We are going to go Switzerland for the first time this August and would like some help deciding between these two villages. We would be staying about 2 or 3 days. It's just my husband and I. We love walking and good food if that helps.

Hi,

While we've never been to Murren, we absolutely loved our 4 night stay in Wengen (some time ago). From what I read, you can't go wrong with either, but Wengen is as close to Heaven as we've been.

Paul

Would opt for Wengen any day. Murren is off on one side; a bit inconvenient to travel to all the places of interest in Bernese Oberland. Wengen is much better located from a transportation viewpoint, and is a livelier place. You will get a much wider choice of hotels and eating establishments at Wengen, compared to Murren.

We recently returned from Switzerland where we spent 3 nights in Wengen. It is a great location for traveling to the sights in the area and is a nice, walkable town. We were in Murren as we traveled to the Schilthorn. Murren is breath-taking! It seemed as though one could reach out and touch the snow-capped mountains! The B O is just a beautiful place!

Both villages are actually quite near each other (as the crow flies I don’t believe they are more than 10-15 miles apart), and have similar views with slightly different directions and aspects. They sit opposite each other up on shelves above the valley, Lauterbrunnen is at the bottom of the valley, Grindelwald is in an adjoining valley at a lower elevation than Murren and Wengen.

I prefer Wengen for a number of reasons:

1. I love the views of the valley waterfall which you can't get from the Murren side;
2. The great Maennlichen to Kleine Schiedig walk is accessible only from the Wengen side.
3. If you want to take the train up to the top the Jungfrau, the train originates in Wengen and starting from there will save you a good bit of time, plus you can also walk down from points above back to Wengen.
4. As noted above, Wengen has many more hotel and restaurant options, Murren is quite small and offers about 6 restaurants that I can think of plus take away sandwiches from the Coop supermarket. Wengen also has, IMO, better hotel options.

You can easily make a day trip to Murren from Wengen, all in it takes about an hour by the lovely trains and cable cars.

That being said, you really would not be unhappy with Murren, and there are some good walks from there as well, and you can take the cable car up the Schiltorn from there which is a great ride and an alternative to the Jungfrau train trip.

This has all been very helpful. Based on this feedback, I think we will base ourselves in Wengen and do a day trip to Murren. Thank you.