5 Days in Grindelwald and Wengen

The gondola from Grindelwald to First takes about 25 minutes, and the first thing most people do at the top is walk out onto the Cliff Walk, a steel footbridge along the rock face that ends on a platform sticking 45 m into the void. Next to it is First View, a lookout with seven different views of the Bernese Alps. Both are included in the ski pass.

Do it before you ski, before the crowds arrive. The Cliff Walk is a ramp of steel mesh, more about the drop than the views, which are better from the nearby slopes. Ski boots work, but take your skis off.

First is the easiest of the three areas: the operator lists 13 blue, 8 red and 3 black runs, with a top at 2,168 m and a valley run to the village at 1,034 m. It's the place to warm up, and the one for children, with Lily's Fun Slope for little ones, a 130 m halfpipe and two parks in the Snowpark for freestylers.

Take the slopes towards Schreckfeld in the morning, when they're freshly groomed, and the run from there to Bort. The valley run back to Grindelwald is the long finish. Don't expect a big challenge: the point is the view of the Eiger and Wetterhorn, and light that stays on the slopes longer than on the other side.

Between First and Schreckfeld run two steel cables where you don't need skis. The First Flyer is a zip line, 800 m long, on which up to four people reach about 84 km/h; the First Glider is a seated version where up to four people fly backward first, then return at up to 83 km/h. Both are included in the pass.

They take about ten and fifteen minutes. Queues on a busy Saturday can double the time, so go in the early afternoon, when the lunch crowd has thinned. If you're nervous, the Glider is the gentler of the two.

Two mountain restaurants sit on the ski route: Bergrestaurant Bort on the valley run, and Bergrestaurant Schreckfeld near the lifts. Both serve the standard Swiss piste menu, and this is where to try Rösti, the grated potato cake that began as a farmers' breakfast in the canton of Bern, of which Grindelwald is part. Ask for it with a fried egg or with cheese.

Mountain prices are higher than in the village, and a plate of rösti is a good 20 CHF.

Ski down into the village, and you walk onto one long main street with the Eiger above it. Grindelwald is a farming village that turned into a resort, and its old farmhouses stand next to the grand hotels. In winter there is one local oddity worth timing: the Martinsloch, a hole in the rock on the east end of the Eiger, through which the sun shines on the village around midday.

From near the church you can see the light come through on 27 and 28 November and between 13 and 16 January, around 12:30, and every day around midday from 24 November to 22 January if the sky is clear. It lasts from three to thirty minutes, depending on where you stand.

The honest evening after a day on the slopes is a pot of melted cheese. Cheese fondue is a national dish, and Grindelwald's hotel restaurants all serve it. Kreuz & Post, Restaurant Derby and the Central Hotel Wolter are all in the main street, and the Bellevue's Restaurant Pinte is a short walk away.

Order the classic: Gruyère-and-Emmental style cheese melted with white wine, bread to dip, and tea or white wine to go with it. Fondue is for two or more, and the pot is shared.

The Eiger Express is a tricable gondola that opened in December 2020 and takes about 15 minutes from the Grindelwald Terminal to the Eigergletscher at 2,320 m. The cabins pass right under the north face.

Have the camera ready on the way up. The Terminal is also where the ski lockers are, which saves carrying skis through the village. Come before 9:00 for the shortest queue.

The Eigergletscher station is at the top, with the Jungfrau Railway's lower station next door, and from here the black piste number 27, nicknamed Oh God, drops towards Wengernalp. It's one of the steepest named runs on this side, and a good test: if you're not comfortable on a long black, take the red runs around it.

For everyone else the Eiger side has a mix of long reds and blues that finish near Kleine Scheidegg or in the valley towards Alpiglen and Brandegg. Ski the upper part twice: the north face is above you for the whole run, and this is the part of the mountain where the Eiger looks biggest.

Kleine Scheidegg is a pass at 2,061 m with a railway station, two big hotels and nothing else, and everything in it points at the Eiger north face. Here both branches of the Wengernalp Railway meet: trains from Grindelwald on one side and from Lauterbrunnen via Wengen on the other, with the Jungfrau Railway continuing to the Jungfraujoch.

The north face is the reason to stop. In the 1930s, before the first ascent in 1938, spectators watched the attempts through telescopes from this very place, and climbers died in view of the hotel terraces. Today you can see the whole face, nearly 1,800 m of it, on a clear day. Look for the Flatiron and the white ramps that the 1938 team climbed.

