, we spent the next week galavanting around the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland.
and had just a marvelous time. We wanted to go back to some of the same places and try new places as well. We decided to split our time between valley (Grindelwald) and mountain (Wengen/Murren). I could easily stay in this region for months without getting bored. So much hiking, so much exploring- if you visit this part of the world don't skimp on time here. On this trip, we did opt to visit the Saas Fee region as well to try something new.....but honestly I'd vote to stay in Bernese Oberland if I had that choice to make again.
We chose to deal with jet lag by staying three nights in Lucerne-just a short two hour train ride from the Zurich airport. We had a nice couple days there but if I went again I'd push through and try to get all the way to the mountains on day 1. If you do find yourself in Lucerne check out some suggestions from our
last trip to Switzerland and also consider heading to Engelberg- gorgeous hiking and a very cool Tickle Trail (barefoot sensory trail around a mountain lake), the Globi trail (bring your ball for the marble runs) and a great alpine slide and playground at the Ristis middle station. If you are stuck with bad weather the Transport Museum is fantastic (but notably not air conditioned).
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| Alpine slide at Ristis middle |
Now, I'll offer some general tips about this region (and Switzerland in general).
-- There is no need to rent a car. Research which travel pass is the best for your needs. Kids are generally free if you get the right pass.
--Food is pricey. Lodging with a kitchen is key and for us traveling with a cooler is as well to cart leftovers from town to town. Simple meals made at home saves so much money and time. We saved eating out for either necessity or a couple special nights.
--Things run on time and the signs are plentiful. As long as you have a rough idea what you want to do you don't have to over do it on the research the trail or train transfers - it will be relatively apparent. This is great for me as I do a lot of planning on the fly.
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| Ristis middle station |
--Plan for all weather - true for any mountain region - after having 30 degrees and snow for multiple days in August, I was very grateful for our winter gear.
--Use the Swiss rail system luggage transport! On our through hike and if we were changing towns on a hiking day we'd send our luggage ahead with the Swiss Rail system! Very affordable, efficient and so convenient to only travel with a day pack. Required a little thoughtful packing as then you are without the bulk of your "stuff" for a couple days (though they will do same day for a higher fee I think).
--We had just over weeks for our trip and stayed 3 nights Lucerne (Air BNB), 8 nights in Bernese Oberland region: 1 night Berghotel Falhourn (our big hike), 3 nights Grindelwald (valley, Air BNB), 1 night Wengen (mountains, hotel), 3 nights Murren (mountains, Hotel Eiger), and 3 nights Valais region (Saas Fee, Air BNB), then 1 night in Zurich at the airport hotel prior to morning departure. How could you shorten? Decide if you want to stay in Lucerne- good if you like medium sized European cities and lots of day trips and things to do. But if short on time not much longer to get all the way to Bernese Oberland esp if kids are older and can "push through"; Lucerne is not a must. In Bernese Oberland pick one valley town (Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen-I vote Grindelwald) and one mountain town (Wengen or Murren, I vote Murren). 3 or so nights at each. If you have a lot of time, oh man you could enjoy this amazing country for ever. Stay everywhere as long as you can in that case! But seriously, if you like the outdoors, 2 weeks in Bernese Oberland alone would be fantastic.
Okay, back to our itinerary:
After 3 nights Lucerne, 1 night Berghotel Falhourn mountain hut, we spent 3 nights in Grindelwald.
We stayed at a wonderful Air BNB apartment about a 10 minute walk from downtown Grindelwald in a residential area. We had an incredible balcony with a view of the way to Jungfrau, with mountains, snow, cable cars and trains all in view. Classic Switzerland. We all enjoyed a lot of quality time on that porch.
