Interlaken, Switzerland
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Interlaken. This will be our home base. We plan on day hiking. Do we need a car to get around or should we rely on the train. Also, are the trailheads far from the train station?

Hi Emily. <BR>I don't want to burst your bubble, but why Interlaken? <BR>If you are going to Switzerland to really see the snow covered Alps, then Interlaken is not the best choice. <BR>If you are determined to stay in Interlaken, then yes, you need a car. <BR>Why? Because the best mountain hikes start about 8 to 10 miles away from you. <BR> <BR>I recommend finding a place in one of the following villages/towns: <BR>Mürren, Wengen, Grindelwald, or Lauterbrunnen. <BR> <BR>I have resided for a total of 3 weeks in Lauterbrunnen in an apartment ( <BR>Ferienwohnung). We took the train or cable lifts to get us to the various trails in the mountains. <BR> <BR>The most classic walk is from the First gondola station (has nothing to do with second) above Grindelwald to the top of the Faulhorn. If you are into long walks, take the trail from First across the ridges via the Faulhorn to the rail station at Schnige Platte. <BR>From Schynige Platte, you can take a mountain train down to a a station known as Wilderswil. It is about 2 miles south of Interlaken on the road to Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. <BR> <BR>This hike is about 15K, which means you have to start early and move along at a good pace to reach the station at Schynige Platte before the last valley train leaves the station. <BR>If you decide you want to do this hike on a sunny weekend day, I suggest taking the train from Wilderswil to Schnynige Platte and walking to First. Why? Because Schnyige Platte is very crowded on sunny weekends. The little train cannot carry all of the people back as quickly as they arrive at the station to return and long backlogs develop. <BR>The option is to descend a steep trail, about 4,000 feet of descent. <BR> <BR>There are several other walks, too, that I can describe. The best book on the subject was written about 4 years ago by Kev Reynolds. You can get a copy from the Adventurous Traveler Bookstore. <BR>(The mountains have not moved!! Nor have the trails.) <BR>But if you stay in Interlaken, reaching a trail in the mountains involves transportation, unless you want a very long walk.

Interlaken: <BR>Nice place to change trains. Good place to catch a boat to Brienz or Thun. Nice place to go to the casino. Fairly decent place for some shopping. The trailheads are quite far, timewise. <BR> <BR>Interlaken is 10 miles from the mountains and the trails through the mountains. The nearest trailhead is roughly an hour away. <BR> <BR>If, as it seems, your interest is in the mountains and day hiking, you'll find neither in Interlaken. <BR> <BR>Nor will you find a glorious view of the mountains in the morning and each evening. Visit Interlaken for one of the things that it's best for. <BR> <BR>Stay, please, in the mountainous interior. Choose our preference, Mürren, or Wengen for your home base. You have gorgeous views morning and evening and you'll catch a sense of living in a small, car-free mountain village. Particularly if you stay in Mürren many wonderful trails will start almost at your doorstep, and others won't be far away. <BR> <BR>And forget the car. It won't get up into the mountains. Get SwissPasses and enjoy the spectacular mountain trains, cables and funiculars, as well as regular trains, buses and boats. <BR> <BR>You'll probably find these pages, and the ones that follow, helpful: <BR> <BR>www.twenj.com/bovisit.htm <BR>www.twenj.com/swissrail.htm

Mürren does indeed provide one with an unsurpassed view of the Jungfrau and her companions that form the main ridge of the Berner Oberland. <BR>And yes, there are quite a few walks to be taken from Mürren. <BR>On the downside, if you want to leave to go anywhere, you must take 1 of 2 modes of transportation: <BR>1. little train to Grutschalp, funicular to Lauterbrunnen <BR>2. cable car to Stechelberg and post bus to Lauterbrunnen <BR>From Lauterbrunnen you can go to Grindelwald, Wengen, or back to Interlaken, which means another change of conveyances. <BR> <BR>If you decide to base yourself in the Berner Oberland area, the most useful pass is the Berner Oberland Regional Pass. The pass can be bought in the 7 day edition, which gives you 3 days of "free" travel and 4 days of travel at at a discount on all means of conveyance in the whole area served by the Berner Oberlandbahn, which departs regularly for Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald from Interlaken Ost. You receive smaller discounts over a wide area that extends as far as Bern and Zermatt. The reason I put free in quotation marks is because the last leg of the trip to the Jungfrau and to the Schilthorn are not entirely free, ever. With the pass you can go up at 50% off of the last section of the journey. <BR>I do not know of a site that describes the pass more fully in English. <BR>Here is the site I know of: http://www.bls.ch/german/sites/a/a_c_d_regiopass.html <BR>We bought the pass last year and rode all over the mountains from our base in Lauterbrunnen. <BR>If you decide you want to stay in Interlaken, stay near the Interlaken Ost train station so that you can use your pass to catch trains regularly to the mountain villages. <BR>

