What might the weather be like in the Lauterbrunnen Valley in mid-May?

High mountain trails won’t yet be open and it’s still very much spring, which can mean a mix of sunny warm days, cold rainy days and even snow. If your intention is hiking and beautiful alpine trails, mid June or later is necessary. If you are okay with the valleys, lakes & lower altitudes with extra temperamental weather, mid May can be fine. Many alpine cable cars, trains, etc don’t open until late May-mid June (Mannlichen, Schynige Platte, Brienzer Rothorn, Allmendhubel, etc)

Thank you, Wanderweg!

WE spent May 9-13 (this year) in Wengen. it was great! We had sun on 2 days. It poured rain one day and it snowed overnight before the final day so we saw a little of everything. We took cable cars to Murren and Grindelwald. We took the long and beautiful walk through the Lauterbrunnen valley (along the river). The waterfalls and cliffs were spectacular - as was the view of them from hikes (more like long walks) we took out of Wengen. We stayed at the Braunbar Hotel and Spa - a few others were not open yet. The room was really fine. We had the Half Board and our breakfasts and dinners were delicious. The front desk was very helpful in recommending hikes taking 1-2 hours and with great views. The cogwheel railroad was fun. WE did not go up to Jungfraujoch. The timing with the weather was not great for that level of altitude. Also I would not recommend the Bernina Express route. The Alps were not very snowy and this was the first week of May. It was a bit disheartening. Thank goodness it snowed in Wengen.
We also spent a week in Lucerne and a couple of days in Basel. Both were delightful. But Wengen was the highlight for us.
Feel free to contact me directly if you would like more information about anything I have mentioned..

P.S. while in northern Italy if you can do the climb to Castello Vezio (Varenna area), we highly recommend it. We did that in early May.

Thank you, Susan! PM sent

We are planning to go to Berner Oberland the last week in May and also wondering if it will be too snowy for the transport to be open and the trails passable. Can I use the fact that the cable cars opened May 23 2026 to plan for 2027? We would like to do Rick's recommended hikes including North Face Trail (needs funicular from Murren to Allmendhubel) and the walk from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg (needs cable car from Wengen to Mannlichen). I can see folks did these trails this year in late May on AllTrails. Am I taking too big of a chance? thanks all!!

@julie.mitchell.thielke

Yes, the opening dates will be similar to this year's dates.

You can hike the North Face Trail without using the funicular to Allmendhubel, just make it a circular hike Mürren → Mürren via North Face trail, but as you have noted this year the funicular opened on May 23rd.

You can see on the Mürren tourism website that the best time of year for the North Face Trail is May - October.

https://muerren.swiss/en/maps/summer-maps/hikes.html#area=60825263&cat=Hiking%20Trail&dmdtab=oax-tab2&filter=r-fullyTranslatedLangus-,r-openState-,sb-sortedBy-0&ipd=23432070&q=Mürren%20(Switzerland)&wt=Mürren%20(Switzerland)%0A60825263&zc=12.,7.85505,46.55083

The cable car to Männlichen should also be open, but probably not the Panorama Trail to Kleine Scheidegg. This year it was closed until mid-June, so anyone who shared that they hiked it in May this year was hiking a closed trail…not the smartest move. They do not keep trails closed just for the fun of it. There are a few sections of this trail where rockslides occur, it can also still be covered with ice and snow, it will open once they have made any necessary repairs and it becomes safe for people to use.

Here on the Männlichen website you can see that the Panorama Trail is open from mid-June - October

https://www.maennlichen.ch/en/summer/experiences/panorama-trail.html

You can do the Royal Walk starting in May, this one is short, but nice just to get a more panoramic view of the entire area.

https://www.maennlichen.ch/en/summer/experiences/royal-walk.html

This is so helpful thank you!!
We are traveling with our adult children and working with their schedules so that last week in May (May 23-31 2027) is really the only time we could travel with them to Europe next year. Would you recommend we go and see some it (as you pointed out is possible) or save it for another year when we can see all of it? I'm leaning toward starting over in my vacation planning, as much as I want to see Switzerland with my family, maybe not if it has to be in late May.

We will be in Switzerland May 8th - May 20th riding all the trains, boats and lifts that we can fit in. The weather will be the weather, but this is the time that I have and I won't let that stop me from seeing what I can.

Don't let the unknown stop you from traveling with your adult children. Memories of this trip may be the ones they sit around a reminisce about when they're your age. I would give anything to be able to afford to do a trip like that with my kids.

We may have terrible weather, and we may have perfect weather. It's Switzerland and I can't wait to experience this magical place. Rain or shine.