driving to Interlaken
 

Has anyone ever driven from the south up to Interlaken? I live in Milan and have family in town and wanted to do a weekend trip to Jungfrau area. The train for several of us from Milan is quite expensive and timeconsuming. Looks like it's only a 3 - 3.5 hour drive but I was wondering if this is all through mountains which means it could be a difficult trip or winding and twisting. Anyone driven this area before?

The distance from Milan to Interlaken is 260k and should take just over 3 hours on very good roads. The roads in Switzerland generally run down the valleys and are quite highspeed. HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE that you will need a carnet to travel on Swiss roads: this is only purchasable on an annual basis, and costs 27.5 euros. When purchased, it must be placed on the inside of the front windscreen where it is always clearly visible. You might find that the cost of this permit puts the total cost of driving to Interlaken up to a most unreasonable level.

From Milan your most direct route is over the Simplon Pass to Brig. From Brig to Goppenstein and through the tunnel on the train ferry to Kandersteg.

From Kandersteg you drive north to Spiez and turn east to Interlaken.

The train ferry is easy to use. You drive onto a flat car, set the brake, and ride through the tunnel under the mountain.

Swiss mountain passes can be steep, but they are well engineered.

The alternative, and a very scenic alternative at that, is to drive northeast from Brig overe the Grimsel Pass to Innertkirchen and westward from there to Interlaken.

I drove the route in reverse last summer:
Interlaken to Innertkirchen to the Grimsel Pass to Brig to Goppenstein and back through the Lötschberg tunnel.

The Grimsel on a clear day is spectacular. You did not say when you hope to do the journey. The Grimsel closes in the late fall, all winter, and sometimes late into the spring.

Great info! Thanks so much! YOu've convinced me to drive instead of taking the train. Do I drive to Interlaken and then is it easiest to take the train up to Grindelwald and Wengen? I'm assuming I don't want to drive and park in Grindelwald but also don't know where I would park overnight in Interlaken. I thought we'd stay in Grindelwald for the night, or possibly Wengen, but not sure where to leave my car. Also - any hotel recommendations - moderately priced for just one night?

From Milan, I believe the fastest route would be via the Gotthard Tunnel and then up over the Susten Pass, which is also quite spectacular. With weekend traffic, however, you can get held up at the Gotthard Tunnel which may make this unattractive, you might ask work colleagues their experiences on this, I have had some bad hold-ups going down to Italy on weekends. If you leave early on Friday and can stay until Monday morning, you can avoid most traffic and then the A2 up from Milan (via Como and Chiasso) should be the fastest.

I agree that the Grimsel is also a great ride and the car train is fun. However, I am not sure if the Milan to Brig via the Simplon is really the best route, as I think it would take longer than the Gotthard Tunnel route, you would have to map it out, maybe go to Mapquest.com.

For info on the car train at Goppenstein/Kandersteg, take a look at www.bls.ch/autoverlad . You do could do the tunnel up on Friday (as the Grimsel Pass will be dark probably) and leave early enough on Sunday/Monday to appreciate and stop at the top of the Grimsel pass. There are restaurants at the top of the pass.

The Grimsel Pass and the Susten Pass (and I believe the Simplon) close sometime in October, so not sure when you are planning to go. The car train runs all year.

As mentioned above, you need a vignette for the highway tax in Switzerland, you can buy them at gas stations at the border (and I think just before the Swiss border as well), they cost CH40 and are good for 1 year.

For Wengen, you can park in Lauterbrunnen. They have a covered carpark that is not expensive (by Swiss standards), and luggage carts you can roll right to the train tracks. For info go to http://www.jungfraubahn.ch/en/Deskto.../166_read-491/.

You can park in Grindelwald as well. I am not such a fan of Grindlewald as I prefer being up in the mountains, but it is popular on this site. Murren is another option if you want to be up in the mountains rather than looking up at them. For Murren, park in Lauterbrunnen as well, and take the underground passage to the cog railway up to Murren.

