot passengers across the Rhine between Grossbasel and Kleinbasel. Each hangs from a cable over the river and crosses on the current alone, with no engine. Each has its own name and landing: Wild Maa at St. Alban, Leu by the Münster, Vogel Gryff at Klingental and Ueli at St. Johann. Kids can watch the river push the boat from bank to bank.
Basler Personenschifffahrt runs passenger ships on the Rhine from the Schifflände landing stage in the old town. The Panorama Sightseeing Cruise passes the cathedral, the Roche towers and the Tinguely Museum, then heads into the Rhine port, where cranes load goods onto freighters.
The longer Rhine Panorama & Locks Cruise travels upriver to Rheinfelden, passing through the locks at Birsfelden and Augst on the way.
Gartenbad St. Jakob, the outdoor pool locals call the Joggeli, has a heated 50m pool, a family pool with a 1m diving pit, a non-swimmer pool and a paddling pool. Kids can go down several slides, including a speed slide, or jump from a diving tower with platforms up to 10m over its own pit.
There are also two beach volleyball courts, a kiosk and a restaurant.
Gartenbad Eglisee is an outdoor pool complex in Kleinbasel with a 50 m pool for confident swimmers, a non-swimmers' pool, a toddler pool, and a diving pool with 1 m and 3 m boards. There is also a beach volleyball court and a restaurant.
It is the city's only pool with a women-only section, the Frauenbad (locally the Fraueli), with its own 50 m and non-swimmers' pools.
A large open-air pool complex with four pools. The 50m swimmers' pool has a 6m climbing wall, a 3m diving tower and a 1m springboard. The non-swimmer pool has a slide, a current channel and water play, beginners get a learning pool with its own slide, and toddlers have a paddling pool. Around them are lawns, a beach volleyball court, outdoor fitness equipment, a kiosk and a restaurant.
A natural swimming pool designed by Herzog & de Meuron, where the water is cleaned without chemicals and the basins look like a planted lake ringed by wooden decks.
Toddlers get a shallow splash pool with water play, and non-swimmers a pool with a beach and slide. Older kids swim laps in the 25-meter pool or jump from the 1-meter board and 3-meter platform.
Solitude Park runs along the Rhine beside the Museum Tinguely, with old trees, a big lawn, and park chairs and benches facing the river. Kids head for the playground with its paddling pool, the table tennis tables, and the Jean Tinguely fountain. Sculptures and changing artworks from the museum stand around the grounds, and the Schöpfli im Park café sits on the lawn.
Opened in 1992 and redesigned in 2011, St. Johanns-Park has a playground, ground-level water jets, a football pitch with goals and a big lawn. Kids climb two sculptures shaped like a pig and a goose, a nod to the animals that once grazed outside the St. Johanns-Tor.
Spilruum St. Johann, an open meeting point for kids, is here too, along with the kleiner Wassermann park café.
An 18.7-meter iron pylon from 1957 stands on the Rhine harbor quay in Kleinhüningen, marking where France, Germany and Switzerland meet. Its shape, by sculptor Wilhelm Münger, recalls a ship's propeller: three iron blades twist as they rise, with the three national flags at the base.
The true tripoint sits about 150 meters away in the middle of the Rhine.
Parc des Eaux Vives is a 350-meter artificial whitewater river with class II rapids, just across the French border from Basel. The flow is adjustable and the obstacles movable, and a calm warm-up basin suits first-timers. Kids raft, kayak, ride hydrospeed boards or stand up paddle with the park's instructors, then use the return channel to get back to the start. The Timonerie clubhouse sits by the course.
A 32-hectare landscape park built for the 1999 garden show, near the point where Germany, Switzerland and France meet. Kids head for the Tatzelwurm playground, where they walk through the mouth of a 60-meter concrete dragon and work Archimedes screws to make it spray water from its nostrils. The water gardens hold turtles and water birds, and a farmyard by the Sundgau House keeps dwarf goats and rabbits.
The Basler Rheinschwimmen is the SLRG Basel's yearly swim down the Rhine, a sporty, easygoing event for swimmers big and small. Everyone gets in at Schaffhauserrheinweg and swims downstream to the finish by the Johanniterbrücke.
It suits kids who already swim confidently, since the Rhine is a natural river with a current, not a pool.
Basel starts Swiss National Day a night early with a huge street party along both banks of the Rhine. Families sit at festival benches by the water, eat from more than 90 food and drink stalls, and catch live concerts, alphorns included.
Around 100,000 people come, and the fireworks pack the bridges. It suits kids who enjoy crowds and a late night.
