Help With Berner Oberland Itinerary Please

Posted by tarynmerkley on 05/13/17 06:42 PM

We are trying to plan our itinerary for BO for mid July with three young children (2, 5, 7). We will try to base ourselves out of Murren or Wengen (everyone says these are the best...are they terribly inconvenient to get to other places from?). Here is a general idea of what we plan to do ...I know to stay flexible depending on the weather.

Day 1 - rent bikes/ hike Murren Children’s Adventure trail

Day 2 - Jungfrau pass (if weather is clear)

Day 3 - Ballenberg Open Air Museum

Day 4 - Schilthorn observation deck and restaurant in the morning. Trummelbach falls in the afternoon.

Day 5 - First Cliff Walk by Tissot (Grindelwald) - get adventure pass and take bikes, carts, and zipline down.

Any advice on doing these, or other activities with children? Are we missing anything wonderful?

Also, my husband and father in law hope to do some wonderful bike rides (they are avid cyclists). I have read about Grosse Schedeigg, but are there other in the area that I am missing?

Thanks for any advice!

Posted by Sasha

Bainbridge Island

05/13/17 07:12 PM

3099 posts

I think your children are too small for the Adtivities at First. The zipline has a weight minimum (35 kg, or 77 pounds) and the mountain carts and scooters have a height minimum of 125 cm (49 inches).

Posted by Shoe

Grand Rapids, MI

05/14/17 12:08 AM

768 posts

I think for Day 2 you mean "Jungfraujoch "Top of Europe" excursion":
https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/
There is something else called the Jungfrau Regional Pass, which is a regional version of the Swiss Pass.

I do believe there are height limits for some of those activities at First. However, if you go there, you should definitely take the 45 min walk to Bachalpsee. (Google image it!) There are usually friendly cows hanging out there, and your kids should love that. Also, if you are in Grindelwald in order to get to First, think about taking the cable car up to Pfingstegg, where there is a luge called the Rodelbahn, which kids should be able to do with a parent accompanying them. pfingstegg.ch and google image "Pfingstegg rodelbahn"

If you are going up on the Schilthorn anyway, you might reconsider going up to the Jungfraujoch. It's about 6 hours total, with about an hour each way going thru a dark tunnel. That might test the patience of young active kids. And, it's expensive, at about $200 each. What I'd recommend instead is to take the 1.5 hr hike from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. There's almost always cows at Mannlichen, and often goats near Kleine Scheidegg. I consider it the best hike in the area. Very easy but outstanding panoramas.

As for biking, there is a Murren to Gimmelwald, cable car to Stechelberg, to Lauterbrunnen, cable car to Grutschalp, bike to Murren, roundtrip by bike. Rick Steves shows it in his video here:
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/best-of-the-alps
Finally, try for flexibility in your itinerary. Save Trummelbach Falls for a rainy day or a dreary day because most of it is inside the mountain.

Posted by Lola

Seattle, WA

05/14/17 12:33 AM

16287 posts

Those height and weight minimums are accurate. You can check the various activities from the First gondola here:

https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/grindelwaldfirst/

Posted by Gary

Melbourne, Australia

05/15/17 08:54 AM

35 posts

Hi, you are definitely going to an absolute beautiful part of this world. To be honest its my favourite destination in the world... We stayed at Gimmelwald for four or five nights back in 2013, which is just down the mountain a little from Murren, and had the best time. Scenery is out of this world...

During our time there we went to both the Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch. Spending virtually a full day at both. Our day on the Schilthorn was an amazing day with beautiful weather and the views were breathtaking where you could even see the mountains in France. But our day at Jungfraujoch there was a blizzard with gale winds and a snow storm, so we couldn't hardly see anything. In saying that we still had an amazing time going through the glacier and out onto it.

Where ever you stay in this area, you will be able to get around without too many hassles, which may be by train, bus or gondola, or all three... As mentioned we stayed at the little village of Gimmelwald and it was part of the fun catching all the different forms of transport especially the gondola's...