Home base city in Bernese Oberland

The easiest villages are Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald because Wengen is further up and requires an extra train ride to get to. Lauterbrunnen is perhaps a bit more centrally located if you want to go up towards Schilthorn, but all in all there is not a huge difference. Lauterbrunnen is the smallest of the three villages (at least in terms of # of hotels and restaurants) and Grindelwald is the largest, basically a small town.

Do you want to be looking UP at the Alps or DOWN from them? Lauterbrunen is in the shadows of the Alps, Wengen (4,000 ft elevation) and Murren ( 6,000' elevation). are up in the Alps.
My experience is being IN the Alps is priceless.
Safe travels!

I would love to be up in the Alps, but since my husband and I are in our 70’s, I’m looking for a home base which is easiest to to do day trips from.

Which day trips do you have in mind?

Grindelwald can be spread out, so if you choose it, you need to make sure that you are not too far from one of the two stations or the street that leads to the First cable car.

Lauterbrunnen is more clustered, it is very small, but some accomodation is a bit far along the road to Stechelberg (I would not recommend that).

Wengen can still be very convenient if you stay in the main area around the train and cable car stations, near Dorfstrasse. South of the train station, the terrain slopes down so places that look close to the station are not as close as it looks.

All in all, of the 3, I prefer Wengen, but Lauterbrunnen wins for "convenience".

We loved our stay in Grindelwald where we felt like we could reach out and touch the Eiger!
Amazing views, more choices of lodging and dining in Grindelwald.

Our stay in Wengen at the Hotel Edelweiss was magical, and I would stay there again in a heartbeat! Daniel and his team are first rate and will ensure that you have a trip to remember. Our double room had a small balcony with a magnificent view. Breakfast is terrific and their chef offers a 4 course dinner at a price that is extremely reasonable by Swiss standards. Transportation to the various sites was easy with the SBB site. After completing a lot of research on the sites we wanted to visit, our most economical train passes were a Half fare card and the Berner Oberland Pass. I would highly recommend you do a thorough price comparison to determine what works best for you.

My wife and I just returned from Berner Oberland. I highy recommend staying in Wildersville, which is where we stayed. It is a beautiful, quiet Swiss village just outside Interlaken and has its own train station, with trains to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. We were there for 6 days, and with the Berner Oberland Pass we did a ton of activities (including numerous gondolas and trains), and all were conveniently accessible from Wildersville. If you buy the pass, make sure you buy the Swiss Half Fare Card first, as you get the BO Pass for half price....a total no-brainer if you plan on exploring the whole area (plus it includes transit/boats in Interlaken and all the way to Bern or Luzern). The place we stayed was an Airbnb run by the Hotel Baeren (The Bear Inn) and it was very affordable, the train was literally about a 7 minute walk and the bus station a block away. Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, and Grindelwald are great villages, but will have a bigger accomodation pricetag and there's a lot of tourists (especially Grindalwald).