Bernese Oberland sept 2025 planning

Will you be jet lagged or are you coming from another area in Europe?

Oh yes definitely jet lagged. Coming from Oregon.
Thanks for the prompt response

It's good that you are planning ahead. A longer stay is good because Alpine weather is very fickle and you may not have good weather for hiking on all days. I suggest you consider renting a place for one week to see if the weekly rate is cheaper than 8 or 7 x the daily rate.

That was an option. Have you had experience with short term rentals in the area?

Hi neighbor! In July 2023, our group of six spent 5 nights in Wengen. I highly recommend one base. Plus a night or two close to the airport if you’re flying out of Switzerland and not continuing on elsewhere. We had some rain every day, and had to be flexible about what we did each day to work with the weather. Otherwise you lock yourself into specific sites/hikes on specific dates and the weather might not cooperate.

We stayed in two apartments in Chalet Gerbera: the middle (unit OG) and top floors (unit DG). Each apartment has 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. There is a separate laundry room shared by all units. The views from the balcony are absolutely fabulous. It’s downhill from the train station, so a bit of a hike back into town. Or you can walk downhill a few minutes and take the train uphill a few minutes. The host (Ruth) is lovely and will give lots of suggestions. They had hiking poles available, too.

I booked through booking.com, but you can book directly here: https://www.chalet-protea-gerbera.com/preise-verfuegbarkeiten?lang=en

Hi, I recently returned from a 24 day trip to Switzerland with 5 nights in Wengen at Chalet Bergera. I would highly recommend staying several days in Wengen, it is a beautiful location, centrally located with easy access to transportation in any direction. The only minus is no matter where you are in Wengen, it is either uphill or downhill to go anywhere in the village :).

I did a few days of hiking on easy level of trails in the area. I would take a train or gondola uphill and then hike down. Trails were well marker, mainly gravel with some paved going as I got close to Grindelwald. Weather wise I got lucky and only had to contend with rain on one day, as I left Wengen, they started to get early snow and several trails were shut down.

Chalet Bergera is beautiful and Ruth is a great host. There is a full kitchen in the rental with any utensil you might need for cooking. I booked directly with Ruth but be aware she only takes cash or a some sort of cash transfer service. I would stay here again if the opportunity came up.

In Wengen there is a Coop and another small grocery store that has a nice selection of cheeses, meats, wines, and liquor. There is also a good variety of restaurants in the village. I would recommend Hotel Baeren, which you will pass on the way to Chalet Bergera. Make a reservation as they are usually full every night.

Great info, thanks so much.

If you want to explore two areas, in addition to the Wengen/Mürren/Lauterbrunnen area you might look at Kandersteg. Kandersteg has enough to keep you hopping for 2 or 3 full days and the great Lauterbrunnen area for a week or more.

Thank you! Wonderful advice on this site. We are including mt blanc in our excursions.

Wengen and Lauterbrunnen are both beautiful and well located places to stay. Lauterbrunnen is easy and seemed to have more restaurants and hotels, but Wengen has more of a "ski town" vibe. The Hotel Silberhorn in Lauterbrunnen is right by the train station (but not noisy), located just by the Murren gondola, and has great breakfasts. Murren is much smaller, not many places to eat or shop. You really just need to stay in one place, the others are easily reached via the vast network of trains and lifts. The SwissMeteo app is the best for weather and check the mountain webcams before buying expensive tickets to the Jungfraujoch and Schilthorn. The RS book is excellent as well as a book called Walking the Bernese Oberland, which the Hotel Silberhorn let us borrow.

A good hiking book for first-timers to the Berner Oberland region is “Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland: Easy Walks in the Jungfrau Region” by Laurel and Richard Barton (yes, forum member Laurel who posted above).

An “excursion” to Mont Blanc would be a very long travel day from Wengen, leaving you little if any time to hike there. You would be better off using Chamonix, the town at the base of Mont Blanc, as a second base for your hiking. Say 5 nights in Wengen and 3 at Chamonix, then fly home from Geneva.

Thank you for the 10/13 posts. Great info and much appreciated.