Largely due to once seeing Rick Steve’s recommendation of Gimmewald, Switzerland, it has been on my bucket list for many years. Last fall we made that dream a reality and it was amazing.
I try not to be hyperbolic or recommend every place I’ve been (which it seems most travel bloggers who haven’t been a ton of places do), but this was as amazing to me as our recent trip to Havasupai Falls in Arizona.
In contrast, there are many places I don’t recommend, even on that trip.
Which is all to say, this part of Switzerland is actually amazing. The other parts of Switzerland I’ve been to are super scenic, don’t get me wrong. But this trip was amazing.
Planning Our Switzerland Trip
First, let me say that this trip planned itself because of the tip I’m now religious about with Using Google Maps To Save Travel Destinations.
We were planning a trip to Lyon, France and I had places saved in the Alps (like Verdon Gorge or Chamonix). But then on Roomer I saw a deal for 6 days at a suite in a nice hotel in Interlaken, Switzerland for $58 a night, which was an amazing deal alone! (See 9 Ideas For Getting Hotel Deals).
Then I checked my Google Maps and saw the following:
I saw all these places that I’ve saved on Google Maps over the years around Switzerland.
Renting a car
Renting a car from Lyon was also going to be way cheaper than public transit and subways, although the train did seem to reach everywhere we would’ve gone.
The rental car was $134.81 for our 6 days.
But in contrast, a oneway from Interlaken to one of our hiking spots was over $20 per person. That would’ve been $80 for one day of mostly hiking!
Of course, parking it Switzerland is insanely pricey (given we were often paying to park in rural areas), but I found a parking lot that was 5 Euros a day and wasn’t too far of a walk from our hotel. So we probably paid $15 a day in parking. Still came out way ahead.
Where To Go In Switzerland
Gimmewald, Switzerland
The highlight of the trip was Gimmewald. This is a little town at the top of a cliff and totally disconnected from any road access.
We hiked up, but otherwise you have to take the cable car.
It is a steep hike, but it was only 1.5 miles up (which was much shorter than our Grand Canyon / Havasupai hikes).
Much like Havasupai, this is an awesome experience partly because of how remote the population is.
I can’t tell you how beautiful and peaceful it was. Hopefully the photos will do some justice.
Hiking up: We parked at a little parking lot in Stechelberg, as far up the road as we could go. Then on foot, the trailhead was pretty obvious once we crossed a bridge. Hiking trails in Switzerland are generally well marked. (You need change for the parking machine).
Gimmewald is connected to Murren, Switzerland
This clifftop town is connected by a road to a very nearby ski resort town, Murren.
How in the world they paved the road or even got cars up there in the first place is amazing. I really have no idea.
Murren is the more popular destination and it has a cable car which continues way up to Schilthorn.
And while this town is significantly more touristy, that’s relative. I’m not sure how many tourists were there, but Wiki says there are only 2,000 hotel beds in the town. Although the population is only 450… So it’s certainly a tourist-based town.
Yet, just over a mile away is Gimmewald (and it’s a relatively flat and easy walk).
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
Below these cliff-towns is a little valley. And stuck between these cliffs is another popular small town called Lauterbrunnen. You would have to drive through it to get to the trailhead or cablecar for Gimmelwald.
Also, there are lots of waterfalls in this area.
I think this would be a fantastic place to stay if you want to cablecar or hike up to Gimmewald, Murren, or Wengen. Also would be a great place to stay.
Oeschinensee
We hiked up to the Oeschinensee area, which has more the classic Apline scenery with the alps surrounding a tiny lake.
Per usual, you can take a cable car up, but we hiked up.
It seems to be a popular place for day trips, although there is a little lodge up there.
But the best part was the alpine slide…
The Alpine Slide!
I had totally forgotten about this place until I found it on my Google Maps and got super excited.
I had forgotten that I had seen this video (must watch!) on Reddit and quick looked it up and saved the place on Google Maps (here is a link to the exact location) and then forgot. Until I realized we were staying not that far away from it!