All of the previous comments are excellent, but let me add this if I may. <BR> <BR>In past years I have used Interlaken, Murren, Wegen and Grindlewald as the homebase. <BR> <BR>Interlaken is practical if you plan to jump around in this area. For instance, if you plan to daytrip over to the Hasliberg area or perhaps Kandersteg, then Interlaken might be a better base. <BR> <BR>But staying in Murren or Wegen has it advantages also. <BR> <BR>Ed pointed out that you're closer to the great walking and hiking trains from Wengen, Murren or Grindlewald. <BR> <BR>Using Interlaken as the home base can be done, but I think I would now prefer a base of Wengen, Murren or Grindlewald now. <BR> <BR>My itinerary this year has me staying in Saas Fee, Zermatt and back over to the Jungfrau area in Wengen. <BR> <BR>

That was supposed to read hiking trails rather than hiking trains, but you get the drift. ;-) <BR> <BR>Maybe they have some hiking trains? LOL

Here is the English version of the Berner Oberland website that Bob Brown was mentioning earlier: <BR>http://www.bls.ch/english/sites/a_c_d_1regiopasse.html <BR>

I just returned from Murren(4 days) and spent the day in Interlaken. We (2 late 40's women) loved tiny Murren. We stayed there in the middle of our hectic Italy-swiss-France trip. It is important to note that one should be in fairly good walking shape to enjoy the walks and hikes there. Most hotels and restaurants are closed until June 1st (I thiink the hostel stays open, tho.) The best restaurant was at The Alpenhof Hotel, near the cablecar, this looked like a nice place to stay, also. <BR> We stayed at the Anfi Palace, very comfortable. As for Interlaken, it's a pretty town and a good train base to go to other places for the day but I agree there are more flavourable places around that area of Switzerland.

I hate to bring a negative tone to what has been so far a positive discussion, but I learned the hard way in September of 1999 that on some days in the Berner <BR>Oberland there is rain. <BR>So what do you do on a rainy day? <BR>I have two suggestions: <BR>1. Drive to the little burg of Afolten, which is to the east of Bern. <BR>In Afoltern there is a cheese making display with a restaurant where you can eat. The main display is recorded and you can hear it in English. You could combine visiting Afoltern with a stop in Bern. For a national capital, it is very compact. <BR>2. Visit Luzern. Unfortunately it is better time wise to drive rather than take the train over the Brünig Pass because the return schedule to Interlaken is not the best, unless it has changed since I was there. <BR>There are several interesting visits one can make in Luzern. I liked particularly the Transportation Museum. <BR>It has an outstanding collection of old rail cars, an excellent display on the various kinds of Swiss mountain cable contraptions, and old airplanes. <BR>It is very well done.

I think the very best place to base yourself for a week is Grindelwald hiking these routes: <BR> <BR>-Grindelwald to Lauterbrunnen over the Kleine Scheidegg. You can shorten this by hiking only as far as Kleine Scheidegg or Wengen and taking the train back to Grindelwald. <BR> <BR>-Take the bus over the Grosse Scheidegg <BR>from Grindelwald to Rosenlaui (or any of the other stops on the way to Meirignen depending on how far you wish to hike) and hike back to Grindelwald. <BR> <BR>-One morning take the train to Wilderswil, then another train up to the Schynige Platte and hike the to First or Bort and take gondola back down to Grindelwald. <BR> <BR>-For an easy day-take the train to Lauterbrunnen and then walk down the valley to Stechelberg, take the cable car to Murren and walk back to Grutschalp enjoying the views, funicular back down to Lauterbrunnen. <BR> <BR>-a hike that takes a bit more traveling to get to: take the train or bus (over Grosse Scheidegg) to Meiringen, then the bus to Engstlenalp and walk back via Hasliberg to either Hasliberg (take the cablecar back down to Meiringen) or walk all the way down to Meiringen-returning to Grindelwald by train or bus. <BR> <BR>Recommend you definitely buy the Berner Oberland Regional Pass. <BR> <BR>If you have more then a week then I suggest you go somewhere else too for one week-Engelberg, Lucerne, Graubuenden. <BR> <BR>I have to add that though Lauterbrunnen, Murren, and Wengen are very lovely, I don?t agree that they?re great walking base for more then a few days. You will exhaust your options pretty quickly there-Grindelwald gives you more variety and less hassle with transport. <BR> <BR>P.S. rent an apartment. <BR> <BR>