Bärenpark- Visitors Centre and Restaurant

What a wonderful concept, a brewpub-​restaurant and visitors centre just behind the Bern bears tourist attraction!
For the restaurant you walk by the old bear enclosure. My impression was due to anti-​zoo activists they probably expanded the bear enclosure to give them more space on the side of the hill to roam up and down and have a nice swim in the water next to the river! It’s much more space for these bears to have fun and play in. On the day we went they were sleeping at first, then wrestling with each other and playing on the water. I kept shouting «come on come on pin him»! To one of the bears but many of the Swiss did not understand me!
We caught a lunch here at the restaurant-​brewpub. My local relatives mentioned that Rösti is the local dish to try. It’s a potato based hash brown dish with cheese and apple sauce. So I ordered a speck (bacon) Rösti! It came out on a generous serving and we enjoyed one of their seasonal beers to wash it down. The Rösti was the real deal good. Creamy, cheesy and filling!
The beer was light, cereal tasting and refreshing on a humid day!
A great restaurant to come pit stop for lunch, dinner or a few beers! It was a tad expensive but hey, this is Switzerland so it was par for the course!

This was one of our highlights of Bern. A bear park near the river. Much history about the park with the original pen still intact. It has become an attraction and as that goes, there is a restaurant and brewery attached. After we watched the bears, then they went to go eat because they disappeared past this one gate, we went to the restaurant to sample their beer.
Great sampler of their three beers. I liked the third one the best. It had a slight caramel finish. We didn’t try the food, though it did look good. Some tables stared at us cause we were speaking English… LOL! Definitely a great place to stop at.

Bern is one of my favorite places to hang out. One reason, is the Bear park. From the train station, you walk through town, across the bridge, and the best part is waiting for you at the end, the bears! When I first moved to Switzerland in 2010, the 2 youngest bears were just cubs. They were tiny bundles of fur rolling in the grass, and playing with each other. I went back to visit in summer 2011, and the cubs, no longer looked like something I wanted to pick up and hug. They were grown bears, but their play-​fullness still remained. The park is free. You can walk in and down the stairs to the viewing platform on the river. You can see the bears close up and personal. The mom is with the 2 younger bears, and the male bear is sectioned off in his own space. Poor guy looks really lonely over there. The tourists are all watching the fun young bears, and he is at the end of the platform, and really doesn’t get much love. If you go, be sure to walk all the way to the end, and say hi to the lonely fellow. In reading the signs, I could ascertain that recently the park was renovated, and that the bears originally were in these small horrible stone pits. I couldn’t even imagine how they could have kept the bears in those confined places! They have moved up in the world now, and have front row seats to a wonderful view of the river and Bern. The Bear park also surprisingly has a nice restaurant. We eat their once, and were not expecting anything wonderful, and the food was surprisingly good. We saw people buying and ordering a special beer, and it appeared that they had some type of special brewery, and you could buy kegs of it there. They also have a café section, were you can order food at a counter, and take it away with you to a table and eat.

The times of the old Bärengraben as described before are definately over. It has been replaced by a top modern, state of the art bear park, where the bears are free running, have plenty of space and can even go for a swim in the river!

Bärengraben was a must-​see on my day trip to Berne. After all, the bears are founders of the city… right?
Just at the edge of town sits a large, stone, walled-​off pit which is home to the brown bears of Berne. I must admit, I had mixed feelings about Bärengraben. The giant bears are confined to a relatively small pit and put on display for tourists like me. I guess Bärengraben isn’t really any different than a zoo, but still, I felt sorry for the bear.
Bärengraben is open year round and can be visited any time of the day, however the bears are only out at certain times. I watched one of the bears lumber around, climb the rocks, then head over towards the wall of tourists who fed him pieces of fruit (which are available for purchase at a kiosk.) It was awfully adorable watching the bear sit on his bum and catch food in his mouth. The bear was very tame and would approach the people feeding him. Of course, he was no where close enough to actually touch the tourists.
If you’re visiting Berne, definitely plan a stop at Bärengraben. It’s one of the highlights of the city, and the brown bears are just so darn cute!
Cost: Free