My wife and I are thinking of going skiing in late Feb. and Interlake was recommended. Anyone have any thoughts or experience. If so, any recommendations on a hotel? The Chalet Swiss and the De La Paix were recommended by a travel agent. We would be flying into Zurich then to Interlaken by train which I am told is two and a half hours. If any of you have skied Switzerland, how does it compare to Aspen or Vail?

I am curious about ski facilities in Interlaken. The town is between two lakes; hence it is flat as a pancake. <BR>Mountains are all around the place, but you will have to leave Interlaken to ski at places like Grindelwald, Mürren, Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, and several other places. So just where are you sliding down the snow? <BR>The train information sounds right. <BR>Trains run frequently from Zürich to Interlaken all day long. <BR>Main difference in the two is that Interlaken and the surrounding areas are generally lower than Vail in terms of elevation. But the mountains are prettier, at least in my opinion.

No skiing in Interlaken. About an hour to one of the mountain villages for your skiing. <BR> <BR>Skiing in Grindelwald, Wengen and Muerren. We prefer Muerren in summer and think it's probably preferable in winter as well, and seems to have the most reliable snow in the region. But all fine. <BR> <BR>Ed

We stayed at the Hotel Lotschberg in Interlaken a year ago and it was wonderful. I remember Suzi and Fritz the owners talking about organizing ski trips to Murren and Wengen. You might email them. They were both very active --- skiing, paragliding, biking, hiking, etc. <BR> <BR>I don't have their website info anymore. Try your favorite search engine and 'Hotel Lotschberg Interlaken'.

We ski Switzerland every year, usually during the first week in March, and use Grindelwald as our base. As others have pointed out, there is no skiing right at Interlaken - you will be about one hour away from the lifts via the Berner Oberlandbahn rack railway. I would strongly recommend staying in one of the villages mentioned previously to cut down on transit time. <BR> <BR>The Murren-Schilthorn area does have (slightly) more dependable snow because the elevation is somewhat higher than the other areas, but our experience has been that the difference is not great and that area has very limited terrain compared to the First and Mannlichen slopes, which are most easily accessed from Grindelwald or Wengen. Murren does get everyone's vote as the most beautiful village in the area, however. <BR> <BR>Skiing in Switzerland is almost a different sport from skiing in the States. The object is not to get in as much "vertical" as possible in a day but rather to enjoy the scenery and the outdoors and do a bit of skiing along the way. We routinely take a couple hours each day to simply sit outdoors at one of the many berghausen (mountain restaurant/inns) and enjoy a drink and a snack or simply just sit and relax - but in the States, we're hard skiers, going from lifts open to lifts close every day. It's a very different experience over there. <BR> <BR>Please feel free to drop me an email if you'd like more detailed information on the Jungfrau Top Ski Region (as it's called over there).