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| Eiger cable car to ourselves! |
FULL DAY: Jungfraujoch:
The day after our big hike we took a “break” and did a touristy but still very cool outing to Jungfraujoch - top of Europe. At 13,500 feet it’s one of the highest mountains accessible by train. It’s home to the huge Aletsch glacier - the largest glaciated area in Europe and a UNESCO world heritage site. The Jungfraujoch experience is heavily touristed but we had been there before so knew to go early and had the high speed high elevation Eiger cable car all to ourselves. On top of the mountain, there are viewpoints, a hike, snow play, and a really cool ice cave made entirely of ice (floor/ceiling/walls) with sculptures. Z, O and I went sledding and tubing which was a really unique experience and super fun. Admittedly I have mixed feelings about a nature preserve that gets so much human traffic - surely it’s affecting the nature- that is a tricky thing about travel and tourism. I do recommend this as it is a really cool experience.
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| Ice cave |
HALF DAY: Pfingstegg and Grindelwald glacier gorge:
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| Glacier gorge |
On our last full day in Grindelwald, we took a cable car to Pfingstegg and partook in the fun on the mountain side - alpine slide, flying fox, playground. Z and I did something called a fly line which was like a slow meandering, more relaxing than thrilling, zip line through the woods. We then hiked 1.5 hours down the mountain to the Grindelwald glacier gorge for a quick explore. We were actually initially planning on taking the bus to this gorge but Adam and I saw the clearly labelled sign to the walking path and thought why the heck not! Love the organization of Switzerland- they make it easier to use your feet than mechanical transportation. During the gorge walk, we stood on this crazy net over the river which was freaky I must say. It was very easy to catch a bus back from the Grindelwald glacier gorge to town.
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| Grindelwald |
Then we enjoyed the
Grindelwald playground, the views from our patio and homemade raclette!
FULL DAY: Grindelwald to Wengen via Männlichen
Mannlichen
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| Mannlichen bowling! |
We came to Switzerland for two reasons- hiking and playgrounds. Having completed the big through hike, we now turned our attention to hiking from playground to playground and town to town. We took a cable car up to Mannlichen and were met with raging playground success. Mannlichen has everything- views, cows, hikes, a restaurant, incredible playground equipment for adults and kids- and a way forward to our next town, Wengen, once we were done playing. We let the kids spend tons of time at this stunning playground then walked down the Lisolette themed trail. Switzerland has many themed trails meant to keep kids motivated to hike. This one had 13 stations where you could do various cow or Swiss themed activities- ring bells, play an alpenhorn, climb a hay bale and eventually get to the next cable car station with a huge additional playground as a reward. We ended up adding a “refuge from the rain station” when a huge thunderstorm rolled through, but then it cleared and was even sunny again.
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| Alpenhorn on Lieselotte trail |
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| Holenstein middle station |
We then took the cable car up the mountain and then a 2nd cable car down over the other side of the mountain to get to Wengen, a car free mountain village. Originally I planned for us to walk from Grindelwald to Wengen but Lisolette trail was just too good to pass up and after aggressive playgrounding and hiking we were ready to be to our next destination.
Wengen, one night
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| Marble run |
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| Marble run |
I was somewhat underwhelmed by Wengen. For a car free town there were lots of cars. But still it was a lovely Swiss mountain village with beauty all around. My preference for a car free village experience is Murren, more to come on that.
We did enjoy the cool marble runs throughout the town. You can buy a marble at the tourist office then follow the signs and enjoy! The runs were cool but they were a sibling rivalry NIGHTMARE- “you touched yours, you cheated, mine should have won etc etc” and I could not for the life of me make it stop. I felt a bit better when we saw another sibling pair being even nastier to each other (not sure what this says about me that it made me feel better, haha). Ugh. Sibling rivalry improvement was already on my list of priorities for this school year and this day further confirmed the need to up my parenting game in that department. We then swam in the incredibly hot pool (had a blast!), paid way too much for sub par food and went to bed at an overpriced hotel that I don’t recommend 
We are def Air BNB/vrbo people
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| Around Wengen |
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| Lauterbrunnen |
HALF DAY: Wengen to Lauterbrunnen to Murren
After Wengen, it was on to Murren where the weather and our health slowly deteriorated haha. We walked to Lauterbrunnen which was a lovely downhill very manageable walk (maybe 1 hour?). Lauterbrunnen is a lovely town with many waterfalls, a nice bike path (can rent bikes), and various hikes including the cool Trummelbach Falls that we visited in 2017. Definitely more time can be spent in Lauterbrunnen but I gently recommend either Murren or Grindelwald as preferred home bases.
