By rail
Lauterbrunnen station, ~20 min from Interlaken
Europe · Switzerland
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
A valley of seventy-two waterfalls
Getting there
By air
Zurich (ZRH), ~2.5 h by train
Best time to visit
June to September — summer
Don't miss
The Staubbach Falls
Mürren
The Schilthorn
Wengen
Things to do
Hiking
The Staubbach Falls
The cable car to Mürren and the Schilthorn
Where to eat
Sources: Photo: Yesuitus2001 (German Wikipedia) · CC BY-SA 2.5
What to pack
A rain jacket, hiking shoes
A quieter corner
The Trümmelbach Falls, inside the mountain
Questions travellers ask
How do I reach Lauterbrunnen by train?
Lauterbrunnen station is about 20 minutes from Interlaken. From Zurich (ZRH), allow about 2.5 hours by train.
When should I plan my Lauterbrunnen trip?
June to September, in summer. Pack a rain jacket and hiking shoes.
What are the highlights around Lauterbrunnen?
The Staubbach Falls, the cable car to Mürren and the Schilthorn, and Wengen. The valley has seventy-two waterfalls in all.
Is there a waterfall inside the mountain at Lauterbrunnen?
Yes — the Trümmelbach Falls. Afterwards, refuel with mountain-hut rösti.
About Lauterbrunnen
- Mountains
Where it is
Lauterbrunnen is a village in the Bernese Oberland, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, in a deep, narrow valley rarely more than a kilometre wide, between limestone cliffs up to 1,000 m high, below the Jungfrau.
History
First recorded in 1240 under a Latin name meaning clear spring, Lauterbrunnen was a farming valley until travellers began arriving in the 18th and 19th centuries to see its waterfalls; Goethe wrote his poem Song of the Spirits over the Waters while staying near the Staubbach Falls. Mountain railways and cable cars later linked the valley to the car-free villages of Wengen and Mürren.
People
Villagers speak Bernese German and have long farmed the valley floor and its high summer pastures. Today many work in the hotels, railways and cable cars, and the Schilthorn's revolving Piz Gloria restaurant keeps the memory of the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which was shot there.
Known for
- The Staubbach Falls
- The Trümmelbach Falls
- Car-free Wengen and Mürren
- The Schilthorn and the Piz Gloria revolving restaurant
- Wingsuit and BASE jumping
Did you know?
J. R. R. Tolkien hiked into the Lauterbrunnen Valley in 1911, and its landscape later became the model for his drawings of Rivendell, the elven valley of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.