Murren Vs Wengen Vs Grindlewald?

With only two nights, I would stay in Mürren or Wengen. Yes, the Bachalpsee hike is lovely, but it is a long way over to Grindelwald and there is plenty of easy hiking from the other two towns.

We are also liking the free mountain lifts in Wengen and Schilthorn (correct me if I'm wrong).

Not sure what you mean. Nothing is free. If you have a Swiss Travel Pass or Swiss Flex Pass you can use it for lifts but I believe that takes a day of your pass validity. Others here can verify that.

hikes and things to do in the Wengen / Schilthorn region.

This is very well detailed in the Rick Steves' Switzerland guide. Since you only have one full day you'll have to choose, but both Männlichen-Kleine Scheidegg or Grutschalp-Mürren are delightful and only a couple of hours long. You coudl do that hike then ascend the Schilthorn (or vice versa).

Rick outlines a full day of touring that includes the Grutschalp-Mürren hike, a walk to Gimmelwald, lift to Stechelberg, and a walk back through the valley.

Murren and Wengen are both high alpine villages not accessible via roads/vehicles. Grindelwald is in a valley accessible by cars and many many tour buses dropping loads of daytrippers. To me, that's enough of a reason to choose the car-free villages. Murren is perfect for us and we stay there every summer. Wengen is nice and you'll pass through it on your way to Jungfrau if coming from Murren.

Yes sorry with a swiss travel pass.

We are coming from a 3 night stay in Lucerne before our stay in the jungfrau region.

Thanks for the info!

Yes, I'd go for Muerren (nightlife? really?). Everybody's picture postcard Swiss village. Wengen, bigger hotels and maybe even some nightlife. I don't think the lifts are free in Wengen with a STP once you reached the village. Every thing above you just gets a discount. Grindelwald, lots of big hotels and traffic.

Easy choice for me... Murren.
Idyllic, wonderful, charming, heavenly.
Much nicer than Wengen imo.
Never been to Grindelwald b/c valley floor, traffic, tour bus towns (Lauterbrunnen for example) don’t appeal to me. If I go to all the trouble to go to the Alps, I want to be in the Alps. It does not get better than Murren.

The Schilthorn is fully covered with a Swiss Travel Pass, but the Männlichen lift above Wengen is only covered 50%.

If you are interested in maximizing the free use of your Pass, stay in Mürren and ride up the Schilthorn. You could get off at the midstation and hike down if you want.

Or if you want to stay in Wengen, you can ride the train down to Lauterbrunnen, and ride the cablecar plus train route up to Mürren to board the Schilthornbzh, all for free with your Pass. Or walk from the Lauterbrunnen train station to Trummelbach Falls to see that, and then on to Stechelberg to catch the Schilthornbahn from the very bottom.

Or if you really want to hike to the Bachalpsee ( it is lovely indeed), you could make a full day of it like this:
Transfer from Mürren to Wengen for free with your Swiss Pass. Ride the cablecar up to Männlichen(50% discount). You can either take the little gondola down to Grindelwald from there, or walk the ridgetop to Kleine Scheidegg ( a popular and scenic walk) and ride the train down. Walk through Grindelwald tomthe First lift and ride to the top. The hike to Bachalpsee is about 2 miles each way. You can reverse the route for the return, or take the Valley route via the train. I would only do this on a really nice day.

Another spectacular place to stay is Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg, base camp for Clint Eastwood in The Eiger Sanction. Take the train to Jungfraujoch, hike under the Eiger towards Grindelwald, or take trails to Mannlichen or Wengen.

Followup to what Lola said about getting from Murren to Bachalpsee:
Another (cheaper) way to get to Grindelwald (and therefore Bachalpsee) is to take the train from Lauterbrunnen to Zweilutschinen, get off, wait about 15 min for the next train up to Grindelwald, and get on that. There's usually a dozen people at that stop doing that exact thing.

I too would vote for Murren as your base (and you might want to drop one night off Lucerne to add to Murren because there is so much to see). There are 4-5 great trails starting at Murren, whereas Grindelwald is more of a tourist town.

As for hikes, I'll send you some maps and pics of our dozen favs in the area. Click on your name in the upper right to read your private mail on here. Others can request the same by clicking on my name.
There is everything from a 10 mile, 6 hour trail (Schynige Platte to First) to a 10 min trail behind Staubach Falls at Lauterbrunnen. Most of the rest are about 2 hours.

There are also good trails starting at Grindelwald. It is a "tourist town" because it has roads and tour buses. Personally I prefer the car-free villages like Mürren and Wengen, but we have also stayed at Grindelwald, and we did not suffer. There are nice hotels and restaurants, and often a street festival. One night, coming back from dinner to our hotel, we heard beautiful music, emanating from our hotel's outdoor restaurant. There was a Yodel club in town, and they were sitting outside and singing haunting melodies. One of our favorite Swiss experiences.

We have been to Switzerland 4 times ( so far) staying variously at Mürren, Wengen, and or Grindelwald, or sometimes two of the three. Mürren is our favorite but there are reasons to stay at the others, for a short stay with specific hiking goals.

Chad,

I'd also suggest staying in Mürren. There are lots of nice hikes available in that area and as you mentioned it will be easy to get to the Schilthorn from Mürren. If your budget will allow, plan for a fine meal in the revolving restaurant at the top, while watching the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau glide by the windows. You could also have a "Martini shaken not stirred" in the James Bond bar (the Schilthorn was used for the filming of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" a number of years ago).

Mürren is also a popular location for Paragliding, should you be interested in that sort of thing. One cautionary note however - most regular travel medical policies won't cover activities like that.

If you stay on that side of the valley, you could also have a look at the Berner Oberland Regional Pass.

You may also find THIS website helpful.

I spent four days in Berner Oberland. We stayed in the Lauterbrunnen Valley (stunning) which is a short bus ride (free) from Lauterbrunnen. From there we either took the free bus to Stechlenburg and took the gondola up to Gimmelwald and Murren (and once up to Schilthorn) We also took a train from Lauterbrunnen to Grindelwald. We didn't enjoy Grindelwald nearly as much as Murren and Gimmelwald. We actually went to Gimmelwald three times. Its a quaint mountain village. Though we did not go, I've heard kleine scheidegg and Wengen are very nice and you can get there from Lauterbrunnen easily as well. We were there in the winter so I can't speak to hiking though we did sled from Murren to Gimmelwald on what I'm told is a very developed walking path. The views were stunning. I also know that people walk from Gimmelwald down to the Lauterbrunnen Valley. There are a number of waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen valley which would be worth seeing. If I were going, I'd stay in the Lauterbrunnen Valley or Gimmelwald. That said, I feel Murren would be a fine choice as well. As you find out more about hiking and things you want to see, look at the transportation required to get to each place and then I think your lodging choice will become clear to you. I recommend stocking up in the very reasonable Coop grocery stores which carry food and wine/beer. There is a Coop in Murren, Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. You can buy cheese directly from a small farm in Gimmelwald.