Southern Germany - Liechtenstein - Switzerland road trip

If you take the early train up to the joch, pause in Grindlewald on the way back to Interlaken. Walk to the east end of the town and ride the gondola to First and back. It'll take you a couple of hours and there's a cafe. Try to do it as late in the afternoon as you can so the sun will be hitting the north face of the Eiger. The view will knock your socks off. If you want a bit of extra kick in your life, you can come back down on a paraglider. (I didn't know it was there, my wife did it on another trip.)

Given my druthers, I'd do this rather than the Jungfrau railway (but everybody has to ride that train once in their life) since the scenery is better and it's a lot cheaper. Back in the good old days it was a crude, two-person chair lift without a bar and you just foot-dangled the whole way with the wind in your face. Most of the good stuff is gone.

You don't have to budget a lot of time for Liechtenstein.

Hi Geoff,

Unless you just want to say you've been to Liechtenstein, I'd skip it. It's nice enough and the scenery is beautiful, it's just not going to be anything different than what you'll see along the way in Austria and in Switzerland.

Paul

Paul is absolutely correct, there is practically nothing to see in Liechtenstein besides the novelty of saying you've been there. Actually, there is one semi-interesting thing - you can go to the tourist info stand in Vaduz and pay something like 20 bucks for the Liechtenstein stamp in your passport. When I was there, there was a tour bus full of Chinese people stopped , they were all crowded around it like sardines fighting to get the stamp. Every minute or so, a Chinese guy would emerge from the crowd holding his passport up high and yelling excitedly in Chinese. It was very comical.

Having said that, the drive from Liechtenstein into Switzerland and then towards St. Moritz (if you go that way) is unbelievably beautiful. Interlaken itself is nice but the mountain passes in the surrounding area are also gorgeous. Bring war mclothes no matter how the weather is, it gets very cold up there, even in the dead of summer.

Actually the cost to get your passport stamped in Vaduz, Liechtenstein is nowhere close to 20 bucks. Only about 1 or 2 euros. I think ours was 1,50 euros in 2007. I agree with Paul that the scenery is like that in Switzerland but if you are driving close to Vaduz and want to spend a couple of hours and hike above the town to the Castle it is a pleasant experience. The Castle is not open to the public however. You can get your passport stamped at the Tourist office in Vaduz.

I went to Leichtenstein last month just to say I was there. We did it as a day trip from Füssen. It was the worst day trip I've ever done. Vaduz is completely fogettable. See our blog entry for that day;

http://lee-reid2010.blogspot.com/2010/07/liechtenstein-sucks.html

On our very first trip to Europe, we spent our very first night in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein. We thought it was amazing... until we moved on and realized the scenery is similar or better in other places. As I said earlier, the scenery is beautiful, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it.

Paul

Thanks for all of the responses, everyone!

I appreciate the brutal honesty about Liechtenstein. It will mostly be a novelty to be able to say we have been there, and I don't expect we'll be in the country for more than an hour.

We'll be driving from Memmingen (west of Munich) to the Berner Oberland (via Liech.) - are there any interesting places to check out in eastern Switzerland between Liechtenstein and the Berner Oberland?

We've booked 2 nights in a guesthouse in Lauterbrunnen. Any secrets anyone can share about the area? We're probably going to take the train to Jungfraujoch one day (expensive, but I guess it will probably be worth it).

Geoff

Another option nearby that most Rickniks overlook is the Brienz Rothornbahn, which starts it's ascent from the town of Brienz on the northeast corner of the Brienzer See. It doesn't ascend nearly as high as the more well known Jungfraubahn, but the view from the summit is much less frequently obscured by bad weather, and the vista of the lakes is stunning. Plus, in the charm contest, the steam engines of the Rothornbahn beat the electrified cars of the Jungfraubahn any day.