Trying to plan for an early October visit to Lauterbrunnen area...questions!

We (husband and I in our 70’s, our son and his wife and 2 grandchildren) were in Mürren last year in late September and enjoyed 5 of 6 days with perfect weather, before heading to the Dolomites on a rainy day. Then the nice weather returned for another week. But of course this year could be very different.

I suggest Wengen as the best base for you. An apartment would give everyone a bit more privacy (2 separate rooms for sleeping), but a family room might have separate sleeping areas. We had an apartment in Mürren because we enjoy cooking together, and we have been there together several times before over the past 20 years.

Half board at hotels is generally worthwhile; in most Swiss hotels the food is excellent. Check Hotel Bären; They have both a family room and a small apartment (without kitchen) and their food is the best in Wengen (in our experience).

The walks you have chosen (Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg and the walk to Bachalpsee from First) should be fine for your mother. The latter is a very gentle grade on a good path. She may not want to do the “Royal Walk” up the little Männlichen Gipfel as that is a bit steep and rocky iin places. How are her knees going downhill?
Mürren down to Gimmelwald is a paved road most of the way and last September there was a lot of construction traffic on the road which made it unpleasant for walking for us. We diverted onto the dirt path at the earliest opportunity, but this is quite steep in parts.

For these plans you ,may well want the Berner Oberland Pass because it fully covers the lifts you will be riding for the walks above. To do the Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg Panorama trail, you will take the cablecar up to Mannlichen and the train back down from KS; that is 60 CHF according to SBB.

The the best (most scenic) way to Grindelwald for your First activities is to take the Mannlichen Cable car up again, and ride the gondola down to Grindelwald—-a very scenic ride we enjoyed last summer. That is 66 CHF.

You walk through Grindelwald to the First lift and will want to ride it roundtrip up and back for the Cliff Walk and the walk to Bachalpsee. That is another 68 CHF.

And then you take the train through the valley route to return to Wengen. That is only 16.60 francs.

Total just for these 2 days of hiking and sightseeing is 210 CHF (unless you have a Half Fare Card).

For our visit last year we used the 6-day BO Pass with HFC and that worked out well. It might be a good choice for you as well.

I will be back with more thoughts. . . .

Thank you so much Lola! Appreciate your insight!

We are still debating the hotel vs. apartment question. On the one hand a hotel, with breakfast and half board is appealing. We won't have to think about a thing basically! On the other, an apartment and doing our own cooking, especially for 4 people, likely might be less expensive. So we will see!

We need to test mom's knees a bit more. She tends to complain about uphill but that may be more because she is used to walking on even levels. So we need to up our walking and test uphill and downhill!

We do plan to buy the Swiss Half Fare card at least. Then I need to add up the various routes we are interested in to see if the BO pass is worth it. I feel our stay might be in that nebulous area where the BO pass might be worth it but might not.

If the Murren to Gimmelwald path is still full of construction traffic, do you have other suggestions for easy walks on that side of the valley?

Thanks!

You’ve gotten excellent ideas from Lola.

I was there at the end of September, and the weather was great, so it should be similar in October.

Another hiking option on the Murren side is the trail from Grutschalp to Murren. This is a good trail for when time is limited, or it looks like rain. It’s about 5 km distance and not too steep and roughly follows the route of the train tracks. You can stop at Winteregg train station for a break or take the train from there to Murren if you’re short on time.

From Murren, you can take a cable car down to Stechelberg, and walk back to Lauterbrunnen or continue walking to Gimmelwald (about 2.2 km from Murren), then take a cable car to Stechelberg. I enjoyed the Murren – Gimmelwald walk, although the construction that Lola mentioned wasn’t happening, so check to see if it’s still going on.

Walking in the valley from Lauterbrunnen to Trummelbach Falls and Stechelberg offers amazing views and is fairly level; plus there are regular buses running, so can shorten your hike if you wish.

When you arrive, check the weather each day and do some of the higher elevation hikes on days when it’s clear up in the mountains. If it’s cloudy or rainy higher up, that can be a good day for the Lauterbrunnen, Trummelbach, Stechelberg hikes.

All the best,

Raymond

Something to consider in addition to $ is convenience with the BO pass. It may come out to be slightly more expensive by say $50 a person or something but there is convenience advantage to consider as well because on any of the covered routes you just hop on/off the trains/cable cars without having to stop to purchase tickets. To me that’s something that should always be quantified when calculating whether you’re going to get a pass or not. Buying tickets isn’t a huge deal, but it does add time/thought to everywhere you go.

