Some questions for a March trip in Lauterbrunnen
 

At the end of March I am doing a mini visit to the Alps before heading to southern Germany. Read through a lot of the threads but still have some questions. I will be traveling with my 10 year old son and 67 year old mom.

I decided that Lauterbrunnen is our best bet to stay for the 1.5 day/2 night stay.

We will drive there instead of taking the train

I hope to visit Jungfraujoch and Gimmelwald.

Because my mom is with is hiking is not an option just walking around. Is Murren the better option?

I take it I will not get any advantage out of the Swiss Pass if I'm only taking one or 2 cable car trips?

I will take one of the early Jungfraujoch trains to save money.

Is 2.5 hours to get from Lauterbrunnen to Lichtesnstein realistic? I want to knock that country out on my way to Germany.

Thanks

Why Lauterbrunnen and not Wengen? Park your car at Lauterbrunnen in the big garage at the station and then take the train up to Wengen and find a hotel. Waking up in Wengen to that amazing view and then the train up to Jungfraujoch are very special experiences.

You'd possibly need 3 hours to get to Liechtenstein given there is usually a fair amount of traffic at a few points along the way. Unless you just want to cross the border and turn around. That you could do in a shorter time.

A two night stay runs the risk that you won't get good weather for the Jungfraujoch. Of course, it's a pretty cool feat of engineering, if you're into that.

Driving to Liechtenstein will take at least three hours. There could be snow on the Brünig, and then it will take a lot longer than three hours, or you'll have to drive via Bern, and it'll still be pretty long. However, if you're driving to Munich from the Berner Oberland, you'll be going right by it. And then it's not a major detour.

If you do end up going to Liechtenstein, head up to Triesenberg for some nice views of the Rheintal.

Thanks Stimpy, I will explore Wengen as an option. I had picked Lauterbrunnen as I thought it was a good central location. As greg5 refers to I realize there is a chance visibility won't be on my side with a short trip (I got a great airfare and am treating everyone to a mini Adventure) so I will go to where views are best that day. Lichtenstein is just a bucket list stop on our way to Nushwastein Castle. Thanks for the Triesenburg recommendation, I want to do something a there seems to be no cool places to eat.

You certainly mean Neushwanstein Castle. Careful, if you feed your GPS with what you wrote, who knows where it will bring you to. ;)

Don't you mean Neuschwanstein Castle. ;)

TBH, I often forget the 'c' in these german words as well.

Well, rather than typing, I copy-pasted and edited, obviously forgetting the "c". It looked weird to me but then, as I was in the middle of a 42 hours-long trip I thought my eyes are sort of tired and... here I am looking stupid! ;)

Maybe I'll just put Schwangau in the GPS and look for signs when I get close.

If you like to save 6€ in Neuschwanstein, just park along the road (it's allowed outside of the village, and plenty do) if you don't mind a few minutes extra walking. They've been increasing the parking fee every second year recently..

Regarding your trip to Lauterbrunnen (but generally the mountains), I'd prepared to have different plans of what to do depending on the weather. March might be sunny and fairly warm, with days getting longer and might be easily above 10C - or it could be the opposite, late winter storm, cold and freezing like hell, especially a bit higher up. So, keeping this in mind, I'd have some alternative ideas to do in case the weather plays bad..

To get from Lauterbrunnen to Lichtenstein in March you will have to take the Autobahn (Interlaken - Bern - Zurich - Mels), as all the mountain passes will be closed (unless an extremely unusually warm Winter and early Spring). We've seen them closed even in June.

If you plan to visit Gimmelwald anyways (and I highly second that idea), I would pick Mürren over Lauterbrunnen even in my sleep while dead drunk. The views from Mürren compared to Lauterbrunnen are like comparing a Mercedes to a Kia; maybe a Mayback to a Yugo. No, probably not - just a Mercedes to a Kia. Both can be satisfying, but one is significantly more so.

As for Lichtenstein, "to knock that country out"?? Either visit it, or don't. If all you want is a check-mark, make the check-mark. No one will know.

Suggestions noted YuropFlyer.

Dnwaldmann, I'm looking at Gimmelwald and Murren lodging options. Just trying to price out all the different transportation required to find cost benefit. I'll take the Maybach if available. Point taken on Liechtenstein but if you've seen other detours I've taken you'd think I'm crazy.

I'm pretty sure the Brünigpass stays open all-year. But, indeed, in a heavy snowstorm it could be closed for a bit requiring the detour mentioned.

Liechtenstein is pretty easy to visit, as it's just across the Rhein from the Autobahn on the way to München.

You may well be right. I've just been amazed at the number of major highways that are affected by winter snow in the Alps.

Mürren will have a lot more options and especially for a short trip is a very good choice. You can walk/cable down/up to Gimmelwald easy enough for relatively low effort/cost.


To each their own. If it makes you happy, that's all that matters as it impacts me not at all :D

Enjoy!

BTW, OP - do you own a 1974 Karmann Ghia? One of my old dream cars... :)