This day was really the highlight of all the days in the Switzerland! If I had to do over, I would spend all 4 days in this region – The Bernese Oberland!
Today, we left our hotel in Interlaken in the morning, and took a 20 min train ride to Lauterbrunnen. Lauterbrunnen is a valley town and the base of the Jungrau region.
After reaching Lauterbrunnen, we checked our bags into the lockers at the station, and bought tickets to Mannlichen. We planned to do a scenic hike from Mannlichen to Kliene Scheidegg. We first had to take a train to the mountain resort, Wengen.
Wengen itself offered some nice views into the valleys below. We then took a cable car ride up a mountain to Mannlichen. The tickets from Lauterbrunnen up the mountains were not covered by the Swiss pass, though we got some discount because of the pass. Most people come to this region to go up the Jungrau mountain to Jungfraujoch, but we decided not to do that for three reasons: It was really expensive (around $300 per person); The ride up itself is 3 hours, which means you would spent most of your day going up and down the mountain; There did not seem to be much to do up there that was worth the 3 hour trip. We were more interested in hiking around, so we chose to do the Mannlichen to KS hike, which would allow up to see up the Jungfrau mountain.
Reaching Mannlichen, we started the 1.5 hike (more of a walk) down to Kleine Scheidegg. This was one of the best hikes we’ve done. The views all along the hike were amazing. Even though it was high in the moutains, the weather was nice and warm, with a slight breeze.
I would highly recommend this easy walk for anyone in the area.
After the hike, we took the train from Kleine Scheidegg back to Wengen. We had lunch at a Swiss restuarant in Wengen. Since we reached Wengen around 2:30pm, there did not seem to be too many restaurants open, but we managed to find something. The food was OK.
After lunch, we took another train from Wengen back to Lauterbrunnen. We had some time, so we walked around Lauterbrunnen town, had some coffee, and saw some waterfalls.
We eventually got our bags from the locker in the station, took a train back to Interlaken, and an intercity express to Lucerne, where we stayed the night at Hotel Ibis Budget. The hotel was comfortable, and clean. It was around a 10 minute walk from the train station.
