Switzerland · Bern & Bernese Oberland · Travel guide
What the valley of 72 waterfalls really costs, why you should sleep up in Mürren or Wengen rather than down in the village, and how to have Lauterbrunnen to yourself despite the Instagram rush.
Photo: Gotta Be Worth It / Pexels
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Estimates for orientation, not booking prices. Getting there means train or car from Switzerland, return, per person. Hotels vary strongly by season: current prices are behind the links below.
Money & payment: You pay in Swiss francs (CHF). Cards and the Twint app work practically everywhere, even on alpine pastures. Many shops accept euros but give change in francs at a poor rate. Service is included in prices; rounding up is customary. Getting there: By train (SBB) or car, 1 to 4 hours from Zurich.
Nine options in three price ranges, each among the best-rated on Booking.com.
Budget
Family-run hostel on the Dorfstrasse with a view of the Staubbach Falls from the balcony, dorms and double rooms, kitchen, washing machine, garden. Five minutes from the station, the first address in the valley for backpackers.
Legendary hostel in the car-free farming village of Gimmelwald, dorms, terrace with a view of the waterfalls opposite, pizza and beer in the evening, hot tub. Five minutes by cable car from Stechelberg. For anyone who wants the valley from above and on a budget.
One of the oldest hotels in the valley, simple and clean, at the end of the village with a view of the Staubbach Falls from the south rooms, breakfast included, family rooms. No luxury, but a real hotel at a price close to a hostel.
Mid-range
Family hotel right at Mürren station, run for generations, with indoor pool, spa and the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau outside the windows. Rooms from classic to renovated, good half board. The safe choice for a Mürren weekend without searching.
Chalet hotel right next to the valley station of the Schilthorn cable car in Mürren, rooms with balcony facing the Jungfrau, restaurant with sun terrace. Practical for the first cable car up the Schilthorn and quiet in the evening.
Large family hotel in the centre of Wengen by the station, with restaurant, bar and rooms facing the Jungfrau massif. Practical for families in summer and winter alike, ski piste and railway at the door.
Luxury
Four-star hotel with spa, indoor pool and 42 rooms in a park above the village centre of Wengen, views of the Jungfrau and the Lauterbrunnen valley. The valley has no classic five-star house, but it has this quiet with a view that no grand hotel can offer.
Belle Époque house from 1894 on a rise above Wengen with a view of the Jungfrau and the valley, spa, garden and terrace. Classic rooms with patina, old-school service. For a Wengen as the English knew it a hundred years ago.
The best house down in the valley, opposite the station, with renovated rooms, balconies facing the Staubbach and a restaurant. Luxury in the Lauterbrunnen sense: well kept, well located, no spa landscape. For the night before the early train.
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Ten glacier waterfalls inside the mountain, opened up with a tunnel lift and walkways, up to 20,000 litres per second. Admission CHF 14, an hour, early April to early November, PostBus from Lauterbrunnen or 45 minutes on foot. Also in rain.
297 metres of free fall over the rock wall at the edge of the village, free. The short rock path up leads into a niche behind the fall, 15 minutes, wet and open only in summer. Before 9 am or after 5 pm for the photo without the buses.
With the new Schilthorn cable car from Stechelberg via Mürren and Birg up to 2,970 metres, revolving restaurant, Bond World, Thrill Walk. Around CHF 110 return, Half Fare CHF 55, Berner Oberland Pass as far as Birg. Three to four hours, only in clear visibility.
Funicular from Mürren to the Allmendhubel (CHF 14 return with Half Fare), at the top a playground, restaurant and the two-hour North Face Trail back to Mürren with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau head-on. Doable with children, half a day.
By Wengernalp railway from Lauterbrunnen in 15 minutes to car-free Wengen, on to Kleine Scheidegg (CHF 30 return with Half Fare), back on foot from Wengernalp through the forest in 90 minutes. Half a day to a full day.
Tandem flight from Mürren landing in Stechelberg or Lauterbrunnen, 15 to 25 minutes in front of the Jungfrau, CHF 180 to 220. Calmer air and a bigger panorama than in Interlaken. Most stable in the morning, two hours.
Cable car from Stechelberg (CHF 6 with Half Fare) to the farming village of Gimmelwald, farm shop with cheese on an honesty basis, then on foot to Mürren in 30 minutes or into the quiet Sefinental to the Rotstock hut in three hours. Free apart from the cable car.
Seven flat kilometres along the valley floor, past the Staubbach, Trümmelbach and a dozen other falls, 90 minutes, pushchair possible, back by PostBus. The best way to see the valley without the crowds.
