A week in Grindelwald, Suggestions?

bf,

It would help to have a bit more detail on the type of hiking you want to do. You might find some good information on this website.....

http://www.gimmelwald.com/hikes.html

One suggestion is to travel to Mürren and take the Allmend-Hubel Funicular to the stop. After that walk down through the alpine meadows to Mürren. It's all downhill and a wonderful hike. I'm about your age, and I can manage that easily.

Is there a particular reason you've decided to stay in Grindelwald? It's not the most convenient location for reaching other communities (or hiking opportunities) in that area. You might find it easier to stay in Lauterbrunnen or Mürren (depending on what type of "horizontal hiking" you decide to try).

You might find it helpful to have a look at the RS Switzerland guidebook.

If you want "fairly level" hikes, here's the best 3:
They follow the 3 great ridges. The first goes
from Grutschalp to Murren. That part is gently rolling hillsides.
From Murren, you can go down to Gimmelwald or you
can hike uphill on a diagonal from the
Murren cablecar station, and eventually end up at the restaurant at
Spielbodalp. There you can get a drink and sit at a picnic table and watch the
cows. You can see that trail and others here:
http://www.gimmelwald.com/pics/gimmelwald/hikemap.jpg

Grutschalp to Murren is about 2 hours, another hour to Spielbodenalp. Take the Murren to Grutschalp train back, and that takes about 20 min.
The second goes from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. The walk itself is
about 2 hours, and we save this for the sunniest day, because of the panoramic
views. (Leave in the morning--most afternoons the peaks cloud up!) Take the
train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, then a 5 min walk to the cable car
station, where you take the cable car up to Mannlichen. (Or, if in Grindelwald, take the Grindelwald to Mannlichen cable car.) Once up, you can look
north at a 30 min up and back trail to a lookout point. If you look south
there is the main tra‎il that leads toward the Jungfrau mounta‌in, which takes
1.5 hrs and you end up in Kleine Scheidegg, where you can catch a train down
to Wengen and finally Lauterbrunnen. Great panoramic views all along the
route. This trail is so easy you could do it in a wheelchair, and is almost completely level.

The 3rd classic trail is from First to Bachalpsee. From Grindelwald, walk about 20 min further into town from the train station to get to the cablecar station, where you take it all the way up to First. From there
walk south to Bachalpsee. There are trail signs, and it is about 45 min each
way. On a sunny day, you can get great pictures of the mountains reflected in
Bachalpsee, which is a small lake. Just Google image "Bachalpsee" and you'll
see what I mean. The terrain is gently rolling hills.
Finally, another absolutely level walk is to walk the valley floor from Lauterbrunnen to Trummelbach falls, about 45 min each way.

Allen