Aug 1, 2017 - 1:52 AM
Well, I'm glad you asked. We spent the first week in Guarda (Lower Engadine) and in Pontresina (Upper Engadine). Guarda is truly a special place and our hotel there-- Romantica Tuoi (Tuoi means hut in Romansch)-- was superb. The penthouse suite is worth every cent and offers memorable mountain views from the bed and the balcony. Guarda is a tiny village, up about 700 feet above the Inn valley floor and the main road and feels like it is cut off in time, as indeed it was when the road was relocated 200 years or so ago to bypass the town. As between Guarda and Scuol (where we also spent some time hiking), we definitely preferred Guarda-- smaller and more intimate. Great hiking in all directions from the village, and if you run out of trails, it is easy to take the train a couple stops in either direction and find more. It is, however, much steeper terrain than we expected and so our plan on using Guarda to get in shape for the balance of the trip was perhaps not well-conceived.
Pontresina was also terrific, although the weather was variable and prevented us from getting as high as we wanted (snow above 2300 m). No peak bagging.
We then went on to Mürren (after 7 train transfers in 6 hours). Top recommendations for the Hotel Bellevue, which has views of the Jungfrau/Monch/Eiger that can't be beat. They also accommodated our gluten free diet needs wonderfully-- absolutely the best fresh-baked GF bread we've had anywhere. Mürren is to Wengen as Guarda is to Scuol, and so we were again glad to have picked the smaller locale of both pairings. Lots of great hikes and easy to get down to Lauterbrunnen, Wengen and on toward Grindelwald for day excursions, but then able to retreat back to the quiet of Mürren in the evening.
Can offer hiking recommendations, but I'm starting to feel like the guy 30 years ago who used to make dinner guests sit through the slide show of their vacation after dinner, so I won't. Just read Kev Reynolds' books and you'll have it.
