Day trips from Bern, July
Luna789 is excited to plan a summer trip to Switzerland and seeks advice on a peaceful day hike from Bern in July, wanting to escape crowds. They are familiar with outdoor activities in Colorado and appreciate suggestions for serene hiking spots and nice lunch options.
- Consider taking the early train to Wengen for access to quieter trails near the Jungfrau region.
- Look into the Emmental for rolling hill hikes that may not be as crowded.
- The Swiss Travel Pass can be useful for easy travel on trains and buses around Bern and the surrounding areas.
AI-generated summary-
Hello!
Really enjoying the planning now that all our travel basics are established!
Can someone please suggest a day trip from Bern in July for people who like the outdoors away from crowds? We live in Colorado and the hiking area near us is so crowded these days that they shuttle visitors in. So we hike those trails very early in the morning or hike other trails that might not be as spectacular but are worth it to us because we pass maybe five people in three hours.
I would be very appreciative of any suggestions for a hike, a nice lunch spot, any day trip plan where serenity is paramount. Thanks!!!
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Hi Luna789-
I checked your earlier post-
<<“So glad to find this forum and the help offered here! This will be a first visit, early July, and we will take a train into Switzerland to Bern. From there our expected transportation over 5 days will be: bus around town, train or bus to Thun for river trip back to Bern, train to Interlaken and into smaller towns above and back to Bern, a boat ride somewhere one day maybe?, then train to Chur and over to Tirano, Italy.”>>
and, you wrote:
<<“We live in Colorado and the hiking area near us is so crowded these days that they shuttle visitors in. So we hike those trails very early in the morning or hike other trails that might not be as spectacular but are worth it to us because we pass maybe five people in three hours.”>>
You will find that a lot of people come to Switzerland for the fabulous hiking in July, and especially August. So, you are not likely to find empty trails. In fact, they pay a lot of money to shuttle themselves into the best hiking regions. Or, for the technical climbing. Or, hut-to- hut hikes.
And, the better known the trails, the more people you will find on them.
Your itinerary could definitely better for early morning proximity to the not-too-far from-Bern hiking near the Jungfrau. For example you could stay at any of the alpine villages and be on a nice trail early in the morning
http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion/activitie s
If you catch the first train to Wengen from Bern at 0604, you’ll arrive at Wengen at 0749, which allows generous time for the 5-10 minute walk to the cableway ( die Luftseilbahn) from the center of town that goes up to Männlichen at 0810, arriving at 0816. Option – a coffee at the mountain restaurant.
Then, take this walk:
http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king/maennlichen-kleinescheidegg
It is really popular, but for good reason. See attached images
Or, you could stay in Wengen, with obvious benefits of saving time.
http://www.myswissalps.com/we ngen
http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/tips-about-wengen-and-the-jungfrau-region-by-kim
What you might not have considered is the mountain hotels close to the trails. There are many.
However, simply sticking the concept developed so far, you could stay at the start of a trail at 2200 meters (7200 feet +/-) at:
http://www.berghaus-maennlichen.ch/homee.h tml
http://www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/panoramic-mountain-between-wengen-and-grindelwald.html
Any of these trails in the next link can be interesting, but none will be free of people:
http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king
Quite a few are in the Jungfrau region.
And, if you are experienced high altitude hikers ( note that the altitudes are given in the trail descriptions that I have linked you to) there are really tough or even technical climbing options as well:
I’ve turned on hiking trails in the menu of that map.
The color coding follows this convention:
http://www.alpenwild.com/stat icpage/trail-signs-in-the-swiss-alps/
So, what kind of hikers or climbers are you: and, will you consider hikes that are not in the high Alps?
We can also think about trails that are not so famous that are accessible from Bern
For example, this one is accessible from Bern by a specific train called the
The Lötschberger.
http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/bls-sudrampe-trail
Or, the Emmental, which is laced with trails through rolling hills and some modest mountains?
http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/langnau-in-may
Please give us a bit more detail about your skills and interests for hikes.
Slowpoke
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Wow Slowpoke!! Thank you for the wealth of info!