It was $5 per ride, or $20 for 5 rides (which I highly recommend even if there are only two of you, because you’ll want to go again!).
Interlaken?
It was a great town in between two lakes and there’s a great hike/cable car to get a view right above the town at “Harder Kulm”.
That being said, I’d rather have spent my time in the places I talked about above or some of the other recommendations below.
It’s beautiful, but it’s a quiet boring town, and I’d rather experience a boring town up from the cliff tops.
Just my opinion.
Other Recommendations:
- Wengen
- Trift Bridge
- Titlis Cliff Walk
- Grindelwald
- Kandersteg – Adelboden hike
These are other places I have saved on Google Maps which we didn’t visit.
Conclusion / Other Tips
Get an Airbnb in Gimmewald or Wengen and bring your family and you won’t regret it.
It is amazing.
Things “to do” in this area of Switzerland… like hiking or hiking.
What’s funny is I absolutely love Vienna, but many people have told me how boring it is. While it probably helps that I have a friend there who took us to some cool places, I agree it is peaceful and relatively quiet. I mean, compared to Berlin or Budapest, I could absolutely see why it could be considered boring.
Similarly, I think spending a week here would drive Stefan (of RapidTravelChai) absolutely nuts.
If you are happy sitting in a quiet place and if you love hiking, you’ll love this.
If you aren’t willing or able to hike for a couple of hours up a steep cliff area to get to your town, or you want to stay there and bring up luggage, don’t worry, you can always take the cable car.
Food is expensive.
Not only is food stupid expensive, but only the British have more bland food than the Germans. I’m not saying I haven’t had great meals in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, I have (usually the main ingredient is cheese in those cases)! I’m just saying I would fly around the world to eat in many Asian countries, and I don’t feel the same way about Switzerland.
Regardless, the point is food is expensive. I walked into McDonald’s just to see what was on their small menu, and there was a “value” menu that had a $12 Big Mac. Like, Big Mac the crappy sandwich.
However, knowing this, I stopped at a grocery store in France and loaded up. Then we would pack sandwiches we made when going hiking.
Although surprisingly Murren had grocery stores that were reasonable, so I didn’t really need to carry stuff up.
And you can still get meals for $20 (not including drinks), but given that in many remote places the $20 option was boxed/canned spaghetti or a bland German sandwich (redundant, I know), we packed grocery food.
Transit is expensive.
As I mentioned, the train and all transit is way more expensive than I would expect. It’s one of few places I’d absolutely recommend renting a car.
Interlaken is a 4 hour drive from Lyon, only 3.5 hours from the Milan MXP airport. So if you wanted to start in another country, you can, and you’ll likely save a little money on the car rental.
Also, look up the cable car prices for the town you want to visit, it can also be expensive, especially with a group or with taking them frequently or long distances.
Regardless, go!
We ate cheaply, we paid less than $25 a day on the car, we paid $58 for a suite in a nice hotel in Interlaken, and we hiked.
Switzerland doesn’t have to be expensive.
And regardless, it was an amazing trip and I looked at the cliff town Airbnbs for future visits with family and friends, and it’s not that bad.
This is likely my favorite place in the Alps and a very unique Switzerland experience.
Nice! Trying to get a feeling for first snow in that area. Was your visit in Sept/early October?
I remember going solo to Lugano while in highschool. I stayed at a youth hostel and could only afford eating spaghetti bolognese. By the way, a great way to meet people from other parts of the world that you can have a few beers with. Before hitting the mountains I would get a sandwich at a grocery store. Yep, Big Mac is ridiculously expensive!
If you have a chance, I suggest visiting the Italian speaking part of CH, Ticino. It’s pretty and somewhat different. Not as mountainous as Interlaken. Just 1-2h from Milan.
I mean, we were there in early Oct I think. But 1) Since we plan last minute, I had the ability to look up the weather before going. It was 60s/70s the entire time. Otherwise, I personally wouldn’t have considered booking.
2) It was then snowing in Spain. So YMMV.