I don't like Interlaken at all, and it is down outside the mountain valley in the lake valley, so you have to take a train another 40 minutes or so to get to Grindelwald, Wengen or Murren anyway so I wouldn't stay there.

For a hotel in Wengen, I would recco the Silberhorn, my first choice would be the Caprice, but this might be more than you want to spend.

www.silberhorn.ch
The best rooms are the south facing rooms, the rooms without a view are called "standard" rooms but are the same size. They have two wings, one they call "rustic" and the other they call the "Laura Ashley" wing. I preferred the latter, as they have redone the bathrooms and the rooms are done in a light fresh style as opposed to the bit more dated pine rooms in the rustic wing. Of the south facing rooms, I would ask for 202, 404 or 405. 202 has a large concrete terrace which is shares with (I believe) 203 and 204.

Hotel Caprice
Wengen, Switzerland
41-33-856-0606
Fax: 41-33 856 0607
e-mail: [email protected]
www.caprice-wengen.ch

Also in Wengen is the Alepenrose (alpenrose.ch). I don’t know this hotel at all, but it gets good reviews on tripadvisor.com and this site.

In Murren, take a look at the Eiger Hotel. Hoteleiger.com.

Again, thanks for such detail. I've sent requests to both hotels you mentioned and they're both good options for us.
We are traveling this weekend during prime travel hours - Saturday am returning Sunday pm. Weather will not be a factor. I guess I'm looking for a route that is a bit scenic, but not too winding and twisting (I have kids who tend to get carsick). Viamichelin sends me up through Lugano as the fastest route. Would it be feasible to take one route going up and one coming home? Perhaps take the Lugano/Gottard Tunnel on the way up (will tunnel traffic be bad on Sat am?) and take the Grimsel pass home? I already have a Swiss carnet BTW.

It would certainly be possible to take the Gotthard Tunnel/Susten Pass up and the Grimsel Pass back, and then I assume you would go down to Brig and take the Simplon Pass as well. IMO based on driving most of the passes in Switzerland, the Grimsel is not very twisty other than a few bits at the top on either side of the summit, the Susten is not very twisty and is helped by tunnels which cut down on turns (or you don't feel you are turning as much inside the tunnels), and the Simplon has relatively few twists and is more remnisent of a highway, as it has the lowest elevation of all the passes mentioned.

Saturday morning traffic on the Gotthard should be better than Friday evening, as long as you aren't going on a holday weekend in Italy.

At the Susten Pass, you can walk onto the Steingletscher Glacier, which your kids might enjoy. This pass has the widest most panoramic views, IMO, but really any of the passes will offer some really great views, and the Susten has some interesting green glacial lakes. The ride down to Brig from the Susten is very scenic until you get into Brig where it becomes more congested. The ride up through Como/Lugano is all highway, so the scenery is kind of far away and at Italian speeds you won't get a chance to notice much until you get off the highway after the Gotthard.

IMO this is a LOT of driving for one night. Pray for good weather in the Jungfrau region as there is not a lot to do in the rain, and to go all that way and not see the mountain trio would be disappointing (and the passes are NOT fun in the rain). There is an outdoor museum at Ballenberg down near Brienz on Lake Brienz, would be about 30 minutes by car, not a whole lot of fun in the rain I wouldn't think but desparate times call for desparte measures. There is also a private space museum of some sort in Interlaken, you can see it from the highway.

You are right - it is alot of driving. Is there an alternative in terms of one of the scenic trains - even spending all day going up into Switz and back to Milan is ok. I have guests in from the states who simply want to see the snow-covered Alps. I've done the Golden Pass before - is there an easy point to catch one of the scenic trains from Milan - we dont' even have to take it all the way - what is the farthest southern town we could visit with a view of the Alps?

Parking in Grindelwald is tight,and you will probably have to pay for it except at the higher priced hotels.

I have not spent a night in a Grindelwald Hotel, so I don't know the details. In Lauterbrunnen, a few of hotels have a handful of dedicated parking spaces reserved for the guests.