Walking down to Gimmelwald from Murren is over 1,000 ft of downhill, so I’m going to guess that will be a no. Alternatively you can cable car down to Gimmelwald and just walk the easy road through the village to explore the farms and self service farm fridges to purchase local products. From Murren you can also ride up to Allmendhubel for great views and walk around the little flower trail. Or honestly just walking through the various streets of Murren admiring the historic old chalets with mountain backdrops is amazing.

I’d recommend Wengen as well. Stay near the train station to avoid uphill/downhill every time you come and go and make sure to get a south facing balcony. The Hotel Baren is in a good location.

October should be fine for weather but obviously the later you push back to chillier it’s going to get and chance for snow is going to go up. Last year we had small snow in late August and then it was beautiful again, but if there is any way to push into September you’d have higher probability of it not getting cold. When we’ve been there in late September we definitely wore a jacket and pants every day and a couple years ago in mid September when we left it was snowing.

Early October is usually still very good here. The best month to visit is September, but we have had good weather in to October with some regularity now. The only thing to be aware of is that the sun sets early, and once it sets it cools down rapidly. So be aware of that and take a light jacket or a jumper along if you plan to stay about until after sunset.

Everything should still be open.

In addition to the already mentioned passes: The Jungfrau Pass might be usefull. And getting the half fare card also reduces your trip form Zurich, and the Swiss part of your onward travel to Italy.

Wanderweg’s suggestion of the “flower walk” at the top of the Allmendhubel funicular is good. This is a short level loop around a little alpine botanical garden with informative labels on the plants. Nothing will be in bloom, but the walk is worth it for the views alone. And IF mom can manage gentle downhill, you can walk back to Mürren through the Blumental (flower valley)—-you can reach an overlook from the Flower Trail loop to check out the trail and decide if it looks doable.

The walk between Grutschalp and Mürren suggested by fcraymond is also a good idea—- the path follows the rail tracks and is easy and level, with nice views across the valley toward Wengen and the mountains beyond.

When looking at lodging options in Wengen, be careful of the location—- the village is build on the hillside and some of the streets giving access to apartments and hotels are quite steep. You could minimize the walking by booking something close to or at lease on the same level as the train station. (Do not worry about noise, the little train runs infrequently and not at all during the night).

Looking on Google maps satellite view, I can see the hotels that are close: Hotel Silberhorn, Maya Caprice, Hotel Regina, and Alpine Hotel Wengen. Apartments are listed as well: Chalet Waldschlüct, Chalet Hanegg 2, Chalet Bargsunna, Chalet Belmont, maybe Appartement Eden. These are just the closest ones.

The places below the station tend to be in steeper terrain. We loved hotel Bären when we stayed there some years ago, but I was surprised at how steep the descent down was. Paved and good footing, and not a problem for us (we are stron hikers) but I heard other guests complaining about the steepness of the walk back up to the station.

Thanks so much everyone!

Raymond: thank you! we can only hope for good weather at beginning of October at this point! I will add the Grutschalp option to our list!

wanderweg: you are of course right that the convenience of a pass should be considered. I will keep that in mind. may also wait til we arrive (can buy the BO pass in Luzern, right?) and see what the forecast is like since it might affect plans.

Thanks for the note on the downhill of Murren to Gimmelwald...yes, we would likely cable car then and explore. And I will add Allmendhubel as an optional walk on the Murren side. Obviously, we have to play it by ear some and see how mom is doing after other walks.

We are actually looking at the Hotel Baren! They have a 'family' room that is just two adjoining doubles that would work for us and half board seems pretty reasonable!

We could potentially move our trip up into Sept. Would arriving in Switzerland on Sept. 18th really be much different from Oct. 2nd? Out current plan is to depart US on Oct. 01, arrive Zurich on Oct. 02 and go directly to Wengen.

WengenK: Thank you for the note about weather! I had tried to look at the past few years of info when I could find it and it does seem like first week of October is generally decent to good. We are definitely planning on the half fare cards. As for the Jungfrau Pass, is it much different from the Berner Oberland Pass? I feel like I heard somewhere that the BO Pass generally covers everything the Jungfrau Pass does plus more?

