ski areas closest to Basel
 

I'm looking for a nice ski day trip from Basel, Switzerland. It looks like Engelberg may be a good option - not sure if I should rent a car or take a train though. Anyone have any experience there, or maybe could recommend something else. This would be for late March, and I can leave Basel around 7am. Thanks!!

Basel dep: 07'04
Engelberg arr: 09'42

Engelberg: 17'15
Basel: 19'51

0r same time every hour.

I gather you don't have any reduction card for trains. It is therefore going to be expensive CHF: 86.80, 2nd class, CHF 145.20 First, round trip, of course.

This is almost as much as what you'd pay for a car rental.

Advantage of the car: Shorter trip, especially no hassle to get from and to the train station to the cable car departure with the bus shuttle. Possibility of halting anywhere along the way. With the car, you could make a stop at the Bürgenstock or in Luzern (here with the train also).

Advantage of the train: hassle-free trip, just look out of the windows or sleep, or whatever, no reservations needed on the train, there might be a combo ticket with skipass included, but not sure. All the trains travel at the same time, every hour, so you can just stop in Lucerne, have a quick tour around and jump on the next train.

Have a good time and if more info needed, PM me.

Engelberg looks like a good idea. Other options might be Rigi or Hoch-Ybrig. You're lucky, there's a lot of snow this winter and even the resorts that are not that high up in the mountains will still be open in late March.

One big advantage of the train is that it saves to time in traffic jams up and down the usually long, narrow and winding roads to the resort towns / lift stations. These access roads can be gridlocked with ski tourists, but that is only a problem if you go on weekends.

If you bring your own gear, you should definitely get a car as I have found it to be a big hassle to lug skis, poles, boots and warm clothes around in the train, especially if you have to change trains several times each way.

If you have a car don't forget that there are also closer and much much cheaper ski areas in France and Germany (Vosges & Black Forest respectively). Obviously the Alpine sceney would me missing there.

Wengen has the most spectacular scenery to ski in that I've ever seen, and I tend to pick ski resorts with scenery as a major consideration. I think Engelberg also has some pretty spectacular scenery, and though it's among the many resorts I have not been to, I have not found a resort anywhere on earth that seems to promise better scenery than Wengen. I don't know the specifics, but I'd think Wengen train schedules would be comparable to those of Engelberg. And since Wengen can only be reached by train, there's no worrying about whether the car or train would work better. Transfer from the regular train at Lauterbrunnen to the cog train that takes you up the mountain to Wengen is relatively seamless. Most Wengen hotels will meet your train with a shuttle vehicle to the hotel, if it's not within walking distance.

Helena, you are right, Wengen is beautiful but.... the post is for one day skiing, leaving at 7 in the morning. The train ride alone to Wengen needs three hours... he's got to be back in the evening. Too much traveling for one day...

The Rigi would also be nice, but if the snow is melting at the rate it did today, only higher places is going to be snow sure. Best bet IS Engelberg.

That's interesting that it would take that much longer to get to Wengen. Wengen seems so much closer to Bern on the map, I'd have thought the train ride might be a wash, at worst.

From Bern, yes, he will be in Basel, though ;)

d'oh! Hey, it's a city in Switzerland, it starts with a "B"...

yes, and Switzerland is so small, anyway... :D

Hello, I'm the OP - thanks to both HH and Magexpert for your advice and interesting dialogue! I was able to obtain a great deal on a rental car at Avis which is in my hotel (Hilton,) so I'm planning on driving to either Engelberg or Wengen. Still undecided - Mappy.com says 129km and 1.5 hours to Engelberg and 159km / 1 hour 42 minutes to Wengen (Lauterbrunnen??) Maybe I should decide based on conditions the day before. thanks again!! :) :)

MSY Flyer , whichever destination you choose, I wish you a great day and please, be careful, don't go outside of the prepared runs as there is an enormous danger of avalanches. Let us know how your day was.

MSY, have fun in the alps, the weather is gorgeous right now!

Just remember if you go to Wengen, the village is car-free and you'll have to take a train for the last 5km from Lauterbrunnen, where there is a large parking lot.

Thanks everyone - I'll post a report on my day. Not to be too indecisive, but I was just reading these glowing comments on Wengen, so thinking of driving the extra few kms there now:

http://www.goski.com/rswi/wengen.htm

Having re-read the original post more closely than I obviously did the first time, I infer that you're considering a true one-day ski visit, i.e., you don't plan to stay at the resort overnight. In which case, if you go to Wengen, you might want to know that you may not end up visiting the village of Wengen at all, save a brief stop on the train. To stay overnight, you have to take the train half way up the mountain to Wengen, but if you're only going to ski, you'll want to stay on the train at the Wengen stop and continue on up to the top of the mountain, to a stop called Kleine Scheidegg. If you don't get off at Kleine Scheidegg, you can stay on the train all the way down the other side of the mountain to another, larger valley town with cars, called Grindelwald.

If you will need to rent skis/boots, you might want to check and see if rentals are available at Kleine Scheidegg. I don't remember a rental shop there, but I wasn't looking for one. If not, and if you need rentals, you'll need to stop in Wengen to rent your equipment before continuing to Kleine Scheidegg.

And so it occurs to me that if you'll be driving, and if you need rentals, you might want to consider going to Grindelwald, renting your equipment there, and taking the train to Kleine Scheidegg from Grindelwald. That said, though, the view up the valley at Lauterbrunnen (on the Wengen side of the mountain) is much more spectacular than from Grindelwald, including a very dramatic waterfall that seems almost to pour right into the town of Lauterbrunnen in the summer, and the views on the way up to Kleine Scheidegg are better on the Wengen side too.

Just something to consider.

Man, I wish I were going, too.