The hotel atmosphere was very nice. The room we had was very comfortable. We were on an upper level back side away from the street - very quiet. The hotel location was excellent for seeing local sights, enjoying the street markets and eateries. Good breakfast fare and spacious dinning room. Berne is a great place for sightseeing and enjoying the market food (which we took up to our room on several occasions). Was not impressed with the Bear Pit, but the old town and streets are great; excellent food and drink. Don't miss the fondue. We found some of the best food deals in the local department stores where deli-like counters are quite common. Just point to what you want and enjoy it sitting on the coblestone sidewalk watching the "tourists" go by.

Idéalement situé pour partir à la décourverte de la magnifique ville de Berne à pieds. A 500m. de la gare et 250m du Palais Fédéral. L'hôtel est de bonne qualité, récemment rénové et très bien entretenu, indiscutablement une des meilleures adresses dans cette catégorie de prix. Il ne s'agit pas d'une adresse de charme mais d'un hôtel de ville pour des séjours de courtes/moyennes durées. Le service y est attentionné, le petit déjeuné varié. L'hôtel dispose d'étages non-fumeurs, un bar à la réception de l'hôtel voisin. En temps normaux je ne pourrais que recommander cet hotel pour vos séjours à Berne mais.... ....le Bristol est victime des travaux à proximité, des chantiers qui peuvent être actifs durant toute la nuit (Euro 2008 oblige) et les tampons oriculaires mis à disposition dans les chambres ne sont pas suffisement efficaces!. La réception fait tout son possible pour essayer d'atténuer ces désagréments mais certaines nuits sont vraiment difficiles. Je vous conseille de bien vous renseigner sur l'avancement de ces travaux lors de votre réservation et d'éxiger des chambres sur les derniers étages et côté réception (sur la route). Je regrette ce commentaire alors que je n'aie rien à reprocher au Bristol.

I stayed at the Bristol Hotel in Bern for two nights on 8/3 - 8/5. I have to agree with the previous poster that the streetside rooms were quite noisy -- especially on a Friday night, but the next night was not nearly as bad. The problem is that the hotel is located on one of the arcaded streets and folks leaving the bars must think it is funny to yell and holler (which of course echoes on the arcades) in the middle of the night. The hotel itself was well-appointed -- we were in a double room with a rollaway bed for our 12 year old son. We were on the second floor which has large bay windows, which can be opened for fresh air. The bathrooms were well-appointed, but like many of the hotels in Switzerland they provided very little ameneties that we US citizens have come to expect (soap, shampoo, etc.) -- so bring your own. The included breakfast buffet was fine -- it included meats, cheeses, pastries, bread, yoghurt and dried fruit and soft-boiled eggs. On the second day, I noticed a list that allowed you to order eggs any style for an additional cost. The breakfast room is shared with the sister hotel, but we never noticed it being overly crowded. There is a shared internet room with two free terminals -- you need to get the key from the reception desk to use the terminals. Our biggest complaint had nothing to do with the hotel, but with the construction that Bern is currently undergoing. The street literally in front of the hotel is being torn up and there is a large crane positioned in the middle of the street right in front of the hotel. Your "view", depending on the location of your room, is quite blocked. In addition, the reception desk indicated that the construction would be ongoing for a minimum of a year. (In fact, we arrived on a Friday, and they mentioned that the previous night, the construction crew had been given permission to work until 2:00 am!) Thankfully, they stopped at around 8:00pm the Friday night we arrived, but if they had been working until 2, I don't believe we would have gotten an ounce of sleep as it could be heard clearly through the sound-proof windows and earplugs. The main road in front of the station is also under construction and it makes what should have been an easy walk to the hotel a bit confusing. Plus, I believe, but could be wrong, that this rerouting has caused the city buses to use the Bristol's street all night long. With the crane and the detour, the buses make an enormous amount of noise all night -- combined with the late-night partiers and the early-morning street cleaners, it makes for a difficult sleep. When you find earplugs in your room, they are serious and plan on using them. Luckily, the weather was cool at night -- the hotel provided a desk fan and we were pretty exhaused so we were able to get some sleep. The hotel overall was very nice -- the staff was more than helpful -- and they really cannot be blamed for the noise as they have no control over it. We also received a complimentary glass of champagne at the Baeren Bar which looked very nice -- and even had a small snack menu, including burgers. Would we stay here again? Most likely -- if we were assured that the construction was done.

My wife and I stayed at this hotel as part of our tour vacation with Collette Vacations. Flying from Pennsylvania to Europe afforded neither of us any sleep. The first night at the Bristol (Thurs) we were kept awake until three in the morning by revellers in the street in front of the hotel. We unfortunately had one of the street side rooms on the second floor. When we complained to the tour director we were informed that there were two pair of EAR PLUGS in the bathroom that were to be used to drown out the noise!! Friday night got even worse. Every ten minutes a new batch of inebriated individuals "paraded" in front of the hotel hollering and laughing-this almost seemed orchesterated. One individual even hollered "Get-up, Get-up. This continued until three thirty at which time a fellow on a motorcycle raced his bike in a circle in front of the hotel at the cheers of two drunk on lookers. At 4 am. the locals arrived to start the set up for market-day. They talked, hollered, drug tables across the street and slammed various containers on the ground. Needless to say neither of us got one minute of sleep that night. We received no satisfaction from the hotel when we requested an inside room. Thus we finished the remainder of our five night stay with ear plugs and MP3 players in order to get some sleep. This truly was the vacation in Hell!!!

Meine Frau und ich waren auf Rundreise mit Collette Vacations und übernachteten hier. Wir flogen von Pennsylvania nach Europa, keiner von uns schlief. Die erste Nacht im Bristol (Donnerstag) wurden wir bis 3 Uhr morgens wachgehalten weil vor dem Haus Radau war. Wir hatten leider eines der Zimmer im ersten Stock das auf die Straße zeigte. Wir beschwerten uns dann beim Reiseleiter und uns wurde gesagt, dass sich zu diesem Zwecke zwei Paar Ohrenstöpsel befänden, damit könne man Abhilfe schaffen. Freitagabend war es noch schlimmer. Alle 10 Minute marschierte eine neue Horde von Betrunkenen vor dem Hotel auf und ab, man rief und lachte - schien fast so, als kämen die auf Kommando. Einer rief sogar 'aufstehen, aufstehen'. Das ging das bis halb vier so weiter, da kam dann ein Motorradfahrer und fuhr sein Motorrad im Kreis vor dem Hotel herum als würde er ein Rennen fahren, dazu wurde er von den betrunkenen Zuschauern angefeuert. Um 4 Uhr morgens wurde dann der Markt aufgebaut, Man unterhielt sich, schrie herum, zog Tische über den Markt, donnerte verschiedenste Sachen auf den Boden. Ich brauche gar nicht erst zu erwähnen, dass keiner von uns beiden auch nur ein Auge zubekommen hat. Wir baten um ein Zimmer auf den anderen Seite und bekamen das nicht. Wir verbrachten dann den Rest der fünf Tage mit Ohrenstöpseln und MP3 Spielern um wenigstens etwas Schlaf zu bekommen. Das war wirklich ein höllischer Urlaub.