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Need help with Swiss hut-to-hut plans

Hi! We are planning a 16 day European adventure and have turned our sights toward a 3-4 day hut to hut adventure in the Bern/Oberland/ Jungfrau regions. We already have flights in to Frankfurt (from Oregon, USA) and are thinking we want to start our journey with the Swiss hiking adventure, and then figure out what's next. We arrive in Frankfurt on July 8 around 1 pm. Some questions:
1. What is the best way to get from Frankfurt to somewhere around Murren? We are up for renting a car or taking the train, but it seems that if we are hiking for a few days, we won't need a car quite yet. Is it more economical to take a train and then hike and then find a car after? We are thinking we'd head toward Austria after Switzerland...

2. Do we need a pass of some kind to take cable cars or lifts in that region of Switzerland?
3. What would you imagine is the best option for hut to hut hiking in the Murren/ Gimmelwald area? And how do we get/ or do we need reservations (it will be July....)? We are comfortable with 4-6 hour hikes per day... Would you advise purchasing a Swiss alpine club membership?

THANK YOU for your help! This is very exciting.

Posted by
3391 posts

Huts in the Swiss Alps.
You'll love hiking hut to hut! We have done it in several areas of the Alps and it's fantastic!
If you click on the link above, hover on the small map to the right until the area you hover over turns red and says "Bernese Oberland". Click on it and it will show you all of the huts in the area of Murren.
Once it displays all of the huts you can click on them individually to see prices, what you need to bring, and other details.
Know that for some huts you have to bring your own bedding while others provide you with bedding for an extra fee - some are too remote/high to be able to do laundry. Many of them provide breakfast, can pack lunches for you by prior arrangement, and serve dinner as well. Great food!
It is usually cheaper to stay at the huts if you join the alpine club of the country you are hiking in.
You will certainly need reservations especially in July - do this now as it is only a couple of months away!

Posted by
20080 posts

Well, somewhere near Muerren is a bit wishy washy. How about to Muerren?
There are connections every hour at 53 past the hour that will get you to Muerren in 6 hours.
You can't drive a car to Muerren, and if your plan is to hike hut to hut, that rental car will spend a lot of time in parking lots collecting parking fees. Oh, you will need to pick up a Swiss vignette sticker for the car if you want to drive on any Swiss superhighways. They are not that expensive, but just another thing to remember. Plus, you can hike from one place to another for a few days and return using the train or post bus. I'm thinking Muerren to Kandersteg, or even Adelboden or Lenk.
I'd suggest getting Swiss Half Fare Cards for 120 chf each for 30 days. That will get you 50% discount on the all Swiss trains from the time you enter Switzerland until you exit, plus all of the mountain lifts.

Posted by
9 posts

Any thoughts on a route that has us hiking about 4-6 hours a day that gets us from one to another?
Thanks for the help.

Posted by
16893 posts

From the Swiss Tourist Board link which Anita provided, it was a couple of clicks to this web site selling maps: http://www.swisstravelcenter.com/myswitzerland/en/ostschweiz/murg. The tourist offices there in the region will certainly also have those maps and local advice. Amazon also sells a variety of books on hiking Switzerland in addition to their usual sort order by "relevance," remember that you can also sort by publication date.

Posted by
437 posts

I hope to spend a few nights on a hut to hut hike but cannot offer personal experience :-)

I read about the Via Alpina in the book "Over the Top and Back Again" which describes one route.

The trail and hut details are online:
http://www.via-alpina.org/en/page/15/the-trails

Pick a segment and enjoy the trip.

Posted by
389 posts

Not a good idea, really, to drive long distance after a transatlantic flight. Cognitively/reaction-wise, driving in a fatigued and jet-lagged state is much like driving after a few alcoholic drinks. And as mentioned, Muerren, Gimmelwald, and Wengen are car-free villages.

I did several overnight (1-night) hikes in the region, but none hut-to-hut per se. Schynnige Platte (reached via cog railway from near Interlaken) to First, overnighting at the rustic Faulhorn mountain inn, is fabulous. Feels like you're on top of the world. Each leg is about four hours. Once I followed up that hike with a train and bus to the village of Stechelberg near the end of the Lauterbrunnen valley and hiked a few hours to the Tschingelhorn mountain inn, so that was hut-to-hut in a way. Both those are described in "Switzerland's Mountain Inns" by the Liebermans. The mountain inns definitely need reservations, above all on weekends.