Where to stay in the Berner Oberland?

We have made many trips to the area of a week or longer and have settled on Lauterbrunnen as the most convenient for us. It is central to both sides of the valley so easy to get to Mürren or Grindelwald or the Jungfraujoch. Also easy to pop into Interlaken and the lakes. If you stay in Mürren, it takes longer to get to First, Jungfraujoch, etc., and if you stay in Grindelwald, Mürren is a bit of a schlep.

I would stay 3 nights, minimum, in Zermatt due to the capriciousness of weather. What if the one day you have for Zermatt is cloudy or rainy and you don't get to enjoy the scenery?

I take it the sledging and luge are dry land summer type. If everything you want to do in Grindelwald, that is where you should stay or you will "waste a lot of time traveling to and from."

We also plan to spend 2 nights in Zermatt... any thoughts on this?

My thought is that it is your vacation and you should go where you want.

I will offer the opinion that the views from the mountain trains and gondolas don't make them seem like a waste of time to us.

I agree with Sam. If most of your activities are centered around Grindelwald, I would stay there. We spent two nights in Murren and 3 in Lauterbrunnen. From Lauterbrunnen you can take the mountain train via Wengen, Kleine Scheidigg. Switch trains and go to Grindelwald. We did this one day, and it took about 2 hours if I remember correctly. You can also take the regular train from Lauterbrunnen towards Interlaken Ost, after a couple stops, get off at Zweilütschinen stop and switch to train to Grindelwald. Its easy to do, but the trip from Lauterbrunnen to Grindelwald is about an hour that way.

Murren is further out of the way from Grindelwald, as you have to get from Murren to Lauterbrunnen first, via train/cable car from one end of Murren. Or multiple cable cars from the other end of town. Murren is beautiful and has lots of nice hiking. It would be worth a day trip, if you have time.

We enjoyed Grindelwald First a lot. The cliff walk was fun. We took the cable car up. Hiking at the top to Bachalpsee Lake. They also have a zipline up there (fun). In addition you can ride the mountain carts down part way of the mountain. Then you can switch to trotti scooters and go the rest of the way. Both these were a lot of fun as well. Beautiful scenery as you go down the mountain and you can stop for pictures and cows along the way.

Also in Grindelwald town, just past First cable car entrance on the other side of the street there is a shorter cable up to Pfinstegg. There is a summer toboggan run up there which was fun. I think the price for the toboggan was 10CHF, but it was free if you had the Berner Oberland pass.

Check pass prices for Berner Oberland and/or Swiss travel pass as many of cable cars/trains are covered. We used Berner Oberland pass as that was the only area we needed it for and it covered all our cable cars and trains during our stay. Zip line, scooters and carts at First were extra $$.

VERY helpful tips, everyone- Thank you!!!

If everything you're doing is on that side, I would also recommend staying on that side. We stayed in Murren and loved it, but thought Wengen would've been our choice if we needed to be on that side of the valley. For us, the views are preferable higher up than staying in the valley. But Murren is worth a day trip, as you're pretty close to the mountains as you're enjoying lunch or taking a break (and might as well stop if you decide to go up to Schilthorn).