calville

Thanks so much Schuler- that sounds great and easy on the knees. I need to study all the options-cable cars, funiculars etc- kind of confusing. What are your top 3 favorites? We'll take the train to Jungfraujoch and the walk you suggest. Do you also recommend going to Gimmelwald and the Schilthorn?
Hopefully it won't be rainy.
I see in past postings Ingo recommends shopping in Berne or Thunersee steamer trips if it's overcast.

taxatty

The Schilthorn is very worth it, but only if it's clear at the top. Gimmelwald is worth a stop on the way down, or you can walk down there from Birg. I also highly recommend a stop at the Trummelbach Falls a few minutes by bus from Lauterbrunnen --a worthwhile hour or so. We didn't stay at the Caprice in Wengen (we stayed at the Schoenegg--a nice place with excellent food), but a friend did, and he thought it was great IF you get one of the rooms with a view instead of facing the train tracks.

Note to Cicerone--Rick Steves' Switzerland book does have a chapter on Pontresina, Samedan and St. Moritz (but not the Lower Engadine) and the Bernina Express route. The Michelin Green Guide is my favorite book on Switzerland and covers that area in much more detail.

Cicerone

Grindlewlad is not really "car free" in the same way that Wengen and Murren are; you park your car at the beginning of the town and walk around from there, some hotels even have their own parking lots s they are located before the public parking lots, some hotels are located next to the parking lots or across the street. Wengen and Murren are up on shelves above the valley and you leave your car far below. You can get to you car usually in 5-10 minutes on foot from Grindlewald, from Wengen and Murren you would need to talk a train and then walk to the car park; however I don't think this trip would overall woud be any harder on your friend's knees, IMO, than walking to the car in Grindlewald.

I would far prefer to stay in Grindlewald than Kandersteg, as the views are more beautiful from Grindlewald and the valley is much wider, but I would far prefer Wengen to Grindlewald. The Doldenhorn is a nice hotel in Kandersteg, kind of a labyrinth of rooms, but a charming hotel nontheless. You might stop there for lunch or dinner if you do the Oeschinense walk.

FYI, for the Maennlichen to Kleine Schiedig walk, you do NOT talk the Jungfrau train, you take the cable car from Wengen to Maennlichen and then the walk starts there. You walk to the train station at Kleine Schiedig.

taxtatty, what edition of Rick Steves do you have?

Cicerone

I would add that views from the Doldenhorn are a little limited, nothing compared to the Caprice (agree on the comment that you have to have a south facing room at the Caprice, this is true of most of the hotels in Wengen, otherwise you are looking at the hotel next door in many cases. . . the train tracks mentioned are for the Jungfraubahn and not regular trains, they only run occasionally and do not run at night, no noise issues)

taxatty

Cicerone--I have the 2005 edition of Rick Steves' Switzerland book--I think that was the first edition with this section.

calville

Cicerone- thanks for clarifying Kandersteg and the Doldenhorn.
I think we'll stick with the Caprice in Wengen and see if we can get half board for 40CHF- they usually have a 4 night minimum for half board but since there are 4 of us for 3 nights they might allow it. One person on tripadvisor disliked their food and thought it was overpriced.
I like tripadvisor so much I'm almost getting to the point that I don't like to stay at a place that hasn't been reviewed- kind of extreme I know.

Grindelwald looks spectacular so we'll try to take a day trip there as well.

Taxatty- thanks for your comments- I've enjoyed your postings on Switzerland.
We can't wait for our trip to begin- it all sounds fabulous.

calville

Our daughter might take the train from Munich to Lauterbrunnen to meet us in Wengen.
I'm still confused about a few things: is the car park in Lauterbrunnen at the train station? Is the Wengernalp Railway to Wengen at the same train station? How far do you have to walk from the car park to board the Wengernalp? How far is the walk from the Bernese Oberland Railway to the Wengernalp? These must sound like dumb questions but I'm unfamiliar with train travel.
My teen is concerned about her heavy suitcase.
I'm thinking she could box some stuff up in Munich and have it sent back to the US rather than lugging around with her on the last wk of her 6 wk trip.
Have you had good experiences with shipping stuff to US? I was thinking she could arrange a UPS or Fed Ex pick-up from her home-stay in Munich (if not too expensive).
I tried to figure out her schedule on raileurope.com.
Does this sound right- 4 changes to get to Wengen?
Munich 7:17a to Zurich 11:44a
Zurich 12noon to Interlaken 2p
Interlaken 2:35p to Lauterbrunnen 2:55p

I couldn't find a schedule from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen.
What's the last mtn train to Wengen?
If you miss it do you have to walk?

