Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Wengen

My first stop will be Alsace-Lorraine and then 3-4 days in the Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Murren area before returning home.

When you say Alsace-Lorraine you have named two adjacent quite large and diverse areas of France.

Do you want to explore both regions in detail, considering, among others in Lorraine such as Nancy, Metz, St Avold, Luxembourg and nearby such as the Amnéville baths between Metz and Thionville (though actually a little north of Lorraine in the Grand Est), the Vosges mountains, etc., and in Alsace such as St Louis, Mulhouse, the Wine Route, Colmar, Strasbourg, Obernai?

Or did particular places call out to you? What sort of things do you like to do?

What is there to do in this area in summer?

That's why I asked my questions about what sort of things you like to do or hope to do?

How many nights overall?

What is the best way to travel from Alsace-Lorraine?

How had you thought you might go? Are you young, maybe a backpacker and enjoy cycling? Or perhaps approaching my age with a few leg issues or other mobility issues and prefer a bus tour? Or maybe you have lighter luggage and could travel by train, or perhaps rent a car (comes with particular issues for your trip)?

If you can fill in a few of the colours on the paint by numbers card we can give you much more helpful guidance.

By the way, first trip to Europe, or just to this region of France and Switzerland? How many in the group?

I'll be traveling with 2 other women - late 60's early 70's. We will fly in and out of Zurich and I am planning on light luggage.
We will be in Alsace-Lorraine (Baldersheim) for a family reunion. (Our ancestors come from this area and current family members are "distant cousins"). We plan to attend the reunion and then take a day and a half to travel to 3-4 small towns in that area that relate to where our ancestors lived.
We thought it would be fun to visit some small towns in Switzerland as well and I am considering the towns I mentioned - Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Murren - as they were suggested to me. (Maybe Grindelwald too)
We are just interested in sightseeing and perhaps shopping and experiencing the cuisine. So, no backpacking or hiking!
I have been to Europe many times - the other two ladies perhaps 1-2 times.
We were originally thinking of Chamonix, but heard there is no easy way to get there from Baldersheim. I also perfer Zurich airport (instead of Geneva) as the fares are less expensive.
Our stay in Switzerland would probably be 3 nights, so two full days.
Can we get a train from Baldersheim (or some place close) to Interlaken and then on to any of those towns mentioned? I am concerned about getting around from one of these towns to another. I imagine there is public transportation? Or do you suggest renting a car if only to get to the airport?
Any hotel suggestions are appreciated.
I hope I have filled in the gaps to give you a better idea of what we'd like to do.
Thank you.

Baldersheim is just outside of Mullhouse, which is in Alsace. As such, I would leave the "Lorraine" out of your post as Lorraine is quite a ways north of Mullhouse and Alsace.

Lauterbrunnen, Muerren, and Wengen are all connected by frequent train and cable car service. No problem getting around. Lauterbrunnen is most central, but it is in the valley, whereas Wengen and Muerren are up in the mountains and are car-free towns, which adds to the experience of staying there. I'd pick Wengen, but that is just me..

We just traveled to both of those regions in September. We flew in and out of Zürich. I’ll share some of our destinations and highlights in hopes it might be helpful to you. Our first two nights were on Lake Brienz in the town of Iseltwald…lovely. Next, we stayed longer in Murren and were able to travel easily to Lauterbrunnen and Wengen and beyond with our multi day Berner Oberland pass. We also bought Swiss Half Fare cards to help with the travel outside of the Berner Oberland region.

When we left Switzerland, we traveled by train from Interlaken through Basel to Colmar. We stayed in Colmar for a week exploring many of the beautiful villages nearby, and a day trip to Strasbourg. The Colmar City Pass gave us a lot of special opportunities in town, including admission to the museums, a flat bottom boat ride along the canal, the little tourist train. We really enjoyed simply strolling around, especially along the canals, and especially in the evenings and the mornings before the crowds got heavier. It was a wonderful trip!

1 piece of advice that we heard over and over was to spend more time in Mürren so you have better odds of getting beautiful weather up in the mountains. During the week that we were there we went from beautiful sunny skies to declining temperatures and then 4 to 5 inches of early snow by the end of the week on Sept. 13th! We took cable cars and funiculars or cog wheel trains every day and really enjoyed exploring the whole region.

So if you are able to extend your time in Switzerland at all, I think you’ll be glad you did.

We chose to stay in apartments in Murren and in Colmar, one from Airbnb and one from Booking.com. When it was time to head back to Zürich to fly home, we opted to spend two nights in Bern, and then took a direct train from there right to the Zürich airport on our day of travel. This worked out beautifully to get right to the airport by train. We had done this one other time from Lucerne to Zürich on our day of travel, again with no problems.

We used public transportation for our whole trip. In Alsace, we took a day tour that enabled us to visit several towns over the course of 1 day and that was through the Tour Alsace company. The tour was great, and included a visit to the Chateau Haut-Koenigsburg , and then we had a wine tasting at the end of the tour.

Enjoy your trip!

Laurie

I'm not familiar with Baldersheim but it should be easy to travel by train from there to the Berner Oberland. This is a good site to research trains - https://int.bahn.de/en .

Most of us have a favourite "home base" in the Berner Oberland, and I prefer Lauterbrunnen as it's the transportation hub for that area, and easy to get to other nearby locations. Switzerland has excellent public transportation and you won't have any trouble getting around the area using trains, cable cars or even the Post Bus. You don't need to rent a car.

