One week in Wengen – our family’s summer holiday in Switzerland

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.

Trip report here.

Day 2 ( 5 July 2015)

Go to Lauterbrunnen to take the cable car to

Grütschalp. 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.

Trip report here.

Day 4 (7 July 2015)

Take the cable car from Wengen up to

Männlichen.

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. 

Tottibike to ride down the mountain from Bort station back to Grindelwald.

Else use the cable car back to Grindelwald.

Trip report here.

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.

Trip report here.

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.

Trip report here.

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.

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From UK to Zurich and on to Wengen

4 July 2015

We left Heathrow/Windsor Marriott Hotel at 7.00 AM for the 25 minutes drive to Heathrow Airport. Our flight to Zurich departs at 9.30 AM and we needed some extra time to return our rental car and grab some breakfast. I was glad to see the British Airways concorde, parked outside a hanger, while waiting for our turn to take-off. This aircraft is now out of service and a reminder of the days when supersonic commercial air travel was available. Not sure when such service would return again.

 

BA712 took us to Zurich by 12:20 PM.  Instead of a mysterious crop circle, I spotted a man-made equivalent of a Swiss army knife symbol, etched on one of the fields near the airport.

Zurich has one of the best airport in the world. This is an airport where I could safely bring a specially designed, fully loaded luggage cart onto the escalators to travel between floors. Amazing! We had to queue for a short time at the Swiss Rail Ticket office to buy the Half Fare Card for 120 CHF valid for 30-days. It gives 50% off the Jungfraujoch trip and all other rail and cable cars travel in Switzerland, including the boat rides on Lake Brienz. At the same time, we also bought the tickets for the journey from the airport all the way to Wengen. With the tickets sorted out, we went to the Baggage Services in the train station to forward two large pieces of suitcases to Wengen train station. This is an excellent and highly recommended service to use. It freed us from having to lug heavy luggage up and down trains and we board the trains with only backpacks and carry-on luggage. Next thing we did before boarding the train at Zurich Airport is to buy some take-away food and drinks for the train ride.

For tourist, the recommended route to Wengen is via Luzern. We took the 13:47 train from the airport to Luzern to catch the famous Golden Pass Line service from Luzern to Interlaken Ost. The train to Interlaken Ost departed exactly as scheduled at 15.05. We had only 15 minutes to make the connections but it was sufficient time as the Swiss train runs like clockwork and we did not have any heavy luggage with us. The journey from Luzern to Interlaken Ost offered an extremely scenic and enjoyable ride. 

Sitting on the right side of the train, we passed the Sarnersee and the Lungerersee on our right and have good views into the valley on the right as we left Brunig and drop down into Meiringen.  The train reverses at Meiringen but we don't change sides as we soon reach Brienz and have the lake on our left almost all the way to Interlaken Ost. 10 minutues after arrival in Interlaken Ost, we were on another train bound for Lauterbrunnen.

Lauterbrunnen lies in the bottom of a narrow valley with Murren high up on the ridge on the right side, and Wengen high up on a ridge on the left side. Our apartment for the next one week was at Wengen. The rack railway train ride up the slopes to Wengen from Lautebrunnen took 15 minutes. All in all, our train journey from Zurich airport to Wengen took 4 hours 4 minutes. Swiss train timings, accurate to the minute! 

The Interhome office where we had to collect the leys to our rental apartment is located very close to the Wengen train station and it was easy to find with the clear instructions provided.

Wengen is an idyllic, car-free holiday resort with about 1,330 inhabitants, on top of a hill, situated at the foot of a mountain. It is on a plateau with beautiful view of the alps above it and Lauterbrunnen valley beneath. We did not need much time to explore this relatively small alpine village.

Our home for the next one week is the Apartment 8, in the Bella Vista apartment block.  The Bella Vista apartment was built in 2006 and is only 200 m from the centre of Wengen, on a slope with excellent views. Our apartment is 130 m2 and has modern and stylish furnishings: large living/dining room with open-hearth fireplace, cable TV, radio, CD-player and DVD and internet (WiFi).  