Fifty kilometres of pistes up to 2,970 metres, snow-sure and quiet, with the Inferno run dropping 2,000 metres to Lauterbrunnen. Day pass online from CHF 70, ski hire from CHF 45, the Inferno race at the end of January. December to April.
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The Lauterbrunnen valley eats like the whole Oberland: alpine cheese, rösti, meringues, dried meat. What is special are the terrace villages: in Gimmelwald and Mürren you get cheese straight from the farmer and hut meals with a view that no restaurant can sell. Lauterbrunnen village has restaurants for the through traffic; up top you eat better.
Hard matured cheese from the alps above the valley, in the farm shop on an honesty basis with a box to pay into yourself. CHF 3 to 4 per 100 g, with alpine cheese bread and yoghurt to go with it.
Tip:Bring cash; there is no card reader in the barn.
The mountain meal, in Mürren served with a view of the Jungfrau. CHF 22 to 28, on the Schilthorn CHF 30 and more.
Tip:Eat in Mürren rather than on the Schilthorn: the same dish for a third less.
Oberland meringue with thick cream, in Mürren and Wengen in almost every hotel restaurant. CHF 9 to 14.
Tip:After the North Face Trail on the terrace; at 3 pm you are then sitting in the sun.
Thick soup with barley, vegetables and bacon, the cheapest hot lunch in the valley. CHF 10 to 14, with bread and cheese CHF 18.
Tip:In the huts without electricity the soup comes off the wood stove and tastes of it.
Fondue with alpine cheese after the ski day in Mürren or Wengen, CHF 28 to 42 per person. Somewhat cheaper down in the valley, but without the view.
Tip:Reserve on winter evenings; the villages have few seats and many guests.
Air-dried beef and smoked sausage from the village butcher, for a picnic or as a platter. CHF 6 to 9 per 100 g, a platter for two CHF 24 to 30.
Tip:With bread from the bakery in Wengen, the best picnic on the Wengernalp.
No Oberland tradition, but the cheapest hot meal in the valley with the best terrace: pizza from CHF 15, beer CHF 5, sunset free.
Tip:From 6 pm half the village turns up; come early or late.
Through markets and eateries with a guide, tastings included.
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The Lauterbrunnen valley is a textbook U-shaped valley: ice-age glaciers planed a flat valley floor a kilometre wide between rock walls 300 to 500 metres high, and from the hanging valleys above, the streams plunge down as waterfalls, 72 of them if you count them all. The name means "nothing but springs". Walser settlers from the Valais colonised the high valleys of Mürren and Gimmelwald in the 13th century, and the car-free villages on the terraces are to this day the places where the valley looks most like itself. Goethe stood before the Staubbach Falls in 1779 and wrote his "Song of the Spirits over the Waters" about them, Byron worked the valley into "Manfred" in 1816, and the Romantics made Lauterbrunnen a compulsory stop on the Grand Tour. In 1890 the Bernese Oberland Railway reached the village, in 1893 the Wengernalp railway climbed to Wengen and Kleine Scheidegg, in 1891 the funicular to Grütschalp opened with a connection to Mürren, and both villages remained without a road, which protects them from car tourism to this day. The Trümmelbach Falls, ten glacier waterfalls inside the mountain, were made accessible with tunnels and lifts from 1913. The Schilthorn got its cable car in 1967, and because the revolving restaurant at 2,970 metres ran out of money, the company let the building to the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in 1968 as Piz Gloria; Bond saved the construction, and the brand stuck. In 2024 the new Schilthorn cable car opened with the steepest cable car in the world from Stechelberg. Since 2001 the valley has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Jungfrau-Aletsch. Lauterbrunnen itself has 2,400 inhabitants and on summer days ten times that number of visitors.
From Interlaken Ost the Bernese Oberland Railway runs every half hour to Lauterbrunnen in 20 minutes; from Zurich with a change it is 2 hours 30, from Bern 1 hour 20, from Basel 2 hours 45. With a Half Fare Card a Zurich return costs around CHF 80 (about EUR 86), supersaver tickets from CHF 30 each way. By car from Zurich 2 hours 15, vignette CHF 40, and then the problem: the car park at the station has 1,000 spaces, costs CHF 20 to 30 a day and is full from 10 am in summer; after that the village is closed to traffic. Since 2024 Lauterbrunnen has been discussing an entry fee for day visitors arriving by car, so far without a decision. If you stay up top, leave the car below: you reach Wengen only by the Wengernalp railway (15 minutes, CHF 7 with Half Fare), Mürren by funicular to Grütschalp and train (30 minutes) or by PostBus to Stechelberg and cable car via Gimmelwald. Both villages are car-free, and luggage travels in the hotel's electric cart. In the valley itself the PostBus runs from Lauterbrunnen via Trümmelbach to Stechelberg, seven flat kilometres that you can also do on foot (90 minutes) or by bike. The Berner Oberland Pass (CHF 240 for three days with Half Fare) covers Wengen, Mürren, Kleine Scheidegg and, since 2024, the Schilthorn as far as Birg; the Jungfrau Travel Pass is similar. Without a pass, Half Fare single tickets are cheapest, because the railways in the valley are short.