Several restaurants share the pass. Bergrestaurant Kleine Scheidegg is the big self-service one next to the station, the Chalet Bar on the slope is the quicker option, and Restaurant Eigernordwand has table service with the face in the window.

This is a good place for Älplermagronen, the Alpine herders' dish of macaroni, potatoes, cream, cheese and onions, served with apple sauce. It's heavy. Eat at 11:30 or after 13:30 to avoid the rush.

The way back is on skis. From Kleine Scheidegg a valley run follows the railway line down through Alpiglen and Brandegg to Grindelwald Grund, with the north face behind you. It's the longest run of the day, and the lower part runs at valley height, so check the slope report before you commit to it.

Start no later than 15:00. If the valley run is closed for lack of snow, take the Wengernalp train down. Either way you finish at Grund, near the Terminal, three minutes by train from the village.

When the lifts close, one run stays open: the Jungfrau Eiger Run, a 3.5 km sledging track from Alpiglen to Brandegg that is lit at night. It's the most popular of the region's more than 20 sledging runs, and you don't need to ski to enjoy it. The gradient reaches 36%, and the lower half is a flat-out finish.

Rent a sledge at the station, ride the train up to Alpiglen and sledge down. Wear a helmet and gloves, and keep a distance between sledges.

Go by train via Zweilütschinen and Lauterbrunnen with your bags. Wengen has no road, and the village stands on a sunny terrace 1,275 m up, with the cog train as its only link to the valley.

The village first appears in a deed of 1268 and was a farming community until the Wengernalp Railway arrived in 1893. Then the British came: the Wengen Ski Club was founded in 1904, the first British Ski Championships took place here in 1921, and the Downhill Only Club of 1925 is among the oldest alpine ski clubs in Europe. The English church of St Bernard, consecrated in 1928, still stands in the village.

From Wengen you take the cog train to Kleine Scheidegg (22 minutes), then the Jungfrau Railway for the 26 minutes through the Eiger and Mönch to the top. It's 85 minutes in total. The Jungfrau Railway opened to the Jungfraujoch in 1912 and runs almost entirely in a tunnel. There's a five-minute stop at Eismeer, at around 3,160 m, where a window in the rock shows the glacier.

The ticket price is the sticking point. The operator's lowest return price from Grindelwald Terminal is CHF 129.60, and that's before you add the trip from Wengen. With a ski pass of three days or more you can buy the Jungfraujoch Top Ticket as a connecting ticket for CHF 63 (about 68 EUR) from 1 December 2026, about half the price. From the Grindelwald Terminal the ride is 55 minutes, 30 less than from Wengen, but then your bags stay behind.

At 3,454 m the Jungfraujoch is the highest railway station in Europe, a saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau. A lift takes you to the Sphinx Terrace at 3,571 m, with the Aletsch Glacier below, 22 km long and 900 m thick according to the operator, the longest glacier in the Alps. On the other side, on a clear day, you can see the Black Forest and the Vosges.

Dress as for a day on skis and take sunglasses. The air is thin, so walk slowly and drink water. If the top is in cloud there's little point in paying for the view.

Below the station, the Ice Palace is a set of tunnels cut into the glacier, with sculptures of eagles, penguins and bears in the walls. It's a gimmick, but a cold, glassy one, and takes about fifteen minutes. The operator says it isn't accessible in ski boots.

The Jungfraujoch has the highest Lindt shop in the world. It's a tourist stop, but a fair place to try Swiss chocolate: milk chocolate was invented here in 1875 by Daniel Peter. For lunch, the self-service Aletsch restaurant and the Crystal à la carte restaurant are both on the Joch.

Your first night in Wengen is for the village restaurants, and for a classic: Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, sliced veal in a cream and white wine sauce, which has been on the menus of Swiss hotels since the 1940s and is served with rösti. It is a Zurich dish, but here it's a standard on the winter hotel menus.

The hotels run most of Wengen's restaurants. Restaurant 1903 at Hotel Schönegg, Chez Meyer's at Hotel Regina and Restaurant Eiger are some of them, and a quieter option is the Pasta & More. Most kitchens close by 21:30, so book if you want to eat after skiing.

The gondola from Lauterbrunnen climbs to Grütschalp, and from there a narrow-gauge train runs along the edge of the cliff to Mürren, with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau across the valley. Sit on the side facing the mountains: the line is flat and short, more a viewing platform than a transfer.

