Solothurn’s HI hostel, on the Old Town bank just west of the Kreuzackerbrücke at Landhausquai 23 (032/623 17 06, fax 623 16 39; a), is one of the country’s best – modern steel-and-glass decor inside a seventeenth-century building. There’s a wide choice of dorms (from Fr.26) and rooms with and without river views, and as well as all the usual services, including bike rental, they’ll put together a packed lunch for you for Fr.11.50.

Of the hotels, rough-and-ready Kreuz, at Kreuzgasse 4 (032/622 20 20, fax 621 52 32; a) has top value shared-bath rooms, spartan and wood-floor creaky (newer rooms are upstairs), with discounts for stays beyond one night and free kitchen use. Zunfthaus zur Wirthen, Hauptgasse 41 (032/626 28 48, fax 626 28 58, www.wirthen.ch; b), is an all-wood guildhouse with plasticky but spacious rooms, some en suite, some not. The popular and friendly Baseltor brasserie, Hauptgasse 79 (032/622 34 22, fax 622 18 79, www.baseltor.ch; c), has just six en suite rooms, all appealingly simple and fresh, and so generally snapped up well in advance. Top choice in town goes to Krone, Hauptgasse 64 (032/622 44 12, fax 622 37 24, www.hotelkrone-solothurn.ch; e), its Baroque decor preluding solidly comfortable old-style rooms, with stout, tasteful furnishings and rooms at the back looking over the cathedral steps.