Where to stay in Switzerland - Coming from Italy

You could either stay in the valley, which is less expensive if you are planning on traveling outside of the immediate area since you forego the costs of taking the train up to Wengen or Murren and back. I prefer staying up in the mountains in either Wengen which is on the train line to the Jungfraujoch or Murren which is en route to the Schilthorn (Piz Gloria is there). You can stay in Murren and hike partially (or completely depending on your skill level)back to your hotel from the Schilthorn. We stayed at the Hotel Caprice in Wengen and loved it; other family members have stayed in Murren and were pleased as well.

If a morning trip up the Schilthorn is your goal, you best option is to stay in Mürren. But this is a long ride from Vernazza---from what I can find on the SBB website, the fastest trip from Vernazza to Lauterbrunnen is almost 9 hours, and then you would still have to go on up to Mürren.

As for hikes, there will likely still be snow on the Schilthorn in May, certainly on the upper reaches. If the snow permits, you could stop at Birg on the way down and hike back from there. Or there are a number of nice hikes to do right from Mürren, such as up the Allmandhubel and back (a loop), or down to Gimmelwald and on to the Kilchbalm, a wild and remote glacial cirque.

You should be able to get a schedule at the Swiss Rail site:
www.sbb.ch/en
In general, you take a train from Interlaken Ost station to Lauterbrunnen. From Laut. either take the cable/train connection to Murren, or the Postal Bus to the Schiltorn cable car base station and then get off at the Murren Stop. According to the Swiss Rail site it should take 47 minutes from Interlaken.

Thank you for the great replies.
One more question for you.
If we decide to stay in Murren, how do we get there from Interlaken? I do not see a train schedule from Interlaken to Murren, a bus would be just fine but again I can not find a schedule for this either.
Can you also please give me an estimate on how long the trip is from Interlaken to Murren is?
Thank you again for the help, it is greatly appreciated.
Mike

Does anyone know the approximate elevation of Lauterbrunnen? The other day I was looking at the weather there and thought I saw an elevation of 8000 feet above sea level, but that doesn't sound right?

It's 796 meters=2611 feet.

We were there in October and stayed at Hotel Staubbach in Lauterbrunnen. One morning we went up to Piz Gloria (first ride of the day up there, saw the sun rise) and another day we went up to Jungfraujoch. We came to Switzerland from Venice Italy. I had read about the scenic train rides so we broke up our trip by staying over a night in Montreaux. The next morning we took the Golden Pass train ride (we reserved VIP seats in the front of the train) from Montreaux to Interlaken Ost station. A train leaves Interlaken and goes to Lauterbrunnen every hour (at least in October). We were disappointed our Eurail passes didn't cover any of the tracks from Interlaken to the Berner Oberland area.

It is easy to get to Murren from Interlaken. The best way to get your tickets and learn the route is at the train station in Interlaken. The tellers will let you know the best way to get there and you can pay once for the whole trip (which includes different legs/modes of transportation). I think they even gave us a little map that helped us visualize the way there.

Mike--there are 2 ways to get to Mürren from Interlaken. They are the same as far as Lauterbrunnen, and the SBB website www.sbb.ch will show the schedules for that. Right now it is hard to get the schedules beyond that because of maintenance schedules on the 2 cablecars. But both should be running next May, and you will be able to get the routes and schedules from the web in April. Basically, one route is by cablecar from Lauterbrunnen up to Grutschalp, and from there to Mürren by train (a short 10-minute ride, very scenic). This cablecar leaves from a station just across the street from the Lauterbrunnen train station---just follow the signs.

The other route is to go to Stechelberg, up the valley from Lauterbrunnen, by Postbus, and then all the way up to Mürren by cablecar (stopping in Gimmelwald on the way). Whichever route you choose, everything is coordinated so you go right from one to the next; no long waits unless you miss a connection. I believe they cost the same.

Mike---one more thing. You can go up one way and come down the other. If you choose that, I suggest you ascend by the Grutschalp route, and descend via the Gimmelwald/Stechelberg route. There is a very dramatic moment when the cablecar departs Gimmelwald and swings out over. . . nothing, with a drop of a thousand feet or more below.

Mike, as Lola mentioned, it's easy to get to Murren. I used the 2nd method. At Interlaken Ost (east) buy a ticket for Murren. This covers all modes of transportation.
Take the local train to Lauterbrunnen; walk across the street to the yellow Post Bus; at Stechelberg transfer to the Cable Car for the ride up to Gimmelwald; at Gimmelwald transfer to the next cable car and in a minute or two you'll be in Murren. That's a great location to reach Piz Gloria (two more Cable Car rides). It's very well co-ordinated!
Murren is probably your best choice, as I don't believe the Pensione is open again in Gimmelwald, and that was the only restaurant, although Walter's Hotel provides dinners but there is only one choice per night (some people don't mind that). There are B&B's there, but that still leaves lunches and dinners to contend with. Murren has more tourist facilities.
I really enjoyed my visit to the Shilthorn, and had a great lunch!
Happy travels!

Both Lauterbrunnen and Murren are beautiful. I would say the difference is in Lauterbrunnen you are in a skinny little valley with beautiful cliffs and waterfalls rising on both sides with the snowcapped Alps rising behind them and in Murren you are on top of one of those cliffs and partway up the Alps. Lauterbrunnen would be slightly easier because you get there first on the train then it takes a little longer to go up to Murren. We took the gondola up to the restaurant and then hiked back down to Murren(3-3 1/2 hours, including stopping to eat). Absolutely beautiful. For natural beauty I can only compare it to two other places I have seen...Yosemite Valley and the surrounding mountains and Macchu Picchu and the surrounding mountains. I remember how fresh and clean it felt taking in a deep breath of air.