caralin

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a self-catering apartment in Lauterbrunnen for a week in July or August 2013 for five adults. It will be me and my husband, his parents, and his brother, so we would ideally like three bedrooms but his brother could sleep on a couch or pullout in the main area if need be.

Our budget is around 1500 - 2000 Swiss Francs.

I've already checked on Booking.com and other Fodors threads and found a suggestion of Chalet Horner, but I'd love to hear other suggestions. I booked an apartment in Tuscany on a Fodors recommendation recently and it was wonderful (thank you, Fodors community!!), so I'm trying my luck again!

jill_h

Ii think Chalet Horner is were Bob (can't remember his last name, but not Bob the Navigator) always stayed. He LOVED that place.

I'll bet this was just the information you were looking for, huh?

caralin

Ha - yep, thanks! Actually, I have had some wonderful suggestions from Bob the Navigator in the past, so if it had been him, that would be have been good to know. As it is, well - thanks for that anyway. I'm sure Random Bob is a stand up guy too!

jill_h

"random" Bob was from Georgia, and yes, he was a stand up guy too. He was instrumental in us traveling to Lauterbrunnen for our first European trip. I think he is no longer with us.

michelhuebeli

The term to search under when using Google or such a search engine, best in in German since that is the local language, is "Lauterbrunnen Ferienwohnung"- there will be quite a few results, and for those that aren't in English, use Google Translate.

Ferien = vacation, wohnung = lodgings, the term is so commonly used that you'll see it abbreviated as FeWo.

Happy hunting.

michele_d

We have stayed at Chalet Horner twice and loved it. Great location. Teresa is very helpful. I wouldn't wait too long to book as it is popular and fills up quickly.

caralin

Hmmm - I just heard back from Chalet Horner, and unfortunately her apartment that sleeps five isn't actually suitable if all five people are adults - I guess it's better suited to a family with children.

So, we're out of luck on that one, which is too bad since it comes so highly reviewed. Oh well - the search continues! Thanks for the tip on the search terms, michelhuebeli - I'll give that a shot!

michele_d

The apt we stayed in at Chalet Horner had a fold out couch which we slept on that was located in the living room, two twin beds in the room off of the bathroom and a separate bedroom that had a double bed: so it slept 6. The living room and the bedroom are private. If someone from the bedroom or living room needs to use the bathroom they will walk through the room with the two twin beds in it. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to stay there with six people.

Melnq8

We stayed at Chalet Horner a few weeks ago, and our room (which was called a flat) was uncomfortably tiny. I'm really curious about the size of the other units, as I wasn't taken with the place at all.

A few years ago we stayed here and LOVED it. It sleeps five.

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p95287

Melnq8

Here's what I wrote about the HomeAway property after we stayed there in 2009:

.....We weren’t disappointed, it was very nice! The apartment consisted of two bedrooms, a large bathroom with washer and dryer, a wonderfully equipped kitchen, a dining room and spacious lounge that opened out to the patio (complete with BBQ grill). The place was spotless, incredibly comfortable and offered fantastic views of the Breithorn and Staubbach Falls. The British owners have provided just about everything a person could possibly need during their stay. They even left us a bottle of wine, coffee, tea, milk and cookies.

I almost hate to mention the only teensy issue we had, which was the double bed in the master bedroom. A queen would have been much appreciated, but regardless, we’d still go back in a heartbeat.

NOTE: This apartment is one of several similar apartments in the same area, some of which appear on the Home Away site above.

..............

Melnq8

Hotel Oberland also has several very nice looking apartments that would accommodate your group - they're right next to Chalet Horner and across the street from Hotel Oberland, which has a wonderful restaurant. We ate there all four nights of our recent stay, and I've got the waistline to prove it.

We'd have stayed there, but they have a five night minimum.

http://www.hoteloberland.ch/apartments/

KayF

We stayed here in Lauterbrunnen -
http://www.anton-graf.ch/

There are two apartments, in the same building. My husband and I had one and my sister, her husband and their two kids (teens) had the other apartment. It is very central and was fine, nothing luxurious but we were out exploring every day so weren't in the room much. The owners were fairly fussy about things and we weren't allowed to wear shoes inside the apartment. I know some people would regard this as normal but it annoyed me a little. I do recall it was fairly inexpensive but we were there in the off-season. Might be worth checking out.

Kay

Melnq8

You piqued my interest Kay, so I took a look at the link. Got a kick out of this bit:

The prices include:

- final cleaning (normal dirt)

Maudie

Hi Mel
Love the look of the Oberland apartments, the menu sounds awesome! Interesting comments on Chalet Horner, thanks for your candid opinion.

bumper

Does it have to be in Lauterbrunnen or would you consider a chalet in Murren or Wengen? There are a number of chalets for rent in both.

KayF

Hi Mel, yes I noticed that yesterday when I looked up the site again. I guess that's written by someone who doesn't have English as their first language, it does sound funny. The place itself was fine but I was a little put off by the owner who told us all the things we weren't allowed to do when we arrived. Maybe they were just a lot more fussy than we were.

Kay

caralin

Thanks for all of the suggestions, everyone! Melnq8, I loved the look of the apartment you stayed in, but the 3 beds in one room weren't ideal for my in-laws. We've narrowed it down to a few options from homeaway.com. I emailed them for further info and to confirm availability, so I guess we'll see what they have to say and go from there!

I think we do want to keep our search narrowed to Lauterbrunnen itself. My husband was in the other towns as well last time he was there and he did like them too, but he was just so taken with Lauterbrunnen!

I'll be sure to let you know what we end up doing, and post a review to help others next time!