Lodging 8 nights in Jungfrau region - Hotel or apt.? Best route from Murren home to US?

It might be helpful to know WHEN in June you'll be in the area. A sort of unofficial cutoff for when snow is still on the higher trails is June 15. But that varies a LOT depending on snowfall, rainfall, and sunshine each year.
Murren tourist info might be able to give you some hints in advance.

Murren is great, but if it's early June, I might be tempted more towards Lauterbrunnen because it is a transportation center. That will allow you faster access to other towns to explore if your trails are muddy or snowy. Also, if you like kitchens and Coop (as I do) you might check out renting a trailer or bungalow at
wwww.campingjungfrau.swiss

I've stayed there and it's a well-run campground right at the base of the famous Staubach Falls.
If you are into hiking on scenic trails in the Jungfrau area, click on my name to find a link to our dozen favorite trails in the area, with maps and pics.

Thank you Shoe! I updated my post for the timing. We plan to be there in late June and early July. I was wondering about splitting the time between halfway up the mountain and down in the valley at the campground. I’m glad to hear you had a good experience there.

I will definitely check out your favorite hikes in pictures. Now that we’ve decided we are going I can’t wait to pin down the lodging details.

Thanks,
Laurie

We always stay a week or more and we have, over the years, decided on Lauterbrunnen as it is a transportation hub and allows the easiest access to both side of the valley as well as locations beyond like Ballenberg and the Aare Gorge. We also like an apartment as it allows us to cook, which is a money saver and a welcome break form heavy Swiss cuisine. This is where we stay https://www.vrbo.com/1207898ha?adultsCount=3&arrival=2020-10-15&departure=2020-10-19.

We are going to Switzerland in September and decided to make the campground that Shoe mentions our lodging. We are traveling with another couple and are renting a 2 bedroom mobile home. There is a 7 night minimum for the mobile home. We were originally planning only 4 nights, but we had plenty of flexibility on a long trip so we were able to adjust our time. They have a variety of lodging choices there.

We stayed in Muerren for 6 nights last summer, late June into early July. We could easily have stayed longer. After traveling all over the area for the week and seeing Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Gimmelwald, and Grindelwald, we'd still go back to Muerren again. We loved the quiet atmosphere in the evenings, and the views simply cannot be beat. We stayed in a 3 BR apartment, shopped at the Coop and ate in most evenings, and we had picnic lunches wherever we were hiking (we joked about it being the "Coop tour," since we hit stores in all the towns to grab hiking supplies).

Thank you all for your different perspectives! I'm now convinced that 7-8 nights isn't too long to stay in the region!

New question - what is the best way to route ourselves home from Mürren? Trains from Mürren to Zurich, or to Geneva are about 4 hours long. It's about 5 to Milan. Then the flights are not non-stop - with layovers in CDG, AMS, FRA or MUC. I wonder if I'm missing something? It seems that the layovers are either in these cities, or in US cities. Once we flew from Zurich through Atlanta, not knowing that we had to claim our bags and carry them to the next flight. We'd been told by Delta that they would go on through. They didn't, and were delivered to our home the next day.

Any suggestions on how to streamline our return would be greatly appreciated!
Laurie

Thanks!

There's no "best" way to get back home. But you'll definitely have to fly so just choose the airport where your routing takes you. When you fly back to the USA you'll ALWAYS have to claim your luggage and then drop it again before going through security.

It would help if you gave the Michigan/Midwest city you are leaving from. Detroit, Chicago, Grand Rapids?

We typically do Chicago to Paris (cheaper fares), spend a day or two in Paris, then take the fast train (see www.seat61.com) to Geneva, or Basel or Zurich (about 3 hours), then on to Murren from there. From Geneva, that is 4 hrs, and less from Basel or Zurich.

Tim, that was the only time we had a layover in the US from a Europe trip - all other times the layover was in a different country, and the luggage was checked through. We were told it would be the same way - and walked through security in Atlanta to our other gate, and then they were asking for bags to be dropped and they would not let us go back through and get them. It all ended well - but now we know! :-)

We will be leaving either from Detroit or Windsor, ideally. On our other trip to Switzerland, we took the TGV from Paris to Basel, and then on to Lucerne, then flew home from Zurich. So, we're trying to see what is most feasible this time around, coming from Mürren.

I wonder if anyone has had experience with Hotel Edelweiss in Mürren?

New question - what is the best way to route ourselves home from Mürren? Trains from Mürren to Zurich, or to Geneva are about 4 hours long. It's about 5 to Milan.

