I did my planning for our summer holidays at least 6 months in advance and we had made up our mind that the location would be in Europe, since we would be in the UK to attend a son’s graduation. I was torn between hiking in the Switzerland’s mountains or the beautiful western coasts of Italy, namely the Amalfi Coast or Cinque Terre. It was difficult to go for a holiday with the entire family of 5 due to timing constraints and individual commitments. It turned out that we had to do our Europe trip in July after visiting UK. Hence, we decided on Switzerland as I think the weather in July would be too hot to enjoy hiking in Italy.
Switzerland is known to be an extremely expensive country to visit and it was made worse by the sudden increase in the Swiss francs on January 15th, when the Swiss National Bank (SNB) suddenly announced that it would no longer hold the Swiss franc at a fixed exchange rate with the euro. Our planned vacation just got more expensive by at least 10%. It was “bite the bullet” and go for it since the Swiss Francs is not going to be back to the old rates anytime soon.
For a family of 5, hotel accommodations and eating out would blow a big hole in the vacation budget. The best way (maybe the only way) to enjoy Switzerland and not spend a fortune on hotels and meals is to rent a self-catering apartment (or chalet in Switzerland). Fortunately, there were many excellent Swiss chalets for weekly rental in summer. The rental typically starts with checking in on a Saturday afternoon and checking out on the next Saturday morning. I booked a 3-bedroom chalet on the Interhome web site. Bella Vista, in Wengen, Switzerland would be our vacation home for a week!
Wengen is a mountain village in the Bernese Oberland of central Switzerland, one of the most beautiful places in the world. The plan was to use Wengen as a hub (I was also considering Lauterbrunnen but chose Wengen finally for the better mountain views) and make day trips out for hikes on the many mountain trails on the gorgeous Swiss Alps.
Getting to Switzerland from the UK to Switzerland was via Zurich. The flights were not that expensive as many airlines served this route and pricings were competitive. We flew by British Airways in order to make use of the Avios points we had earned from our long distance International flights a year ago.
Swiss train at Wengen.
After accommodations and meals, the next biggest cost in a Swiss holiday was the train tickets. The best and most efficient way to travel around Switzerland is using the Swiss Rail. It is said that we can tell by the time of day by the timings of the trains and we found that to be practically correct.
We saved some money by buying the Half Fare travelcard which gave us 50% off almost all train, boat, cable car and bus fares for a month. There were many different travel cards and regional rail passes. For the itinerary I had, this worked out to be the most economical. However, it also meant that we had to buy tickets at the train and cable car stations each time before boarding.
Cable car to First, Switzerland.
So, how did we spent the one week in Wengen?
Each day, we would have breakfast in our apartment, explore the beautiful areas around the Bernese Oberland during the day and return to our apartment in the evening to prepare and have dinner. The sun sets quite late in July. After dinner, there was more family bonding time and deciding what to do the next day which depended a lot on the weather forecast.
This is the summary of what we did in Switzerland.
Day 1 ( 4 July 2015)
Fly from UK to Zurich. Take the scenic train to Wengen via Luzern, Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen.
Check into our Bella Vista chalet.
Bella Vista apartment in Wengen.
Free and easy in Wengen for the rest of the evening.
Day 2 ( 5 July 2015)
Go to Lauterbrunnen to take the cable car toGrütschalp. Do the easy scenic 4.3km walk from Grütschalp to Mürren. This easy route crosses forests and grasslands. It offers great views of the Lauterbrunnen valley and the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains. After lunch at Mürren, take the funicular railway from Mürren up to Allmendhubel and hike to Gimmelwald via the Northface trail. The Northface trail is slightly challenging but is one the best hikes in the Bernese Oberland.
Hiking the Northface trail in Bernese Oberland
From Gimmelwald, take the gondola down to Stechelberg and take the post-bus from there back to Lauterbrunnen. From Lauterbrunnen, take the train back to Wengen.
Trip report Part 1 - Grütschalp to Mürren walk.Trip report Part 2 - Northface trail.
Day 3 (6 July 2015)
Take train to Schynige Platte from Wengen. It should take about 2 hours to get there (From Wengen to Lauterbrunnen, and then to Wilderswil to take the cog wheel train up to Schynige Platte).
The journey offered nice views of the mountains and lakes on the way.
Do the Schynige Platte - Louchernhorn - Schynige Platte (Panorama Trail) hike.
Schynige Platte - Louchernhorn - Schynige Platte (Panorama Trail) hike.
Return to Wengen after the hike via the way we came.
Day 4 (7 July 2015)
Take the cable car from Wengen up toMännlichen.
Take the short trail up to the peak of
Männlichen to enjoy the views. Do the Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg panoramic walk.
Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg panoramic walk.
After lunch at Kleine Scheidegg, take the train to Interlaken Ost and to Brienz. Brienz is a wood carving town on the banks of Lake Brienz or Brienzsee. Explore Brienz and cruise back to Interlaken OST by boat on Lake Brienz. Return to Wengen from Interlaken Ost.
Trip report Part 1 – Mannilichen to Kleine Scheidegg walk.
Trip report Part 2 – Visit to Brienz and lake cruise.
Day 5 (8 July 2015)
I catered some time as “to be decided”. The younger ones decided do some extreme sports i.e. Tandem Paragliding from top of Mürren down to the Lauterbrunnen valley.
Tandem Paragliding from top of Mürren down to the Lauterbrunnen valley.
We combined the morning activity with a visit to the Trummelbach Falls in the afternoon and did the Lauterbrunnen valley floor hike from the Trummelbach Falls back to Lauterbrunnen village.
Lauterbrunnen valley
Trip report Part 1 – paragliding.
Trip report Part 2 – Trummelbach Falls.
Day 6 (9 July 2015)
Take the train to Grindelwald and then take the cable car to First. Do the walk from First to Balchapsee, have a picnic by the lake and return to First.
Balchapsee
From First, take cable car down to Bort station and hire Tottibikes to ride down the mountain from Bort station back to Grindelwald.
Else use the cable car back to Grindelwald.
Day 7 (10 July 2015)
Go up Jungfrau from Wengen via Kleine Scheidegg.
A special train ticket for the Jungfraubahn needs to be purchased to take the train from Kleine Scheidegg to the “top of Europe”. This is an expensive trip (even with the half-fare ticket) but totally worth the experience.
The young ones did tobogganing at the snow park that only opens in Summer. I did the glacier hike to the Mönchsjoch Hut and back by myself while the family spent time at the snow park.
Day 8 (11 July 2015)
Goodbye to Wengen. Take the train to Zurich HB station. Leave luggage at lockers at train station.
Free and easy in Zurich before taking the train to Zurich Airport to catch the free shuttle bus to our hotel.
We had the option to spend some time in Luzern or Zurich on the way back to the Zurich Airport. We decided on Zurich since we had been to Luzern before.
Note: our activities were based on the weather forecast for the next few days. Only do the Jungfrau trip on a clear morning.
More details of our time in Wengen (and photos!) are in the subsequent posts.
Afternote: We loved Switzerland so much that we returned to Switzerland in July 2018 for another vacation. This time we stayed a week in Zermatt and several days in Montreux, plus stopovers in Bern, Thun and Lucerne. Read our trip overview here.
Nice post with great information about your visit to Switzerland. Really, Switzerland is a beautiful country famous for its majestic alps, luscious chocolates and scenic train rides. Some of the best places to visit in Switzerland are cities of Zurich and Lucerne and pretty villages like Lauterbrunnen, Murren and Wengen.
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