Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
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I'm hoping someone on these boards may be knowledgeable on this specific area of Switzerland.

I'll be in Lauterbrunnen in August. Myself and another dude in his 20s will be taking a train from Basel to stay for a night or two. What are the best things to at that time of year? Are the waterfalls still in effect? I've heard about lengthy mountain hikes that lead to really good beer gardens with beautiful mountain vistas. Is that true? How's the village itself? Would it be better to stay in one of the other villages in the area like Wengen, M?rren or Grindelwald? Places with good beer, food, live music (is that a thing in that area?), and places that are just plain interesting are of interest.

We're basing our decision to visit this specific area solely based on these pictures. I believe these were taken in June. Lifted fromthis site.

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Sir Funk

Lord Nagafen Raider
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I haven't been to Lauterbrunnen specifically, but I have travelled to Interlaken which is just north about 15 minutes.

It is gorgeous, looks exactly like those pictures. We took a gondola lift up into the mountain and hiked around for hours. You could tell the town was basically all about skiers and extreme sports enthusiasts (you'll hear people buzzing around in their flying chipmunk suits high above you). This was the one bar that I remembered:brasserie 17 - bar / restaurant in interlakenwith live music on Thursdays in the summer--but there are a half dozen bars to check out in that small city.

I'm sure there are beautiful places to hike right outside of Lauterbrunnen, but Interlaken, literally in between two lakes, is absolutely gorgeous and is definitely worth the short trip up at some point.

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Szlia

Member
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Switzerland is a small country, I'm sure Szlia can help you !
I must confess I am not much of a mountain guy and I have never went to this area. The best I can do is provide some no-non-sense advice like: wear good shoes, take some food and drink with you, wear sunscreen, remember it can get cold if you go too far up, have a map, follow the yellow markings (hike paths are marked by yellow signs), etc... Can't even help with Basel: that's Soriak's territory!
 

Troll_sl

shitlord
1,703
6
Oh fuck. Lauterbrunnen. If there were a heaven, it would have my vote.

It's the one place I have real trouble describing in words. They're just all inadequate. If I had all the money in the world, I would immediately retire to Murren and die happy.

If you're going to be in Lauterbrunnen, stay in Murren or Grindelwald. Basel is nice, of course, but there's something to be said about staying in a smaller hotel in one of the other towns. And they're all basically a gondola ride away from each other, anyways. The place I stayed at, both times I went there, was in Murren. It's a hotel perched right on the fucking cliff-edge. When I get home, I'll try to find pictures. But it's indescribable, waking up and going to the balcony, to see the clouds lifting up out of the vallety 1000 feet below.

There's lots of great hiking right out of Murren, too. And the best raclette, I thought.
 

Kedwyn

Silver Squire
3,915
80
Some beautiful pics. Never been to that area and judging from the pics I need to pack up the family and go. Beautiful.
 

Furry

WoW Office
<Gold Donor>
19,544
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I've been to that area. It's every bit as beautiful as those pictures show. If you go in august, the waterfalls should still be going. I'll give some basic tips.

Know how you're getting about. You aren't driving, but I think its important to give some advice on the subject anyways. You likely want to stay relatively close to major roads. The major highways are all relatively easy to travel, minor but newer roads for the most part are not too bad, but can get snowed out -any time of year- if they go high enough in the mountains (Many do.). For under-developed roads, you will learn a thing or two about treacherous conditions. One lane mountain passes with plummets to your death still exist when heading to the smaller/remote towns. Additionally, some towns are built pre-cars, and it shows, their roads are too narrow for cars to transverse safely. I'm not too experienced on the hiking side of things, but I saw people hiking, especially along the major highways. That may seem like a strange thing for someone who's from America, but the roads in switzerland are absolutely beautiful. The scenric highway 2 alongside highway E35 in particular is amazing. I'd look up a guide on the best places to actually hike, but I saw plenty of people do it, and people will generally give hitchhikers rides.

As for food, food is generally very good. I'd put it on par with france. Most small towns have very skilled chefs in their restaurants. You will eat very good for good prices just about anywhere.

Entertainment wise, you'll find the most near the major cities. Small cities are very rural, and people don't come or go from them in large numbers. Its very calm and peaceful, but expect a laid back atmosphere were people are chill, and bars to have mostly people watching football matches. Many ski lodges at this time of year will be nearly abandoned, and at most you'll find one person keep watch somewhere inside of them. Absolutely great if your into zen/nature sort of tourism.

If you're looking for more a scene, I highly suggest checking out lucerne. Lucerne is an amazing city. Is fairly large, active clean and beautiful, and one of the main starting points for people heading into the mountains. Its a bit touristy, so feel free to skip it if you aren't after the pluses and minuses that tourist areas can bring. I mostly stayed at bed and breakfast type places, and found prices to be on average reasonable to high reasonable. Not as bad as touristy areas/cities can be, but expect to pay more than rural towns in most of europe. (60-90$ish/night).
 

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,506
7,430
This place was awesome. I can't believe more Americans haven't heard of it. Words cannot describe. This was the view from outside our window:

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We hiked one of the peaks in the area and the view from the top was outta this world. We could see all the way to Bern. That's one of the lakes by Interlaken below:

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Szlia

Member
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Was the weather ok when you were here, because we really had a terrible few months. It's usually not that grey/rainy/cold during the summer months. Pretty depressing stuff really
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EDIT: I should add that it's cool that you gave some closure to the thread. I wish all the people who start thread in the travel section would do the same!
 

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,506
7,430
I heard the weather has been terrible. I have friends who live in Basel and they said it's been very gray and rainy. We got lucky. We spent a night in Basel and it was gorgeous. Sat outside on the banks of the Rhine drinking beer and enjoying some live music that was going on outside. The following day was also very nice. We even swam down the Rhine a little bit. The water was cold at first, but the current was so strong we warmed up quickly from how much work it was to keep up. The weather was perfect in the mountains. It rained the final night which left some pretty spectacular fog sights the next morning. I really enjoyed my time there, but it's too expensive!

Some other pics of the wonderful scenery. Seriously, this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It's like a place from a fantasy story.

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