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We will be spending 5.5 days in the Bernese Oberland in the last week of June/early July 2019. We will be staying in Lauterbrunnen. There seems to be so many beautiful sights, hikes, etc. that I’m not sure which ones to focus on. We will have the Swiss Travel Pass.
Day 1: Morning we will be coming by train from Montreux and arrive in Interlaken Ost at 11:00am. I was thinking of having lunch in Interlaken, dropping off our luggage in Lauterbrunnen then going to Trummelbach Falls for the afternoon and hiking back down to Lauterbrunnen.
Then we have 5 full days and I’m not sure what should be the priority. Here is what I’m thinking…
1) Schilthorn Summit, ride down to Allmendhubel funicular, hike the Flower Trail loop, then hike North Face Hike down to Murren, Murren hike down to Gimmelwald
2) Grindelwald to First with Lake Balchapese Hike and visit Grindelwald (any other short hikes to add onto this?)
3) Rail up to Jungfraujoch, coming down hike from Eigergletscher mid-station to Kleine Schediegg, and then either hike down Wengen or hike to Mannlichen (I know the views will be behind us if we hike this direction, but I’d rather be first up to Junggraujoch in the morning).
4) Interlaken,Brienz, Harder Kulm
5th day) What to do?? Schynige Platte?? Something else? Do we need more or less time somewhere else?
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Hi Kelseynburch and welcome to MySwissAlps!
The walk to and from Trummelbach Falls isn’t too long (and isn’t a hike) just as an FYI. You’ll be on walking paths – part of this walk: http://www.myswissalps.com/hi king/lauterbrunnen-stechelberg
Your ideas each day seem fine. Just be prepared for some of the hikes as they range from easy to difficult. You can find more details (length, difficulty etc) on many hikes in the Jungfrau region here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfrauregion/activitie s
Day 4 I’d look at a boat tour on lake Brienz or Thun: http://www.myswissalps.com/bo atlakethun //http://www.myswissalps.com/bo atlakebrienz
Day 5: Schynige Platte is a great visit with good hiking options as well if that is what you want: http://www.myswissalps.com/sc hynigeplatte
You can easily explore other area of Switzerland from Interlaken as well if you want (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable) but perhaps you’ve planned that before or after these 5 days.
Hi, such a beautiful area that you will easily fill you days with great activities. You have a great itinerary planned. My suggestions would be that in my opinion the walk from Mannlichen down to Kleine Scheidegg really does have spectacular views and if you can do it that way I would thoroughly recommend. We then walked down from Kleine Scheidegg to Wengen and although the second half is very steep, again the view of the mountains is not to be missed in my opinion. But I do get your dilemma with getting early to Jungfrau, if you don’t get the earliest couple of trains up it gets very busy and really impact on your enjoyment of the experience.
As an additional suggestion, if you are into water sports you can get the boat from Interlaken West to Neuhaus (just one stop), where you can hire things like kayaks etc. and go out on the lake. Whatever you choose I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time, it’s such a fantastic area.
Thanks for your suggestions so far. My dream was to go to the alps, so we (my husband and I who are in our 30’s) are trying to spend our time there rather than doing day trips to other places. We will have already spent 5 days in Paris and 3 days in Lausanne before we get to the Bernese Oberland.
How long will it take to visit Trummelbach falls from Lauterbrunnen? Do you suggest something else to do that first afternoon and we will add Trummelbach Falls to another day? Maybe do the Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg hike that afternoon?
My itinerary is based on having good weather. What are good suggestions to do on bad weather days?
Any suggestions on good dinner places in any of the local towns there? We will be there for 6 nights and don’t want to get bored with the same food selections.
I would suggest that you plan any high up visits to be first thing in the morning. Clouds tend to roll in in the afternoon, so I would plan anything at lower levels for afternoon. Trummelbach is a very easy short stroll from lauterbrunnen and you don’t need good weather for it, so that’s definitely a good one for late afternoon (check closing times). We have always been really lucky with the weather – last year I was gutted because it was forecast cloud rain and storms for the whole week but in actual fact it was very hot and sunny very day, although by late afternoons the storms did roll in. A good trip is train up from lauterbrunnen to Wengen, cable car up to Mannlichen, walk to peak, then do that walk all the way back to Wengen via kleine scheidegg. You could do that and still fit in trummelbach in the afternoon. Also remember to make time to just sit in the mountain meadows, you don’t want to be rushing from one thing to the next.
I always suggest getting out of the Jungfraujoch if you get rained out.
Perhaps a day trip to Bern or Montreux if the weather looks better at those towns. alternatively the Interlaken/Thun area could be ok and a boat ride could work there: http://www.myswissalps.com/bo atlakethun
Between Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald and Interlaken, you should have a shortage of dinner places. I tend to go back to the same place when I find one I like though and don’t feel the need to find somewhere new too often (usually the menus are big enough to keep me happy).
Thanks for all your help so far. We are morning people, so we plan to be out and about early.
Are there any good shorter (less than 4 miles) hikes/walks that I’ve missed and are must-do’s? What stations do you consider “high up” that tend to get cloudy in the afternoons?
So it looks like for a rainy day, do Trummelbach Falls, Interlaken and the lakes, or a day trip. We will have just come from the Lake Geneva area, so a day trip to Lucerne or Bern would be more interesting. Right?
Should we add anything to the Grindelwald to First to Bachalspee Lake and the reverse of this?
From my experience, First can be in a cloud, as can Mannlichen, and obviously and more importantly Jungfraujich needs to be planned carefully with the weather as that’s super expensive so you want the bluest skies possible and at the very least you don’t want to be caught in a cloud up there. All the stations will have mountain weather reports for the coming couple of days. If the weather is nice you could spend all day up at First/Bachalpsee, I wouldn’t be rushing to squeeze a load of stuff in. I personally prefer to spend as much time as possible up in the mountains. Almendhubel has some of the most beautiful views so you could spend ages just pottering about up there taking it all in. I’m really jealous you’ll have a great time!
I wonder if the Bernese Oberland rail pass would suit your itinerary? It might offer additional options such as Niesen and Schynige Platte.
I’m not an experienced walker or hiker but it seems your plans will cover all interests.
Enjoy your travels!
The day you plan to go to First – from Lake Bachalpsee you could hike further, down to Bort, an intermediete gondola station between Grindelwald and First. The views are amazing. And from Bort you could take the trottibikes down to Grindelwald.
There is a beautiful hike at Jungfraujoch (that is not mentionned very often) that I believe is a must, especially if you have never hiked a glacier or snow fields at high altitude. The hike to MÖNCHSJOCHHÜTTE for us was very rewarding for the views and the experience. It also allows you to maximize the cost of going to Jungfraujoch as you will spend more time up there and discover sights that many visitors dd not even know about.
Other fabulous trails include: the one from Grütschalp to Murren (which allows you to have incredible views of the Mountains on the other side of the valley below) and all the trails at Schynige Platte with their views on mountains and lakes.
You can’t go wrong in this area! Beauty is really everywhere!
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