Since about 2019 Lauterbrunnen has been a place where the locals suffer. On summer days up to 20,000 visitors come to a village of 2,400 inhabitants, most of them for two hours: photo of the Staubbach with the church, stroll to the fall wall, back to the bus. The Dorfstrasse is then a column, drones fly over private gardens, campervans park on fields, and the municipality has put up no-photography signs on house fronts. We write this because you should know, and because your behaviour makes the difference. Specifically: come into the village before 9 am or after 5 pm, when the light on the Staubbach is better anyway. Do not sleep in the village but in Mürren, Gimmelwald, Wengen or Stechelberg, where you are a guest and not through traffic. Leave the car in Interlaken or Wilderswil and come by train. No drones over the village; it is banned and fined. Eat in the valley rather than unpacking a picnic in front of the church. And the most important trick: the valley floor towards Stechelberg is almost empty just a kilometre beyond the village, with waterfalls left and right. In the terrace villages up top you are welcome, and the money stays in the valley.
A mid-range double room costs CHF 180 to 240 (about EUR 193 to 257) in summer, similar in winter, CHF 120 to 150 in the shoulder season. Lauterbrunnen down below has a few hotels, two hostels and the famous Camping Jungfrau, all loud by day and quiet in the evening; the gorge gets only a few hours of sun in winter. Mürren at 1,650 metres sits on a terrace with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau at eye level, has 450 inhabitants, 2,000 guest beds, Belle Époque hotels and silence in the evening; it is the best base for anyone who wants to hike and have peace. Gimmelwald one stop lower is a farming village with two hostels and a guesthouse, the cheapest and most honest address in the valley. Wengen on the other side of the valley is bigger, with a village centre, shops, sun until evening and a direct link to the Kleine Scheidegg ski area; for families and in winter often the better choice. Stechelberg at the end of the valley has two simple hotels and is the starting point for the Schilthorn cable car. Book three to six months ahead for July, August and Christmas; Mürren has few beds, and once they are gone only the valley is left. The visitor tax of CHF 4 to 6 per night gives you the guest card with discounts on the sports centre and local railways.
After the Jungfraujoch the Schilthorn is the second most expensive mountain trip in the region: Stechelberg to Piz Gloria and back around CHF 110 (about EUR 118) without discount, CHF 55 with Half Fare, free as far as Birg with the Berner Oberland Pass and with a supplement from Birg. For that you get the revolving restaurant, Bond World, the Thrill Walk on Birg and a view over 200 peaks; in fog you get a Bond exhibition for CHF 110. So as everywhere: webcam in the morning. From Mürren the trip costs less, and anyone staying in Mürren takes the first cable car at 7.25 am, when the sky is clear and the terrace empty. The Trümmelbach Falls cost CHF 14, and for that you see ten waterfalls inside the mountain; it is worth every franc and good in rain too. The Staubbach Falls are free, and so is the path up behind the fall. You reach Mürren and Wengen with Half Fare for CHF 7 to 12; the Berner Oberland Pass only pays off in the valley if you also do the Schilthorn, Kleine Scheidegg and the boats on the lakes. Food: lunch in Mürren costs CHF 22 to 30, on the Schilthorn CHF 30 to 45, and the village shop in Mürren has bread and cheese for a picnic. The hostel kitchens in Gimmelwald are the cheapest cooking in the valley. Cost trap number one is the car: CHF 30 car park plus lost time plus the risk that the village is closed.
The waterfalls are strongest in May and June, when the snowmelt is running; the Staubbach then hangs as a dense veil, in September it is a thread, in winter frozen. The Trümmelbach Falls open in early April and close in early November; in June up to 20,000 litres per second thunder through the mountain. The best time for the whole valley is mid-June to early July (water, flowers, long days) and September to mid-October (stability, colours, half as many people). July and August are the months of overtourism; Lauterbrunnen village then only early or late. In winter Mürren with the Schilthorn ski area (50 kilometres of pistes, the Inferno run with 2,000 metres of descent as the longest run in Switzerland) is a quiet, snow-sure ski resort with views instead of après-ski, and Wengen the family ski village with the Lauberhorn race in mid-January. The Inferno race in Mürren at the end of January is the biggest amateur ski race in the world, with 1,850 starters. The shoulder season from mid-April to early June and from mid-October to early December almost shuts Mürren and Wengen down: hotels close for weeks at a time, railways go into maintenance; but in May you have the valley with the fullest waterfalls almost to yourself, if you find an open hotel.
