Our planned options for 3+ days in Murren
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I’ve been reading the forums regularly for the past months while planning for the trip. I’ve learned quite a bit from everyone else’s questions and the helpful responses. In particular Arno, Annika, Slowpoke, and Kim. But many others as well. Kim's document on the Wengen area has proven incredibly helpful. We’re staying in Murren but all of the information proved useful in planning. Especially planning hiking. I’m putting out our itinerary for two reasons. 1) I would love feedback to make certain we don’t have something planned that isn’t doable and 2) to allow others to know what we’re planning so you can anticipate a trip report for this in case your planning or asking about a similar trip.
We have been planning and now are getting close to traveling. We will be traveling in Switzerland from June 18th – June 22nd. We arrive in Zurich on the 18th and will be traveling by train to Murren. Arriving in Murren around 2pm. Depends on the time it takes to get through customs. After a lengthy journey and time change, we’ll be getting into our apartment rental and staying close to town. Maybe heading up to the Flower Trail to stretch the legs and an early dinner in town.
The rest of the days are not in particular order and will be chosen based on weather. We have more days planned that days available. We’re overplanning our days to have alternatives depending on weather. The only real problem is that these are all days we want to do. We’ll just have to return to get in the one or two that we don’t do. You’ll also see that everything is in the general area of Lautenbrunnen/Wengen/Murren. Except for a lake cruise day, we don’t plan to see Interlaken until we are heading onto Italy.
Option 1: Wengen – Kleine Scheidegg – Männlichen Having read several options for hikes involving these three points, we opted for the Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg option as the primary hike. We like this as our first hike as it is of medium difficulty based on our experience and offers several points where we can opt out and take the train. We don’t plan to but it’s nice to have the option. Once in Kleine Scheidegg, we’ll decide if we hop the train back to Wengen or hike over to Mannlichen and head back to Wengen from there. This is the hike we’ll use to figure out how we match up to the timings listed. We expect to be slower but need to figure out how much slower.
Option 2: Schynige Platte to First. We’re planning this as the entire day hiking trek that it’s described as. We’ll get started early. We’re looking forward to the cog railway up to Schynige Platte and the long hike over to First. The only two prerequisite we have is to do option 1 before this and have clear weather. This is the hike we’re most looking forward to but also are cautious as we’ve done our hiking in the northeast of the US (White and Green Mountains) but nothing like being in the Alps. If we complete the hike in good time, we’ll take advantage and take a Trotti Bike ride down from Bort to Grindelwald. Are only question on this hike is if there is any reason to expect the route to be closed in mid to late June. I’m guessing that one good way to check is to ask the Berghotel Faulhorn.
Option 3: Schilthorn morning and Murren based hikes in the afternoon. Looking for another clear day. We’ll do Schilthorn first thing. From Murren, this means a 7:40 ascent. So, not too early. Once down, we’ll head up to Allmendhubel and do the North Face Trail. Once back in Murren, we’ll hike down to Gimmelwald. This may also be an adventure afternoon. Via Ferrata for me or Paragliding for me and my daughter. We’ll meet my wife in Gimmelwald or down in the valley depending on which activity. The day is planned to be in the Murren area.
Option 4: This is a lake day. If we don’t get the weather for the higher elevations, we will head down to Interlaken. From there, we’ll rent bikes and bike to Brienz on the National Bike Route – Lakes Route 9 towards Meiningen. We’ll veer off to Brienz when we hit the east end of the lake. Once there, we’ll decide if we want to continue biking or hop on a boat. Either way will work for us. Our goal will be to be back in Interlaken by 5 for the Chocolate Show mentioned by Kim in her document at the Grand Restaurant Schuh. If the weather is really bad, we’ll just plan for a relaxing boat ride and sightseeing with good rain gear.
Option 5: Essentially the day would be focused on hiking between Murren and the Lauterbruen Valley. We look at the loop from Murren to Grütschalp to Lauterbruen to Stechelberg to Gimmelwald and back to Murren. We’d combine hiking with trains to make the loop. Stopping at several waterfalls and generally just looking at the beauty of the valley. We like the easy hikes and assumes we’ve never gotten a good day at higher elevations if we’re doing this plan.
I didn’t say it but on each of the days we’d stop for meals and a refreshing beverage at appropriate intervals. For example, Kim’s document gave plenty of options between Schynige Platte and First. We’d look for options to grab picnic supplies, local cheese and food, local crafts, and of course will need to stop and hit shops looking for trinkets to bring back for family and friends.
I feel like we have a very active but not overly aggressive 3 days (not counting the day we arrive and leave). We are very much looking forward to an active outdoor adventure. That’s our preferred vacation. But, we’re willing to adjust to weather, altitude, jet lag, over confidence, …
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