While hiking is a popular activity in that area, it's certainly not the only activity. There are some unique sights there such as the Schilthorn and Piz Gloria, where the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service was partially filmed many years ago. There's a revolving restaurant at the top where you can enjoy a fine meal while watching the gorgeous local scenery glide by the windows. There's a James Bond display there and as I recall, the James Bond bar and souvenir shop. If any of you feel adventurous, you can try Paragliding from Mürren!

On the other side of the valley, there's the Jungfraujoch, which is accessed via the highest railway station in Europe. That's an expensive trip, so be sure to check the webcams to see if the weather is clear before you go. One point to mention about visiting sights such as the Schilthorn or Jungfraujoch..... both are at higher elevations, about 10,000 feet and 11,600 feet respectively. If any of you have altitude related issues, you might want to have a chat with your family physician before the trip. I'm also in the "senior" category and have never had a problem at the Schilthorn, but did slow down a bit at the Jungfraujoch (but no major problems).

You could also visit Trümellbach Falls, which is inside a mountain, or visit the small town of Gimmelwald (below Mürren) which Rick has featured in his shows. It's mostly a small farming community but there's a couple of small B&B's there and a Hostel along with some restaurants.

You mentioned, "Are there hotels you recommend in any of these towns that are not outrageously expensive?". Switzerland in general is expensive so it's prudent to budget accordingly. If you don't mind more "basic" accommodations in Lauterbrunnen, you could have a look at the Valley Hostel - https://valleyhostel.ch/en/ . I didn't see any mention of an age limit but you could confirm that with them. I've stayed at Hostels on a number of occasions and it's. a somewhat interesting experience.

You may find it helpful to buy one of the Swiss Passes (ie: the Berner Oberland Pass - https://www.berneseoberlandpass.ch/ ) to save a bit of money on transportation, and you may find this helpful - https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/switzerland-rail-passes .

The Rick Steves Switzerland guidebook would be helpful as well, as there are good suggestions there on transportation, good, reliable hotels, etc. You should be able to find a copy of the current edition at your local library or book store.

Good luck with your planning!

Thanks very much for the additional info.

Good morning, from a storm ravaged England, I hope your weather today is better than ours.

Baldersheim is a very small suburb of Mulhouse, the most northerly suburb, population about 2,700. As such there is no station in the village. The nearest station is a main one, at Mulhouse. That station is on the main line from Strasbourg to Colmar to Mulhouse to Basel, Switzerland. (Basel is on the border, and is in the German language sector of Switzerland, Basel is the German spelling, Bâle in French, so that's what you'll see in the station in Mulhouse (pronounced roughly mull-ooze). The little hat over the "â" in Bâle is the accent mark circonflexe.

There is frequent train service all along the Strasbourg - Basel corridor, both regional trains and TGV, with easy connections to Zurich and the Zurich airport.. I have not checked but there may be a bus from Mulhouse to Baldersheim, but with three folks and a bit of luggage and tired after your flight, I jump (okay, not jump!!) into a taxi. Or maybe the distant cousins might meet you at the station?

From the airport to Mulhouse is an easy 2ish hour train ride right from the station at the airport. Some require a change at Zurich, almost all require a change at Basel. When you change at Basel you will likely change onto a TER regional train which goes from the old French station which is part of the main station now, but does take a couple of minutes walk. There are a very few direct French TGV trains from Zurich HB (main station) not requiring a change at Basel but does require a change at Zurich. More info if required.

When you are in Baldersheim will you be staying with rellies, or in Mulhouse (or one of the two hotels in Baldersheim)? Will you need a car for those days, especially if visiting a few perhaps even smaller places nearby? Or will you taxi or have the rellies drive you around?

I know this hasn't yet answered your questions about the Lauterbrunnen Valley, but I'll get to that after I have breakfast and coffee.

Shopping in Interlaken is both expensive and mostly tatt. For really good Swiss shopping Basel is hard to beat, and has a wonderful atmosphere, although there are a couple of scenic hills. Zurich is more glitzy IMHO and maybe window shopping.

I have driven past Mulhouse for decades but I have never stopped there. There are two very famous national museums there, one for cars, one for railways. Also a famous bird reserve with flamingos.

If you get done before your time is up in Mulhouse you could pop up to Colmar by train and have a look around there - quite a nice place. Rick Steves talks about it in his book, the Michelin Green Guide covers it well.

On the way to Lauterbrunnen and the villages up the valley sides you will retrace your steps as far as Basel, and the change for a train to Interlaken Ost and from there up the hill to Lauterbrunnen. All these journeys are described in the RS book and the journeys around Lauterbrunnen in very great detail.

The train from Basel to Interlaken Ost (two stations in Interlaken, the first is Interlaken West the last stop is Interlaken Ost (Ost = east) which is the one required to go up the hill) ) goes through Bern but you probably won't change there unless you wan to. Bern has a fair number of interesting things to see if you have extra time.

Are you flying home the day you leave the Lauterbrunnen Valley, or are you intending to stop on the way? Maybe Bern or Luzern? Luzern is German for Lucerne which is English or French, German is the language spoken there, as it is in the other places we have written about in Switzerland; the French area is predominantly in the west and southwest of Switzerland and the Italian to the south, Romansch to the southeast...

Many people like to stay their last night in Luzern which is a beautiful lakeside (huge lake and seriously beautiful) city near the mountains and only an hour from Zurich, and only a few minutes further to the airport station. If you flight is before mid to late afternoon getting all the way to the airport is a bit tough from Lauterbrunnen and above.