Gimmelwald

Gimmelwald is not difficult to reach as the cable car runs frequently, but each time you need to to somewhere there will be a small cost. You'll definitely have lots of "quiet and solitude" there as there's little to do in the evenings and limited choices for restaurants. You could also stay in Mürren, as it's larger and has more hotels, restaurants and a small Coop supermarket.

As you're planning activities on both sides of the valley, you could also stay in Lauterbrunnen as it's central to both sides and is the transportation hub for the area.

I love evenings at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald even if I am not staying there. People, games, music, conversation, beer...lots of fun. Up the hill at Hotel Mittaghorn is usually something going in their bar on a couple nights a week.

Gimmelwald is an excellent base for all hikes on that side of the valley. It will take about 30 minutes to get to your Maanlichen hike, but it's no hardship.

I found this book to be a valuable guide to the hikes in the area.

Depending on what else you have planned for Switzerland, consider buying Swiss rail passes as it will cover all your frequent cable car rides.

Murren sits just above Gimmelwald and slightly larger with more chalets and hotels and perhaps more importantly an ATM and a Coop grocery store. There are also two public transportation access routes in Murren. 1) The Schilthornbahn (which transits through Gimmelwald) and 2) The Murren BLM train station.

I consider Murren to be a sleepy little village and Gimmelwald is lovely, BUT it's even sleepier than Murren. The whole area is gorgeous, and we always walk down from Murren to Gimmelwald because it's just a great walk. But I could not stay in Gimmelwald for 4 or 5 nights...we much prefer Murren.

Thanks for the input it sounds like Murren or Lautenbrunnen might be a better base camp for us. What is the transport time form Murren down to Lautenbrunnen? As you said we could walk down to Gimmelwald and check things out as part of a hike.

Maybe Lautenbrunnen be the best choice if we have a cloudy day and want to take off for somewhere else as Murren is also a bit harder to get to and from. It also looks like Lautenbrunnen would be a central take off spot for both of our hikes up each side of the valley as was mentioned . Our goal is if the weather looks good in the morning to get up and go asap on our hikes. If we go with Lautenbrunnen does any one have any suggestions on where to stay in Lautenbrunnen? Still not sure what we want to do but the input for all of you is certainly helping.

The cable car is not difficult to negotiate. In fact you will need to use cable cars to get to Muerren anyway, one route of which goes via Gimmelwald. The book and videos make Gimmelwald seem like its very remote and isolated, but its just a short pleasant walk down a paved path from Muerren, and you can see Lauterbrunnen, Muerren and Gimmelwald from each other. They are in close proximity. I would rather stay in Muerren, than Gimmelwald as you will likely end up going there anyway for food, and access up the mountain. I would stay at either as opposed to Lauterbrunnen, which has better access to other places, but goodness, the view staying on the mountain vs in the valley is what you come to Swtizerland for.

Murren hands down. Think of it as a bowl. Gimmewald sits in the bottom of the bowl. Murren is at the top of the bowl on one side and Wengen is at the top of the bowl on the other side. As others mentioned there is a paved sidewalk from Murren that takes you down the side of the bowl to Gimmewald. Murren is a tiny, pedestrian-only village. It does have a small grocery for supplying yourself with food and hiking snacks. There is no nightlife as such, even the few restaurants close up early. There are many good hikes from Murren, well-marked and maps are readily available everywhere. The transportation up to Murren sounds complex, but it is easy. You get off one type of conveyance and get directly onto the next. Easy, scenic and efficient.
Weather is not your friend in this area. The first day we arrived in Murren during a June trip was blue sky, sunshine and unforgettable views. The rest of our stay there was cloudy and fogged in. It was still wonderful. Murren has a nice sports center where you can swim, exercise and relax if the weather is too bad. We were lucky enough to attend a small local music program at the little community center.
Just check your dates with hotel availability. I know that at some point things pretty much shut down between the summer season and the winter ski season.

bonnie,

The travel time from Mürren to Lauterbrunnen is about 20 minutes via the BLM route. If travelling via the Schilthornbahn (Gimmelwald / Stechelberg) and Post Bus, it's about 30 minutes. Keep in mind that you'll have to go through Lauterbrunnen to reach Wengen and Kleine Scheidegg, so be sure to include that in your travel times. As I mentioned earlier, Lauterbrunnen is the transportation hub for the valley.

