Hiking from Grindelwald with afternoon arrival?

We are arriving 3PM into Grindelwald, and after checking into the hotel, would like a few hour activity until sunset.

Is there enough time to take the cable car into the mountains, hike a bit, and take the cable car back? How far up the mountains makes sense with this time limit?

Thanks.

Hi BZamost, when will this trip be?

Oops sorry. Date and sunset relevant.

We arrive October 5 in Grindelwald.

Hopefully we can accomplish the trip to First in that first afternoon with what appears to be a reasonably late sunset.

The next and only full day in the region, we plan to visit Schilthorn. In researching this, we take trains from Grindelwald to Lauterbrunnen, and then it appears as if there is a 3 minute walk (?) to another station, to get us to Murren. We have the Swiss Travel Pass, so the trains are free, and the trip up to Schilthorn is 50% discounted. Since we have a full day dedicated to this, are there any other add-on options. Perhaps a hike between stations? Or some other route there?

Our final stop is Lucerne for two nights. We plan a day in the city enjoying the sites, and the second day taking the boat on the lake and beyond, perhaps as far as Rigi....this whole trip seems to be covered by the Swiss Rail Pass as well. Any other thoughts?

Thanks as always.

Barry

Hi Barry,

Sunset is around 7 PM in early October. So you have 3 hours of day light, assuming you can leave the hotel around 4 PM. Taking a cable car is not a good idea as the last one down is around 5 PM. You can either take a walk in the valley, or take a train to Kleine Scheidegg (last one down around 6:30 PM). The Glacier Gorge (www.gletscherschlucht. ch) might still be open, I'm not sure.

The next day you can also do the walk from to Grütschalp to Mürren: myswissalps.com/ hiking/gruetschalp-muerren. Lucerne ideas can be found on myswissalps.com/ lucerne/activities.

Thanks. We will definitely plan do the walk from Grutschalp to Murren and then take the trip up to the Schilthorn.

As to our first day, I saw there's a gondola from Grindelwald to Mannlichen, and the a walk to Kleine Scheidegg, but last train down is 1830 back to Grindelwald. Seems like a tight schedule.

Is there a simple round trip trail in the valley for 2 hours or so that runs out of the town of Grindelwald itself, and then no worries about gondola, bus, cable car, or train schedules?

Barry

Hi Barry,

Sure, there are lots of trails around town. You can take a look at the Wanderland map. Another option is to take a train to Brandegg and walk back to Grindelwald from there. I would estimate it takes less than 90 minutes.