Switzerland: hiking, mountains, glaciers, lakes and plenty of trains

dajop · 2025-05-24T02:16:21+1000

I spent several months in Switzerland last year during the end of summer and all of autumn. Whilst I worked during the week, on weekends and some days off there was plenty of opportunity to explore Switzerland (and areas close to the border in neighbouring countries).

This won't be a regular trip report, but a series of (mostly day trip) excursions from my base in Zurich. And no flight reviews. Lots of hiking - although just day, morning or afternoon hikes.

For getting around, during the first month I had a Swiss GA pass - which covers most railways, buses, trams and boats within Switzerland and gives substantial discounts on Mountain railways, funiculars, cable cars, gondolas etc. For the remaining 3 months I had a Eurail Global Pass +_an annual Swiss Half Fare Card (well worth it for 50% discounts on bus/tram/boat and mountain transport, cable cars etc). The passes allowed me to do the daily commute (about 50 mins each way) plus use on the weekends.

dajop · 2025-05-24T02:19:11+1000

As for planning, typically my plans would be made the evening before, and actually there's a lot to be said for this sort of travel (even if not occupied weekdays) as in basing yourself somewhere central and taking day trips with the occasional overnighter rather than moving point to point, particularly if the trip involves the outdoors. That way you can adapt to the weather.

In planning three apps were most useful for this -
1) MeteoSwiss (which provides a level of granularity on weather forecasts that is difficult to find elsewhere, particularly for mountain peaks)
2) SBB App (for railway and transport planning) and
3) AllTrails (for hiking).

Plus the usual google searches and occasional youtube video.

dajop · 2025-05-24T02:33:41+1000

First proper excursion was a daytrip to the spectular Oeschinensee in the Bernese Oberland. This was a Saturday morning train, which was rather packed with daytripping hikers with their gear, and was struggling to find a seat, until someone called my name, two of my colleagues were on the same train, so spent the next 90 minutes taking to them before I changed at Spiez to a standing room only train to Kandersteg which is where I would alight for the trek up to the lake.

The hike I was on took me up to the lake (about 400m ascent, but easy walking) and then a circuit over looking the lake (another 500 m of ascent, some of it a bit tougher). However the easier route is via cable car, then a 20 minute walk to the lake, or if mobility challenged they operate a shuttle from the cable car to the lake.

Here are some of the views of the lake. As it was August, the weather was gorgeous and I after completing the walk I went for a refreshing dip before catching the cable car back down the mountain.

Thoroughly recommended, a real highlight,

dajop · 2025-05-24T02:37:41+1000

I went back with my partner 6 weeks later, after an early September snow dump. We caught the cable car up this time, as we deliberately didn't reach there until early afternoon (just when the clouds were clearing, as predicted). No swimming this time.

dajop · 2025-05-24T03:23:40+1000

So next up was a trip to Lauterbrunnen. Originally going to do a long trek up from nearby Wengen, the weather wasn't kind, so this morphed into a valley and waterfall walk as the mountains all under cloud.

This involved a change of train at Bern, and another change at Interlaken. Bern is truly the ATL or DXB of railways in Switzerland, many trains come in just before the top of the hour and many leave just after the top of the hour so you have masses of people moving between different platforms, really quite impressive. Connection times usually ranged from 5-8 minutes and I lost count of the number of times I changed trains there (and didn't miss any). Zurich HBF , the main Zurich station is a lot busier, but more platforms and more underpasses so doesn't seem as frenetic.

I briefly visited the small but over-touristed village of Lauterbrunnen, before walking along the valley floor to the Trümmelbach Falls, impressive falls inside the mountain, with a phenomenal flow of water.

Staubachfalls near Interlaken: