If you’ve ever seen a postcard of the Swiss Alps, there’s a good chance it was taken somewhere near Wengen. This little car-free village sits on a shelf high above the Lauterbrunnen Valley, and the only way up is by cog railway. We spent four days there and I’m pretty sure I took a photo every ten steps.
Our hotel, the Victoria-Lauberhorn, had a wellness center with an indoor pool and spa looking straight across at the Jungfrau, which made it very hard to leave. Jaime claimed the pool, I claimed a lounge chair and a bathrobe. The first evening the clouds rolled in and lit up one peak like it was on fire.
The next morning we rode the cable car up from Wengen to Männlichen. The cows were already hard at work up there and mostly unbothered by a guy shoving a camera in their faces. From the top station it’s a short walk out to the Royal Walk viewpoint, where you get the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau on one side and the Lauterbrunnen Valley dropping away on the other. It’s one of those views that doesn’t fit in a photo, so naturally I took about forty.
From Männlichen we hiked the panorama trail over to Kleine Scheidegg. It’s mostly downhill, about an hour and a half, and the Eiger North Face keeps getting bigger the whole way. At Kleine Scheidegg we caught the train back down to Wengen. Pro tip: grab a seat by a window that opens.
On day three I crossed to the Mürren side of the valley and walked a trail that follows the little mountain railway through the meadows, with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau lined up across the valley the entire time. Paragliders were drifting all over the place, which looked like the best seat in the house.
On our last morning we said goodbye to Wengen (the sign literally says so) and rode down to Lauterbrunnen, where Staubbach Falls pours off a 300-meter cliff right behind the village church. Then it was on toward Interlaken past some of the most unreal turquoise water I’ve ever seen.
Four days wasn’t nearly enough, but it never is. If you go, base yourself in Wengen, look into the Jungfrau Travel Pass, and leave plenty of room in your camera roll. Video from our Youtube Channel below.