Thanks Ken for the transportation times from Murren to Lauterbrunnen that is helping us make our decision. We are leaning toward Murren now with all of the wonderful things people are saying about staying in the mountains. With your travel time information we are thinking that a 30 minute trip to the other side for the lifts up to the Jungerfrau area will not be a major problem. Thanks for the input.

bonnie,

Just to clarify, the times I quoted were from Mürren to Lauterbrunnen, using two different routes. The BLM route via the small mountain railway to Grütschalp and then the cable car down to Lauterbrunnen is the quickest.

Once you reach Lauterbrunnen, there will be additional time and costs to get up to Wengen and Kleine Scheidegg on the other side of the valley, via the Wengernalpbahn railway. For example, the trip from Lauterbrunnen to Kleine Scheidegg will be ~43 minutes. Therefore the trip from Mürren to Kleine Scheidegg will be ~1H:22M each way.

Someone asked about the gondola time from Murren down to Gimmelwald. I don't know exactly but I think it takes about 3-5 minutes to travel that segment.

Ken,
Thanks for clarifying, we did understand what you wrote and were thinking of the 30 minutes in terms of getting down to Lauterbrunnen. If we stayed down there we would still have to take the transportation up the east side of the valley to get to our Mannlichen-Kleine Scheidegg hike. We are leaning heavily toward Murren as we enjoy riding the cable cars and the view that they provide so in that sense Murren has a plus over Lauterbrunnen. It seems anytime we have done repeat cable car runs we always seen something we missed the first time. Thanks again for all the input, now all we need are a couple of days out of the 5 we have planned with clear weather. Looking at past posts and Jungerfrau camera data it seems September rarely has a week straight of bad weather.

bonnie,

Hope you have a wonderful trip!

I think September is supposed to be a very good month for weather in the area.

All of your information on Murren/Grimmelwald is really helpful. In mid September, six of us will disembark a cruise ship in Basel, in the morning, then have 4 nights and days to tour Switzerland. Trying to make the most of our few days. We need to make a decision on visiting Zermatt/Matterhorn. I hear the Matterhorn is a must see. Is the train ride there worth the time? Is our time better spent in other areas, closer to Bern, Luzern and Murren, Grimmelwald? I hear mixed opinions on the forum. Flying out of Zurich.

Thanks for all the good suggestions -
Joy

4 nights is not enough to do both the BO and Zermatt. My opinion of Zermatt is that it's a LOT more touristy of a place with lots of glitzy expensive tourist shops and goats paraded through town on schedule to impress the tourists. As far as the scenery Zermatt doesn't compare to the Murren and Wengen and the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

I agree with Tim that if you only have 4 nights they are better spent in the Berner Oberland. It's prettier IMO and in the event of poor weather there is more to do in the area than in Zermatt. For example, day trips to Thun or Bern are easy from the Lauterbrunnen valley towns. There is also an interesting Swiss Open Air museum near by.

Many years ago I visited Zermatt and was very lucky to get great weather. The Matterhorn was indeed spectacular. But my impression of the area is that it is a one-trick pony. If clouds had obscured my view of the Matterhorn, I'm not sure what else there would have been to do in the area.

staying in Lauterbrunnen gives you more flexibility. Be sure to get the early morning trains eg 7:07to avoid the tour crowds from Interlaken.
See this hiking trails times and grades by the railway itself.

Well, I would vote for Gimmelwald! Sounds like I'm the only one.

We have stayed there twice renting the apartment in Ollie and Maria's house ( watch the old, maybe, 2002 TV show of RS Switzerland and his Christmas special). You have to really like quiet to stay there. I think there is one restaurant and the hostel where you can get pizza and other meals and beer etc. otherwise, we buy cheese, milk, eggs, salami etc. from neighbors who sell food items from their homes/farms. We go up to Murren to buy groceries for other food, cook in our apartment, go to the hostel or go up to Murren to eat. It takes maybe 5-6 minutes to take the gondola up ( of course there is a schedule of gondola times and it costs $) typically we just stop for food at the end of a hike on our way down, or we enjoy hiking up and down just to get food. We love staying where there are so few people. We walk at night in silence, we get to experience more of a local feel. But, it is really about 2-3 streets long with just residents and farms.

It is hard to image, but Lauterbrunnen is deep on the valley floor and steep mountains are on either side. It is a very deep V shape. Up one side sits Gimmelwald, up a bit further is Murren. Then on the opposite side is Wengen, etc. I really don't think there is a bad place to stay. Anywhere in the whole area is fine- just don't stay in interlaken!