The Jungfrau Region south of Interlaken, Switzerland may be the most breathtakingly beautiful and accessible mountainous region in the world with its amazing combination of forests, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, mountain peaks, and glaciers, all of which are easily accessible by train, bus, cable car, and walking. No trip to Switzerland is complete without taking at least a couple of days to explore this region.

Choosing a Home Base

Most people visiting the region will stay in and around Interlaken because of its extensive tourist facilities and vast recreational opportunities and because it’s the transportation hub for the whole area with its two rail stations, Interlaken West and Interlaken Ost. Interlaken also happens to be a very beautiful town, although it is expensive and overrun with tourists.

There’s also plenty of lodging in Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, but every village seems to have quite a few places to stay. Rick Steves immortalized Gimmelwald, a tiny village near Mürren at the base of the Schilthorn, in his original Europe Through the Back Door. Of course, now everyone wants to visit there, but the facilities are still minimal.

Trains to Interlaken run often, with connections available at Geneva, Bern, Basel, Zurich, Luzern, Lugano and many other locations.

Amazing Geography

Interlaken sits in a huge moraine between two lakes, the Brienzersee and the Thunersee. South of Interlaken, the landscape splits into two major glacial valleys. The western or Lauterbrunnen valley heads almost due south, deeply into the mountains, dead ending at Stechelberg, from which you can catch a cable car to Gimmelwald and onward to the spectacular top of the Schilthorn at over 9,000 feet.

The eastern valley runs southeastward toward Grindelwald. Between the two valleys is a vast headland topped by the small village of Kleine Scheidegg, at an altitude of more than 6,000 feet. And south of this village is the Jungfrau massif, consisting of many peaks including the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau, all of which tower over 12,000 feet. Kleine Scheidegg is the starting point of the biggest tourist attraction in the area: the Jungfrau Railroad.

The Top of Europe

The Jungfraubahn is the most amazing train I’ve ever traveled on. It ascends steeply from Kleine Scheidegg, and before long enters a tunnel that it remains in until it reaches the Jungfraujoch station, basically a huge cave, the highest train station in Europe, known as the Top of Europe, at over 11,000 feet. On the way, you’ll stop briefly at Eigerwand, a platform within the face of the Eiger that has huge windows looking out of the mountain. Maybe you saw them in the Clint Eastwood film The Eiger Sanction.

Getting out of the station but remaining indoors, you’ll be able to visit the Sphinx observation hall and terrace, the highest in Europe, as well as the Ice Palace, a series of manmade chambers carved out of the glacier. You can also venture outside to walk on the permanent snow of the Jungfrau Plateau. The views and the overall experience are amazing, and you will probably find yourself in a crush of other tourists. But you will see snow and ice--lots of it. Be sure to marvel at the Aletsch Glacier spreading before you, at 22 km, the longest ice stream in Europe. Other attractions at this location include the Glacier Restaurant, husky-drawn sled rides and the high alpine research exhibition.

If you start your trip in Interlaken, you get to follow a remarkable route on a truly remarkable series of trains. Starting at Interlaken Ost, you take a regular old train to Lauterbrunnen. There, you switch to a zahnradbahn, a train powered by a cog wheel that engages a toothed rod between the regular tracks, a necessity for steeper ascents, for the trip to Wengen. You change again at Wengen for the run to Kleine Scheidegg, and again there for the ascent to the top on the Jungfraubahn. The Jungfraubahn takes you back from the top to Kleine Scheidegg, where you can simply reverse your route, or optionally continue to Grindelwald and go back to Interlaken by way of the eastern valley. You also have the option to get to Kleine Scheidegg via Grindelwald and go down via Lauterbrunnen. It’s basically a big circle with Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, Kleine Scheidegg, and Grindelwald around the circumference.

Kleine Scheidegg

If the peaks are shrouded in clouds, as is often the case, you may not want to spend the money to go to the Top of Europe. In that case, you may still want to go as far as Kleine Scheidegg. The views here are spectacular, and you get a real taste of being way up in the mountains.

Kleine Scheidegg is situated right at the foot of the notorious Eiger North Face. It’s is a lively, busy place where you may meet Alpine herdsmen with their cattle, climbers preparing to attempt the Eiger and visitors from all over the world. 

Be sure to bring your binoculars or use one of the telescopes to explore the face of the Eiger, where you are likely to see climbers, both living and dead.

Kleine Scheidegg also has a restaurant and terrace and some lodging.

Much More to Do

There’s a lot more to do in this area. There are cable cars going to the tops of about a dozen peaks. There’s the famous Trummelbach Falls in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. And, there are countless opportunities for scenic day hikes on the very well maintained and marked trail system. A friend and I once took the train up, but then walked down from Wengen to Lauterbrunnen, an easy downhill trek.

For an overview of the area with emphasis on the ride to the Top of Europe, see the web site http://www.jungfraubahn.com . An English version is available.



Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov