A week in Wengen in late June
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Had a fantastic time in the Bernese Oberland at the end of June…just a quick report to hopefully give a little back after the great advice I availed myself of from others on here. It was our first visit to Switzerland and definitely won’t be the last.
I was one of the many who considered getting a Swiss Travel Pass as much for the convenience as for any cost savings…in the end I opted for the Swiss Half-Fare card…bought it online beforehand, laminated* it and then just purchased tickets as and when on the day via the excellent SBB app. Absolutely effortless, so anyone thinking of buying a swiss travel pass purely for the convenience factor should dismiss that thought…the App is a joy to use and mobile data signal in Switzerland is ridiculously good so there was never any problem purchasing tickets whilst waiting for a train/cable car…even high up in the mountains. I was really surprised how few people were using the App tbh…the ticket inspectors nearly always seemed surprised when I presented it.
*just a quick note, on our final train journey from Interlaken to Basle, on a Deutsche Bahn train, the ticket inspector had a bit of a moan about the half-fare card being laminated, even though it scanned without problem…apparently they’re not supposed to be laminated…bah nobody else had even looked twice at it throughout the week…I’m putting that one down to Germanic Ordnung I think and it wouldn’t stop me doing it again.
We stayed at Hotel Schonneg in Wengen…a great base for the week and can certainly recommend the hotel…although the prices in the restaurant looked a little eye-watering if you hadn’t booked half-board. We had, and the food was excellent. Having visited most of the surrounding villages I was very happy we had chosen the right place. Will certainly stop in Wengen for our next visit. A pretty little village with amazing views of the Jungfrau and everything you need re: shops etc.
As slowpoke pointed out to me before I went….the time of my visit (23rd June) was actually more Spring than Summer at altitude…thankfully though we had amazing weather with just a little bit of cloud cover on our first day and brilliant blue skies the rest of the week. I got the impression we were very fortunate in that respect and so will be slightly torn on when to plan my next visit. On the one hand a bit of a gamble with the weather, on the other less people on the trails and trains etc.
Unfortunately a few of the trails were still closed as expected…the Eiger trail and Schynigge Platte to First being the two I was most bothered about. Chatting to a few people out and about though it was clear that the trails being officially ‘closed’ wasn’t going to deter some people and we did in fact end up completing the two trails partially. Not sure if this will be frowned upon on here or not. It is what it is I guess. As it happens we turned back around the halfway mark on both trails when we reached parts of the path still blocked by snow. Plenty of people were continuing across what were really rather minor patches of snow but without sticks we were feeling rather risk-averse…’it’s an unlikely fall but a rather long way to fall’ were my general thoughts. Not worth the risk for us. Two fantastic trails though. The Schynigge Platte trail in particular is an absolutely breathtaking walk. For the Eiger trail we actually walked down from Mannlichen to Alpiglen first…a lovely gentle downhill walk with an excellent Berghaus to stop at before you approach the Eiger.
Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg was another wonderful walk…a very easy walk along the base of the valley with an interesting (if a little touristy) stop at the Trummelbach falls midway. The Inn right at the end in Stechelberg is a great place to stop for lunch, we decided to continue the walk from there and headed up to Gimmelwald…instantly regretting the lunch-break beers…after the lazy stroll along the valley this was a bit more of a test 🙂 We ended up chickening out at Gimmelwald and taking the cable car on the final leg up to Murren.
The hike from Wengen up to Mannlichen is another rather relentlessly uphill affair but very enjoyable for it…and all the more so as you can have lunch at the top and then take a nice gentle stroll down the panoramweg to Kleine Scheidegg.
I can’t remember who recommended visiting the Ballenberg museum but thanks to whoever it was…that was a fantastic day out….a huge place though so I’d say plan your trains so you can spend as much time there as possible…there’s a full days worth of things to see. A good idea to squeeze a Brienz lake cruise in on the way…the bus to the Ballenberg is directly opposite the dock in Brienze.
We didn’t make it up the Schiltorn….we did head up to the top of the Jungfrau…its an engineering marvel for sure but for me personally it was a little bit too overrun with tourists at the top. I couldn’t wait to get away from the crowds tbh but once away from the main building it was much easier to appreciate the beautiful views again. Would recommend the walk over to the Monchshutte…an hour or so each way and you can really feel the altitude on that section. Nice lunch in the hut too.
Really I was just incredibly impressed…just an amazingly beautiful country and I can’t wait to return. Incredibly easy to get about and find information etc and it generally seemed a little less expensive than I was expecting. ‘felt more ‘ London prices’ than ‘ Iceland prices’ thankfully.
Happy to help if anyone has any specific questions.
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