Everyone goes up the Schilthorn, hardly anyone hikes from Mürren. The North Face Trail from Allmendhubel (funicular from Mürren, CHF 14 return with Half Fare, about EUR 15) to Mürren is a two-hour terrace circuit with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau head-on, information boards on first ascents and the Blumental with alpine roses in July. The Mountain View Trail from Grütschalp to Mürren is an almost level high trail, an hour, pushchair possible. Gimmelwald, 30 minutes on foot below Mürren, is a village of 130 inhabitants with hay barns, a farm shop with cheese and alpine cheese bread on an honesty basis, and a hostel terrace from which you count the waterfalls opposite. The Sefinental behind Gimmelwald is a quiet side valley without a railway, with trails to the Rotstock hut (three hours), where you get alpine cheese with your soup. From Stechelberg at the end of the valley the path climbs to the Berghotel Obersteinberg (1,778 metres, three hours), an inn without electricity since 1880 with candles in the evening and a view of the Breithorn glacier; a night with half board costs CHF 110, June to September only. On the Wengen side the path from Wengernalp to Wengen leads through the forest along the Jungfrau, 90 minutes downhill, empty, while everyone queues up at Kleine Scheidegg. And if you really want to see the Staubbach, climb the short rock path up behind the fall: wet, free, 15 minutes, and after 5 pm without the buses.
By train from Interlaken Ost in 20 minutes, from Zurich in 2 hours 30, from Bern in 1 hour 20, Half Fare return from Zurich around CHF 80 (about EUR 86). By car in 2 hours 15 from Zurich, but the car park costs CHF 20 to 30 a day and is full from 10 am in summer. You do not need a car and cannot use one: Mürren and Wengen are car-free, and the valley has a PostBus and hiking trails. Come by train.
Mürren for peace, panorama and hikes, Wengen for families, sun and the Kleine Scheidegg ski area, Gimmelwald for the smallest budget and the most genuine village. Lauterbrunnen itself is overrun by day, quiet in the evening, lies in the gorge with little sun and is only practical if you arrive late or have to leave early. Stechelberg at the end of the valley is quiet and the start for the Schilthorn cable car.
For two people with two nights in Mürren mid-range (CHF 400), food (CHF 240), Schilthorn with Half Fare (CHF 110), Trümmelbach (CHF 28), local railways (CHF 50) and travel from Zurich with Half Fare (CHF 160) around CHF 990 (about EUR 1,059), so CHF 500 per person. With a hostel in Gimmelwald, picnics and hiking instead of the Schilthorn it can be done for CHF 250 per person.
In clear weather yes: a 360-degree view over 200 peaks from Mont Blanc to the Black Forest, revolving restaurant, Thrill Walk on Birg and the new steepest cable car in the world from Stechelberg. At CHF 110 (about EUR 118) without discount, CHF 55 with Half Fare, it is half the price of the Jungfraujoch and often the better view, because you see the trio from opposite. In fog Mürren with Allmendhubel is perfectly sufficient, for CHF 14.
On summer days between 10 am and 4 pm yes, with up to 20,000 visitors in the village, columns on the Dorfstrasse and a full car park. Early in the morning, from 5 pm, in May, June, September and October, and a kilometre beyond the village you notice little of it. The terrace villages of Mürren, Gimmelwald and Wengen are never overcrowded. If you come by train, sleep up top and are out early, you experience the valley, not the rush.
Mid-June to early July for the fullest waterfalls and alpine flowers, September to mid-October for clear views, autumn colours and far fewer visitors. May has the most water, but high trails still under snow and many hotels in Mürren closed. In winter Mürren is a quiet ski resort with the Inferno race at the end of January, and Wengen has the Lauberhorn in mid-January. Avoid July and August, or get up early.
The longest downhill on the World Cup circuit: 4.5 kilometres from the Lauberhorn down to Wengen, past the Hundschopf, the Kernen-S and the finish jump, where racers top 150 km/h. Car-free Wengen can only be reached by the cog railway from Lauterbrunnen; on downhill Saturday around 30,000 spectators arrive, the trains run non-stop and are still packed. Standing places along the course cost around CHF 50 to 80 (about EUR 53 to 85), the finish grandstand more, children usually go free. The mood is more family-like than in Kitzbühel, with cowbells rather than party tents, but on the course it is cold for hours and there is nowhere to sit. Hotels in Wengen and Lauterbrunnen are booked a year ahead for this weekend and demand minimum stays.
For travellers: Come as a day trip from Interlaken or Grindelwald and start early; the journey back after the race easily takes two hours because of the queue for the train.
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