It has 3 bedrooms. 1 room with 1 double bed (1 x 160 cm,
length 200 cm). 2 rooms, each room with 2 beds (90 cm, length 200 cm). Perfect for our family of 5.

The open kitchen came with oven, dishwasher, 4 ceramic glass hob hotplates, electric coffee machine, Nespresso coffee machine.

The best of all, it has a large balcony with balcony furniture and marvellous panoramic views of the mountains.

 

This was the view that we would be seeing every morning and evening for the next week. Fantastic!Soon after check-in, we went to check out the Coop grocery store but it closed early. I was glad that we managed to buy some stuff for our breakfast from a local store, located right outside the train station. Dinner on the first day was instant noodles that we brought from home. Interhome actually provides a pre-arrival grocery service but we did not make use of it.

Eating out in Switzerland is quite expensive and having our dinners and breakfasts in our self-catering apartment is one sure way to save money that can be used to pay for more holidays! 

The sun sets at about 9 PM in summer. Time for some rest and relaxation as we had planned a long hike the next day.

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Walking the scenic Grütschalp to Mürren trail in the Jungfrau region

5 July 2015

The plan for this morning would be to walk the scenic Grütschalp to Mürren trail. This is one of the recommended walking trail for beginners on the western plateau above the Lauterbrunnen valley.

The sun rose early and so was I. I wanted to shoot some photos of the gorgeous scenery in the morning light. I could see Murren in the distance, on the other side of the Lauterbrunnen valley from the balcony.

View of Murren, perched on the cliff across the Lauterbrunnen Valley, as seen from the balcony of my apartment in Wengen.

A sneak peek of the Grütschalp to Mürren trail as seen from Wengen.

It was a clear morning and the moon could be seen over the mountain. In fact, I could also see a brown coloured train making its way from Grütschalp to Mürren on the opposite cliff. It looked like a miniature toy train from where I sat.

After a breakfast of bread, fried eggs and bacon and drinking in the fantastic alpine view, we took the train from Wengen down to Lauterbrunnen.

 

Wengen Station.

The station for the gondola to Grütschalp is just a short distance from the Lauterbrunnen Station. Our half fare card entitled us to 50% discount for the cable car rides.

Arriving at Grütschalp, we could see Wengen and our apartment across the valley. There was a viewing platform next to the Grütschalp station where we caught our first sight of the majestic trio – from left to right - Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains!

After taking many photos of the mountains, we started on our 4.3 km walk to Murren.

This easy route crossed forests and grasslands. It offers great views of the Lauterbrunnen valley and the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains.

The trail runs parallel to the narrow gauge railway between Grütschalp and Mürren and we spotted the brown train a few times along the way.

The trail was well sign-posted.

We passed by Winteregg,

…and finally arrived at Mürren. Like Wengen, Mürren is car-free village perched on a cliff by the edge of the Lauterbrunnen valley.

Lying at the foot of the Schilthorn, Mürren is the access point to go up this mountain, also known as the James Bond’s mountain. The panoramic revolving restaurant at the summit, Piz Gloria, was featured in the 1969 James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. We had no plans to go up the Schilthorn.

Mürren.

From Murren, we could barely see Wengen across the valley, on the opposite ridge. After a 4.3 km easy walk on a clear sunny day, we pampered ourselves with lunch in the Edelweiss Restaurant, located at the edge of the Mürren cliff. 

While eating our lunch we spotted a couple of para-gliders passing above us and soaring down into the Lauterbrunnen valley below.

That’s when Daniel got the idea that he wanted to try para-gliding. It seemed fun but dangerous.  Not today, as we had planned to walk the Northface trail after lunch.

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Hiking the Northface trail from Allmendhubel to Gimmelwald via the Sprutz Waterfall

5 July 2015

After a good rest and lunch at the restaurant inside the Edelweiss Hotel, we continued our walk into Murren to look for the funicular railway that would bring us higher up the mountain to Allmendhubel, at 1907m above sea level.

