Changes in Lauterbrunnen since 2018

The Swiss are not known for being overly outgoing to strangers and the area is suffering from major overtourism with massively rude tourists on a regular basis, so in many respects I don’t blame the Swiss. We spend our summers here and even today I was in a shop witnessing an extremely rude tourist interact with a local shop owner who was being very kind regardless. Most people come here with a very selfish consumer mentality, not thinking about how they are invading people’s homeland for a selfie, a souvenir and service with very little respect to the people that are working to keep it beautiful and accessible for them.

I found the Swiss to be very friendly when approached nicely and politely. Its all in the approach. I am sure their patience runs thin at times. Everyone in the service industry has bad days. Have you been to a fast food restaurant lately? That's where customer service goes to die.

We had just taken the cable car from Murren to Stechelberg, saw a bus waiting with a few passengers, and so asked the bus driver what was the closest bus stop to Hotel Staubbach. He said "City" or something to that effect, and when I asked a follow up question regarding the stop earlier to that, he just repeated "City" and then started to interact with the next person boarding the bus. He was probably tired from a long day and the bus didn't leave for a few more minutes. When we attempted to get down at the stop nearest Staubbach Falls but before our hotel, he just motioned to us to wait. I won't get into the other instance where we encountered rude, abrupt behavior.

Sometimes one remembers these instances more than the ones where the interaction was normal or friendly. That is the case here, and I didn't mean to paint Swiss people in general as rude, but just wanted to mention the perceived change since 2018. Our hotel staff in Lauterbrunnen was super friendly and as we entered the hotel the first night, the person I had exchanged emails with greeted me by first name! I complimented him on the exceptional service he provided by responding very quickly to my email inquiries, and in general being very helpful during our stay. He had kept a wine bottle in our room saying "Welcome Back", since this was our second visit.

Could it be that there was a language barrier? Perhaps the driver wasn’t comfortable speaking English? Or did you speak to him in German? It seems to me, that he did answer your question and he even stopped you from getting off at the wrong bus stop.
I find it interesting that you describe 2 different interactions; 1 you perceive as negative and 1 you perceive as very positive. Yet your conclusion is that people are more rude than in Norway.
I guess we all have different ideas about what rude behavior is. If you did address him in English and not in his local language, the bus driver could have found that rude. And to me for example, it’s rude not to come back to a forum post to thank people or at least acknowledge the answers, while others clearly aren’t bothered by that.

I’ll say it again - the area is suffering from major overtourism and is filled with a lot of entitled rude tourists who are more concerned with their vacation than being kind, respectful and doing the research needed to navigate the area without causing issues and placing blame for their issues on the locals who are also trying to actually live here. Lauterbrunnen in general is nuts these days and I can only imagine the crap that bus driver deals with every day, because I witness plenty of it. I’m not saying rudeness justifies rudeness, but the driver did help you by answering your question when you could have looked it up yourself very easily and again helped you when you made a mistake of trying to get off at the wrong place. I wouldn’t call that ground breakingly rude behavior, probably just tired and annoyed behavior for his daily experiences. He very well could have just let you get off without any consequences to himself, so being a bit of a local myself and witnessing what service providers here deal with, I see your experience in a very different light. It’s a zoo with no cages and all the animals are trying to bite the zookeepers and then pissed when they don’t want to cuddle with them.

Sorry that you found Swiss people to be rude. Here is something I have noticed in my years of living here - to start with a greeting and then “I have a question”, or “do you speak Engilsh?” Before jumping into your question is more culturally appropriate.

Even just starting with a greeting in German (good to learn a few before your travels) before jumping into a question - even if you ask it in English - would be more along the lines of the Swiss way of doing things. If the person you are talking to perceives you as being rude, they will respond in kind.

Maybe you did all of the above and still got what you perceived to be a rude response.

Glad to hear that you thoroughly enjoyed the hikes in the area!

I live in the area, and if I had the power I would completely ban non local cars from the valleys. We have in our airbnb now set the minimum number of nights to 5, and we found out that this results in a far different type of person turning up. I prefer people who want to stay and get to know an area rather than just rush in so that they can post exactly the same picture on Instagram thousands have posted before...

I do know that the municipality is planning to charge for the Staubbach Falls. It will be inevitable that we will see more of that. But yes, there are a lot of entitled tourists. A lot of tourists from a region I am not going to name here are used to having lots of cheap servants, and are not used to being in a situation where they find out they are supposed to carry their own luggage.

Another reason I would ban non local cars is that there are a lot of tourists that just park their car somewhere, where they are not supposed to. Locals have started to take matters in their own hands, and some visitors have thus found out that the licence plates of their cars have dissapeared, and that they now have a big problem.

But once you get up, out of the car infested valley, and up to Wengen or Murren things change. Because these places are harder to get at they end up with a different atmosphere.

Thanks all for your feedback, and the suggestion regarding first greeting in the local language. I did mention in my post that I was trying to get info on the stop earlier than the one near our hotel. We actually realized when the bus stopped there that it would be a nice walk towards the hotel, rather than being dropped off near Hotel Oberland and walking back. This is the first time we took a bus and it was a last minute decision after our hike to save time from having to walk to Murren train station, down to Lauterbrunnen, and then walk to our hotel. Next time I’ll be better prepared by looking up schedules and stops.

One thing to be aware of is that Swiss bus drivers do not expect to interact with their passengers a lot. Their job is to drive the bus. In Switzerland there is no need to show your ticket to the driver when boarding, and most people will already have a ticket or pass, or buy it using the app.
In quite a few places in Switzerland it is even no longer possible to buy tickets from the driver, and the front door will normally not even be opened.

Over tourism, (or revenge tourism after covid) spoills the pleasant vacation. We can't blame either side..Tourists (with different backgrounds and from different places ) expectations are different or high ; where as locals are in fatigue due to the surge of tourists. Hopefully it will balance out.
I am also same situation. Loved my stay in Lauterbrunnen Valley in 2017; now I am repeating in 2025. However this year I will be visiting Switzerland in September 3rd week. Hopefully the crowd levels will be low; but we never know..

I was also there in 2018, and am there now. The difference is shocking. We are hoping the crowds do not stray too far from town and the train and gondola stations and that the trails are still uncrowded. Maybe, very few of the hordes in town appear to be the outdoors types that used to be the norm in town.

Figure out where all the Instagrammers/Tiktokers go for photos and ... go the other way