We're rethinking our 5 day plan to stay in
Zermatt next week because of concerns about the weather. We're 4 adults planning to hike and our looking for a good alternative. Interlochen? Wengen? Murren? other good suggestions. We've been too Kandersteg. Beginning to intermediate hikers, but would like someplace that has a nice but not touristy night life. We'd appreciate your suggestions.

go to Israel. It is very warm there.

Additional information- 2 of the adults are in the their 20s and would like a town that has some night life.

Please ignore my darling husband who has other vacation ideas and sometimes posts under my name.

We just returned from Pontresina and loved it, also loved Zermatt. Pontresina wasn't as touristy in fact for a couple of days we were the only english speaking people in our hotel. But as for nightlife - not sure we are too old for that after hiking all day! It did seem pretty quiet though when we went out to walk off our dinner.

Good luck with your travel plans.

Not sure what you mean by “worried abut weather in Zermatt”. You may not find any better weather in the Engadine or elsewhere. It’s a small country. Sometimes you can escape rain, but often you will just run into other rain. If it is too cold or hot, it is unlikely to be any different in any other region in Switzerland. What is the weather issue? I lived in Switzerland and found it very much to be a place where if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes. I would not give up a planned trip to Zermatt based solely on a weather forecast, which usually are wrong anyway.

If you really feel you need to change, I agree that Pontresina, in the Engadine in north eastern Switzerland, is a great choice. The whole Engadine is quite untouristed by Americans and has some very good hiking. Towns to consider are St Moritz, Celerina, Sils-Maria (with possibly the most beautiful train ride in Switzerland between Chur and St Moritz on the way in from Zurich), there is also the Scuol valley, esp the little village of Guarda which is, IMO, the most charming village in Switzerland, a land of charming villages. Also, you can take the Bernina Express train for a day up and over the glaciers and into Italy and back. You can get it in St Moritz or Pontresina. There is some nightlife in St Moritz, otherwise it is fairly quiet, but St Moritz may be enough for you. Bring money and attitude. (Most Swiss mountain towns are not known for their night life, there is some in Zermatt, but in summer you will find it fairly quiet, it is more après-ski winter nightlife there in my experience. If you want a club scene, go to Zurich.)

Don’t go to Interlaken. It is not in the mountains it just looks up at them. (Although it has the distinction of being the only place in Europe with a Hooters Restaurant, so you might consider that to be nightlife, I would not. It is a rather charmless town, IMO.) Wengen or Murren have great hiking and are beautiful, no night life to speak of really. My preference in Wengen, slightly better aspect for views of the valley waterfall. Many more tourists will be there than in the Engadine. If you have been to Kandersteg, it is the next valley over, did you not go to the Jungfrau valley on the Kandersteg trip? If you really are going to skip Zermatt, I would opt for the Engadine to see a different region as you have already seen the Bernese Oberland.

I would also be a little concerned about hotels at this late date, but if you are willing to wing it, you may be OK. You may not get your first choices in various places, but can probably find something that would be fine.

Thank you very much for your response and suggestions.