Bern or Thun?

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
We'll be moving to the Bern area early next year from Washington, DC. My work will be in Bern (not sure of the exact address yet) and my wife will stay home with our 2 year old. We're trying to decide on a good area to live in. I want to e-bike to work (max 26 kilometers each way) or use public transportation on rainy or snowy days. My wife will take public transpo. We won't own a car.

We would like to meet other young families, especially international (english-speaking) families since my wife doesn't speak German or French yet, although she'll be taking a language course once we get there.

I've seen a couple threads from 6 years ago and would be interested to know what the current situation is. For us the major two factors are meeting other young families who are also looking for friends and being somewhat central to activities so my wife doesn't have to spend 20+ minutes just to go to a park or playground or to go shopping.

The person who interviewed me recommended Thun, which looks beautiful but would obviously add a commute. My recruiter recommended living in Bern itself when I told her that we like to meet new people.

What are your experiences/anecdotes?

2
On balance it sounds like it would be better for you to move to Bern (if it is a straight choice between the two towns). Thun has parks, playgrounds and shopping (plus a lake and excellent train connections given the size of town), but what it probably lacks (in terms of your criteria) are lots of young international families.

But if you and your wife are willing to throw yourselves into the local community then both places will be as inviting.

3
Just a quick tip now, will elaborate later.

Check out Belp.... smack bang in the middle of both, loadsa Expats close by in Muri/Kehrsatz/Bern..... lowest taxes in ct. Bern.

Biking along the river Aare to Bern, super connections by train to Bern (less than every 10mins a train)

Am on the road now( not driving myself ) will post more later from home.

4
Bern is (for me the born and bred Bernese) more rural, than properly urban, yet it offers just as much as a big city like Zurich!

Since your wife will be a trailing spouse, she’ll find more distractions in Bern. For instance, there is a very active AWC, which might be her first port of call to get many vital information and recommendations in regard to, say the paediatric doctor/OBGYN/family doctor, playgroups in English (for a start)

https://awcbern.org/

I don’t doubt, that for a new arrival it is the easiest way to find their feet in a new country where you don’t speak the language (yet).

However, I am doing this helping expats job over 20 years.

Out of personal experience, I can say, the biggest danger is to feel too comfy in this expat bubble, surrounded just with other trailing spouses.

It is important to start putting out the feelers quite quickly in parallel too, to guarantee a successful relocation and integration.

Ok, onwards about Bern.

The public transport is 1A in and around the town, as well as the bike lanes, which are well planned throughout the town!

You get everything within a relatively small space, from shopping for anything your heart desires by wandering through the famous arcades over to the shopping centres (if you prefer that kind of thing) in close vicinity of the town and also reachable easily by public transport.

Bern boasts also a very colourful cultural life from opera to theatre to exhibitions, various museums, many traditional customs from the Carneval ( Bärner Fasnacht) in spring to onion market (Zibelemärit) in November.

However, the rent as well as the taxes are higher in town, so it'd pay to look into moving to the surrounding suburbs. Hence my suggestion yesterday to look into Belp, for example.

Lower taxes, cheaper rent, away from the fray, less noise and traffic, yet within a 15min train ride your smack bang in the middle of the city. Belp is south east of the capital.

Thun, is just as charming, but much smaller than Bern. Recommendable, in particular if you are after winter sports opportunities, because you’d be closer to many skiing areas. Also hiking/mountaineering and other such pastimes ask for a basis like Thun. The lake is amazing and there are many ways to take a stroll around the harbour of Thun. Bern, again is only about a 30 min train ride away.

If you are looking north-west, there are also suburbs worth looking into and again Bern is easily reachable with the super public transport system with connections at least every ten minutes (depending on the village).

5
Bern all the way, I wish we had moved there from the very beginning. It’s a lively and very welcoming city. You can walk to a number of beautiful parks, cafes and restaurants. The vibe is so relaxed and friendly, and my favorite part is how authentic it is...

After you’ve had time to meet others in the city, you can head to the country or Thun. Belp is really nice, but very rural...I personally wouldn’t consider it as a first residence.

I’m an American, 38 years old and always happy to talk if you need any advice.

6
I'd also say, if you are new here and you are working in Bern, then live in Bern. If it starts to look like you are going to be here really long term and maybe even getting to the stage of thinking about buying a property, then reassess the situation again. Thun is great for all the reasons already mentioned, but if you are working full time, you don't really get to enjoy it. It is only when you don't have to work anymore that the real benefits come. Anyway, either way, you can't make a big mistake. The journey time Bern/Thun is only 20 minutes with the fast train.

7

https://en.comparis.ch/steuern/steue...n-im-vergleich

placed Belp at #14

criterions are: proverbial 120K is 90K net, married, 1 child, not religious.

Muri b. Bern is #5 tax-wise and is practically Bern, with two trams and a few buses providing for a city-like connections.

8
platform to platform yes, door(h) to door(w) is ~1hr each way each working day.

9
You ought to consider Münsingen too. Similar to Belp it’s between Bern and Thun and it has tons of young families. Plus we’re already representing the US in strong numbers - we’ve got some New Yorkers and Texans here

10

Well, I said less taxes NOT the lowest...... you do know certainly that Muri is much more affected by the noise of air traffic from Airport Belp, don't you??

11
Of course, and you forgot to mention the absolutely marvellous Panorama that you get on the other side' of the Aare 😉😉 (Belpberg is a tad in the way to see it properly from my home).

One of the oldest, still working Restaurants in Ct. Bern, too.

A swisswide renowned concert location with Mühle Hunziken in Rubigen.

And there's so much more!

12

given the type of aircrafts taking off from that aerodrome I would not consider this a factor. Legal values are not exceeded :

• Luftverkehr

Der Flughafen Bern-Belp (Belpmoos) beeinträchtigt v.a. das Mettlen - und Villettenquartier in Muri, da die Nordan- und Abflugroute über dieses Gebiet führt. Die gesetzlichen Lärmgrenzwerte werden jedoch für das ganze Gemeindegebiet eingehalten, d.h. die Immissionsgrenzwerte nach Lärmschutz-Verordnung (LSV) werden nicht überschritten .

13
Hopperla, my mistake indeed! Serves me right to stand corrected!

Drat! Seems I am not perfect after all

14
Please share the name. Danke

15
We lived in Belp for 4 years, and it was lovely. The nicest part, I think, is Riedli (where we lived) about a 3rd of the way up the Belpberg. Great views of the western alps and overlooking the guerbetal. I don’t know if the public transport has changed, but it was about 2km from the train station and the bus stopped only at the bottom of the belpberg. Something to consider - the hike up the hill was substantial. Just beautiful walking.

The whole area south of Bern - Belp, muensingen, seftigen (I think) is worth considering, you’d just have to check the transport time schedules. We did have a car and my husband had a parking space at the Uni Bern, and I was having chemo and rads last year we lived there, so we drove quite a bit.

16
https://www.baeren-muensingen.ch/

Voilà

17
It sounds like a lot of Americans like the small towns between Bern and Thun. I'm very thankful for Sultan of Swing's comment on how long the actual commute time would be. It sounds more realistic than just 20 min.

Susie, I think I'm leaning more towards your suggestion to live in Bern itself.

EastEnders really appreciate your comments about Bern.

Also thanks everybody else for your valuable suggestions!!

18
Friends of ours live in Ittigen and love it. I think it's 8 minutes on the train to the main station? Lots of families there too.

The city proper might be nice in terms of commute but you'll pay higher rent and may not have as much space for the kids to run around. If you choose a suburb there are often some nice housing areas with playgrounds for the children and you could even get lucky and score a flat with a garden.