Gimmelwald

The website says Hotel Mittaghorn is temporarily closed for renovations. Sorry, can't help with a lodging recommendation. Pension Gimmelwald i think is where i had lunch and it was pretty good. Ate outside with fabulous views.

Have you been to Gimmelwald? I ask because if you haven't, it's hard to exaggerate how teeny-tiny it is. Rick says there are 120 permanent residents, and that sounds about right. So, the idea of any new place opening there at any time is very unlikely, and that goes triple at this time, coming off several years of a global pandemic and upended international travel.

If you aren't able to find suitable lodging or dining in Gimmelwald (and again, there was never much of either of these there), look at Muerren (my favorite), Lauterbrunnen, or Wengen.

If you are looking for quiet accommodation and places to eat, I would also suggest Murren. I am not sure why RS likes Gimmelwald so much, there is really not much there at all. It is more of a hamlet than a village.

He likes it because it is the small place it is, partly because they purposely limited the development of tourist related infrastructure. Its a town where real people live and work, and some people find that glimpse into Swiss life worth seeing. Its not as remote and isolated as RS makes it sound. Its just a short walk down a path from Mürren, or one stop on the gondola.

Harold, I have been to and stayed in Gimmelwald 8 times! I love the fact that it is so small. As I walk the loop through the village/hamlet, I see how the Swiss stack their wood for the winter, the row of about 20 cowbells in graduating sizes hanging under the eaves of one chalets, stop by the little cheese hut where you can buy true "Alpkase", watch the farmers gathering up the hay their cows/goats/sheep will eat in winter, see the gardens planted with various vegetables, stop to pet some goats with bells, or sheep (one time while staying at Hotel Mittaghorn in Gimmelwald we suddenly heard the sound of bells and were treated to a parade of several hundred sheep being herded down from Murren, hearing the "whirr" of the gondola as it comes down from Murren or goes up. I love reliving those memories. I suspect you have never even given Gimmelwald a second look. You have missed out.

Sorry Joy, I misunderstood your question. I thought you were a first-time visitor and was trying to tell you Gimmelwald is very small and perhaps Murren would be better for a first-time visit. Yes, It is very pretty and traditional no doubt about that. Just some people may not be aware of how small it really is. I can't wait to get back to Switzerland myself!

I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but the people who live and work in Gimmelwald are no more “real” than the folks who live and work up the hill in Mürren. If anything, less so, as the Swiss farmers with their cows and their hand-raked hayfields are heavily subsidized by the Swiss government. Over half their income comes from the subsidies, which means in effect they are paid by the government to maintain the image of quaint family farms.

https://www.thelocal.ch/20130920/swiss-farmers-milk-worlds-highest-subsidies/

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/agriculture_the-privileges-of-being-a-farmer-in-switzerland/43613212

It seems to serve the Swiss national identity as much as it pleases tourists, so no one is complaining. But in reality, the “real” Swiss, the ones who drive the economy, are bankers, businessmen and women, hotel keepers, scientists (think pharmaceuticals), etc. To them, Gimmelwald is about as real as Frontierland in Disneyland—-representing nostalgia for the past, but far removed from their daily lives.

And that hay that you see families so laboriously raking on the slopes around Gimmelwald—-do you think that actually feeds their cows through the winter?. It might last a few days. Then the farmer will turn to bales of hay he bought from someone who grows hay in big fields down in the valley, and harvests it with heavy machinery.

It is nice and peaceful there, though.

Joy it is still being renovated I believe. There is a facebook group Friends of Walter's Mittaghorn Hotel where updates are sometimes posted.

Oh, Sasha, now you have done it—-spoiled peoples’ illusions about the simple, traditional life of Swiss farmers, and their cows and goats.

Have you ever seen a cow dangling from a cable under a helicopter, as it was transported from an alpine pasture to somewhere else, perhaps for veterinary treatment? We have. I think you can find videos of this on YouTube. The cows are surprisingly docile and accepting of the experience.

One of my many happy memories from our Swiss trips—and we are planning on more—-was walking down to Gimmelwald from Mürren, where the paved road/path passes by houses and yards. In one yard there was a sandbox with a child’s construction set at work, very similar to the Tonka trucks I bought for my sons when they were that age (6-9 years or so). Backhoe, dump truck, bulldozer on treads, all true to life but miniature. But the Swiss version included a helicopter to carry the construction materials up the mountain.