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Basel for a day visit
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Polarbear
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Basel is a very long hike from either Frankfurt or Paris. Mulhouse is a lot closer (and a cheaper place to stay than Basel), if you are looking for a base from which to do a short hop to Basel.
When I looked at it it’s only 3 hours roughly from either. I for example do Brussels to Amsterdam in a day that’s 2 hours.
atraindriver
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It does sound like a very long day trip and you would be heavily reliant on only a few Lyrias/ICEs per day. May I suggest Strasbourg? At least that way it would be plausible for you to manage day trips on the TGV/ICE/OUIGO to Paris, TER 200s to Basel or TGV/ICE/Coach to Frankfurt, with those routes being relatively frequent and reliable. Also, Strasbourg is well worth a visit if you haven’t been before.
Yes I wouldn’t be too worried about having too long there as it’s not one of the major European cities I plan on visiting. The extra two hours wouldn’t bother me the reason I asked is I actually prefer Germany to France so was wondering how the experience of going ICE compared to the TGV.
atraindriver
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urpert
Member
Another vote for Strasbourg (which is a great city and has substantial transport interest in its own right!)
DaiGog
Member
There's an Ibis Budget in Basel as well, about a 10 min walk from SBB station, and it's next to the railway. Usually a bit cheaper than the Ibis, albeit a bit further to walk. Mulhouse, as suggested above, is about 20 minutes by rail and is generally cheaper than Switzerland. Strasbourg is also mentioned above - it's about 1hr15 by rail and still has a generally hourly loco-hauled semi-fast service to/from Basel.
It's far from cheap now though. In June none of the Accor hotels in Basel itself was affordable, so I stayed at new Ibis near Wettingen.
The cheapest Basel area hotels are the Accors in St Louis, much more accessible following the reconnection of St Louis t the Basel tram network.
Incidentally there is no such station as Basel Hbf. It is called Basel SBB, with the other main station (belonging to DB) being Basel Badischer Bahnhof
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What you need to do is stay somewhere nearby, like here http://www.hotelkrone-auggen.de/ Much better than a soul less chain. It's a 5 min walk from the local station, you can get the train for a visit to Basle (runs 1x hour), and the station is a great place for train watching. As for Basle it's self. It's a good place for train watching, at both stations, you get more freight at Bad (and Auggen). Sadly, the good model shop shut this year (along with a decent one in Luzern 
). When we were there this year we used an ICE as a local train from SBB to Bad to connect with a train back to Auggen, sat in the buffet for the 5 min trip. 
). When we were there this year we used an ICE as a local train from SBB to Bad to connect with a train back to Auggen, sat in the buffet for the 5 min trip. 
duesselmartin
Established Member
yes, it was seperated off for border controlls.
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