Mürren is a Walser village at 1,638 m with no public road to it and a year-round population of about 430, but around 2,000 hotel beds. It stands on a shelf above the Lauterbrunnen cliffs, facing the north faces of the three famous peaks. The British arrived in 1911, and Sir Arnold Lunn founded the Kandahar Ski Club here in 1924. His statue stands outside the railway station.

Mürren is also the home of the Inferno, an amateur race first held in 1928 by some ski-mad Britons, limited to 1,850 starters and already sold out for 2027. Ski the Mürren runs and you're on parts of the course.

From Mürren the cable car runs via Birg to the Schilthorn, 2,970 m, in about 30 minutes. At the top is Piz Gloria, a revolving restaurant that makes a full turn in 45 minutes, and which was the villain's lair in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The producers financed the finishing of the revolving platform in exchange for filming rights. The film's chase down the mountain began on the black run that starts at the summit.

The tariff of the operator is valid to 12 December 2026: Mürren to the Schilthorn return is CHF 91.40 and from Stechelberg CHF 115, with a Swiss Half Fare Card or a GA at 45.70. The tariff for the winter after that isn't published yet. With a ski pass of three days or more the ride is included, and with a 1-day, half-day or 2-day pass you pay a surcharge at the counter.

The Schilthorn side is the steep, high part of the ski area, with runs between 1,600 m and 2,970 m. The Birg run to Mürren is the long way down, and the Direttissima, run number 9, is the steepest in the Jungfrau Region, 400 m long at 88%, starting at Birg and dropping directly into the Engetal. It's for experts only.

For everyone else the better skiing is at Schiltgrat, for advanced skiers, and the gentle slopes at Maulerhubel and Winteregg, which suit beginners and families. The Pända Snowpark there has jibs, rails, boxes and a kicker line for every level.

The Panorama Restaurant Allmendhubel sits at 1,907 m above Mürren, at the top of a funicular that is closed for maintenance until 11 December 2026 and open after that. It's a quiet spot for lunch, with Lilly's Kidsslope next to it for the children.

Order a Raclette if the menu has one. The dish comes from the canton of Valais, but you'll find it on winter menus here: melted cheese scraped on to potatoes, with pickles and onions.

The Wengen-Männlichen aerial cableway has linked the village with the top since 1954. It climbs 947 m in less than five minutes, and the station is about 150 m from the railway station, so you walk to it in boots.

At the top, at 2,225 m, you can ski towards Kleine Scheidegg or to the Grindelwald side, and the Männlichen gondola leads down to the Terminal. The cable car is the quick way up, and the mornings are quieter than the Eiger Express because the area is smaller. Be there when it opens.

Once the race is over, the original course is open to anybody with a pass: the Lauberhorn downhill, from the Lauberhorn to Wengen, 4.5 km long. It starts above Kleine Scheidegg, and the sections have names that every racing fan knows: Hundschopf, the Minschkante, the Alpweg and the Hanneggschuss, where racers reach nearly 160 km/h half a minute before the finish.

You aren't going to ski it at that speed. The course is groomed to a normal piste, a red run in most parts with a few steep sections, and you can stop and look at the race gates and the net. The operator offers Lauberhorn-LIVE, which tells the course metre by metre. Skiing the lower half into Wengen as your last run is the real treat.

Bergrestaurant Allmend stands on the way to Wengen, on the slopes above the village, and is a good place for a long lunch in the sun. Order Birchermuesli if you're there for a late breakfast: the original Swiss oat dish was invented by the doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner around 1900, and it's still on every menu with fruit and nuts.

Otherwise a warm Rösti with sausage or cheese is the safe choice. Check the 2026/27 opening first.

Wengen's big weekend is the Lauberhorn: the 97th races take place from 15 to 17 January 2027, the Super-G on Friday, the downhill on Saturday and the slalom on Sunday. The races have run since 1930, and the downhill is the longest on the World Cup circuit.

Tickets are sold online only, from 2 November 2026, and the official tickets include the transfer from Interlaken Ost. The viewing areas are at Wengernalp and in the finish area at Innerwengen, a 20-minute walk from the village. The organizers warn against reselling sites. Wengen fills up, so book a room as soon as the dates are fixed.

Wengen is a quiet village, and the evening is short. The bars are along the main street: Hasenstall, Rocks Bar and the Crystal pub. The village ice rink is another option. On race weekend the Weltcup-Dörfli, a World Cup village, has food, drink and music after the races.