ronkala

While most posts here pertain to the Swiss Oberland, the apartments we favor for next years trip are in the Swiss Heartland. Lungern is our first choice, but Hohfluh looks equally charming. Any feedback?

kleeblatt

Lungern is in a self contained valley in canton Obwalden. It's still a traditional farming town with quaint houses and a village feeling. You are surrounded tightly by mountains. There's a nice colder lake and a cable car that takes you up to the top of the mountain for great hiking. Lungern has a train station.

Hasliberg/Hohfluh is located in Canton Bern. It's located on the side of a mountain and you have great views of Brienzer see and the valley below. There's great hiking in the area. I don't know if there's a train station but there are definately bus stations in the area.

If I had the choice, I'd stay in Hohfluh because of the great views. However, I would visit Lungern for a day and ride the cable car and take a walk around the top.

ronkala

Thankyou schuler, I appreciate your input.

susanna

I am going to this area in Septembere and staying in Sachseln, which I think is close to Lungern. One reason that I chose this town was that I could get there either by train, or bus, so returning late in the evening shouldn't be a problem. Some of the smaller towns only seemed to have service until about 7:30, although, you could get a bus, but it would be very infrequent. Since I am mostly late all the time, I wanted a few more options for transportation...is this something that you should consider? Are you renting through Untours, which has many apartments in this area, just curious. I can let you know how it is when I return in October, but you probably can't wait that long.

kleeblatt

Sachseln is a wonderful, small town located on the Sarnersee. Because there is now a tunnel that goes beneath the town, there is no thru traffic. It's located in a valley and it's a much lower altitude than Lungern. It also belongs to canton Obwalden. You need to go through Sachseln to reach Flueli-Ranft, the hometown of Brother Klaus.

I got to know this area while doing my farmer's wife school in Giswil, which is located between Lungern and Sachseln.

susanna

Schular: Thanks for the confirmation that Sachseln is a wonderful town, that's what I've heard too. Are you saying that the town and area are car free, like the towns in the OB such as Wengen? I know that it is not very hight up, but I am hoping that it is surrounded by beautiful mountains around the lake, is this so? We will use it as a base to hike,bike and visit other towns and cities for two weeks. We loved the OB two years ago and wanted to see other parts of CH. Someone here said (maybe you) that the rest of CH is just as beautiful, just doen't have as good PR! Loved that statement.
What is "farmers wife school"? Might I be interested in checking it out?

kleeblatt

An Obwalden fan! Greetings! Sachseln is great for bike riding because it's not all hills. There still is traffic and it's not a car-free town, but it's minimum.

Check out the website: http://www.tell.ch/central.htm and go to Sarnen. It will tell you all about the area in English.

I didn't write the part about lacking PR, but the person who wrote it is right. However, here in Switzerland, Berner Oberland doesn't get any more PR than other places. BO just does a better job internationally.

kleeblatt

Farmer's Wife School. It's called a Bauerinnenschule and it's basically for people who want to brush up intensively on their home economics. You can pop by the school in Giswil for a visit and say that Theresa sent you.

The school is located below the church. It also teaches farmers how to farm correctly. It would be a nice bike ride from Sachseln.

susanna

That's a great website, thank you. I had found a few others, but this has much more info AND in english.
The bike riding sounds like my cup of tea, which is either flat or downhill.
I think that I'll skip that school, we don't have very many farms at home in San Francisco, but I am interested in visiting a cheese making farm. Sorry to Ronkala for highjacking this thread.

ronkala

Hi Susanna,
Yes, we are using Untours for the trip.
I don't consider your posts hijacking, I'm enjoying the additional information from both of you.

ronkala

We are hoping we can fly in a couple of days early so we can visit Tagerwilen where my grandparents Siegrist/Thaler were married in 1889 before coming to the states. After that it will be the tourist thing.

susanna

Ronkala: I have used untours to rent places in other areas and I think that their places are always a little removed, but always in very charming places, so I don't think that you can go wrong with either Lungern or Hohfluh. I always have very specific requests for the places we rent and they are very very knowledgable about their properties and could help you decide between the two if you can't make up your mind. We were torn between one on Lake Thun and the one in Sachseln , and after talking to them about what we like and don't like, they pursuaded us to take this one, and since doing so, everyone always has nice things to say about Sachseln and Lake Sarnen. Supposedly, we have the most wonderful landlords, great connections and possiblities for many day trip, a nice outdoor area for relaxing and eating. Being from a big city(although some say SF isn't big) I don't like to be too far removed, needing to take chair lifts to my home, ect. I'm sure I won't be disappointed in our decision, as I hope you won't be either. I'm interested in others comments also...the only other town that we considered was Meiringer, which also looked great.

ronkala

Meiringer does look great, but after more discussions and comparisons, we think we'll stay with Lungern.

Susanna, Have a great trip.