Lola: thanks again for more info! We are considering the Hotel Baren because the family room plus half board suits us and it looks fairly close to the train station. But I did notice on google maps that it was downhill but hard to determine actual steepness. Of course, with any trip, budget is a factor too so have to balance that as a trip for 4 adults gets very expensive very quick! I will have a look at the other options. How long a walk would you say it was from Hotel Baren to the train?

There is no guarantee on weather, I can only tell you that from spending 3 months there every year that if I was planning a trip for someone and they had options to arrive Sept 18 or Oct 1, I’d tell them to do Sept 18 to slightly up your chances of nicer weather.

wanderweg: thanks for the input. we are looking at flights and hotel to see how it would affect the budget. we are considering it.

I agree that if you have a choice of dates, then September is a better choice than October. We have been very fortunate the last 2 years visiting the Alps and Dolomites in September. Of course that can change in any given year. But mountain weather is notoriously capricious in spring and fall, even here in the US. So October is riskier for bad weather, even snow. Plus the days are noticeably shorter..

As for the location of the Bären in Wengen—-yes it is “close”to the train station, but I remember it being a steep downhill walk (and just as steep going back up). We have only stayed in Wengen once—-we usually stay in Mürren (6 times now). But in 2007, on a visit with many family members to celebrate my 60th, we split our time between Wengen and Mürren. We were very happy with the Bären—-hostess Therese comes around to greet guests at breakfast and dinner, and her husband Willie runs an excellent kitchen—-the best in Wengen. But I was surprised by the steepness of the paved road down from the train station. Not that we could not manage—-as I said, we are strong and capable hikers, accustomed to steep trails and ascents/descents of 1000 meters, even now. It just seemed unusually steep for a paved road used by vehicles as well as visitors.

I hope someone else will chime in, in case my memory is wrong. But if not, I think your mother’s new knees may have trouble with the descent and ascent on that road. It is tougher than climbing stairs because of the grade——your feet are always on a slant, not on level stairsteps.

I’d recommend looking at places on google maps with the little yellow person street view to get a feel for what steepness of roads look like. We stayed across the street in a chalet apartment from the Baren and I remember being annoyed with the luggage transfer but every day walking wasn’t that bad. But I guess I’m used to it in Murren as well, so my meter may be off :)

It’s hard to not have some incline in Wengen unless you stay right on the main street at somewhere like Silberhorn, Arenas Victoria-Lauberhorn or Regina.

lol. I have tried using google maps to view but the little dude doesn't always move where he should! so I'm not finding it completely useful. I've searched for our dates and we are still considering the Baren but also maybe the Falken. Both have a family room that is 2 rooms sharing a bathroom which would work for our group of 4. But still considering Grindelwald also.

We are also in the weeds a bit ... I think we are going to have to cut a couple days out somewhere as the budget is close to exploding. My sister-in-law requested Venice, but with 4-5 nights in Wengen and 5-6 nights in Rome, this trip for 4 can easily get very $$$ very fast! And I've been looking for best routes to get from Wengen to Venice without a good solution.

Option 1. make our way from Wengen back to Luzern and then on to either Basel or Zurich and fly to Venice. Pro: faster; con: baggage fees likely! Option 2. long long long train day....

So overall, trying to balance Jungfrau vs. Rome vs. Venice and time and budget!

But also, Mom is paying (and setting the budget) and Alps and Rome are most important to her, so guess whose opinion matters most! I am the poor soul tasked with helping plan and book it though!

We are leaning towards moving the trip forward though. Won't be by much. Maybe only one week to around Sept. 24. Possibly 2 weeks. We were considering maybe even adding an extra night here, from 4 nights to 5 nights, but I'm not sure that will happen after all.

One more question...feels like a lot of folks here prefer Murren over Wengen. Particular reasons? We're leaning Wengen for this trip due to the panorama walk at Mannlichen, Grindelwald First, and possibly Pfingstegg (Mom's not sure about the toboggan thing, but the flying through the trees caught her eye!).

I'll just say that I prefer Wengen over Murren and I wish I could give a good reason why. Murren seemed more crowded and somehow less authentic. The views I saw on the hikes I took from there were stupendous. As others may have said, the walk from Murren to Gimmelwald was a very steep downhill walk. Anybody with knee issues should probably avoid it.

