Lauterbrunnen Valley Trip (July)

Posted by url_8 on 03/18/25 07:13 PM

We are two families (4 adults and 2 children, both 10 years old) planning to spend two days in the valley in late July. Gimmelwald and Lauterbrunnen have been recommended as good places to stay. We've been searching on Airbnb and Booking.com, but the available options for hotel rooms, houses, or apartments with two bedrooms and two bathrooms (or two hotel rooms) are quite expensive—almost $2,000 for the two nights. We have also searched the other neighboring villages like Wengen, Brienz and others.

Would you have any recommendations? For example, would it be better to rent a car and stay in a more affordable Airbnb in a more distant town? If so, which village would be ideal considering the kids, driving distance to popular sites, and overall convenience? Or do you have other suggestions for budget-friendly but good accommodations for our group?

Thank you in advance!

Posted by margie

Bend, OR

03/18/25 07:59 PM

1301 posts

We were in Wengen last August for 5 days, 4 adults and two children and what you’re seeing per night is close to what we paid for a two bd with loft, two bath condo that we walked 20 minutes from the central part of town. Hopefully, someone has suggestions but we found Switzerland in general not to be “budget friendly” and knew that before planning our trip.

And just checked, where we stayed is already booked thru the summer.

Posted by Artificial Intelligence

Cloud

03/18/25 08:21 PM

277 posts

Try looking in Interlaken that way you are short train ride away. There is no such thing as budget friendly during peak travel season in that area.

Posted by Laurel

Forest Grove, OR

03/18/25 08:53 PM

11902 posts

It is going to be very booked up and very expensive in July. You might try https://valleyhostel.ch/en/ or https://www.campingjungfrau.swiss/ for not-very-elegant-but-serviceable options. The tourism office also has a lodging directory with links https://lauterbrunnen.swiss/en/discover/accommodation.html. Stechelberg, at the south end of the valley, might be a more budget friendly option, served by bus so no car required.

Many places have minimum stay requirements of 3 or more nights, BTW.

Posted by wanderweg

Nashville, TN

03/19/25 02:09 AM

773 posts

You have multiple things working against you...
1. You are very late to booking in an extremely popular area for the height of the tourist season
2. 2 bathrooms makes it additionally difficult, as a high proportion of rentals only have 1 bathroom, even if they have multiple bedrooms.
3. Most apartment rentals require a minimum of 3 nights, especially in high season, so some places that would be available to you won't even show up in a search for 2 nights
4. Switzerland is expensive and this area is one of the most popular areas to visit, so pricing reflects the popularity.

If you can switch to 3 nights instead of 2, see if you get any additional options to come up and if not, I'd suggest looking to different areas in the alps that are less popular. You'll have much better luck finding options in less touristy spots like Bettermalp, Saas Fee, etc. There are lots of amazing places in the Swiss Alps with great hiking, adventure activities, etc. that are just as good, they just don't have the publicity. This translates into a lot more options to chose from at better prices. For example, in Saas Fee you can rent an apartment and all the cable cars up to the various mountain attractions are completely free with their guest card. Bettmeralp has tons of amazing ski chalets that sit empty in the summer and there is amazing hiking there, mountain carts, kids adventure activities, etc.