I’ve actually been to that area – did Lake Como up to Davos. Beautiful area, but weather was bad when we were there.
Gorgeous area.
Definitely!
Stayed in Wengen for 3 days and it was an incredible vacation with daily hikes. Your pictures brought back some good memories and I think I will have to plan a trip back. At the time we bought some form of pass that gave us half off all rail travel including the cable cars. It really came in handy after a long day of hiking. Also stopping at the ski lodges for lunch was actually not that expensive.
I agree 100%! A couple of years ago we stayed in Murren and loved it. It was definitely one of my favorite trips ever. We didn’t rent a car. We bought some kind of family discount thingy that works for trains, cable cars, funiculars, etc in Switzerland. It was awesome because you can actually check your bags at the train station (in Zurich for example) a day or two before you go to the Alps and the bags will magically show up at your destination even when cable cars and mountain trains are involved. At the Inn we stayed in, the husband hunted each day and then they served actually fantastic meals each night (venison, rabbit, …)
Yeah, I looked at the pass. It’s like 240 Euros to include the local transit.
Definitely, we saved money, but I do absolutely prefer not driving, parking, etc… And would enjoy the trains. It would pay for itself though if you’re doing frequent cable cars.
Wow. You had just hunted meals? That’s incredible. Also, didn’t feel like we saw a ton of wildlife, but I guess it’s in there!
We stayed in a house in the back of the valley just past Lauterbrunnen. This place is the inspiration for where the Elves lived in Lord of the Rings. It’s actually a real place. Tolkien had stayed here previously. It surpasses Yosemite in my opinion. Way less crowded and can actually rent a place right in the valley. I consider it the single most beautiful place in our visits to 64 countries. You can take a train that goes through Murren to the highest train station in the world. When you get out of the train you walk into caves with ice carvings and then out on the glaciers at the top of the Jungfrau. On the other side of the valley you can take a tram to the top at a ski resort built by the producers of the James Bond movies and left after filming. Below it looks like a scene out of “The Sound of Music”, with hang gliders jumping off the cliffs. It’s also known as Valley of the Waterfalls because there are 72 of them around the valley. Including the only completely enclosed waterfall in Europe. Across the street from our rental we could hike inside the waterfall because stairs and lights have been installed. Interlakken is also a beautiful town but I completely missed this valley the first time I went.
Very happy to see you have returned to writing more frequently. No one does work like you do! I would love it if you could find a way to get more credit card links so us fans could support you work more. Also miss Carrie’s writing in Freakin Flyers. She has a different take on things and some wonderful views on life.
A truly special place. In 1985 before my first trip to Europe, my friend Ron told me about the one place I had to absolutely go: the hostel at Gimmelwald (“don’t get confused with Grindlewald” he warned). Out of an 8 week trip I stayed at Gimmelwald for almost a week. I loved it so much that in 1990 I took my girlfriend there, and we camped in the valley below and I proposed up on the glacier at the Jungfraujoch. Years later I saw that same Rick Steves episode and feared it may never be the same because of newfound attention. But in October 2013 we met our son at Gimmelwald for 4 days and stayed at an apartment, and it was still amazing. Walked to Murren for the local cheese festival and hiked. The scenery was unparalleled. Really the only difference in 30 years seemed to be an upgrade to the hostel of a restaurant.
So glad you made the trip and loved it too!
Was in both Grindelwald and Gimmelwald (at the same hostel @Rich T stayed at) in 1984 while hitching from one end of Europe to other. Hiked between the two towns.
Yes, food was expensive then too — dinner was generally a couple of potatoes with a package of Knorr soup mix poured over them. My daily budget was $10-$15 all in, so you couldn’t expect too much.
You have, IMHO, found one of the most beautiful places on the planet. A few years ago, I ran the Jungfrau Marathon, which passes through Lauterbrunnen on the way up to Kleine Scheidegg. I nearly missed the race cutoff time, as I paused seemingly every quarter mile to snap photos of the breathtaking surroundings.