Assuming you mean "best airport", the answer is Zürich. It has much more transatlantic destinations than does Geneva.

• List of airlines and destinations for Zürich airport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zurich_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations
• List for Geneva airport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations
• Basel airport (the 3rd airport in Switzerland) has no transatlantic routes.
• Milan Malpensa is too far. It is a circuitous route to get there because the mountains are in the way ☺, and you need a connection from Milan to Malpensa airport. Total 5-6 hours with an infrequent bus connection.

Both Zürich and Geneva airports have stations at the airport. You do not get a train to Zürich or Geneva, your train destination will be Zürich Flughafen or Genève-Aéroport.

You can look up train times on the SBB website: https://www.sbb.ch/en
Mürren to Zürich Flughafenis 3 hours 15 minutes, 2 departures per hour.

Thanks, Chris! You're the reason we were planning to route through Basel to check it out! :0) You were very helpful when we planned our trip to Luzern and Engelberg - so thanks again, 5 years later! I thought we'd stay a night there, but now it seems we should just make that a huge travel day from Toulouse to Mürren. (That's another decision - fly or train? It seems like flying would save some time, but then there's the airport hassle...still pondering that leg of the trip.)

As an aside, we flew home from Milan Malpensa last summer, and flew over the Alps! I think I was able to pick out the Matterhorn, and I know I saw Lago d'Orta and Lago Maggiore, which we had just explored. That was cool.

Chris, I know you said that Basel doesn't have any intercontinental flights - but we'd have to have a layover somewhere, either in Europe or the US to get to Detroit. What do you think about flying Basel-AMS? or Basel-FRA? From those cities, we could get a direct flight home. Is there any reason we shouldn't consider those options? I'm kind of veering away from Paris/CDG because I've heard that changing terminals is a big hassle there.

I'm thinking we will need to stay in Zurich or Basel the night before our flight, so it is good to know there are frequent trains.

Thanks for the advice, everyone! This forum is such a great resource. I appreciate hearing others' experiences.

Laurie

No wrong answers where to stay but I’d consider Grindelwald for the leg to experience that area which is a bit busier and lively, and then move to Mürren for the second half to explore and truly decompress. A multitude of choices, enjoy.

The reason to favor Geneva airport or Zurich airport over Basel airport is that Basel airport does not have a train station inside. So, you have an additional transfer, from train to bus, to get there.

If you don't mind that, you can use it with no other issues.

Look at costs and total transit times for your various options from Muerren to Detroit. But you're not "missing anything." Since you're looking to fly to a US city that does not have nonstop flights to any Swiss cities, you're right that you have to change somewhere (either Europe or the US - and I agree that it's easier in Europe if possible). And it IS a lot of steps to get from Muerren to either ZRH or GVA airports. That's because trains can only go through mountains if they have blasted a tunnel. For much of these routes, they haven't - so you have to go up, down, or around the mountains. This means a lot of separate trains.

Fortunately, the changing is not difficult and the times are coordinated. Furthermore, trains in Switzerland (except for a few special routes) are unreserved, and run at least once an hour (more on the routes you're taking from Muerren to the airports). If you miss your connection for any reason, just get the next train, with no penalty.

To find door to door transit directions in Switzerland you can use the Swiss Rail website. If you put in an exact address, it will include things like trams, local buses, and walking: https://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

but we'd have to have a layover somewhere, either in Europe or the US to get to Detroit. What do you think about flying Basel-AMS? or Basel-FRA?

Two points here.
1) As Harold says, Basel airport doesn't have a rail connection. It does have a shuttle bus from the station, takes 15 minutes, which is nearly as good as a train connection, even if it is sometimes standing room only.
2) Many of the flights out of Basel (click for list) are flown by economy airlines. These don't offer guaranteed connections, you may need to pick up your bags and check in again, and if the flight is delayed or re-timed, hard luck.

• For many destinations in Europe, Basel and Geneva offer more choice than Zürich. Zürich has all the intercontinental flights

• Basel-Amsterdam is flown Easyjet and KLM. You would be able to get transatlantic on one ticket with KLM.

• There is a weekly summer-only flight Basel-Montréal, if that is useful.

• If you choose Frankfurt, you could get a train direct to Frankfurt airport.

  • You could overnight somewhere (Basel, Freiburg, Strasbourg) and take a train direct to Frankfurt airport the following morning.
  • Direct flights from Frankfurt to Chicago.