Wengen or Murren or Lauterbrunnen Summer 2023

This topic comes up a lot. My take is that it's better to be up in a village and look down into the valley than the other way around. There's nothing at all wrong with either Wengen or Murren. Murren has a bit of a better view of the big mountains, but Wengen also looks out on the Jungfrau etc. RS focuses on the Murren end of the valley, but I prefer Wengen. 1) basically dead center in the transit network of mountain rail, cable cars, etc. Murren is a bit of a cul de sac. 2) There's a bigger flat area on the plateau, and so more charming working agriculture and easier trails to explore. Troll diorama's pepper the trailside, and you get insane views straight up the barrel of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. 3) more municipal infrastructure. Wengen is little more of a village, Murren a little more of a ski resort. Wengen has minigolf, a community swimming pool, cool public BBQ picnic sites scattered around the local walks, fun contraptions all over where you roll wooden balls through crazy mazes (ball cost 5 SF and is part of the town charity drive), good play grounds you don't need to hike or ride up to (though you can ride up one cablecar to a huge fun playground too). This point is a matter of degrees - Murren is fine place as well.

Again, not really a bad choice among the three. Having travelled most recently with two children, a rental flat in Wengen was fantastically family friendly all around.

Of course you have very little time, so if the Schlithorn is a must stay in Murren. No need to eat up limited days in transit.

Also, regarding booking apartments, the local tourist offices have booking engines with flats not available on other platforms (many with much better pricing). It's a reliable way to find a good place to stay that's not crushingly expensive.

https://wengen.swiss/en/winter/

Hotel Staubbach in Lauterbrunnen. Tremendous hotel, wonderful views, great hospitality. We have a 7 day return visit in May. Many prefer the high towns but the valley is gorgeous and seemingly less crowded. To each their own.

We are a family of four that visited last summer. We stayed at Hotel Silberhorn at the recommendation of someone here. =). We traveled to all of the nearby villages and absolutely loved the location right near the train. Our view of Jungfrau was gorgeous, staff was very helpful & friendly.....plus the breakfast was great. We ate outside on the patio each morning. Also, the fondue (dinnertime) at the hotel restaurant was our favorite of the trip. We stayed 4 nights and agreed that we could have spent so much more time in the area.

If you're wanting to experience the festivities of Swiss National Day, there is more going on in Wengen for that weekend, because the following weekend is Murren's Dorffest (Village festival) so the party will be in Wengen the first weekend of August and over in Murren in the second weekend of August.

I was in Murren last July and we experienced zero problems with construction problems. They were re-doing railway stations but construction was limited to right at the stations. It was a beautiful town, highly recommended. I especially recommend it if you want to go up the Schilthorn. We used the Metro Swiss weather app when we were in Switzerland--for the day we wanted to go, the app predicted clear skies early in the morning, with clouds coming in around 9:30 or 10am. So we took the uncrowded first cable car of the day--and sure enough, clear skies and the clouds came in as predicted--along with increasing number of tourists. We stayed at the Hotel Bellevue in Murren, which we liked a lot--but it looked like there were many nice hotels. If you have kids, they will probably like the Sportscenter in Murren with its swimming pool, https://www.sportzentrum-muerren.ch/en/. Sportscenter was free for hotel guests.

Partyof5,
Rather curious as to what you decided, and if you did find lodging to accommodate your group.
Safe travels!

Hi @Pat, Just saw your note. We are staying at an Airbnb in Muerren - Chalet Monch, I believe. It got strong reviews, so hopefully will be a great fit. The kids all have their own beds, so that's a plus!

That Airbnb looks great! And not even too expensive. Nice work.