Our hiking background is we often summit 14ers here in Colorado (14,000 foot plus) which is mostly hiking and scrambling, with some climbing glissading depending on time of year. However, in our group will be two who prefer your rolling hills hiking idea.
Your suggestions look great already, so thank you! The early train you mentioned, a hike until late lunch, then maybe a dip in the river back in Bern….this sounds like one hell of a fine day.
<<“then maybe a dip in the river back in Bern….this sounds like one hell of a fine day.”>>
Cold- glacial melt, and swift.
Lots of people do it, often tubing.
Just check it out ahead of times.
Those trains run at 0604, 0634, 0704 ( no 0734 it seems)0804, etc.
If the weather is cloudy up there, check carefully …tourist offices, webcams, etc. It comes in layers. If it is socked in, stay low. No fun ifyou can’t see anything. We usually recommend a few days in the region, because the weather is so unpredictable.
If you take that hike recommended, at an early hour, you’ll get to Kleine Scheidegg at lunch time. Nice outdoor lunch seating. Take your camera on that walk. There is enough loose gravel on some modest downslopes that you’ll want good hiking shoe. And, if possible, hiking staffs will be helpful but not critical.
Or you could ride the train down to Alpiglen from KS for the famous Käseschnitte. Search for that on the internet.
Another option is to ride or walk up from Kleine Scheidegg to Stn. Eigergletscher, then walk the Eiger trail across the base of the Eiger, passing the start points for all of the famous ascents. A bit of scree, but a good narrow trail. Then 400 meters of switchbacks down to Alpiglen and catch the train down to Grindelwald and back to Bern.
Slowpoke
Thank you!
We are very used to cold mountain water here in Colorado.
happy spring to you!
I wrote
<<“If you take that hike recommended, at an early hour, you’ll get to Kleine Scheidegg at lunch time. Nice outdoor lunch seating.”>>
Actually if you start walking at 0830, you’ll get there too early for lunch. The official time is one and 1/2 hours. I take a lot of pictures, and stop at the benches that look at the North Face for a while, so I take between two and two 1/2 hours.
You could add a nice plus to the walk by going up about 100 meters from Männlichen lift station to Männlichen Gipfel. Turn left instead of right when you exit the lift station. Some of the images that I posted were taken from there or near there.
Slowpoke
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Luna789 – as one who also lives in Colorado and is also making a trip to Switzerland this year let me give you some Colorado advice 🙂 – THIRTEENERS! I climbed 50 of the 637 13ers that we have in CO last summer and hardly ever saw another hiker! Sorry – I know this isn’t Switzerland related, but I just had to throw that in! 🙂
Wow you climbed 50 of them!?! That’s amazing.
Well, I’m on to the same idea…while 14ers were compelling for the first few years, 13ers do indeed sound like the way to go. Although now we just need to shhhhhhh stop mentioning them. 😉
I suppose it’s inevitable they will become overrun someday too, but for now: Happy Hiking!
Hi Luna789 –
I’m afraid, as mentioned before, that you’ll be seeng a lot of hikers on the Swiss trails that you and your party can access under the constraints that you have.
If your goal is distance rather than height, you might check into the series of books about hiking in the Alps by Kev Reynolds.
And, although I find it hard to get the effective and generous information that is available in it – I don’t seem to think the way it does ;-( – the Switzerland Mobility site has a lot of information on specific trails, such as the named high Alpine routes such as the Via Alpina and Swiss National Trails. That includes not just a map, but a topo at 1:10,000, altitude profiles, accommodations and interesting sights along the way.
http://www.schweizmobil.ch/en /summer.html
http://www.schweizmobil.ch/en /hiking-in-switzerland.html
http://www.schweizmobil.ch/en /hiking-in-switzerland/routes/nat ional-routes.html
http://www.schweizmobil.ch/en /hiking-in-switzerland/routes/nat ional-routes/route-01.html
http://www.schweizmobil.ch/en /hiking-in-switzerland/routes/nat ional-routes/route/etappe-01560.html
Apart from that way to get the data, it is possible to click on the map on named trails and get into the same kind of detail:
Slowpoke
Thank you!!
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