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| Winteregg middle station |
We took the train and cable car up to Murren with a stop at the Winteregg middle station playground. On a different day this could be walked and the views would be incredible- including from the playground. But Adam was starting to feel a little sick and the weather had turned to my least favorite- gray, 40 and drizzling - so after playgrounding to the kids' hearts content, we headed straight to Murren by cable car and checked into our favorite Hotel Eiger to get settled and resupplied. The views were, well, not viewable.
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View from balcony
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Murren is a beautiful quiet car free town. It's right in the mountains- Mt Eiger looms large so close you feel like you can touch it. There are a few hotels, only a handful of Air BNB options, delicious restaurants, a couple stores including a full service grocery store. I highly recommend Hotel Eiger. There are standard hotel rooms but also condo style rooms with full kitchens. I absolutely recommend paying for the side with the mountain view- it's such a unique view of mountains - not off in the distance but RIGHT THERE. On nice days you will see paragliders sailing down. In addition they have a lovely, fun pool and a playroom for kids that frankly we wouldn't typically use, but as everyone got sick like dominos it became a good place for the still well people to visit. Finally, their restaurant for dinner was fantastic- with great GF options- and the (included) breakfast buffet has pretty much everything you could ever want to eat. Stay. Here.
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| Flower Park |
There are two places to travel beyond Murren- The Allmendhubel Flower Park and the Schilthorn. We have not gone to the Schilthorn- best on a clear day and dare I say best on a clear day when family members aren't sick (more to come haha). The Flower Park can be reached by uphill walk or funicular train. We took the train and enjoyed Zooey's favorite playground of ALL TIME. We visited here in 2017 (click here for pics in sunshine haha) and while the weather was much better last time, the park did not disappoint and had even gotten better with a new maze water feature. We then hiked back down and were sadly not able to find the Children's Trail that we did in 2017. That was a big bummer but it was a beautiful walk down the mountain.
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| There's Ollie! Hike down to Murren from Flower Park |
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| F and I on a rain walk |
Then people got sick- A/Z/F with a febrile URI thing, me with food poisoning. 5 year old Ollie was energetic as always and was the last one standing. It was a rough couple days but I was so, so grateful for the wonderful Hotel Eiger with their free upgrade to a much larger suite, their pool and playroom for the well people.
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Playground car and
4th leg of journey!
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Thankfully everyone was on the mend in time for us to travel on to Saas Fee. We had 6 (!) legs on our journey from Murren to Saas Fee. But the kids stayed occupied with all the vehicle changes and the playground cars on the trains! Definitely recommend the playground cars. You must read the train schedules carefully to locate which trains have these cars and they are usually at the back of the train so involves some running if you have tight connections- adds to the fun I'd say haha.
Saas-Fee, three nights:
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| Hiking up to the playground |
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| Magnificant Saas Fee playground |
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| Toboggan |
Getting to Saas Fee requires a winding bus ride so you can't just hop on a train to get elsewhere- you have to take the motion sickness inducing bus. Not sure how common snow is in August, but definitely changes the enjoyment level if you were hoping for summer fun. Looks like an awesome area for winter fun- but if you are coming for the summer playgrounds and they are snow obscured, that kinda stinks. I'd consider cancellable reservations and go only if there's not snow on the ground at the Kruezboden Adventure land above Saas Grund (as a good reference point and a not miss activity in the area). Note there is always snow in the higher mountains- this is a year round skiing destination, but I'd investigate whether there is snow on the middle station mountains). The Kruezboden Adventure Land is AMAZING! A sorta routine playground, but so many modifiable water ways- Ollie and I had a blast despite it being very tricky in the slippery snow. This would be a glorious full day adventure with kids in summer weather. Not the trip finale I was hoping for but when you travel as much as we do you have to realize not all trips will go well. I remain SO grateful for the magnificent hikes we had week one!
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