The Allmendhubelbahn was easy to find. We could not miss the sight of the rack rail going up the side of the sloping mountain.

A model at the entrance of the station showed the inclines and technology used.

We managed to get a seat at the front of the car and had a nice view of the journey up.

It was 3 PM when we arrived at Allmendhubel.

We were in no hurry to start on our hike as the views were so stunning.  Fields of green and plenty of alpine flowers in bloom, against the mountain backdrop.

There were quite a few trails starting from the station and we were taking the Northface trail. 

One of the markers for the trail, painted in white-red-white.

We stopped often to enjoy the views.

View of the 800m high Western face of the Schwarzmonch (Black Monk) rising above the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Many rock climbers went up the almost vertical face successfully.

 Schilthornbahn cable car.

Having a cable car zooming past above our heads at one point.

One of the rest points with benches.

We had to pass through cattle gates along the way. 

Making sure that the gate is properly closed after we passed.

Before long we came upon the Schiltalp restaurant.

Schiltalp restaurant.

We stopped for drinks and met a nice friendly  dog.

We could see gliders floating overhead.

More animals were spotted along the trail.

Pigs!

For city dwellers, pig sty is not a common sight and worth stopping to take a photo.

Pig sty near the Schiltalp restaurant.

We came to a part of the trail that was one of my favourite. This was where it seems like the trail was leading us up the mountains in the distance. Just a visual illusion.

At one point, we left the marked trail to take the right hand path towards a forest path leading to the Sprutz waterfall. It was steep going down this trail that led us to a bridge across a stream.

All of the family crossed the stream using the wooden bridge, except one.

This hero decided it was more fun to walk across the stream using the rocks.

We passed through more farms and met more friendly farm animals.

A path led us into the woods and down a switchback trail that descended until we could hear the sound of the waterfall in the distance. It was a comforting sound as it meant we were on the right trail.

Trail leading down to Sprutz waterfall.

There was a bench where we sat to watch a group of boys and girls playing dangerous near the waterfall.  The trail led underneath the Sprutz waterfall before continuing uphill on steps cut into the rock face.

More hiking through forested trail and we emerged to get this view.

I figured the village below is Gimmelwald (1367m above level), the end point of our hike.

Hiking down to Gimmelwald.

This was one of my favourite places on this trail. We spent quite a while posing for photos with the mountains as the backdrop.

Some curious cows soon came to check what we were doing. 

We made our way down to the village below.  A friendly cat came to greet us  along the trail down to the village.

Just as we arrived at Gimmelwald, we could hear the rumble of distant thunder and felt a few drops of rain. This was an example of how fast the weather can change in the high mountains. We speed walked to the gondola station before we were caught in the approaching thunderstorm. The fastest walker in the family when there was any sign of danger was the one who was usually the slowest.  

The Gimmelwald station actually has gondolas going down to Murren or Stechelberg. The gondola station was unmanned. Tickets could be bought using a self-ticketing machine. We chose to head down to Stechelberg located in the Lauterbrunnen valley and then took a post-bus back to Lauterbrunnen. We could use our half fare cards on these yellow post-buses too.

Lauterbrunnen Valley as seen from Stechelberg.

In summary, our first day out hiking the Swiss Alps turned out to be one of the longest but very enjoyable hike in this trip. We started out from Wengen at about 10.45 AM. Took a 15 minutes train ride down to Lauterbrunnen to transfer to a gondola to Grütschalp to start our easy 1.5 hour, 4.3 km hike to Murren. From Murren, we took the funicular to Allmendhubel where we began our afternoon hike to Gimmelwald. This second hike was more gruelling as it involved several ascend and descend but the views were stunningly beautiful. We took about 5 hours as we stopped many times to enjoy the views and take photos. By the time we arrived at Stechelberg, it was 8 PM but it was still pretty bright in summer.

All in all, a great day out.

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