The trip from Munich must be very scenic. I guess I could also look into her flying from Munich to Bern but then she'd still have to get a train to Lauterbrunnen. According to the railway site the portion from Zurich to Interlaken is called the Golden Pass Line?
I'm about to book her airplane ticket- the open jaw fares on BA are pretty good at the moment.
Thank you Fodorites!

jmw44

Hi. When I looked at the sbb.ch website, there were dozens of schedule possibilities from Munich to Wengen, and the last leg to Wengen seems to be after 11 p.m. The trips range from 7:30 hours to well over 8 hours. The fewest changes seem to be 3. I think it's an excellent idea to have your teen ship her stuff home ahead of time. Perhaps there will be a flight/train combo that will work well.

Remember, this teacher says "what you pack, you carry."
J.

calville

Thanks JMW- I just looked at sbb.ch but I'm still confused. Does "Travel With" mean the different train connections?

How far in advance do you need to book trains?

I might just let the Munich host family figure it out for her.

Raileurope seemed to only have a few appropriate options. I wonder if anyone really uses raileurope. What train website do Germans use?

enzian

Germans would use the Deutsche Bahn site: www.bahn.de
It will show the same travel options as the Swiss site but may be easier for you to figure out. I'm not sure where you are seeing the "travel with" notation. The best route appears to be the Münich-Zürich-Bern-Interlaken Ost-Lauterbrunnen-Wengen one, which has her leaving Münich at 12:20 and getting to Wengen around 8 pm. For fewer changes and earlier arrival in Wengen, she could depart at 8:40 and go Münich-Karlsruhe-Interlaken Ost-Lauterbrunnen-Wengen, and arrive at 5:00 pm. All the routes are same from Interlaken Ost on. Make sure she knows to get off at Interlaken OST, not Interlaken West which is the previous stop.

For traveling alone, I don't think she needs to book in advance. We never do in Switzerland, except when traveling in a group on major inter-city lines. She can just buy her ticket all the way to Wengen at the train station in Münich. It looks like all the connections have plenty of time to make the change. One advantage of the Swiss rail site is that it shows the track where you arrive and depart each station. But other than Zürich, these are all small stations and it's easy to find the track you need.

calville

Thank you SO much Enzian. Yes, the German site was easier for me to navigate. The trains sound a little intimidating if you only have a few mins to hop on the next one.
Train travel must be for spry, spring chickens

jmw44

Hi. Yes, the "travel with" column at
http://sbb.ch/en/index.htm indicates the classification of the various trains. If you click on details, you can see exactly how much time there is for each change and how far the tracks are from each other. Perhaps your daughter can check her suitcase in Munich all the way through at least to Interlaken, where you could pick it up a day after she arrives. Something to look into. I do think your idea of letting her host family help her decide the best option is probably a good one. J.

LLindaC

Cal, I assure you that train travel is not just for spry chickens, lol. The tracks are well marked, they are always on time (usually your train is sitting there)the train numbers are easy to find.The arrival and departure boards are all the same, easy to read. We did our entire trip by train and couldn't believe how easy it was.There is not much distance between the trains- not like a terminal change in Atlanta! LOL! Ditto for the buses. And if she has questions, they are very helpful and friendly, trust me!

enzian

I have taken my family group on several trips in Switzerland where we had 4 or 5 changes to our distination, sometimes with as little as 3 minutes between trains. We never missed a one. The one time our train was running a little late (2 minutes) the conductor actually came to our car to advise us that our transfer time would be reduced (from 5 minutes to three). We still made it just fine.

