Arriving in Lauterbrunnen at 1:00pm?

Cindy,

You would probably have time for a quick trip to the Schilthorn if you arrive in Lauterbrunnen at 13:00. However, I'd use the BLM route rather than the Schilthornbahn route that you described.

This is the route I'd use....

• walk across the street from the Lauterbrunnen rail station and board the Cable Car to Grütschalp. The trip will take about 20 minutes. You can buy your tickets at the rail station in Lauterbrunnen, and the tickets will include all modes of transport.
• when you arrive at Grütschalp, board the small BLM mountain railway, which will be waiting. The trip from there to Mürren is also about 20 minutes.
• when you arrive in Mürren walk along the main street to the Schilthornbahn Cable Car. The walk should take about 10 minutes or so.
• board the Schilthornbahn. The trip will be in two segments. The first car will take you Birg and you'll transfer there to another car which will take you to the top.
• reverse the route to get back to Lauterbrunnen OR you can take a different route from Mürren and travel down to Gimmelwald and then Stechelberg on the Schilthornbahn, and return to Lauterbrunnen via the Post Bus (bright yellow, you can't miss it). When you buy your return ticket, you'll have to decide which route you're going to use, as the prices are different.

Looks good to me. I'm sure you mean the Schilthorn.

Yes I did mean Schilthorn, thanks.

Thank you so much Ken, your directions sound perfect. We will have 2nd class Swiss Travel Passes, so I know that will help somewhat with the cost. We will definitely use your suggested route to go there if the weather is good.

Does your second route (using the yellow bus) return us to the Lauterbrunnen train station? We will need to return there to pick up our luggage between 6:00 & 7:00pm. Hopefully the time frame we're working with will work. Fortunately our hotel is quite close to the train station.

All roads in Lauterbrunnen lead to the train station. Either the walk/train method or taking the cable cars and then the bus. Just keep your wits about you when you first arrive at Lauterbrunnen station, it's kinda hectic and people get confused because some are going to the Jungfrau and others to the Schilthorn, which as you now know has two different methods.

Yes, your Swiss Travel Pass will cover either route between Lauterbrunnen and Muerren. The Stechelberg-Lauterbrunnen bus will take you back to the train station and the schedule is available through the regular train schedule searches. Direct buses (most departures) take 13 minutes, but after 17:12, they change from every half hour to once hourly (on my test date).

Cindy,

As the others have mentioned, Yes the Bus will return you to the rail station (Bahnhof) in Lauterbrunnen. Have a look their website....

https://www.postauto.ch/en

Ok, if we use the Grutschalp route we leave from Lauterbrunnen BLM at 13:38. That will give us time to buy our tickets, and get organized. 22 minutes in Murren. We arrive at Schilthorn at 14:57.

We can return using the Stechelberg route, leaving Schilthorn at 16:55. There is a long layover at Stechelberg of 37 minutes, and we return to Lauterbrunnen at 18:27.

I think this plan is better:
Take the Stechelberg route to go there, leaving Lauterbrunnen Bahnhof at 13:35 and arriving in Schilthorn at 14:27 (so a half hour sooner)

Returning via the Grutschalp route, leaving Schilthorn at the same time (16:55), we have the same 37 minute layover but in Murren, and we arrive back at Lauterbrunnen at 18:19.

What do you think? Is going to Schilthorn better with one method over the other? Or will we do fine as long as we take each leg of the trip differently? Obviously all of this is dependent on good weather....