We will be visiting Switzerland in early July and plan on hiking / exploring the Berner Oberland area for 4 nights / 5 days. What town would you recommend as a good base camp? We would like easy access to hikes, a great town to stay in, and also accessibility to other towns to explore.
Posted by
Indiana
923 posts
My recommendation would be for the car free village of Wengen. Loved our stay there!
Posted by
Moncton NB
1117 posts
Murren or Wengen are the two most recommended. I have only been to Murren, twice, and I absolutely LOVE it there. Google "Murren Hikes" and you'll get a ton of information.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33817 posts
you could choose Lauterbrunnen
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17418 posts
You will likely find that people will recommend the place they themselves stayed, whether Wengen, Mürren, Lauterbrunnen, or Grindelwald, because they loved it so much. They are all very nice, with excellent hotels and scenic views. But they differ in terms of hiking options right from town, and forms of transport to other areas. Sometimes that becomes the deciding factor. Some people will choose Lauterbrunnen because it is the most central and convenient for access to other areas, but we are not in that camp.
Over 20 years of visiting Switzerland to hike, we have stayed in three of the villages (never Lauterbrunnen). And whichever village we choose, we end up traveling to the others for some of our hikes. Most of those hikes are in the moderate to strenuous range, and they are pretty much equally divided between Mürren and Grindelwald areas. Wengen, in between the two, offers easy access to both areas by transport connections, but no hikes that we want to do right from the village.
Our two most recent visits, we stayed in Mürren because we found an apartment there we really love. Thus to go to Grindelwald for our favored hikes there, we had to take the little train from the Mürren station to Grutschalp (we love that ride for the views across the valley), transferring there to the cablecar down to Lauterbrunnen, and then make our way to Grindelwald from there by one of 2 routes. We favor the one by train up to Wengen, cablecar up to Männlichen, and down to Grindelwald. With more time one could walk the Panorama trail from Männlichen to Kleines Scheidegg and ride the train down to Grindelwald Grund, or walk 2 km up to Eigergletscher and take the Express gondola down from there. All these routes are very scenic and part of the experience of the Berner Oberland for us. But one can also reach Grindelwald from Lauterbrunnen by train through the valley, along the river.
All these lifts and trains `are fully covered with a Berner Oberland Pass so we don’t need to consider the cost, just the time and fun factor.
On previous visits we have divided our time between Wengen and Mürren, and we might do that again, because our favorite hotel in the BO is in Wengen.
My first trip to Switzerland was with my Seattle hiking club, and that time we stayed in Grindelwald, and did all our hiking from there. I returned the following year with my family, and we divided our time between Grindelwald and Mürren. On that trip we traveled between the two via train to Kleine Scheidegg so we could visit the Jungfraujoch on the way. We had our luggage of course, so had to stow it in lockers at the Kleine Scheidegg station. I wouldn’t recommend that! I don’t know if those lockers even exist any more.
I know this isn’t much help. I don’t like to make a strong recommendation for any one village, because everyone’s tastes are different. But you can see that we tend to favor Mürren. And if you want to hike from one base without traveling to others, that would be my suggestion. Here are two websites that list many hikes at all levels one can do from Mürren (actually starting in Gimmelwald just down the hill). Both lists are from the Gimmelwald community websites. The first one has photos to accompany the hike descriptions.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you for all the recommendations. Do you mind me asking the name of the hotel you love? Also, we are looking at more moderate to strenuous hikes, so any of your favorite recommendations would be appreciated. I will take a look at the websites as well.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17418 posts
The Wengen hotel is the Bären. When we stayed there is was a 2-star hotel, basically a few modern but simple rooms above a well-regarded restaurant. Takling half-board here is highly recommended; the food is wonderful). They have since remodeled and upgraded the rooms, and installed an elevator, so it is more expensive than it was. But I am sure that hosts Willy and Therese still provide the same great experience.
for hikes, I will mention two favorites that are not on those lists, because they are near Grindelwald, not Gimmelwald.
One is the hike from Schynige Platte to Faulhorn to First, the top of the gondola that takes you down to Grindelwald. You need to take the train to Wilderswil and change there to the little train up to Schynige Platte. I thought the trail was called the Panorama Trail but apparently there are several iterations from Schynige Platte. Some are shorter loops, but this one goes along the ridge all the say to First. 10 miles of up and down. Just make sure you time it to reach the First Gondola top station before it closes! (There is a bus option before that point but I have not doe that).
The second is the Eiger Trail (aka the Eiger North Face trail) between Eigergletscher station and Alpiglen, a station on the Jungfraubahn train between Grindelwald Grund and Kleine Scheidegg. It makes a long traverse across the slope below the Eiger. You can hike it in either direction, but we did downhill with our alpine club when we were there. That seems to be the favored direction, as described in this blog (with photos).
https://www.earthtrekkers.com/eiger-trail-hike-bernese-oberland-switzerland/
It is only 6-7 km, so you could combine it with the 2 km easy walk from Kleine Scheidegg up to Eigergletscher, and even the longer but nearly level Panoramaweg from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg (probably the most-recommended hike on this board). Either of those would be easy to do from Wengen by riding either the train up to KS or the cablecar up to Männlichen.
Another way would be to head to Grindelwald and take the Eigergletscher Express gondola right to Eigergletscher from Grindelwald Grund.
From Alpiglen you have lost of options for returning to Wengen. I will let you figure that part out!
Posted by
Bend, Oregon
2544 posts
We stayed in Wengen for 5 nights last summer. I recommend it over Lauterbrunnen, Murren or Gimmelwald. Wengen has spectacular views of the valley and the mountains, lots of restaurants, a grocery store, and no cars. You can sit on your balcony and all you hear is cow bells. There are plenty of hikes directly from Wengen, plus you can take the lift to Mannlichen or Kleinne Scheidigg. Wengen to Lauterbrunnen is 12 minutes of gorgeous scenery on the train.
Murren is similar in that it is car-free. But there is extensive construction going on at the cable car station which may disturb your peace, depending on where you stay. The views of the mountains are right in your face - beautiful!
Gimmelwald is teeny tiny, with only a couple restaurants and no grocery. Too small for us.
Lauterbrunnen is very busy with cars and tour buses and lots of people looking for Instagram photo spots. A great place for easy transfers to other places, but a bit too hectic for me.
Grindelwald is similar to Lauterbrunnen in that it is very popular with tour groups and cars are allowed. It’s about an hour by train from Lauterbrunnen. Or you can go up and over the mountain via cable car to Wengen. Grindelwald has the First Thrill Walk & adventure park, and spectacular Mountain View’s. Definitely worth a visit.