In the smaller stations, as LLindaC said, you just step off of one train and step onto the next. Sometimes you will need to go to a different track, which involves going down the passageway, under the tracks, and back up. But if is all very well marked, If Calville's daughter has been in Germany for any time at all, she will be familiar with using the trains. Plus, most of her transfers have 15 minutes or so between trains. Mom need not worry!

Cicerone

I was preparing a response to describe possiblities of her sending luggage on the train to Zurich airport unaccompanied ahead of her arrival, but could not find anything on the German railway site at bahn.de about this. However, I am quite certain she can do this, because she can do it if she were going to Germany from Switzerland. This takes 4-5 days, so this would work very well for the stuff she has had with her for her German soujourn and does not need for her vacation, but wants to eventually bring back to the US with her, assuming she is flying back to the US with you at the end of the Swiss portion of the trip. She should speak with her German host family about sending her unneeded luggage on ahead of her to the airport in Zurich. It would then be waiting for her to be collected and she would check it in with her other luggage. Assuming she won't have to pay excees baggage for this luggage on the flight, this would be much chepaer than shipping baggage back to the US, which is not cheap. The info on doing this within Switzerland is at http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/...ck-schweiz.htm, info on doing this FROM Switzerland to Germany is http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reiselust/e...ernational.htm.

If she has more than a backpack to carry to Wengen, then if she can organize herself, she can also send that luggage ahead a few days of her own train ride, and it will be waiting for her when she arrives in Wengen. She can then just take small hand luggage on the train with her. This takes some organization, but if she has a trip with a lot of connections and if she if planning on carrying a lot of bags, IMO it is worth it if you have to make these connections by yourself. I have done this when traveling by myself in Europe by train when I have a lot of luggage (e.g. ski trips). Again, she should speak to her host family about the proceeds for sending the luggage. This is very safe, about $15 a bag, and she can insure the the bags as well.

As dicussed above, the train connections are not hard to make, just a little bit of a pain if you have a number of suitcases. I had to LOL at your comment that "if she misses the train at Lautberbrunnen, can she walk to Wengen?" wait until you see Lauterbrunnen sitting at the bottom of the valley and Wengen sitting halfway up the mountainside, and you will understand how funny this comment is. Yes, she can walk if she had no luggage, good walking shoes, water, some energy bars, 3-4 hours of daylight and very good knees, there is an excellent trail. . . .

calville

Thank you all so much for the detailed information. You are a gold mine!!

calville

Hi everyone- I'm trying to decide on whether to have my daughter fly from Munich to Zurich, then switch to a train to get to Wengen or take a train all the way from Munich to Wengen. Will she have to make an additional transfer from the airport to the main train station in Zurich in order to get to Wengen?

The price of an airplane ticket is about the same as a train ticket, depending on the airline carrier and itinerary (multi city ticket- Austria to Munich and Munich to Zurich).

Her school has told the kids only one medium suitcase and a backpack or small carry-on for the Austria portion of her trip so hopefully she will abide by that- if not, would it be safe for her to check an additional piece of luggage all the way from Munich train station or Munich airport to the Geneva airport to pick up at the conclusion of our trip? Or can luggage only be checked from train station to train station?

She will mostly be in a homestay so I don't think the luggage restrictions will be enforced- the school is not traveling around together.

I'm still confused about these particulars... thanks for any light you can shed.
Schuler- has Switzerland thawed out yet?

swandav2000

Hi calville,

Nice to hear from you again!

As to your question, did you try the route at the SBB site I've given you? Just put in "Zurich airport" as your departure point and "Wengen" as your destination, and you'll get all the schedules with all the changes and even the track number for the trains.

Good luck!

s

calville

Thank you Swandav! I'm just finishing up the last few details of our trip.

kleeblatt

Salü Zama!

We were almost thawed out but then it had to snow again on Saturday. But luckily it didn't stick. This week is warming up to 25 C and no rain. We are sooo glad. Next week it's supposed to cool off and be rainy.

Otherwise, we are doing fine but in a bit of shock. A former female ski race, Corinne Rey-Bellet (34), and her brother were murdered yesterday. The murderer was her husband. We seem to have an epidemic of that lately. Wife leaves husband. Husband shoots wife and anyone nearby. It happened in a next door village just last February.

Terrible.