You cannot drive a personal car to either Wengen or Mürren. Instead, you take the train. Wengen is a little more accessible by train from Lauterbrunnen than is Mürren, but both have scheduled service from early morning until about midnight.

Of the various passes, the Susten Pass is relatively mild as high mountain passes go. We drove over it in both directions a few weeks ago, before all the floods, and enjoyed the ride. We did it as a day trip from Lauterbrunnen.

The Grimsel Pass is equally spectacular, if not more so. At the top of the Grimsel, there is a hiking area that gives gorgeous views. When we were there, the top of the pass was still under a few feet of snow.

For those reasons I think that a car trip over those passes is infinitely more spectacular than any train trip.
I know some will disagree, but I feel that you cannot reach anything like a similar elevation by passenger train of the conventional variety.

Of course the Jungfraubahn goes up to more than 11,000 feet at the Jungfraujoch, and the Gornergrat train from Zermatt gives that stupendous view of Monte Rosa.

Both of these trains, are special routes with "dead ends" in that the train returns the same way it goes up. In fact the rolling stock on the Jungfraubahn spends its operational life between Kleine Scheidegg and the Jungfraujoch.

Any way you do it, the views are spectacular.

Well if Alps are the criteria, there are snow covered Alps in lots of countries, like France. How about Mt Blanc, you could drive there from the Milan area (via the San Bernandino tunnel) in about 2 hours. Courmayeur and Chaminoix are two nice little towns with lots of good hotels. Mt Blanc is really spectacular, IMO it blows the Jungfrau away, although it is not politically correct to say so on this board.

Even closer to Milan, have you considered mountain areas around Turin? The Sauze D'Oulx, OULX and surrounding areas areas are really beautiful. I have not been there in September, but I would imagine they still have snow at this time of year in the higher eleveants just like the Jungfrau area. You can get to Turin in about 1.5 hours by train from Milan, so I can't imange the drive is probably shorter. You can get up into the mountains areas in about an hour or less from there. In addituion to great scenery, you could see the Olympic venues.

With regard to scenic trains rides, from Italy, the Bernina Express would be doable and is a wonderful experience train. You go up and over the Bernina Pass and down through some really scenic valleys, including the stretch from Sameden - Fillsur which IMO is the most scenic train ride in Switzerland, not so much because of snowy alps but just because it is such a beautiful valley. You can start the journey in Italy in the town of Tirano, which should be about 2 hours or so by car from Milan (it is north of Lugano). I believe this trip would require an overnight somewhere in Switerland, as the train departure from Tirano is only once a day in the afternoon, I think around 2 pm. The train ride will be about 4-5 hours to Chur. You could stay overnight in Chur, although it is not such an interesting place (it does have a small and kind of interesting old town). You could also take a regular swiss train from Chur back to St Mortiz, Pontresina or even Klosters or Davos and stay the night, and then take the Bernina Express back to Tirano in the morning. If you are interested in the Bernina Express train, take a look at http://www.rhb.ch. Click on "English" in the lower right to get the English version. Click on "Experience Trains" and then look for the Bernina Express. The site has info on other trains so you could look to see if any of the others would work for you out of Milan.

Sorry, one more thing you might be able to do is go to Zermatt, but go the "back way", by driving to Breuil/Cervinia on the Italian side, and then taking the cable cars up and over to the Swiss side. You should be able to drive to Cervinia in about 2 hours. It is kind of neat to see the mountain from the Italian side where it looks like nothing at all, and then see it from the Swiss side where it is so spectacular. I have not done this in summer, so I don't know how much walking is involved in getting from the summit of the Italian side to the cable cars on the Swiss side; perhaps others could weigh in on this. I have only skied it. It should be an easy walk and mostly downhill, but I can't say for sure.

You could of course drive to Zermatt itself (well to Visp as Zermatt is car free) via the Simpson but that is going to be about 3+ hours each way, so you may as well go to the Jungfrau.