Grindelwald Things to Do

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The Eiger village of Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland lies embedded in a welcoming and green hollow, surrounded by a commanding mountainscape with the Eiger north face and the Wetterhorn. This mountainscape and the numerous lookout points and activities make Grindelwald one of the most popular and cosmopolitan holiday and excursion destinations in Switzerland, and the largest ski resort in the Jungfrau region.
Thanks to its magnificent vista and the glacier which once reached right into the basin, Grindelwald attracted its first guests – primarily the English – from the end of the 18th century onwards. The actual breakthrough of Alpinism occurred in the mid 19th century, and local mountain guides climbed the peaks of the region with English tourists. The first ascent of the Eiger, the most difficult of Alpine mountains took place in 1858 (the north face only in 1938).

Road and railway construction made Grindelwald much more accessible towards the end of the 19th century, which in turn also heralded the onset of winter tourism. The first cableway in the Alps was built here in 1908 on the Wetterhorn. And in 1912, a railway reached the Jungfraujoch via Kleine Scheidegg; today the «Top of Europe» still remains Europe’s highest railway station and a world-renowned excursion destination within permanent snow and ice.

<3>Summer

There are 300 km of walking trails around Grindelwald. The high-altitude walk from Grindelwald-First along the Bachalpsee to the Faulhorn mountain hotel and then on to the Schynige Platte ranks among the most beautiful hikes of the region. An easy walk with fantastic views of the three, world-famous mountains of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau leads from the Männlichen up onto the Kleine Scheidegg.

Winter

The two ski regions of First and Kleine Scheidegg – Männlichen – Wengen offer 160 kilometres of pistes with around 30 lifts reaching up to an altitude of 2500 m. The Schilthorn near Mürren, also part of the Jungfrau region ski arena, even reaches 2971 metres. But the most spectacular piste of the region is without doubt the Lauberhorn piste near Wengen, popularised by the World Cup circus.

Choose from 80 kilometres of winter walking trails with views across seven four-thousand-metre peaks and majestic glaciers, as well as 60 km of toboggan runs, including, at 15 km, one of the longest toboggan runs in the Alps from the Faulhorn into the valley. Naturally Grindelwald also has many further winter sports on offer.
The next Top Events
Alpine Cheese Festival on the Grosse Scheidegg
(19 Sep 2009 )

Interfolk
(14 Oct 2009 - 18 Oct 2009 )

79th International Lauberhorn race, Ski World Cup
(15 Jan 2010 - 17 Jan 2010 )

All Top Events in Grindelwald

One of the longest sledge runs of Europe is at Bussalp. Just drive up to Grindelwald by train or car. A few meters from the trainstation are busses (Grindelwaldbus) to Bussalp. If the snow conditions are good there is a 8 km long sledge run. You can rent sledges on top. You can buy a daily ticket so that you can do it more than once. Or even go at night for some additional fun (they serve good cheese fondues as well in the Restaurant on top). Fit people should hike up to the Faulhorn ( 2.681m) from Busalp for some stunning views and make you sledge run even longer 12.5 km.
If you go in the evening it is highly recommended to make reservations for dinner.

For bus information: www.grindelwaldbus.ch

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Take a trip to Trummelbach Falls.Beautiful,interesting and truly scenic.The approach to the Falls is also very picturisque.
Be prepared to do some steep climbing.Might be difficult to do this with very small infants or while carrying prams.
There is one cafe at the base of the falls.
Check out the bus timings for otherwise you could end up waiting for too long as the frequency is not much.

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The badenburg live museum makes a fascinating day's trip.Reachable from Grindelwald/Interlaken,it houses model houses of different cantons of switzerland in different periods of history.It is an interesting depection of the lifestyle,occupation and crafts of the bygone era.The way the rooms of individual houses of the bygone era are preserved is truly enchanting-- the furniture,house plan,utensils et al.
While purchasing an entry ticket you could purchase a map to guide you through the museum.It is worth buying this map for the place is vast and the map is very easy to follow.
My favourite part here was the live demonstration of wood carving by one Mr.Fuschs.There are animals in there which all add up to the natural ambience that has been created.
They also have a counter selling different kind of cheese.On the outside you have a store selling fresh chocolate and another selling soviniers and momentos.
Worth a visit!

You could take a half a day trip to Jungfraujoch,which is one of the mountain peaks of Switzerland.It is one of the most popular peaks among tourists.I however found it to be overrated and over crowded.There were too many fenced areas.
There is a ice statues museum.There are many restraurants.One popular one being"Bollywood",which caters mostly to the Indian tourists.The ambience of this place is interesting with pictures of Indian film actors and movie artists.

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Grindelwald is a very picturesque and traditional style mountain village in the Bernese Oberland region.

It is a common starting point for climbing the Eiger and the Wetterhorn.

Nowadays Grindelwald is also a popular summer resort with many miles of hiking trails across the Alps.

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The Eiger - Nordwand is certainly the most famous climbing-area in the alps and for several centuries people could not believe this side of the mountain may ever be conquered.But finally in 1938 2 alpinists from Austria : Heinrich Harrer and Kasparek, and 2 germans , Heckmair and Voerg succeded and conquered the Eiger-Nordwand. .There are 4 different ways to climb up the Eiger-Nordwand and when you look at Eiger from Kl.Scheidegg it is almost unbelievable, that anyone is able to climb it up there within one single day. On a map you may see the various paths to get to the peak of Eiger, with a height of 3870 meters above sea-level.
When hiking downhill the "Eiger-Trail" from the station "Eigergletscher" you will pass by the places, where the mountain-climbers start.
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b.t.w. Heinrich Harrer spent the time of WW II in Tibet, educating todays Dalai Lama, when he was a child. The movie "7 years in Tibet" with Brad Pitt tells that story in "Hollywood-style".
Heinrich Harrer is also the author of the book "Kampf um den Eiger" - see a scan of the book-title as my last picture - scanned and forwarded as a courtesy by my brother Leo (globerover), who has the book in his library and is also the better expert about these stories than me - I rather go to these places BUT read less about them :-))

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Take time during your walks and see those lovely flowers around the area. Know their names and have fun. Can't identify them all though :-) We prefer late Spring till late
Summer to perfectly see these nature's beauty.