If you only read one post on this blog, make it this one. When we built the itinerary, we cut Amsterdam and Florence just to buy more time in the Swiss Alps. That's how much we wanted to be here. It turned out to be the best decision of the trip.
Getting there is half the weirdness
Wengen sits on a sunny shelf high above the Lauterbrunnen Valley, and there's no road up. You get there the charming way: the little cog railway (the Wengernalpbahn) from Lauterbrunnen, which grinds its way up the mountainside while the valley drops away below you. No cars in the village. Just trains, footpaths, and the occasional very small delivery vehicle.
Below you, the Lauterbrunnen Valley is famous for its waterfalls, around 72 of them, with Staubbach Falls pouring right off the cliff near the village of Lauterbrunnen itself. It looks fake. It is not fake.
Home base: Hotel Victoria Lauberhorn
We stayed at the Hotel Victoria Lauberhorn, right in the middle of the village, which made it ridiculously easy to roll out of bed and onto a train or cable car. From Wengen you're perfectly placed for the big three:
- Jungfraujoch. The "Top of Europe." At 3,454 meters, it's the highest railway station in Europe, and the train climbs there through tunnels carved inside the Eiger and the Mönch. Up top: snow in July, the Aletsch Glacier (the longest in the Alps), and air thin enough that walking briskly becomes a group project.
- Männlichen. A cable car straight from Wengen lifts you onto a ridge with the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau lined up across from you like they're posing for a group photo.
- Kleine Scheidegg. The mountain pass at the foot of the Eiger's north face and the changeover point for the train to Jungfraujoch. Grab a seat, look up at that wall of rock, and question every life choice that brought climbers up it.
Weirdo tip: check the summit webcam
Jungfraujoch tickets are not cheap, and the weather up there has its own opinions. Check the live webcams the morning you plan to go. A clear day at the top is unforgettable. A cloudy one is a very expensive trip into a white box.
Why we'd do it again
Swiss trains run like a Swiss watch, the scenery out the window is absurd, and staying in one mountain village for several nights instead of racing through meant we actually got to be somewhere. That's the whole philosophy of this blog, honestly.
