Grindelwald, Switzerland

I spent a week in the swiss alps in October 2022, in the Jungfrau region of Bernese Oberland. One of the most gorgeous places I visited was Grindelwald on a nice sunny day. 

Glossary

1. Bachalpsee - famous alpine lake accessible by a popular hike in Grindelwald. "see" means lake in german.

2. Swiss Travel Pass - Travel pass I bought for 6 days here which includes unlimited train rides and discounted prices for cable cars/funiculars, and much more.

3. SBB app - A useful transit mobile app with accurate timetables and train schedules that I relied on throughout my trip.

4. First - a mountain that looks like an ice-cream swirl, also a cable car station that serves as a gateway to a host of activities and hikes.

Things to do

1. First Cliff Walk

2. Adventure activities at the First station

3. Bachalpsee hike (2-3h)

4. Grindelwald First to Schynige Platte hike (6h)

How I spent a couple hours (or planned to)

• First - Bachalpsee hike (moderate), First Cliff Walk

  • Before going, check a weather camera online

  • From Interlaken, take the train to the Grindelwald Bahnof (train station), ~30ish min

  • From Grindelwald Bahnof, the Grindelwald Firstbahn (cable car) station is 600 m away – walk/take the bus

  • Buy a ticket for the cable car to take to the Grindelwald First station. 

    • 68 CHF (francs) round trip as of Mar 2024, and 50% off (34 CHF) with Swiss Travel Pass

    • ~25 minutes with 2 intermediate stops in between, Bort and Schreckfeld

  • After getting off at First, you can do the First Cliff Walk, ~20 min

  • Hike Bachalpsee (easy, out and back, 2h round trip)

    • Only takes ~40 min to get to the lake

    • We ended up taking an alternate route back, which added an hour to our return trip, but took us through magnificent views.

      1. Instead of going back to the First station, we ended up hiking to the Bort station.

      2. We also stumbled upon a restaurant "Waldspitz" where I was able to get a potato salad as a vegan option.

      3. From my all trails review:  "On our way back, we ended up walking parallel to the original route in the beginning so we ended up on a different path - turns out we had taken a slightly longer route to get down to the Bort station! This is the first stop on the cable car ride. The alltrails map came in handy there. But this alternate route was so worth it - the mountain views were great and we passed a bunch of chalets, green fields, and even a restaurant. The final route after the restaurant was through crunchy fall leaves and bunch of steps and switchbacks. Passing the green hills was thrilling and a nice surprise, and we even got views of Grindelwald, the cable cars, and paragliders!"

I would love to go back and do longer, more challenging hikes and explore the town more. Here is my youtube video on it and a few pictures attached.