My husband and I are moving to Switzerland in February 2013. We are making this move through his place of employment and have been given the choice between Zurich or Bern. He will be spending equal amounts between each city every week for work and has left the decision up to me to choose. I am torn. I love the smaller quaintness of Bern but value the opportunity to find work teaching/tutoring English in Zurich. Also, I only speak English and have heard that Zurich is a better place to live as the population there speaks more English than that of the population of Bern.
Anyway, any bit of advice from those of you who live/work in Zurich or Bern would be greatly valued! We must choose in the next week or so.
I love Bern. Enough nightlife for an oldie like me, but plenty of charm and a small-town feel. It's not so big that you can't get around easily. Centrally located so we can choose ZRH, BSL or GVA for flying home depending on which one has the best prices or schedule at any given time. But Sbrinz is right, if you are under 30 then maybe ZRH will fill the excitement need for you.
However Bern and surrounding areas - Just amazing. I spent a lot of time in Spiez and Thun. Right on the water. Lots of people speak English (especially in Thun). Not that much of a night life, but enough for someone who goes out only a few times a month.
I agree with the previous posters, that it is a matter of personal tastes and lifestyle. With its large expat population, I think Zurich is easier to acclimate quickly to (e.g. join the expat bubble), and (aside from the nightlife) offers many more opportunties for restaurants and other urban attractions. While Zurich is very small and accessible compared to US cities, Bern has this in spades and is very easy to get around quickly. If you hope to teach IN English (rather than to teach English) there are many more international or bilingual schools in the Zurich area. There are obviously lots of other considerations, such as taxes being much higher in Bern than Zurich (while housing costs are considerably lower) - which could have an impact depending on your personal financial situation. You really can't go wrong either way.
As most have said i think Zurich provides a slightly easier aclimatisation and better night life. But the surrounding arwas of Berne are stunning. Good kuck with the move and hey if you dont like one you can move :-)
We live in Zurich but Bern seems like a really nice city. My wife always says that she would really miss the lake here though. It is very nice in the summer. My 2 cents.
I agree with Homer. You might actually have less competition for English teaching/tutoring in Bern. Also, I think living where there are less people who speak English could be a plus, especially when trying to learn German. Also I always felt like Bern had more variety and influence from the French speaking part of Switzerland. My extra 2 cents.
I would chose Zurich, especially if you are moving from a big city. If it's your first move abroad moving to Switzerland may be a bit of a shock and I think it's easier to deal with it where there's more expats, which I would say about Zurich. We lived in Geneva first and it was hard for me to get used to a smaller city life and it got much better when we moved to Zurich. Good luck!
Thanks for all the much needed advice everyone! I sincerely appreciate it. Also, I am American and my husband is Chinese-Australian. Is there more racial diversity in Bern or Zurich? We met and married in San Francisco, California; we enjoyed the racial diversity there and are curious how things will be in this respect in Switzerland. Really so thankful for everyone's input here. Cheers!
zurich is a nice place to visit, to come and hug your bank account, absolutely, but living here can be a bit like living in stepford (if you're used to big city life)
then again having been to other swiss cities i now see i live in a buzzing metropolis. there's even some neon here and there
the 2 cities have completely different personalities, and so much of it depends upon your and your husband's personalities and likes / dislikes. if Zurich were Manhattan, then Bern would be Brooklyn. not in terms of safety, amenities or the like, but rather in terms of the personalities of the cities. we live outside of Zurich and love it, but I also absolutely love Bern and find many of the dudes in Bern to be more of the chill variety and there is an undercurrent of relaxed friendliness that you don't always find in Zurich (keeping in mind that "friendliness" is a relative term in Switzerland).
coming from San Fran you will have a big adaptation to get through anyway, why not come and visit both and see what you think?