With this 11-night excursion, you enjoy the best hiking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland Region (Bernese Alps) plus enjoy mountain flowers at their peak. The trip has a free-day when we do not hike as a group. Using your rail pass you could have a day in Bern or Lucerne. The Berner Oberland is close to many wonderful places to see and your rail pass gets you there. It is an amazing trip! Hiking in the Bernese Alps is how one imagines Switzerland should be.
Base Villages: Kandersteg, Grindelwald and Muerren, Switzerland
Hotels:
– Kandersteg, Switzerland: Hotel Doldenhorn
– Grindelwald, Switzerland: Hotel Kirchbuehl
– Muerren, Switzerland: Hotel Eiger
Highlights – Kandersteg: Situated in the Bernese Highlands surrounded by 12,000-foot summits, Kandersteg is a great base to relish the traditional alpine lifestyle. A small farming village of 1,200, this place of unspoiled natural beauty is a mecca for hikers. The surrounding area holds secluded valleys, remote glacial lakes, hidden alps, and quaint mountaineering huts. Towering above this maze of hiking trails are glaciers that lead to four spectacular summits, the Doldenhorn, Frudenhorn, Oeschinenhorn, and Bluëmilsalphorn.
Highlights – Grindelwald: The Jungfrau massif (Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau); high mountain passes of Kleine Scheidegg and Grosse Scheidegg; and the hike from Grindelwald to the historic Mountain Lodge Faulhorn, with panoramic views over lakes Thun and Brienz; upper and lower glaciers of Grindelwald, Thunersee, Brienz See, and Interlaken; dairy farms and local cheeses and one of the best day hikes in the Alps the route above Grindelwald from First to Schynige Platte.
Highlights – Muerren: The Jungfrau massif (Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau); Lauterbrunnen Valley, including remote Obersteinberg hamlet; Staubbach, Trümmelbach, and Höldribach falls; mountain pass of Klein Scheidegg; Jungfraujoch (aka the Top of Europe railway station) are a few of the amazing sights around the village of Wengen. The view from the Hotel Falken of the Jungfrau is magic at sunset.
Guides: Shannon Harris, Thad Harris and Noah Harris