When are there not crowds around Murren and vicinity?

We've been to the area in late Sept and mid-Oct and found the crowds disperse from the lifts and it's not too crowded. The big gondolas at Grrutschalp and Gimmelwald/Stechelberg can be crowded but once you hit the trails, there are few people. Also, early in the AM is better than say, 10:00 when more people seem to emerge. Staying in Lauterbrunnen or Muerren is also helpful so you can get to the transport before daytrippers arrive.

When we went to Murren in very early Oct in 2010, we practically had the place to ourselves - we honestly barely saw a soul, maybe shared the restaurant there with one other couple (or maybe just with the owners and a cute puppy). I'd say early Oct is def shoulder season - and the weather was amazing...on the 1 day we were there, at least. Maybe it's suffering what I'll call the Cinque Terre effect - lovely before it was discovered and overrun. Maybe because the gondolas were down, it was made worse...

Hi Jerry, we stayed in Murren Oct 5-11 this year and it was pretty much of a "ghost town". Many of the hotels and their accompanying restaurants were beginning to close for the season (re-opening mid to late December). The few places that were open were busy for dinner but we never waited for a table. During the day there were groups of Chinese tourists but they did not stay overnight. There was a Rick Steves GAS tour staying at the Hotel Jungfrau and we ran in to two women we met on our RS Switzerland tour last year!

We took the first trains and lifts to the Schilthorn and Jungfrau. We found places to be more crowded later in the day. The Hotel Alpenruh gave us a voucher to have breakfast/brunch at the Schilthorn. We took the 8:00 lift on Sunday and had the place to ourselves for the first 45 minutes. Again, it was more crowded by the time we got down to Birg and Murren.

Overall, we thought it was a great time to travel to the Berner Oberland. The weather was cool but most days were sunny and perfect for hiking. Love Switzerland.

There were no crowds the 2nd week of July2017.
But I started out at 7 am Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp to Murren to Schilthorn and all transport was running.

It makes sense that if you close down 1/2 of the transportation to get to Murren then the remaining operative half (Schilthornbahn) must take more than the normal share of riders. Other than that incident - I've NEVER considered Murren to be crowded. The only crowd you might possibly see is, like you said, on the transport up or down.

I've been several times in June. The only "crowds" we've really experienced were on that same bus, and the train up to the jungfrau. Other trains, busses and towns are busy but not crowded at all! Most of the time when we've been hiking there are very few other people around.

I was there in September 2017 (as well as September 2014). While it was hardly "empty," it wasn't "crowded" either.

I agree with Tim - if you close half the transit, the other half gets very crowded. But were the crowds just on those transit sections, or actually in the towns, hikes, Schilthorn, Jungfraujoch, etc?

The area has never seemed very crowded to me in late May/early June.

Thanks for your input. I think that the closing of the lift to Murren and its train was the culprit behind the excessive crowds on the buses and the Shilthorn lift.