Lauterbrunnen, Murren or Wengen?
 

I plan to visit Jungfraujoch, Schilthorn, Grindelwald, First, etc. and am wondering which village/town to base myself.
I am looking for a budget room for 3-4 days in either Lauterbrunnen, Murren or Wengen.

Which is the better town or hub (besides Interlaken) to stay in if I will be visiting these locations?

Will it cost more transportation-wise if I stayed in Murren or Wengen?

Good morning, Dave Lauterbrunnen
is located at the bottom of the Lauterbrunnen Valley.at2612 ft. Wengen
is located on the east side of the valley at 4180 ft. and Murren located on the west side of the valley at 5361
feet. From Lauterbrunnen you can take
the BOB, back to Interlaken or change
trains at Zweilutscheinen for an upbound
train to Grindelwald, At Grindelwald,
you can change to the WAB upbound for
Kleine Scheidegg, or take the Mannlichen
Bahn to to the top and walk down to Kleine Scheidegg or cable car down to
Wengen. From Lauterbrunnen you can take
the WAB up to Wengen and continue to
Kleine Scheidegg which is the start of
the Jungfrau RR....Again from Lauterbrunnen you can take the incline railway and surface railway up and to
Murren, a short walk thru Murren will take you to the cable car which goes up
to the Schlithorn. This cable railway
continues down to the floor of the Lauterbrunnen Valley.
Grindelwald First can be reached by a
very enjoyable gondola ride from Gindelwald and about a five minute walk
from the Grindelwald Bahnhof...Have always stayed in Grindelwald at the
SCHWEIZERHOF, however my mephew on his
last visit to the BO stayed at the hotel
ALPENBLICK (www.muerren.ch/alpenblock)
and was very satisified it. Also I
think you get abetter view of the alps
from Murren....Richad of LaGrange Park, Ill

In June 2001, we stayed in Murren at the Eiger Guesthouse and visited all the places you mention. We had the weekly Swiss rail pass and it covered all means of transportation - everything (I am almost sure of that, memory is fading a little bit). Murren is absolutely wonderful, when we left behind all those places down below and went up to Murren it felt like we were on a different planet. It was very easy to get around and very much within our restricted budget. The cable car for Schilthron starts from Murren.

Another vote for Murren. We stayed there last June. Best views IMO. The mountains are right in your face. Also has lots of hiking trails with great vistas.

Dicky has provided very good information.

In case you have not seen where these towns are located along the mountain, here is a good picture. Grindelwald is middle left:

http://www.wengen-muerren.ch/picts/k...merpano700.jpg

You have to choose the place based on your priority. As Dickv mentioned, Lauterbrunnen is the hub for transportion and save you few SF. I say only few since the lion's share of the transportation cost is at the last legs of the trip.

More serious consideration is the timing of visiting Jungfraujoch. Since it takes a long time to get there and gets crowded quickly, it is prudent to get up there as early as possible in terms of crowd as well as catching the early morning weather. In this sense, staying at Murren is a disadvantage as you have to get going 40 minutes earlier than if you stayed at Lauterbrunnen. But both Murren and Wengen have better view from the higher ground, however.

It is all a trade off.