MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial 3 weeks late May in Switzerland – where to stay?
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Hi, I will be travelling to Switzerland from end May to mid June. The last time i had stayed in interlaken, it was very nice until i saw grindewald in winter. Mindblown and think interlaken is boring, but i like interlaken because of the wide selection of available food.
Now i would like to find a good place to plant my base camp.
1) Good alps scenery
2) very convenient by the train from Zurich airport
3) if able to ski is a plus bonus
Please recommend me some good places, thanks !
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Hi Brian,
Yes, I agree Grindelwald is a prettier town than Interlaken. What type of food selection do you need as Grindelwald should have a reasonable variety?
If you want the food selection (and train convenience) of a larger town like Interlaken, you will have to stay in… Interlaken (in the Jungfrau region anyway).
It’s possible Lauterbrunnen could work (reasonable train access) but it is a little smaller than Grindelwald.For summer skiing you are mostly restricted to the Jungfraujoch and Zermatt (Glaciers) which could also work for you. Zermatt is a bit further away from Zurich but will have a good selection of restaurants etc (though it is quite pricey).
As you are staying for three weeks are you planning on staying in a few different towns or do you want to only stay in one place for the trip?
Hi Lucas,
I am easy going with food, i can eat anything from fish and chips, macdonald, to korean and chinese. Anything non spicy is good for me 🙂
I will be going for a 5 days holiday, and a 3 weeks business trip. The 3 weeks business trip probably be focused around Neuchatel. I actually missing the snow as I am typing now. I am quite tempted to stay near a snowing resort. I only skied once, so I probably need to base myself near a nursery skiing area just for the feel and experience. As it is 5 days holiday, i think i would just permanently stay in one spot.
I am thinking maybe i can station at interlaken again since Jungfraujoch is quite near. And i can enjoy the skiing a bit longer. As well as it is quite in the center of switzerland as I will be probably heading to biel/bienne during the 5 days holiday for friends gathering.
I haven’t been to Zermatt, i am quite tempted as well ! But i am also tempted to waking up to a nice mountain. Dilemma !
I would try and get a little closer to the mountains than Interlaken then.Perhaps at least Lauterbrunnen (you still have decent train connections back to Interlaken and elsewhere).
The food options will be more varied in Interlaken but I think you’ll be ok in Lauterbrunnen – just Swiss / German food though – no McDonalds, no Fisn N Chips or any Asian-style food I think…
Hi Lucas,
>> For summer skiing you are mostly restricted to the Jungfraujoch and Zermatt (Glaciers)
Are you saying you can ski on the Aletsch Glacier at the Jungfraujoch? I have never seen any skiers or skilifts up there, only lower down at Kleine Scheidegg, and not on any glacier. As far as I know, the ski season ends there around the second half of April, but Brian won’t be there until late May.
Saas-Fee has summer skiing on the glaciers, as does Zermatt (which you mentioned).
Alpenrose
Yes, there is limited skiing at the snow park in the summer months – not a huge area though.
https://www.jungfrau.c h/en-gb/jungfraujoch-top-of-europe/snow-fun-park/I suppose though my term of skiing on the glacier isn’t quite right there 😉
Thanks for the information guys 🙂
>> Yes, there is limited skiing at the snow park in the summer months – not a huge area though.
Thanks for the clarification Lucas!
Alpenrose
Hi BrianBrian-
<<“I will be going for a 5 days holiday, and a 3 weeks business trip. The 3
weeks business trip probably be focused around Neuchatel”>>
You might lookinto the Jura. There is skiing there, and probably some snow in May. Also, from Neuchatel, maybe France.
Have you looked at a map?
Slowpoke
I have asked my colleagues and they said operating hours of summer skiing can be shortened and they recommended doing summer sports like hiking instead.
This will be my first time going neuchatel as well, i am not very sure of the map. I don’t plan to drive in switzerland because i am not sure of the roads, so trains would be buddy the whole month. Basically the places i can go is quite limited to within walking distance from the train stations.
I have looked at Neuchatel and Jura, they looked beautiful. Are you referring to Jura mountain or Canton of Jura ?
>> This will be my first time going neuchatel as well, i am not very sure of the map.
I’m not really sure what you mean by that.
There are various maps to help you see where Neuchâtel is in relation to other places (including Google Maps, which has railway stations, cable car stations, boat wharves and bus stops marked).
The Swiss Timetable will give you travel times, standard (i.e. fastest) routes, and connections for trains, buses, boats and cable cars. For scenic or indirect routes, people on the forum can guide you how to produce them by specifying “via” stations along the route.
http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
General Map
Geo Admin Map
Swiss Travel Pass & Swiss Half Fare Card validity map for 2018
As explained in the legend on the map, red lines are trains, yellow lines are buses, black lines are cable cars, white lines are boats.
http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/validity
>> I don’t plan to drive in switzerland because i am not sure of the roads, so trains would be buddy the whole month. Basically the places i can go is quite limited to within walking distance from the train stations.
Given that there are almost 800 stations in Switzerland, that’s not really all that limiting 😉
Then there is the PostBus network as well of course. They connect very conveniently with trains in most cases.
And don’t forget that boats and cable cars can get you to a lot more places as well, and they all connect up with trains and/or buses as well.
A look at the map above for the Swiss Travel System will show you how dense the network is.
Alpenrose
There’s summer skiiing at the Klein Matterhorn Glacier Park, that being said it depends on what kind of skiing you are looking for, your ability level, etc.
Zermatt is expensive but super charming. We recently stayed at a rental place for 4 nights and had superb service. It was in late November so the rates were very reasonable. Two of us can snowboard. The slopes were quite different than those in the US. The runs were steeper and narrower–at least recently. One person took private lessons and had a wonderful time since we got all sorts of advice from the teacher.
You may want to focus on summer hiking, etc which are less expensive and would be available in more locations.
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