If Mom wants to go to Rome and Switzerland, and Mom is paying, then she gets her wish. (I am speaking as a Mom who took her adult son and his family to Switzerland and the Dolomites last September).

But if you want to include some time in Venice—-say 3 nights—then I recommend going by train rather than flying. Even if you start in Luzern, by the time you travel to Zurich airport 2 hours ahead of the flight, you have spent 3 hours. The flight takes about an hour. If it departs on time, you now have 4 hours invested, and you still are not in Venice, You still have to get through the airport, which is very crowded these days, then into Venice. Transport from the airport to your Venice hotel takes at least an hour even if you go by pricy water taxi (140 €). So a minimum of 5 hours altogether but likely to be longer.

The train does take 7-8 hours from Luzern to Venice, but you could break up the trip from Wengen to Venice better by going past Luzern, to the lakeside town of Lugano for an overnight there. This would be an additional 2.5 hours past Luzern if you go by train; longer if you take the boat down the lake to meet the train there. But what a lovely scenic boat ride that is.

From Lugano to Venice is 4 hours with a single change at Milano Centrale. And then you arrive at the Venezia Santa Lucia station which is IN Venice. You walk out of the station and the sight of the Grand Canal hits you in the face.

https://senicessm.live/product_details/32663627.html

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-view-of-square-in-front-of-santa-lucia-rail-station-in-venice-55211126.html?imageid=1BDAF03B-B982-4642-AE5C-00342E1F742F&p=67561&pn=1&searchId=5240219747c0d75ec236007ac9478bc3&searchtype=0

You still have to get to your hotel, but that is a fun journey by boat. It is a good example of “the journey is the destination”.

From Venice to Rome is an easy 4-hour journey by train, city center to city center.

As for Wengen vs Mürren, I think it depends on which one you visited first. Everyone seems to love the village they stayed in on their first time in Switzerland.

I am solidly with Team Mürren; it feels like home to me after 5 stays there. And to me, it feels more authentically “Swiss”, with all the wooden chalets. Wengen feels more like a British resort town to me, with a number of upscale hotels. And Mürren offers more hike options right from town.

But in your case, with the activities your Mom wants to do, Wengen or Grindelwald make more sense.

UPDATE!

We have booked our airfare and will arrive Zurich on Sept. 24th. So we did move our trip up one week from our original proposed dates! We will travel immediate from Zurich to Wengen and we are booked into an apartment via Interhome across the street from the train station at Eiger Residences. So lucky for us that popped up!

We also added a night, so we are spending 5 nights in Wengen!

Tentative plan looks something like this...only trying to "plan" one thing per day:

Tuesday Sept. 24: arrive, check in, night: Wengen

Wednesday Sept. 25: Panorama hike Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg, night: Wengen

Thursday Sept. 26: Grindelwald First, Cliff Walk, maybe Pfingstegg, maybe Bachalpsee?, night: Wengen

Friday Sept. 27: explore Murren & Gimmelwald; maybe Schilthorn (haven't decided); maybe easy walk involving Almendhubel or go down to Trummelbach Falls, night: Wengen

Saturday Sept. 28: totally open...our just in case of bad weather make up day, night: Wengen

Sunday Sept. 29: be sad and leave (train to Naples)

Since you’ll be there in late September, you might enjoy seeing the festivals where the cows are decorated with flowers and return to lower pastures before winter. In late summer or even September, you can search the following terms to find smaller local celebrations. Some aren’t scheduled until close to the actual day.

Alpine descent or Alpabfahrt
Alpine descents or Alpabfahrten
Alpine departure or Alpabzug

There was one on September 21 last year near Wengen, so you may arrive too late for that one: Alpabzug Wengernalp, Lauterbrunnen

The Chästeilet (cheese sharing) in Stechelberg was Sept. 24 last year. I’m not sure if they have a big cow parade or not. This is a festival where they divide the large blocks of cheese that have been made all summer. The Chasteilet in the Justistal did have a procession of cows descending to lower elevations.

All the best,

Raymond

oh cool! thanks! I'll try and look out for those. maybe we will get lucky!

Chaeseteilet in Wengen is Sept 21-22 this year.
They do NOT have Alpabfahrt.
I will actually be in the same area, and have extensively researched an area Alpabfahrt. The closest is Sunday, September 29 in Schuepfheim.
It will be my 3rd such experience, my friend's first.

oh, that's a shame, but thanks for the information!