First I must say that I truely enjoyed our stay at au Violon. The place oozes character and the proprietors have assembled a great staff. We stayed in one of the larger rooms and were very comfortable. I really consider this place to be a fantastic value.

Now for the bad...I will never book a room here on a Fri or Sat during open window season again. The Barfi (the square below) is a major nightime hangout for every teenager and early twenty something in Basel. I mean hundreds of kids just milling about and having fun...loud fun. au Violon sits high above The Barfi and, in effect, constitutes the top rows of an amphi-theater with perfect acoustics.

The only word I can use to describe the effect is "din". No music, just people...an amazing rumble of people uninterrupted from arounf 10:00PM until 2:00AM or later. I am a HEAVY sleeper and I doze off easily (I fall asleep during take-off on planes) and I COULD NOT GET TO SLEEP. With the windows closed, no problem but I wouldn't recommend this in the summer months.

Of course, this is by no means any fault of the good folks at au Violon and it is a shame.

I'd stay again during the week or even on the weekends in cooler weather (closed windows) but never again on a weekend during the summer.

Great setting at the Brasserie but could not finish our appetizers. Tremendously oversauced shrimp cocktail and mealy, crunchy sushi rice. Entrees were good.

You cannot fault this hotel, it is beautiful. The tram (forgotten which number) stops right outside and you walk into the pretty courtyard and then into the most amazing small hotel you could imagine.

First you notice the wonderful smells coming from their ground floor restaurant - which must be one of the most famous and poshest restaurants in Switzerland. We checked in and were given our keys and free travel card and then up into the see through glass lift we went, which is built into the walls.

We had a former police office as a room and had a view of the pretty Christmas market and could see the top of Munster Cathedral.

The rooms are very clean with lovely comfy beds, a TV, immaculatley clean bathroom, and even a hairdryer.

Beautiful bits of furniture and lovely clean wooden floors fill the room.

The staff are very helpful and friendly and you are across the road from the main market square and to your left you will see the Des Arts winebar, where we nearly fainted with join when we realised people still smoke indoors (sorry non-smokers). There are however lovely padded outdoor seats, heaters and even blankets.

The hotel is minutes walks from everywhere and Basel is very compact. We walked around and around for hours and always came back to the Square. You couldnt get lost even if you tried!

The food choice isn't great in Basel and we found Switzerland to be the most expensive place we have ever been to - even more than Paris, Rome, Milan, Venice etc. £12 for a cocktail, £23 for a bowl of pasta, £8 for famous coffee chain's hot chocolate and muffin.

I lived on chocolates and pastries - they have wonderful patisseries. The hotel is also minutes walk from a supermarket (around the corner from Des Arts winebar) and they stock lots of goodies too.

A must see is the musuem with the oldest art collection in the world (forgot it's name already). Free entrance on first Sunday of the month! It is full with Rodin statues, Monets, Picassos, Van Gogh's etc. - very impressive for a small town.

Also a must is a visit to the Radison Hotel in the financial district (again trams stop right outside & this is on the other side of the Rhine). Head to their 28th floor Rouge Wine Bar. Amazing cocktails, amazing views and great atmosphere. We turned up at 5:30pm in Uggs and jeans with our shopping and so did everyone else.

All in all a great trip, very friendly people, didnt feel scared at night (female travellers) and cute Christmas market.

My husband and I went on a trip across 4 countries in Europe, and our favorite was Basel and staying at the Hotel Brasserie au Violon. We loved this hotel! The staff was very friendly and helpful. They really spent a lot of time with us and went out of their way to assist us with our travels.

I thought the hotel was lovely and located in a great part of town. We decided to take a cab from the station instead of dealing with luggage on the inner city train, but it was not far from the station at all. We stayed in one of the old police office rooms and it was a wonderfully large size with a nice little sitting area. We had a spectacular view from our room, in fact my husband kept taking pictures from the window (day and night). The bathroom was small, but adequate. There was only a shower available, but the bathroom was very clean. Having had hardwood floors I was amazed at how spotlessly clean the floors were.

Close to the hotel is close to a lovely shopping area and we had the most wonderful time walking around at night. The shops close in the early evening and the street traffic is only the other pedestrians walking around looking at the shop windows, and these were some of the most well decorated windows I have ever seen. Very artistic.

The only negative comment I have is that in the morning when the breakfast is served we could hear quite a bit of noise. Old wood floors creak. The breakfast was buffet style with different breads, meats, cereal and all kinds of jellies and cheeses for the bread. Too much to choose from!

We had drinks in the restaurant one evening and the menu looked great, we chose to eat out in the town however.

If you do go to this hotel, please check out the interesting elevator that goes down to the street below. The elevator is made of glass and you can see the original structure of the building and some of the renovations made over the centuries. Very cool!

I know Basel very well as I have visited a half a dozen times. I stayed in this hotel for a few days. While the hotel was clean and very well located, I felt the owners were stingy, Why do I say this?
The room we stayed in had no extras, just the basics. The reception was only manned by one person and was always busy. Thus if you needed something you had to wait for an answer. When I brought this matter to the attention of the owner, she replied by saying that she would rather keep things simple to be able to keep the price down and not stock the room with too many amenities like shampoo bottles and a refrigerator. To me, an owners attitude towards ALL of their guests is paramount. Nothing counts more than this when you stay in a hotel. The Violon did not seem to care.

In summary, for 10 or 20 francs more, there are lots of Basel hotels that provide full service and lots of extras including breakfast.